Patience is the key to long term success

Last year marked my 50th year of supporting Barnsley FC. I decided to look back over all of those years to see what lessons I could draw whilst my mind was still able to remember most of it. I have written it down so that I can look back at my thoughts again in a few years to see if my conclusions now still hold good then. The review extends to more than 27000 words and do not worry, I do not intend to bore anyone on here with the detail.

During all of those years, I have watched only two sides that have really excited me. The first was the 1980/81 team that Norman Hunter took back to the second tier and the second was the 1996/97 team that Danny Wilson took to the Premier League. It is not much for 50 years, but it is more than many similarly sized towns from the north have to show for the last 50 years. So what lessons do I draw from those two teams.

1980/81

Gary Pierce signed 27/7/79 for £35k
Joe Joyce signed 1/11/79 for £0 (juniors)
Mick McCarthy signed 1/7/77 for £0 (juniors)
Ian Evans signed 6/3/80 for £100k
Phil Chambers signed 9/6/69 for £0 (juniors)
Stewart Barraclough signed 25/2/81 for £50k
Ray McHale signed 5/3/81 for £60k
Ronnie Glavin signed 26/6/79 for £40k
Ian Banks signed 9/7/79 for £0 juniors
Trevor Aylott signed 2/11/79 for £50k
Derek Parker signed 7/2/80 for £55k

Although Norman Hunter was in charge when the team was promoted and consequently takes most of the credit, it is important to note that he signed only two of the players. Hunter stepped onto the managerial merry-go-round at exactly the right moment to take advantage of the work of those that went before him. Many will automatically jump to the conclusion that I have credited Alan Clarke as the real brain behind the team, but that is not my conclusion because Joe Joyce, Mick McCarthy, Phil Chambers and Ian Banks, the core of the team, began their Oakwell careers even before Alan Clarke arrived on the scene. Before Alan Clarke, the despised Jim Iley had 5 years as manager, all of them in the 4th tier. In his final season he sold Mick Pickering (£35k), Bobby Doyle (£20k), Anton Otulakowski (£60k), and Martin Gorry (£50k). At the end of that season, he moved on to Blackburn Rovers amid scenes of great jubilation on the terraces. We all knew at the time that we would never achieve promotion under Iley and it is only after a long period of reflection that the real truth can emerge. The real truth is that Norman Hunter achieved success in 1980/81 only because he was able to build upon the work of the two managers who occupied his seat before him. He did not have to start from ground zero because the core of the team already existed. The foundations were already in place and the two managers who preceded him had left of their own accord because they were seen as successes within the game, in spite of what the fans’ opinion was, in the case of Iley. Not only did Iley build the core of the team, he also created the conditions to build upon it by making the club solvent again.

A second point to note is how important our juniors was to the success of that team.

The third point that I would like readers to note is how long the team took to put together, starting in 1969 when Phil Chambers signed, through 1977 for Mick McCarthy and 1979 for Gary Pierce, Joe Joyce, Ronnie Glavin, Ian Banks and Trevor Aylott.


1996/1997

David Watson signed 1/7/92 for £0 (juniors)
Nicky Eaden signed 30/6/91 for £0 (juniors)
De Zeeuw signed 31/10/95 for £200k
Moses signed 1/7/93 for £0 (juniors)
Appleby signed 19/7/96 for £200k
Neil Thompson signed 30/6/96 for £0
Neil Redfern signed 10/10/91 for £180k
Darren Sheridan signed 12/8/93 for £10k
Martin Bullock signed 6/9/93 for £0
Paul Wilkinson signed 1/7/96 for £0
John Hendrie signed 11/10/96 for £250k

It is quite right that Danny Wilson be given most of the credit for the 1996/97 team, but Wilson was signed as assistant to Viv Anderson 12 August 1993 and became manager in May 1994 so he was given time. Five of the players listed were already at the club before he and Anderson arrived and a sixth was not signed whilst he was manager. The despised Mel Machin signed the majority of that team, including its greatest influence, and one of the best players ever to play for the club in Neil Redfern. I do not want to denigrate Wilson’s achievement, but once again I am left to wonder whether he was simply in the right place at the right time during the managerial cycle. Once again it is important to note just how long that team took to build and how important the juniors was in the process.

These examples should make it clear why I believe the constant sacking of managers is a mistake and why I believe that patience is the key to long term success.

