Statement from bfc next few mins

Exactly my views. Murray heard murmurs of a takeover and basically took a gamble it was going to go through in an attempt to enhance his own recognition.

He didnt give a second thought to how it might be a distraction for the club both on and off the field. Mansford and Wilson have been working hard to bring players in and move players on over the last 2 weeks and the last thing they needed was journalists and radio stations ringing them up and hanging around outside the club trying to get an answer about this story Murray released. As well as impatient fans demanding a statement be made when main priority was to get together a squad which can keep us in this division.

It's credit once again to Mansford that he has shown the professionalism to put this distraction to one side and focus solely on bringing in high quality acquisitions such as Hunt and Proschwitz before dealing with these rumours caused be Murray.

 

Or Mansford didn't know anything about the takeover bid because if you were trying to buy a football club you'd speak to the owner not one of it's employees.

 

He's the C.E.O., not just an employee. The idea of Ben being out of the loop is preposterous, in my opinion.

 

I think it's worth repeating the article so we know which bits people are objecting to. Got The Chronicle in front of me, so here goes:

Headline: "Ex-Swindon owner in talks over Reds sale"

"A consortium fronted by former Swindon Town owner Jed McCrory hopes to take control of Barnsley Football Club in the next few days and back manager Danny Wilson in the January transfer window, the Chronicle understands."

"The electronics magnate has been in discussions with Barnsley owner Patrick Cryne since before Christmas. He is believed to have tabled an offer in the region of £5 million for the club including Cryne's 50 per cent ownership of Oakwell."

"The consortium has also agreed to take on the club's £2.25 million overdraft and offered Cryne multi-million bonus payments should the reds ever return to the Premier League."

Then some stuff about McCrory's background.

"A source close to McCrory said 'Jed is excited about the prospect of getting involved at Barnsley Football Club and hopes a deal can be done. He is a huge football fan and wants to see the club engage with the community. As a Luton Town supporter, Jed is a huge admirer of Danny Wilson (who once scored for Luton in the League Cup final) and hopes to get control of the club so they can back him with funds to strengthen the playing squad. Sacking the manager isn't on the agenda. In fact, Jed and the consortium want to release funds so they can back him in the January transfer window if they have time.'"

More stuff about McCrory and Swindon.

"McCrory and his associates are set for more talks with Cryne and chairman Maurice Watkins over the next few days. Cryne, a lifelong Barnsley fan, always stated he was the Reds' 'custodian' and would sell the club if the right buyers came along."

Then some stuff about Patrick Cryne.

"Barnsley Football Club weren't prepared to discuss any takeover speculation when contacted by the Chronicle yesterday."

And finally some stuff about our current predicament in terms of league placing and relegation.

 

Its the whole thing. Non of it should have been released in the first place. It was a distraction at a time when Mansford and Wilson were working their socks off to try and get players in and out of the club as well as extend loan deals. Never mind everything else they had to deal with. Murray should never have released the story.

 

Still an employee, answerable to a board of directors or in our case...Cryne. Plus he has a vested interest as any potential takeover would impact on his own position.

Alright, perhaps I'm being a little mischievous but if it was my money and as such my club, I'd be making sure the initial contact at the very least was with myself.

 

Why are people getting there knickers in a twist? Don't read the Chron and I generally put journalists right down there at the bottom of human life forms but all the guy has done is reported what seems to be the truth. That's a minor miracle in itself. He didn't say it was going to happen.

 

I don't have an issue with any part of that story. Nor has the club statement (in my opinion) refuted any of it.

 

Have to agree with BigLil on this.

I'd be stunned that the CEO (whether they have a stake in the club or not) of any organisation would be unaware of a possible takeover of their company. They may not know the exact ins and outs if they don't have a stake, but to be in the dark would make their position untenable and the professionalism of the club would be badly affected under very basic media inquisition.

I think the statement is spot on and Ben straight batting it was too.

The only thing i'm not especially chuffed with is the slight over egging and sensationalising of the "could happen in days" comment by the journo. Still, it's hardly new. Seem to vaguely recollect other articles down the years that were strongly spun by the Chron. But such is life. You just learn to treat the opinions of those types of people with a pinch of salt and their credibility is adversely affected by the words they choose.

 

The Chronicle doesn't work for Barnsley FC. They report on it. 95% of the time they give them good publicity: match reports, columns for the manager and players, news on upcoming games. Occasionally they release stories that the club would not release, such as this. I suppose it depends what you want from a local paper. If you just want the official line then The Chronicle has gone against that with this story. Personally, I think we have the official site for that. I want our local paper to give us more, to support the club but also to hold them to account, do a bit of journalism and give us stories that the club won't reveal.

As far as The Chronicle article and the latest statement from the club go, I don't see them as contradictory. Sounds to me like this Jed McCrory has made an offer for the club, been in talks, but Patrick Cryne has rejected the offer, as he is perfectly entitled to do.

From a personal point of view, I don't think Mr Cryne is nearly as willing to sell the club as he has made out in the past. I don't blame him, if I'd got Maurice Watkins, Ben Mansford and Danny Wilson on board then I wouldn't want to sell it either. Why go through all the **** only to sell the business when you've got a fantastic team in place? It's only an opinion and I'm certainly not worried about it as I believe the safest hands we could be in are those of Mr Cryne, but when push comes to shove I don't think he really wants to let Barnsley go. Could well be wrong though.

 

He will be aware any sale, or negotiations. Maurice Watkins will probably be delegated with the responsibility by Patrick Cryne, due to his obvious experience & expertise. The fact Ben draws a salary is irrelevant.

 

I don't know if I would go so far as to say I'd be stunned, but I'd be surprised.

However, there must always be a period of time when the CEO doesn't know about a proposed takeover but the owner/shareholders do. Anyone wishing to buy a business will first contact the owner. The time between the owner hearing of this takeover and him telling the CEO is the period that the CEO is in the dark. The owner may even meet those hoping to buy the club to see how serious they are before bothering the CEO with the information. There may be weeks between the initial approach and the CEO hearing about it. It's possible it could be leaked to the press within this time.

 

So the statement implies there has been interest. That interest spoke to Matt Murray and explained they are hopeful of doing a deal quickly. That deal has not been done but I imagine talks continue.

What exactly are folk getting the monk on about?

 

In my opinion our local media should be supporting the club al all times. This includes not printing distracting stories and headlines. The club obviously didn't want any information about this possible takeover being released no matter how imminent the deal was. The statement tells us that at most this bid got as far as Crynes advisor's. I imagine we get numerous bid per season which get this far. Murray got over excited at a bit of information he had received and went ahead with the print. He should have showed a lot more professionalism before jumping in with a story like this.

 

There's a difference between being kept out of the loop and not being told of all enquiries.

Seems the club deem this purely an enquiry - at what point do you advise staff that's there's a potential takeover? I'd do it when I was sure the bid was serious - seems Mr Cryne doesn't think it's that (or at least that's what the statement implies).

 

We'll have to agree to differ because personally I can't think of anything worse than an independent newspaper becoming a mouth piece for a business.

Well, I can, small pox and poverty and starving kids and all that, but as far as this type of thing goes I'd be appalled if our local paper only printed what the club wanted.

 

You're confusing the official site with a completely independent publication.