The two Belgian lads.

I'd suggest given the huge amount of upheaval and so much leadership being lost from the building, it's vital to be visible to those who remain and demonstrating you're pulling your weight, even moreso if you're a short term interim.

Otherwise, you create a vacuum. From what others said last week after the first home game of the season, a lot of stuff has slipped between the cracks on an operational basis.

Anyway, I'm sure we can agree irrespective of how its come about or whos fault it primarily is, it doesn't breed confidence amongst the fan base and likely in some of the clubs employees. And I certainly feel for the two players involved.

 

Fair point in picking up on my language, I was loose with it and meant more, is he actually doing a full time role and not just quasi. Given many of the shortcomings, the buck would have stopped with Murphy. Ergo, it stops with whoever is accepting that role now.

Perhaps the lesson to be learned is don't let your existing CEO walk out of the door without the option of a notice period.

And just picking up on an edit I made before which perhaps was missed, what do you make of the announcement by O'Kane yesterday that the club only became aware of the visa issue that day? That wouldn't lend itself to the suggestion that its a paperwork delay. If it was a paperwork delay, you've initiated a process and are waiting for the other side of the transaction to do their thing. You'd very much be aware of that.

 

I read this as 'moreso if you're a short term intern' and thought that explains a lot if our new CEO is an intern and that we've maybe taken it a bit too far, even for us.

 

I didn't interpret it as the club being unaware, but more a case of several members of staff whom Doug speaks to not being aware. As per my earlier post, this might arguably have extended to Schopp also being unaware of the visa issues.

My interpretation is that some people within the club were aware, but the news hasn't filtered down to the key staff members as it normally would, hence the inaccurate information being provided by them upon initial queries from journalists.

 

Why would a Head Coach NOT know if a player was ineligible to be picked?
MS. "We're a bit light up front boss, where are these two Belgian lads you've been banging on about for weeks, I could do with a look at them?"
PC. "Forget them for now, you can't pick them".
MS. , "O reyt boss, we'll carry on with what we've got".

 

As per my original post in the thread, if he knew of the issues, why would he be advising that Oulare was unavailable for the Coventry game, but might be ready for Luton - implying that fitness issues were the problem? If he knew at the time that visa issues were outstanding, then he surely wouldn't have briefed the media/fans in this way, unless it was part of some agreed tactic on the matter within those in the know at the club.

 

He who pays the piper, picks the tune.

 

The way I see it.If we'd have won our first 3 games nobody would give a monkeys.
The pitch isn't green enough - Conways fault.
Cole misses a penalty -Conways fault
Whys Miller playing -Conways fault.
3 wins this Schops alright in't he.

 

Brilliant.
But why did you have to use 43 words when you could have used 21??

 

I'll just count the first 18 then.Sometimes 21 words are far too many.

 

Theyre being distributed by the same company that did the season ticket holders on t

Of course it was an agreed tactic. There's no way in hell that the manager would just believe that his two new signings weren't training at oakwell at all simple because they weren't match fit. He'd be asking some serious questions about where the hell they were, why he wasn't allowed to see them and who exactly is telling him they aren't fit without seeing them.

For some reason a decision has been made to lie to supporters and hide the reason for them not playing and I think that reason is an attempt to cover up staggering incompetence. Remember it's not unusual for the club (and presumably others) to hide things from supporters to stop them being angry. When we sold John stones and it was for an undisclosed fee Don Rowing went on radio Sheffield and said part of the reason why it was undisclosed was that if fans knew the figure they wouldn't be happy.

 

Just from the reply from S74, it very much seems it is communication (given he knew 2 weeks prior), or lack of or something darker, which I didn't want to imagine was in play.

The scenario I was imagining, though not ideal, it was reasonable. Where we've got to now is just bizarre, to the point some are questioning if the Head Coach has been knowingly involved in lying to the fan base.

I want us to do well, I want us to do things right, I want us to improve in our operations, communications and sometimes values. But christ, we don't half get some ridiculously simple things wrong.

As for Murphy, I'm surprised journos haven't probed more behind the scenes, but then, if they bite the hand that feeds too much, the hand may be withdrawn.

 

Is it common for players to train away from oakwell when they're not match fit? It doesn't seem the best way to gain match fitness by not playing any training matches and as a manager I think I'd be asking why my employees don't attend work. I can't think of a single reason for schopp to think it's normal

 

I think this is where journalists can help with clear questions. "Are they eligible?" Yes or No. If yes, "Are they injured", if no, then ask about the fitness.

 

I certainly wasn't going down that road either, I can see no reason for it, unless pressured to do so. But I can't see reason why he would be pressured to do so either, because the explanation is just an easy an understandable one. We signed some players and because of brexit, its complicated and cumbersome because we've had to appeal for their visas and as a result, sadly, we don't exactly know when they'll be available.

It then made sense that the club only found out the other day. Though that obviously would have been bonkers. But at least you could picture that.

But now we're here. More head scratching, more befuddlement, and not a lot of answers.

The life of being a Barnsley fan, oh for a quiet boring season!

 

Think about it though it makes absolutely no sense for the club to only find out the other day. Did they just think their new employees were AWOL?

 

I'm guessing that the scenario is one of the players officially not at work and hence cant take part in training with the team. Therefore we will have advised them of the training they should follow but without them being assessed alongside the rest of the team or involved in the tactical prep then it will be difficult to know where they are at, hence Schopp suggesting he needs them to give an indication of fitness. The Visa scenario perhaps the root cause. There was a comment that the visa and international clearance had some issues but we were assured by the EFL that this was ok. Maybe we simply believed that was the case, but in practice has proved more problematic.