The knock on effect

We sell players.

It's true, we do.

So, what are the benefits of that, apart from financially.

The Barnsley way is to buy cheap prospects, make them better and sell them on to higher things - bigger clubs, better wages, higher divisions.

We have made a name for being a club that can unearth gems, to turn them into shining jewels and when it comes to it, not stand in their way when they want to move on.

This makes signing for Barnsley an attractive option.

We're not a big club, we don't throw money around, we don't pay huge wages.

But players know they will get treated well, that we have good facilities, good staff and that they can progress with us.

This means we have clout when it comes to signing new players.

If a kid hears we are looking at him they know that it can mean good things.

Selling players allows us to sign players, it is the essence of moneyball. It allows a little fish to operate in a world sharks and to keep improving.

 

Flip side agents and current players like Mowatt, Moore Pinillos etc could look at what's happened with Pinnock and push through a transfer for themselves.

I am a big fan of the policy the club have I really am, I just wish we could demand fees that clubs of a smaller stature than ourselves are demanding and then were onto something really good.

 

I think both views are correct here.

I think we are an attractive prospect for a young hungry player confident enough to back themselves. But I think we're not just attractive that we give youth a chance and have a decent track record improving players... but also because we're a soft touch with agents and at the point of sale. A player can come here knowing he could play for 18months and potential get a lucrative deal for a less than market value, meaning more wages are available for him.

I think its the latter that makes this strategy far from robust. If Brentford sell a player for £12m, and we only ever get £2-3m... crikey, lets say £4m.. we have to sell 3 players to get the same in revenue, sign 3 replacements to bed in, train and get playing how we want them, that's 3 lots of agents fees, signing on fees, scouting, research, selling the club to the prospects, negotiations and transfer deals to sort. Its just a very intensive way to do business.

I think we've made a lot of mistakes with this strategy so far and we're pretty much where we were at the start of the 2016/17 season, just with less certainty.

 

Relegation

 

Couldn't agree more with this.

 

I think we will get those fees when the players these owners have signed decide to move on.

Potts, Lindsay and Pinnock pre-date the owners' arrival. We seem to now be signing players on four-year contacts - sometimes with the option of a fifth - and that's where the money will come in when we sell them after two years.

 

I guess it's indicative of the times we are in that we now talk about how much players are worth and how much we will get, rather how good they are....and how valuable they are to our team.

 

Although I think we have sold players under our own supposed figures. But am I alone in thinking at the time given the number of games we’d seen em play . We got top dollar for Holgate. Bree and yes John Stones.

 

Advertising the fact that players will be sold if they don’t extend contracts is very naive no matter which way you look at it. As said elsewhere we could have sold Lindsay and Pinnock in Jan and have got similar fees. We could have also then bedded in the new guys at the same time

 

No

 

Am I wrong in thinking they could just sign precontracts with whatever club they choose in January and leave for free next summer? If so then selling them now seems a lot smarter.

Personally I would have sold one and kept one til the end of their contract to aid transition and give a better chance of staying up. Best of both worlds.

 

Not sure I agree that there is less certainty than at the start of 16/17 season. We got promoted, lost Fletcher, Brownhill and Isgrove straight away. Sold Mawson, and didn't address the issue of Winnall, Hourihane, Bree, Watkins and Scowen being in the last year of their contracts. It's disappointing that Lindsay and Pinnock have gone, but at least it's been done early and we can get replacements in on longer contracts.

 

I was confident if we kept the team together kept the momentum going we could avoid relegation and even get a top half finish, now I think avoid the drop and build is the target.

 

Agree with all of that other than the last two words. I think it means we improve a bit then go backwards then improve as the new recruits get up to speed then go backwards when we sell them ad infinitum

 

A longer contract doesn't equate to a better quality player though.

I thought the beginning of the 2016/17 season was pretty sedate, there was the issue with Mawson, but we held out and got what I think was a fair value for him. We signed a good number of players, but I felt we could stay up, though I thought it might be tough. If the 12 months mantra continues, we'll have overhauled just about our entire defensive playing staff. And I don't think that's a good thing to enter into a new division.

 

I'm bitterly disappointed that Davies, Lindsay & Pinnock wanted to move on. The monies received isn't anywhere near enough, in my opinion. But then, it never is for me. In fact, thinking back over the years, the only time I felt we received a good transfer fee for any of our players was back in the Autumn of 1976 when we received £60,000 from West Ham for Anton Otulakowski and £50,000 from Newcastle for Martin Gorry on the same day! That probably says more about me, though, than the chairmen/owners during my time (Ernest Dennis, Geoff Buckle, John Dennis, Patrick Cryne, Chien Lee) being a Barnsley fan.
I don't know that the new signings, or signings still to be made this window, will be able to improve us at this moment in time. I don't know that they won't, either. What I do know is that I'm prepared to wait until I see them play before passing judgement. Others can do as they see fit.

 

Agree with all of that. I hope the players that have, and will come in are better than those we've sold. But it's impossible to know until they've played a good run of games. Fair play if they are... but I'm still hugely disappointed we've lost so an integral part of last years successful team for what seems peanuts.

What we sell players for and how good incoming players are shouldn't be confused or connected.

 

if i have to tell you about spouting common sense again young fellow my lad then its the naughty step for you and no indian !................................. dont know why i bother sometimes i really dont............ comes on here all positive and talking sense........... banning, he wants banning....... pfffftt mutter, pfffftttt

 

A huge fault of mine is that I've probably over egged the abilities of our players over the years, leading to me believing the club never gets enough money for them when they leave and it's unlikely I'll change now.
I'm looking forward to seeing how our new players perform, who we're still to bring in and an excited about the upcoming season. I'm not trying to tell other people how they should feel, just explaining my own viewpoint.

 

Ooh, I love Indian food in warm weather. I love Indian food in the middle of Winter, too, though.