Play the Boss...

If you can imagine that you are the Chairman or CEO of Barnsley and you had been given a 3 million pound windfall to get things right at Oakwell what would you do and why?

Whats the biggest priority?

Is it getting the off the field stuff in place; new scoreboard, taking Admiral signs down, and making it a place for fans to come and enjoy and feel comfortable and give them hope...

Or do you splash the 3 million on a midfielder, or striker to play alongside O'Grady?

The choices are yours and if its a mixture of both, what would be your plans?

 

Interesting question, TN.

I'm strongly of the view that we are well on the way to having the off-field stuff sorted. Ben M is forward-thinking, with new ideas and understands the issues. We will feel the full benefit of Ben when he has a clear run at a season, rather than having to go with arrangements for the season that were put in place prior to his arrival. I don't know yet what the impact of Maurice Watkins will be as Chairman, but you can't doubt his knowledge and experience, so surely that has to do us some good at some point.

When you look at our start, and particularly the goals conceded, it's not difficult to see where our problems lie. Outstandingly our number one priority in my view is a big, mobile, commanding central defender. One who will provide leadership and hopefully keep his fellow defenders awake all of the time. It may be that some/all of the £3M would be used on a lucrative contract to tempt such a player, if one is available, rather than a headline-grabbing transfer fee. If we could sort that, then while we've got the likes of Pedersen, Fox and McCourt then we can create further up the field once we've built the dam at the back.

For what it's worth, I think this was what Robins was about when he recruited Shackell, and why he was so hacked off when our "austerity" policy was announced. That led to the arrival of the Clown Prince and the recruitment of a patchy bunch of lower league players. It is to Flicker's eternal credit that he rescued that situation, but we now need to decide whether we are serious about moving forward.

The only other thing - and I'm sure you meant us to infer this - is that we did get the £3M last January, didn't we? I'm not sure where that went, or how much is left!

 

The core of the club is "grubby" and amateurish throughout - see other post about attending a game at Huddersfield. Evidence for this is everywhere, scoreboard, broken glass on top of walls, catering, shop etc as others have said. At times it seems we're a laughing stock for visiting fans.

I would spend the entire amount on sorting out the above as long term I believe it will pay dividends. There's enough potential supporters in our area to finance the team later if we can provide them with a better match day experience.

We've got enough decent players to stop up as it is and I think we will.

 

I agree

.

 

Re: I agree

I would say Maurice is more likely to get things happening off the field more than Ben. A director of a top European Club for decades rather than a former agent.

But I would spend the lot off the field.

 

Sort the west stand out as its a **** hole.
New scoreboard, better tv's in the concourse, better catering company, new pa system.

 

Two words: Craig, Dawson.

 

Do you think spending £3m on refurbishment would go a long way though? Not sure it would make a significant difference. I don't think it's that bad at Oakwell though, scoreboard and televisions aside, we are probably comparing the matchday experience to the ones we've had at brand new stadiums.

Look at Huddersfield - newish stadium yet the facilities are rubbish, you're not even covered in the queue for refreshments.

I do wonder if the club would ever look at building a new stadium though, wouldn't really want to leave Oakwell but if you look at other teams who have done it recently it has brought new fans in and the stayaway fans back...as long as they keep coming this surely this pays for the stadium and allows further progress on the pitch. You do a tie-in with a retail park or entertainment complex and suddenly you have a weekend focal point and people will jump on the bandwagon as they love to do - worked unbelievably well at Brighton, not that I think they will sustain it though.

 

Not wrong about catering. The bag of Maynards Wine Gums that Lindleys charge 2.40 for is a quid at Home Bargains.

 

99p in 99p shop!

 

It looks to me like spending £3m is considerably more difficult than it appears.

During the summer, Flitcroft said that he had given Mansford a list of 30 names, and that they would work their way through them. Adding 2 plus 2, it seemed that a striker was top of the shopping list. Obviously Pedersen came in on loan, but the search for a striker continued. Many posters say that we do not need another striker. I do not agree. We cannot seem to attack teams without getting badly out of shape, and I see that one of the reasons is the lack of true pace up front to ally to O'Grady's undoubted strength. Whether you agree or not is irrelevant really. The fact is that the search continued.

Michael Chopra chose Blackpool and the transfer window drew to a close. The loan window opened and we were told that after the Premiership Clubs had named their squads of twenty five we would be able to pick up someone. However, there is still no striker as Billy Blunt and Matty Fryatt chose to join other clubs, even though we were told that deals had been agreed with the players' parent clubs. Now we are told that Premiership teams are waiting until they are knocked out of the League Cup. It seems that we have just run out of ideas. Players simply do not seem to want to join BFC.

 

I'd put it in the bank. I'd spend some of it tarting the ground up a bit, get a new score board, some painting, some improvement to toilet facilities, some pictures of past players up, stuff like that, but we're talking a few hundred thousand at most, not £3 million. Improvements like getting decent caterers in and someone better to run the club shop shouldn't cost anything at all. In fact, it should make us more money, not dig in to our finances.

The rest would be for players, but not yet. The squad is too big at present and we've got some good players amongst them. Should we move some players out in the January transfer window and more out in the summer then that money would be used to recruit players for next season's squad. Hopefully to be spent by Flicker, but if this dreadful run continues up until Christmas then it could well be for a new manager to spend. I don't think that will be the case though with the way we've performed in the last few matches, even if the results aren't happening yet.

To be honest, in reality, I think the money would just be swallowed up by wages. I can't for a minute believe that we're continuing to run the club in the black. Not with the size of squad we have. I suspect Mr Cryne is having to dip in to his own pocket again. His money, his choice, but personally I would prefer it if we were self sufficient.

 

I agree it does look as though we are having difficulty attracting players maybe the year upon year struggle at the bottom is catching up with us.

 

Good idea. I quite like a bit of Springsteen.

 

While the ground does need a good sprucing up, the reality is it doesn't matter what you charge, what the scoreboard looks like, what beers they have and what the fillings in the pie are, if the main event isn't up to scratch people wont go

 

I'm being ripped off then. Best wine gums on the market. Can smell the flavours soon as you open the bag.

 

I'd be on the blower to northern angels asking for six of their finest followed by a call to tankersleymanor for their finest suite for a week then dr Dave for some energy supplement.

Whatever's left ill use on oakwell for some new Telly's and conduit cabling from the media gantry that's waterproof.

 

One word : correct.

 

I may be wrong, but I think its John Stones that paying for the big squad...

 

Keep it in the bank...we'll need it to pay off sacked managers...