What's the f.cking point?

If these players do turn out to be any good, the board will dismantle the squad again at the very first opportunity anyway to add even further millions to the bank account courtesy of The Strategy.

Sooner or later the players we acquire or borrow for six months Hecky won't be able to alchemise into gold within a few weeks and we'll get relegated. It might not be this season, I'm not writing this lot off yet by any stretch, they might turn out to be just as good as the last lot we bought, but the board will just cash in on them as soon as possible if they are.

Last year the team we had at new year was a once in ten years type of side. It was systematically dismantled for money, which for reasons I fully understand, was far from wholly reinvested in the squad. To me this strategy therefore represents the end of the dream; regardless of how good a side we put together, it's destroyed before it can achieve anything.

So I ask again; what's the point?

 

I'm wondering the same thing myself. It's only having belief in Hecky that's keeping me from getting too despondent right now.

 

Some may see that as a negative post, but it's a very fair point you make.

I don't think football really has a point as such, but you sometimes wonder what we can aspire to, and at the moment, short of acquiring a very rich owner it's going to be yoyoing between this league and the one below.

 

We will clearly not move forward under the current ownership. Not sure what PC really wants.

 

I understand that the Perseid meteor shower will be visible tonight.

 

I'm in Devon, Mr Kaht so unfortunately my understanding is the view won't be as good from here as in my native North West.

I've had a beer now looking out over the Teign estuary and am a bit more sanguine but my sense is the board don't fully understand how rare it is to have a squad as good as we did have or indeed how fortunate we were to have them.

 

It's incredible. Out camping with the family tonight and seen 20 or 30 shooting stars in the last hour alone. Amazing event

 

It wasn't dismantled for money, the players wanted to leave, hence why Watkins and Scowen went for free.

 

I still look back to last January and I still believe that we would have made the Playoffs.

The squad was full of self belief
The mentality was a winning one.
I'd have backed us against anyone else on the day

But no, we chose to sell.

I listened to PC at East Dene Club and he said that (Conor, Sam), their worth was more to us than what we would get in selling them and therefore they wouldn't be sold.

I believed.

A short gamble was all that was needed.
A chance, a hope a belief.
I still believe we would have made it.
We were 7th and flying.
We will never be as close again.

It makes you want to weep !

 

Move on. The guts who left went because they cared more about money than they cared about the club. It's not complicated. They were offered money we couldn't afford and they decided to move on......and that's what we must do now. Move in with a fpdifferent set of players. If players don't want to stay here then move them on. Look at yids. We've developed him and he had no loyalty to us. My favourite player of last season but now I wouldn't play him even if the Huddersfield thing fell through.
I want players at my club who want to play for my club.

 

I didn't believe we'd make the play offs at the time and I don't believe we'd have made them now.
On that basis, would you rather have the money or not based on the fact that either way we'd have been in the championship this season and the players were going to leave anyway for significantly higher wages?

 

Wrong. Teams would have started to respect us and set out to play not to have lost to us rather than expecting to beat us. As we weren't quite good enough, we'd have fallen just short, round about 8th or 9th, then had nobdy to sell.

 

The point is Well Done Burnley and getting right up Chelsea and all their riches today.

The more it happens the better.

 

The playoff point is debateable. What is not is that our chances of getting there would have been greater.

But there's a bigger point than that to be made. Winnall, but to a greater extent Hourihane were part of a very entertaining team, and we deserved to see them play out their contracts. Okay, Winnall would probably have taken his bat home, but I truly believe Conor would have continued to do his best for us. They could each have been incentivised until May in any case, seeing as we had at that point £12M in the kitty from the sale of Mawson and Stones.

As it stands, we have still not won a home league game since Conor last played at Oakwell.

 

It's simple while PC is the owner the selling of players to ensure the stability of the club whether that's in the championship or league 1 is the way it will be. The only way for anything to change is for PC to sell and then the club can go two ways challenging for the playoffs to the prem or on its arse and in debt if they change from the current way of working. I'm disappointed with yesterdays second half performance but still excited for Tuesday and the rest of the season. I have no interest though playing likes of Man City etc who can buy players for £50m pay 100k per week and not play them how can we ever compete or want to with that. It makes me sick that swfc pay winnall 18k per week to do fxxx all.

 

That's your opinion and you're entitled to it , but it's not a view I share.
I still think we'd have made it.
There was a very real self belief in that side and the fans believed too.
We'll never know now will we ?

 

The points not whether or not we'd have made it with that squad; I don't know, and neither do you. The point is that with this strategy we'll never even get the chance to see, because saleable assets will be realised before they get the opportunity to even get near to achieving anything with us.

It's footballers as commodities and nothing else. Ask not what they can do for the team but whether you can make a few quid out of them. Does anyone in their right mind think this squad doesn't need a couple of experienced players?? But seemingly it's not allowed because we're less likely to turn a buck on them.

You ask whether or not I'd prefer the money; to me that's a moot point as if it's not going to be spent on the team, then frankly I couldn't care less whether or not it sits in the bank/pays off the debt/whatever. I understand the economic realities and difficulties faced competing in this division, but I don't care about any of that. I want to be able to dream that we can recreate what we did in 1997, and now it's clear that we've gone down a path where we can't, hence the current existential crisis.

 

I think that maybe we are trying to change that strategy now or at least tweek it with the signing of players on 3 year contracts, I'm not naive enough to believe that if we unearthed another Conor and a good offer came in we still wouldn't sell but at least we'd be in a better position bargaining wise rather than them walking away on a free, alternatively if they turn out not to be up to it we could end up stuck with them and unable to move them on, swings and roundabouts.

 

I want to dream too. I do dream. But to dream your heart has to be still beating and what drives the heartbeat in football now is money. Find an extra 10k supporters or a Jack Walker is the only alternative.
On the older heads front, I agree, we could do with a couple.

 

This isn't new news to anyone. We all knew this way before this season. Its all part of being a Barnsley fan and supporting a team which isn't a major city.