Ownership Regime

I think a lot of people are still struggling to make sense of it. To me, it looks like they bought us as a low-cost raffle ticket to try and take a wildcard shot at the Prem. They have put in small change (for them) which they are slowly recouping from player development and sales, turning it into a no-cost option. In the meantime it looks as though we have to watch the constant yoyo between second tier and third, with firesales as soon as we see any progress. Would it really have cost us that much to match the offers the departed players received? Daniel Stendel looks likely to go the same way as Hecky, the way things stand.

 

You could well.be right. However that is what we got. And I'm not sure I can see us getting anyone better any time soon.

 

Barnsley Business Project. Thats us.

 

God knows i've spent far too long trying to understand the motives of our billionaire owners. The thing I am pretty comfortable in saying is that it makes no sense at this time.

it makes no sense to acquire a distressed purchase and then do very little with it. I'm not advocating getting into debt or having owners with vast amounts of debt lumped on it, but they could, as Patrick before them, write off debts, to the tune of £13m a year.

You could argue, seeing as acquiring us was so cheap compared to other clubs they'd been in for, that they could have kick started the cycle, written off a modest amount of debt til sponsorship, commercial and tv monies increased and repaid that initial investment, or just write it off as if it had been part of the purchase cost

Has anything been generated from US, Chinese and indian sources? Commercially or through streamed games by the way? That seemed the one area that made some sense. But then we had the investment room sponsorship, which though "the best we've ever had" isn't a step change and certainly doesn't imply a club getting serious in its future outlook.

Mindblowingly, these owners are either operationally naïve, their hearts just aren't in it (which cant be true as Conway in particular has invested considerable time), cash poor (so maybe short term investments that generate quick cash topups are required, like Nice) or they believe in whatever invisible "plan" they've kicked around in their billionaire bubble.

But to relegate and hopefully promote and rinse and repeat that cycle... that's not going to generate any sort of sustainable solid platform to kick on from.

 

The sooner this ownership sell up and fukc off the better
Let us be owned by someone with a passion for Barnsley football club and its fans
This crew have loads of money but none for Barnsley
I cannot still get my head round why they bought us
Was it to try Conways crap project to see if his **** idea would work in football
In his quest to push on with it he said we had had the best transfer window. For who, him for his ideas or for us the fans
They will toy about with us until we really get pissed off and then they will up sticks and leave us to pick up the pieces

 

Seems to be far too much confidence in our ability to come back up IF we do go darn.

 

This build slowly stuff is what I don't like. If I was an investor I'd want a return on my investment pretty sharpish. Problem you have with getting relegated and trying to get promoted again is that eventually the squad you assemble will be a sack of ***** and you won't come back up.

 

Everybody keeps saying it was cheap to buy us. Why does everyone assume that? Cryne's player sales just prior to his sale of the club had plumped up the balance sheet just at the right time from his perspective. As far as I'm aware it's never been disclosed what the new owners paid for the football club?

 

It’s weird the amount of time Conway has to be here. Surely someone who’s an international businessman with portfolios around the world wouldn’t have the time to being living in an apartment in Barnsley for weeks at a time running a football club.

 

Is that what he his? International man of mystery.

 

Given how Cryne commonly said he just wanted his money back, the inflating of the Balance Sheet was timely to allow Cryne to have the ability to have his loans paid back to a large extent. I've said before, its very common practice for one owner to extract cash (if tax advantageous) at the point of sale, and hence reducing the acquisition price for the new owners.

Yes you're right, there is no official disclosure of sale cost, but given the distressed nature due to patricks illness, history tells me the power is with the buyer.

 

It’s still a fair point though. I still haven’t the foggiest why wealthy owners and staff would give a monkeys about the pocket money generated by BFC - even with player sales factored in.

 

I was asking this in the summer after Moore was sold & not replaced.

I just don’t understand their motives in owning us. With all due respect a few million profit sales divided by however many of them there are is pretty much pocket change to them & as the above poster says when you look at the hours Conway has put into us it doesn’t really make much sense.

If premier league is the aim then the plan which they’re proceeding with makes little sense to me.

 

It's a fair point. One positive is if they did up sticks and walk away we could be sold as a going concern. If Brentford owners got bored and sold up god help them. It is really frustrating seeing the second half yesterday but what is the alternative? Splash the cash and hope? Not for me I'm afraid. Puts us in a much more unstable position. To be genuinely competitive in this league at this moment in time would require maybe £20-£25m spend upfront plus huge wage bill. Let's face it while they could probably afford that it ain't going to happen. Loans from prem are also incredibly expensive and serve no long term purpose- Mcburnie, Barnes, James were never going to sign permanent. And we can all list a long list of crap loan signings. No easy answers I'm afraid. Can we stay up with this policy? I'm not ruling it out. But it's going to be a hell of a struggle....

 

The only board in history who once promoted recruit players ready for next season in league one... Look on the bright side their resale profit will give the yanks something to smile about... No wonder Conway is saying best recruitment drive in the history of Barnsley football club... He can taste the potential profit... But then again the other yank talks more bull Sh.. It... about January..... Give it a rest.. This mob have history don't forget they could have tried to keep us up last time but instead took us down to rebuild.. Yes they rebuilt alright... Then no matter how you look at it.. Pulled the rug from under not only the gaffers feet but ours too... Like others have said.. I too no longer believe a word they say... All sound bites designed to keep not only the happy clappers but others on board too... Just my opinion... Message to Conway and Co... In barnsley we have a saying.. You Can pill... ock... a... pill... ocker.. Once but never twice... Plus if you are going to shaft us again make sure our eyes are shut... I for one... are not impressed with their stewardship..

 

Yeah sure, because we have a host of multi millionaire Barnsley fans that were queuing up to take control of the club, yet you want to remove the element of the club who are keeping us on a firm financial footing, not risking extinction with the likes of Bury and Bolton. Mind boggles.

 

Just look down the road to "normal" clubs like Rotherham or Preston.. as the example.. instead of stupid extremes of Bury and Bolton please..

 

Preston are one of the best run clubs in the division. The figures @Red Rain gave us illustrate that.

 

Preston North End owned by someone worth about 850 million.. Don't forget we were originally relegated with this magical championship experience. It was only after moving most of those players on and investing into the young player model we see now that our fortunes changed.
People expecting instant success on our return to the championship. By success I refer to being competitive. It may well mean a couple of yoyo seasons to formulate a squad capable of that.
Mistakes were made with contracts before, that spadework has been addressed now so we build and build.
I'm certainly not going to stay away and shoot the club in the foot by removing my support just becuase in our first season back we are finding it a step up..

 

Ps.. I don't see Rotherham in the championship, this season... come to think of it ever again if that's your ambition.