You tell me who we're trying to get rid of or pay off, you seem to be in the know. If £1.8m for Potts is accurate, we've netted what on that after paying Blackpool their cut? £750k ish? Take into account the transfer write off with Moncur, that's not a lot left is it? Hedges and Jackson were bought, so not sure of fees in those aspects. And its not uncommon for free transfers or players released have a sweetener to sign, so were Isgrove and Fryers paid a golden hello to sign? Either way, its not a lucrative window. And yes, of course not every signing will work, it never does. Which means if you're going to churn out the conveyor belt strategy to survive and thrive, you don't half need to generate massive over the odds fees to offset the failures.
Sharing this purely for the comedy value ....... also seen Ritson from Hull to Barnsley on loan, James Bree to Ipswich, and Pinnock to Derby.
I'm not in the know. I just keep seeing these wide-sweeping comments as if we're selling the whole squad and ask people to clarify them in case I've missed something. When you start suggesting or asking about whether players were given a sweetener to sign it shows that really we don't have a clue do we? I've seen £750k for Potts but I've also seen much less. We do know Hedges and Jackson were minimal outlays though. You're looking at it as a transfer write off but you could also look at it as keeping the player for their contract. We're not paying people to leave which is always a positive position to be in at our current level. This season we've moved on Bradshaw, Potts, Moncur and Isgrove. We've signed Dougall, Woodrow, Green and the FC United kid. At the same time the value of our current players not being sold has risen massively. I'd say that's a fairly lucrative window and a positive one on the playing side (providing we get at least one more through the door today).
And offloaded Knasmullner, Mallan and Pearson too. All supposedly with sell ons… if they get sold, which obviously we'll never know. I can see your stance. My view was the squad was bloated end of last season, we've worked on making it smaller and a bit of youth coming through. I don't think its been a lucrative window at all though, net effect is moderate, and when fees are shared commonly over the period of a contract or at various markers, we might not see much of the Potts surplus til 2022... losing Winkler and GG are big losses too.
I'm slightly torn on Winkler leaving (gutted he's gone but I mean in terms of having a view on it). There's no doubt the coaching team have been doing, and will continue to do, a pretty amazing job with how they've got us playing. But I don't think the Winkler departure would have been highlighted as much had he not been under the media spotlight because of Stendel's lack of English. It's one of those where we don't know how valuable or replaceable he was really, and Stern is the one who Stendel has a much longer relationship and history with. Might prove a big loss. Might not. Same with GG to a degree, in that because of all the positive PR we've generated his standing is rightly high amongst a lot of Barnsley fans. But there's a whole team of people pushing the club in the direction of being a solid pillar of the community and the next CEO just has to keep that rolling. We'll wait and see. But anyway, back to rumour mongering and deadline day signings.
Nice twist is that he made his debut for Bury against Barnsley whilst coming on as a sub for ex-Barnsley player Reece Brown.
In terms of GG and Winkler. Starting with the latter. Its hard for any of us to know the input he gave and the techniques he employed and where the balance was with him, Stern and Stendel. But they started as a three, Winkler was a delight to watch and listen to, as is Stendel. Honesty, openness, no politics, wonderfully refreshing. And my concern is leaving Stendel feeling more isolated in a country away from his family. That's not easy for anyone. the good thing was that he said in his interview last week, he lives 2 doors from Winkler, and today in his interview he was quite chirpy and positive and suggested he's likely to see GG again, whether here or Nice (wonder if this may well be a short term thing residing over a business disposal?) We may well luck out and find even better coaches and an even better CEO. It's just sad that there is such rampant turnover of personnel in so many areas and though change is good, too much change typically isn't.
Enquiring about centre halves from everywhere. It's tough finding someone who knows their gonna be third choice centre half all season.