'The Plan' - Is it still viable?

Our team will be so full of EuroTrash, they'll make Jean Paul Gaultier the manager (you won't get this if you're under 35).

 

Antoine de Caunes will be chief scout!

 

'The plan' is designed to make us financially sustainable. Unfortunately, the execution of the plan this season is likely to end up costing us money. We'll probably have to reach a settlement with Wilks for the last three years of his contract, and possibly for Sibbick as well if he's to move on. We could even have to settle contracts for players we want to keep, if we sell and they've not put in a transfer request.

Looking back to 2 seasons ago, the difference between staying up and relegation isn't really measured in points, instead you can measure it in our ability to sign McBurnie in August or not. A combination of better players at lower league clubs, overseas players, Prem / Champs u23s plus some quality loans can be enough to stay in this league with the right coach. We've ditched the loans and lower league players with first team experience, and it's cost us.

 

I think it’ll cost us money into next season and beyond with the amount of footballing dross signed on long contracts. We’ll never get back what they’ve outlaid for these sub-standard European players. It’s been a complete clusterfeck of year because of these owners.

 

They've kept their manager though and I think if we're going to be yo yo club we will need to do the same, or at least keep some of the coaching staff the same. I'd love to have more local youngsters come through the academy to fill the team though, like we had in the mid nineties.

 

You don’t need to spend millions to be competitive in this league (look what them blades did)and in my opinion the standard in this league isn’t great.

 

There was a point not so long ago, that with our own players and the loans from other clubs that we had
circa seventeen players with international experience at various levels.

 

I’m at peace with our “business model” as the alternative is worse...

Who wants to be in the situation that Sunderland/Bolton/Bury are in (replace with at least 20 other clubs, if you so wish) whereby a rich sugar person comes in, promises the world, invests his/her own cash to operate beyond economical means of the entity itself, ladens the investment in the club as debt, gets bored because there are countless others trying to do the same and f#cks off - leaving the club in a worse position to the one in which they found it.

Are my aspirations for Barnsley Football Club underwhelming? Probably...

The club has to be financially sustainable within its own means, and unfortunately we are an unfashionable selling club, based in a northern working class town, operating in a football culture where player power is huge.

Could we have kept Moore, Pinnock and Lindsay? Contractually, yes. But nobody can say what level they would have performed at given the club “denying” them the opportunity to double/treble/quadruple their salaries, not to mention disharmony amongst the squad.

That said, could the Board have replaced the aforementioned with a couple of older heads, which blended with the potential that we have in our current squad, could have kept us up this year? Possibly... but then very few of us have sight of the clubs finances and future forecasts.

I’d prefer that the club operates in a fiscally responsible manner, because to me the success of my Saturday afternoon is not defined by the result - for me supporting Barnsley FC is about experiencing the ups and downs with friends and family.

 

Brilliant post.

 

Realistic but Tragic post. I hear you but that scenario is not for me. Without the desire to succeed at anything in life, not just professional football, then what’s the point in continuing?

Barnsley FC have never had the finances to compete really but did and succeeded against the odds and made it to the premier league by a desire to try and be competitive at this level.

If your model is all we can hope to aspire to then get Oakwell flattened for me and stick houses on it as I really can’t see the point tbh.

 

I do think that the club has messed up badly in the last two windows but I agree with the sentiment of your post. We can do better executing the plan but the plan in general is sound.

 

Bang on, and neatly summarises the debate on here between us 'chancers' and the dedicated 'lifers'!

 

I think it depends on what the definition of success is...

Two weeks ago I took my Grandad to London on the train and met up with my brother who lives down there, had a couple of beer and a spot of lunch then went to the Charlton game. The game was poor played by two below average teams, but the point is that we had a great day despite the result. Football and our support of Barnsley FC framed this day.

Do I wish that we could defy the odds again and gain promotion to the premier league? Yes of course, but the chances of doing so in today’s macro environment is very slim, and in my opinion in order to get there in the 2020s the highest probability of doing so is to be fiscally irresponsible and risk the clubs future.

I think where we probably agree is that the level of money in the highest echelons of the game is eye-watering, which is enhancing the spectacle of the premier league, but damaging the pyramid.

 

I totally want to live within our means but doing that doesn't mean we had to make the decisions the board did this season. When you do strike lucky ( Stendel) you take advantage and listen to his requests. I really doubt hed gave been demanding multi million pound players!