Who is bothered anymore?

If we are to be self sufficient and sell every half decent player we get and the owners take money out for there own benefits we will soon be having league 2 away days.

Id swap patrick for these clowns in the blink of a eye unfortunately that cant happen.

 

It was sliding before dennis left he took us into administration and the fact that a club the size of ours with no sugar daddy owner and not racking up massive debts will struggle to compete at this level. Football has changed massively since the 90s.

 

Think there needs to be a league one plus we could go into along with Rotherham. As it stands I have no desire to go and watch WBA roger us next week. I can imagine it could be our lowest home fans attendance in a long time for. League game.

 

I am very bothered, always will be. For me, our club is for life, always will be. It is about supporting through thick and thin. For me there is no choice; it’s in my blood.

 

I'm all in favour of the club being run on a sustainable footing and not having to rely on a wealthy owner to be competitive. If that means we can't compete at this level then fair enough. Increasingly it does look like last season was a blip, 5 subs, no fans and Ismael playing a direct style with Dike as the target man. Normal service has been resumed. What I don't like are all the financial wranglings behind the scenes with the owners trying to wriggle out of the agreement they made to buy the club. I just don't trust them any more. They will have a very different attitude to Barnsley FC now they aren't buying a 50% share of the ground. It just feels like they're happy to let the club drift and the ground fall into a state of disrepair.

 

When folk say they are not bothered, I suspect it's a lot to do with the fact that the situation this season looks hopeless. If we were 4th bottom or 5th bottom and with a fight on our hands to stay up, every defeat would hurt more because it would damage our chances of staying up. But, whilst it is obviously mathematically possible to stay up, realistically, we are so poor that unless the new man pulls off another miracle turnaround in the 2nd half of the season, we already looked doomed and every defeat just reinforces that. We have won 2 games in half a season and are 8 points from safety. That is almost nailed on relegation.

I agree with others that the bigger worry is that we won't bounce back up. We might not see championship football again for a long time.

In addition, a year without being able to go to Oakwell has made a lot of people who have been going out of sheer habit for years realise that actually, life doesn't end if you don't go to the game. There are other things in life.

Years ago, I would have rearranged work appointments, changed holidays or whatever to make the game. I didn't miss a home game for years despite working all over the country. I arranged with customers to start earlier so I could finish early, even if it meant getting up at 4am to make the journey down to see them at 8am, so I could charge back at 3.30pm and be back for the game. Now, if it's cold and on the telly, it's hard going to go even when I am 30 minutes away.

The club feels like its dying. It feels different to other times we have been rubbish. If we are rubbish, we are rubbish, so what. We'd bounce back. But now, if we can make a quid from a player, the owners don't care that we are rubbish. That's a game changer. I seriously think this will end with Blackpool style boycotts and protests. I'd still care enough to support that. In fact, when you look back and compare, our trajectory looks a lot like Blackpool's.

 

You are prepared to let your club die.

Fair enough.

 

I enjoyed the Derby win, felt like they were pumped up but then we capitulated to Hull.

 

The next two home games will have huge gaps in the home ends. Both on TV to watch in a nice warm venue without having to faff with a vaccine passport. Mad Friday a lot of people will just decide to watch it getting pissed in a nice warm bar.

 

How hard was it to recruit abit of experience in key positions tho? Considering the gulf in finances we are definitely near the bottom of that list but was it really too much to ask to recruit a couple of experienced midfielders, a left back and a striker??

I don't think we needed to throw millions at the squad in order to remain competitive, but the recruitment has been absolutely diabolical. No excuses for that whatsoever.

 

I’m in the ‘bothered’ camp. As one poster said, it’s not really a choice, it’s in the blood. However, I’m not dismissive of my BBS colleagues who are thoroughly disillusioned. I’d say to them ‘hang on’ it can get better.

I’m not resigned to going down just yet though that does seem likely. The table doesn’t lie, and we are by some distance, the worst team in the Division. That’s quite an achievement this season bearing in mind how poor this league is.

Looking long term, it’s probably worse now than at any time I’ve been supporting the Reds (regularly since 1976). There’s no doubt in my mind as to why that is. It’s in the Boardroom. I say Boardroom though I’m not sure how many of the Owners have actually been in it.

I can see why some are disillusioned. In the past, when we’ve had a poor Manager, we could always replace him; when we had poor players, we could replace them. But what to do when you have incompetent, uncaring owners? My hope at the moment is, if we go down, they cut their losses and clear off. To be frank, I see no way that the Club can move forward in the long term while ever they are in control.

What I do know is, however long it takes, I’ll still be here long after they have moved on to their next ‘investment’.

 

Why would having a stake in or even owning the ground outright have a bearing?
It's only either something to sell or something to borrow money against.

 

I love the club. It is one of the reasons I live for.

Are we in a bad place? Yes.

Are we going down this season? Barring a miracle, yes.

Will I keep supporting? Yes.

Doesn't make it any easier.

We've changed the coach & not much has changed thus far. I'll still keep supporting. I don't remember a season so bleak on & off the field since we were in L1 in 2003. Went to Mansfield away, at that time it looked like we might drop back into the 4th tier. Thankfully we won that game & stayed up. As much as we may pontificate there is little that can be done. The players have to look at themselves & the owners need to make January a positive move.

 

That's it for me mate. Of course I'm still emotionally invested in it, but life is far too short for me to let our results spoil my weekend. I just can't afford it, time-wise.

 

I am bothered but I will no longer financially support the club. However I will still be a fan.
What I have in common with the owners is “I don’t like spending money”.

I liken it to keep giving a homeless person a tenner and that person spends it on drugs.

 

I’m still bothered, but far less bothered than at any other time in the last 15 years.

 

Where there’s lack of ambition there’s lack of interest from me. We’ve spent the most time in the championship during my lifetime, so I see that as our level. Yes we’ve been successful in League 1 in the last two decades, but this time it’s going to be a lot more different with these owners & their policy. So I won’t be renewing. I’ll keep an eye on results of course, & if we’re flirting with top 6 throughout the season then I will pick & choose the odd game to attend. Although i have a feeling it’s going to take a while to get any enthusiasm back.

 

With me the upsetting thing is that it bothers me that I'm not bothered any more.
You just can't get BFC out of your head no matter how you try.