Minority Report - Preston

There are some red herrings beginning to crop up here.

The first is this idea "we should have had these contracts tied down". Rubbish. We spoke to CH and SW before the start of the season - as Patrick Cryne said - and they didn't want to commit to longer deals. They backed themselves - quite rightly as it turns out - to earn better contracts elsewhere. We couldn't up our offers to ridiculous levels ahead of this season because we couldn't guarantee surviving in the Championship and we didn't want to be tied to high Champiosnhip-level wages if we found ourselves back in League One.

The second is the notion that I or anyone else have advocated throwing huge amounts at a (probably unlikely) push to reach the playoffs. All I'm saying is that we had two players on contracts which we could have insisted upon them honouring. We could have insisted upon that either with or without some form of loyalty bonus or enhancement until Summer. That would have been considerably less than £1M, Less the amount by which our corporation tax would have reduced. We have £12M within the club's coffers. That's all. We could then have seen where our luck took us. Does anyone remember how Luis Suarez was refused a move in 2013 despite a 'release clause' being met, and how he then went on to score 31 goals in 37 appearances for Liverpool and win their player of the year trophy?

I'm not against the 'plan' - it's an excellent way of going forward. But this was a unique situation in my view, with limited downside for us. I said above that the new players look promising. But they will take time, and in the meantime any slender hopes of a top six finish will have disappeared and the entertainment value will have suffered. I think that in general, the club is doing brilliantly. But I happen to think on this transfer window the wrong decisions have been made. It may even be that the biggest loss to us this season was Ben Mansford. Perhaps things would have been different. Who knows?

 

You forgot about armstrongs 25 yard lob which nearly went in.
In the meantime I'm looking forward to seeing plenty more thrills and spills and excitement in the remaining games of the season as we rebuild.

 

Mansford has been a significant loss. Always valued his contribution energy and innovative thinking.
People just need to get a grip on here. We're 8th. We need to rebuild. We've lost some players but kept the scouting network and the management team. We move in.

 

....and on

 

Couldn't have put it better myself!


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Not even that - it's three games and we won one of those. We've got 4 points in 3 games and if we continued that ratio for the best of the season we'd get onto a very respectable 66 points. And I'm going to give the team around a month to fully gel with new players because there have certainly been signs we can still have an excellent attacking force. The main problem yesterday was crossing, often from Kent, Watkins and the full-backs. We know the first two can be much better and have been so far this season and will be again. The full backs issue will be resolved by Yiadom's return and he has an excellent crossing ability

 

I agree, the players were offered new contracts at the earliest practicable time. The players turned down those contracts, preferring to see what there was on the table in the summer. I do not know what more we could have done.

Once again, I find myself recommending the services of Companies House. According to a note in our last filed accounts to 31 May 3015, Barnsley Football Club 2002 Ltd had tax losses carried forward of £12,800,000. That means that tax only becomes payable when our profits exceed that sum. According to the comments of Mr Cryne, which are not supported yet by filed accounts, we lost £1m in the year to 31 May 2016. We also spent quite heavily on Bradshaw, Moncur, Kpekawa etc at the start of this season suggesting that corporation tax may not be a big issue.

 

Connor hourihane himself stated publicly that he had not been offered a contract in the summer and that if he had he may well have signed an extension. He stated this was the same situation with several squad members.

 

What would you say was the earliest practical time to offer conor hourihane a contract extension?

 

That ses it all !!!!!

 

Absolutely bang on.

 

Or was it that his agent didn't think our offer was presentable to him?
I seem to remember Patrick stating on camera that Connor wouldn't sign a new contract and I think you commented on it in the published thread ,so is it selective criticism?

 

I would prefer to be reactive rather than proactive on this one. I have already said that the directors made their offer at the earliest practical time. When would you have made the offer, and how would you have ensured he signed it?

 

Go on then, how so?

 

Patrick Cryne stated at the supporters' meeting back in the Summer that both Conor and Sam had refused to discuss a new contract for this season and the meeting was recorded. I haven't seen any recording of Conor's comments.

 

No I have stated previously that I don't know who is lying if either of them but that we can't just take it as gospel what Patrick cryne has said when the player talked about has said the opposite.

 

You agreeing with every negative post .
Tbh I think it is a habit ,I don't think you know your doing half the time,

 

You can't ensure somebody signs it. I would have been offering them a new deal when we were making a push for the play-offs but that's just me

 

That's how i feel at this moment in time, obviously you missed all the positive posts i agreed with during pretty much all of 2016.

 

Were there any others during that period ?
Negative posts of utter doom and gloom after three games without these players is unfounded imo.