 

Johnson needs to go whether sacking managers is right or not. Absolutely clueless. Just a bit of common sense like pairing Winnall up top with another striker would make a huge difference.

 

Also important to pick out several other aspects notable in those two examples.

The lack of loans.
The consistency of formation.
The addition of experience to turn a naive but capable side into a determined, resolute and dynamic winning one.

I too am a believer in giving time to people and being patient.

But to be patient with the wrong person is equally as damaging as not being patient with the right person.

Thats the club we are now. We seem to constantly make decisions to cure the previous issue, not the current one.

 

In 1996 we were signing £200K players. Equivalent to £350K in today's money. That's way out of our budget.

 

All well and good but Clarke Hunter and Wilson had has long distinguished playing careers at top league level plus international level. Iley had a ling playing and managerial career makes Johnson's puny career figures, whatever they are, look sickly.

 

The sacking of good managers is a mistake but surely if a clueless manager has been set on isn't it better to admit the mistake and get rid?
In both of your examples there were a core of 5 or 6 decent players which the manager added his own signings to improve the squad. I'd argue that Scowen, Hourihane, Winnall, Holgate, Pearson, Nyatanga should have been a decent starting point for Johnson but his additions have been woeful apart from Adam Hammill who we already knew about.

 

Good post that Red Rain, don't know how you manage to retain such detail. I agree with you that we should show patience so long as the minimum requirement is met by those we are being patient with. Bottom of the league and record numbers of consecutive defeats falls far short of that standard. It could be that LJ has done what Viv Anderson and Mel Machin did in assembling a team of player, but are unable to get the best out of them. I hope I am wrong and we win all our games up to Christmas, bring some new signings in during the January window and make the playoffs. If so, I'll be the first to say that I was wrong and that I should have shown more patience. From where I'm standing at the moment though......

 

Great post. Iley departed 5 years before I began watching Barnsley but I've always been in a vocal minority that Machin did a good job under difficult circumstances (he did buy his fair share of turkeys, including the 5-6 (?) player splurge that included Deniol Graham).

Hopefully history will view him more sympathetically than South Riding did!

 

Hunter's period was the one for me. Whilst he can''t claim full credit for building the team, what he can take credit for was the manner in which we played. Unfortunately for him, he was then blamed by some for dismantling a good side but to be fair he was like many managers and was only working within club policy. A number of the team were out of contract and I am led to believe (from a player in that squad) that the club were not willing to meet their demands, hence their departure. Replacements of the same quality it seems were hard to come by.

I am willing to be patient to allow for a plan to develop and grow which often means tweaking it to keep us on track.

 

So you've basically seen a decent team every 15-16 years or so, RR? We're therefore overdue another decent one!

Just shows what a poor return we get for our money, overall. My patience is all but exhausted.

 

The short career of players, and the shorter time when their abilities are coincident with them being good enough , but not too good to play for Barnsley, means that teams will always have but a short time together. It is the cycle of team building that I refer to in my opening post. The art is to construct teams with a variety of ages so that there is continuity through the team rebuilding processes that are bound to have to take place. Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson managed these periodic rebuilds better than most, and consequently, have been the managers who have survived the longest, but they have also been supported by patient boards, who have accepted that these cycles happen.

If you compare the gradual changes that these two managed with the constant changes of direction and wholesale changes to playing staffs that accompany the constant changes in manager, you begin to understand the fundamental reasons for the success of Arsenal and Manchester United, and the reason why Liverpool, which was once more successful than either, has gradually lost its way as it has moved away from the long term successional planning of the Shankley, Paisley, Fagan era.

 

He knew a decent centre half though our Mel.

I actually enjoyed watching that side. We were organised and were very hard to beat, especially at home.

 

A few other things to chuck in here.
In Neil Redfern's autobiography he attributed a lot of Danny's success, to Anderson and Winstanley's persistence of making them pass, pass pass..
Which would kind of back your observations RR.
However the climate has kind of changed from Wilson's reign. as the absolute milli second anyone offers us any kind of cash for our young uns now....... they are gone!!
How can we build for the future and plan long term around that ?
More loans maybe.......

 

Can't argue with any of that

In fact, add Gerry Taggart, Garry Flemming, Steve Davis and Malcolm Shotton to the list of players brought in by Mad Mel and he doesn't look so bad does he?

