First Team Squad Goalkeepers Ross Turnbull - Age 30 - League Appearances 147+1 sub appearance Adam Davies - Age 22 - Apps 22+1 Full backs George Williams - Age 22 - Apps 1+3 George Smith - Age 18 - Apps 16 + 2 James Bree - Age 17 - Apps 6+6 Central Defenders Lewin Nyatanga - Age 26 - Apps 271+19 Marc Roberts - Age 24 - Apps 0 Mason Holgate - Age 18 - Apps 18 + 2 Wide Midfielders Marley Watkins - Age 24 - Apps 8+18 (Plus 44+15 in Scotland) Central Midfielders Conor Hourihane - Age 24 - Apps 164+7 Josh Scowen - Age 22 - Apps 107+5 Paul Digby - Age 20 - Apps 9+11 Forwards Mike Phenix - Age 26 - Apps 0+2 Sam Winnall - Age 24 - Apps 87+23 I make that a first team squad of 14 players, although we don't know if Williams and Phenix are part of Johnson's plans as he rarely played Wiliams and never played Phenix. Phenix' illness may scupper his career anyway. Digby's place in the squad is hardly assured having started just two games for Johnson. Bree started just one game for Johnson and is still only 17. Roberts has never played a football league game before, so no one knows if he's up to it, while Turnbull has had back surgery, so his fitness must be in question. It could be that just 8 of the above feature regularly, fitness permitting, and two of those are only 18. Even if all 14 are part of the plans, 8 of them have fewer than 25 league starts. 5 of those have fewer than 10 league starts. We must have the most inexperienced squad in the football league. We've then got two players that are not in Johnson's plans and have been placed on the transfer list: James Bailey - Age 26 - Apps 141+19 Milan Lalkovic - Age 22 - Apps 44+17 Plus a few more youths with league experience who may or may not feature: Brad Abbott - Age 20 - Apps 4+1 George Maris - Age 19 - Apps 1+1 Jack Cowgil - Age 18 - Apps 1+1 I'm not suggesting there's any need to panic, we've plenty of time to make signings, but even after the retained list was published, we're still losing players. And there may still be offers come in for the likes Hourihane, Winnall and Scowen, or even the young players like Holgate and Bree. What I am suggesting is that we need a hell of a lot of new players. Even if we use every player we've got and they're all fit, including players Johnson doesn't want and younger players he may not think are ready or even up to it, we can only just put out a match day squad. The amount of rebuilding required is daunting.
Unfortunately I think the change of manager, whether it was the right thing to do or not, has put us back to exactly where we were 12 months ago. I imagine we will be hearing the words "new squad" "bedding in" "building for the future" used quite regularly. In fact looking at the squad we may be in an even worse position than we were this time last year. Daunting indeedy.
IMHO we need at least 8 players i.e. 1cb, 1fb, 2cm, 2wm and 2fc A few possibles here George Elokobi Lewis Buxton Liam Kelly Ben Pringle Martyn Woolford Jamie Ward Jabo Ibhere Andy Williams
I can't think of a weaker looking Barnsley squad for a few years. They can't mess up with recruitment this summer and to build a team fit for the promotion would be incredible considering where we are now.
Well not really start anouncing signings until the first of july. Why pay the extra months wage for someone who will still be on holiday... But given the lack of players in key areas its a worry.
Correct. Plenty of time. Can't legally sign a number of our targets until their contracts are expired. Plenty of pre contracts signed. We'll be reight! And what comes in will hopefully be a damn site better than what's gone out. M'voto, Jennings, Lita (and Bailey) have freed up plenty of wages.
Didn't Johnson say he wanted a smaller squad anyway because we had one of the biggest in league 1 last season apparently
Dunno if he said that, but I do know our squad was so small that when injuries hit we could barely put a team out. If you were fit you played. Often, we weren't in a position where we could choose to introduce the young lads, we simply had to play them. At home to Donny we couldn't even fill the subs bench.
A big turnover in players during the Summer seems to be the norm for us these past few years, due to the annual removal of the manager. I think it's working brilliantly.
I expect half a dozen players to sign the first week in July, with another two or three to follow that month. All a bit quiet on the transfer front in general for all clubs (other than Bury!), but that will change as holidays come to an end and the 'transfer window' opens 1st July.
In the meantime, I find that panicking always helps to jolly things along. This can quickly be followed up by writing off any new signing's Barnsley career after one game, sometimes it can be done before they've even pulled on the shirt. Then, if the team doesn't immediately start winning matches, demands can be made for the manager's head being delivered on a silver platter. When these demands are met, then a change of horse in mid race is usually the next step with criticism of the board for yet again refusing to show patience.
We're on a loop, and what makes anyone think THIS time it'll be different ? If by next Feb/March we're languishing mid table or lower and the new signings have had to be supplemented by loans. Again. But it's always the manager's fault. Everyone else has made all their mistakes previously.
This^^^^^^^^ Plus the reason for jettisoning players on the retain list and squad members, must be cos the players we're in for, must be costing more than we'd hoped-planed for
Ah, you mean like last season, when we put the defeat at home to Crawley down to the amount of new players we were bedding in, when in fact Crawley had more new players than us that day!
One pre-match interview on B/player about the time when Ramage was returning, he said, we'd 26 first teamers training. Which was way too many. But we did have 7 loans at the time, which in its self is pi55 -poticel when only 5 at best can ever turn out....
If we sign Andy Williams I'm afraid which ever road we take next season will take us down https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ngCi6PGDiWw