 

Most managers are carried into Oakwell on the shoulders of the expectant fans, only to be dragged out again by their heels some time later having failed to meet expectations. Like many managers, Machin was treated harshly by the fans. He was the Barnsley manager at a very bad time. The local economy had been badly affected by the miners' strike and the pit closures that followed. Manufacturing was decimated by the Thatcher inspired modernisation that the economy had gone through, and this also affected Barnsley more than most places. Gates suffered in the economic downturn, but on top of all that the Hillsborough disaster meant that football grounds would have to be rebuilt. It was not the time to be manager of Barnsley FC.

Machin signed Gerry Taggart, Gary Flemming, Mark Smith, Andy Rammell, Brendan O'Connell, Lee Butler, Neil Redfern and Andy Liddell (juniors) during his 4 years. What we would give for any one of those players now. He sold Carl Tiler, David Currie and Steve Agnew. Although the Currie and Agnew money financed the rebuilding of the team, most of the Carl Tiler money went into the rebuilding of the East Stand. After Machin had left, the sale of Gerry Taggart financed the rebuilding of the Ponte End, and as I pointed out, 5 members of Danny Wilson's promotion team were signed by Machin.

I do not particularly want to rewrite history, but I agree that Machin did better than he is credited with by the majority.

 

Re: Can't argue with any of that

I would like to agree with the original post but, unfortunately, for both of us times have changed and the idea of building and blending a side based on your youth team are all but gone. How long would we have Watson or McCarthy or Eaden or Liddell these days probably the 20-30 games that Holgate/Stones managed.

We would not attract Evans or Taggart or Geddis. We would not keep Baker or Futcher or Redfearn or Aylott or Glavin even if we had managed to attract them in the first place. The Premiershit with its squads of 70,000 has changed all that. Greed and money have changed all that.

It doesn't mean we should abandon a gradual approach or dismiss the idea of loyalty and having a long term plan it just makes it harder. It's why you need someone with experience and a record for talent spotting and developing. Unfortunately it appears that Johnson has none of these qualities. If Wilson were still here I would guess we would have someone who you could rely on to at a minimum keep you in the division while pursuing long term goals. With Johnson he appears tactically naive and does not know the best fit for the better elements of his team. I gave no confidence in him or his methods of his ability to nurture or develop our talented players. No coincidence that the other team he 'built' is also in the bottom 4

Paitence is the key. But the guy you are showing faith in has to show a tiny inkling that he knows the path forwards. Johnson's way is a full-de-sac towards relegation.

 

Re: Can't argue with any of that

And don't forget the development of Mark Robinson. Turned him into a very good wing back from what seemed a very flaky lightweight winger in his late teens.

We stuck with a lot of kids and played them... because thats what you used to do. Loans were very rare and i can remember most seasons where you'd see 1, maybe 2.

So the kids were invested in and developed.

Would Mark Robinson have gotten a chance now? Watson had a very shaky start. Moses looked all at sea. Didnt it take about 3 years for Martin Bullock (granted he was brought in from non league like Sheridan) to make his first start?

Its why I despair of the use of loans.

Rhys Oates could have had more impact (and no doubt cheaper) than Conor Wilkinson. Could Brad Abbott or Paul Digby have benefitted more with solid runs of games?

We're putting sides together that are far too temporary and just not built to last.

 

Re: Can't argue with any of that

What you are saying is that you agree that patience is the key, but that you are not prepared to be patient with any manager who the club could currently attract.

What I am saying is patience has to start at some point, and by the very definition of the word, the act of being patient means putting up with something until it gets better. Patience does not come from trying somebody different at increasingly frequent interval until you find someone who has better results. It comes with putting up with bad results and giving the manager a proper chance. If you think otherwise then you do not agree with me that patience is the key, and that is fine. Just do not say that you do.

 

Re: Can't argue with any of that

I think you may have a point Red Rain. But I've decided that there is no point us both handing over our money season after season to watch dross while we're being patient. Would you be kind enough to PM me when we begin to show signs of improvement, and I'll then return to the fold?

 

Re: Can't argue with any of that

Do you think that deserting the club at its time of greatest need is an attitude that a true supporter should take?

You spend an awful lot of time on here arguing the toss for someone who professes so little interest in whether the club progresses or fails. I do not believe that you will walk away. I think that you have too much emotional connection to the club for that. But if I am wrong, so be it. Personally, after 50 years, my support is unconditional.