He got them playing brilliantly in a high press, high backline, ball forward quickly style of play. He didn't develop their technical ability on the ball or their short to medium range passing or ball retention or decision making or to be able to adapt to different way of playing if things weren't going right. That half of a season was exciting but mad and not a longer term benefit to the club or players and we are suffering now in part due this. It couldn't have been sustained and no guarantee it would have been successful this season. I don't think Val will stay at many clubs longer than a couple of seasons.
Most managers don't TBH. West Brom's expectations are high. I'm sure he'll get them in the top six, but not sure about the top 2. That I think may only be good enough if they gain promotion either automatically or via the playoffs.
The Vals Barnsley with Dike, Mowatt was a better team than Vals West Brom with Mowatt. Vals Barnsley with Dike and Mowatt weren't better than the pre Val West Brom.
The answers to all 3 of these are moot as the situation only arose due to WBA triggering the buy-out clause put in place by those people you refuse to accept are responsible for any of our problems. They set the price, WBA decided to stump up the cash to trigger it, at which point Val essentially became a free agent. But yes, it's probably everyone else's fault except the owners.
I dont refuse to accept that our owners arent responsible for some of our problems as they clearly are but not everything is as straight forward as they are useless conmen bleeding money out of our club as a lot say because i do not believe that to be true. Just for instance if Val wouldnt sign without a release clause being in his contract, maybe he has a release clause in his WBA contract. Do we not set any manager or playeron if they want a release clause. Do you think the owners stipulated that he must have one in his contract i dont. If they agreed to a £2m relaese is that not a decent sum for an unproven coach.
If losing managers to release clauses was a fundamental issue for the owners then they always have the option available to appoint someone without one. However, they're obviously content to make every single appointment within the club a tradeable commodity, which means that there'll never be any continuity to any appointment made. If you accept that as the basic model for how they choose to operate, but then try to pin the blame on the departing coach for the issues left behind on his departure, then there's no logic to the argument you're trying to make. With hindsight, do you think £2m is sufficient compensation for the shambolic season we've had, including paying to recruit two head coaches and dismiss one of them? Personally, I'd say we've lost more than that in the devaluation of player assets as a result of them playing in English football's most dysfunctional team for half a season. What a pity they didn't also have a release clause inserted into the contract of the last CEO instead of simply allowing him to see out his temporary contract and associated work permit before he departed to a divisional rival. Given the omni-shambles which followed when Conway decided to take on the role again for himself in the short-term we could have well used some incoming funds to offset the cost of his decision making.
I would have thought a CEO is a different type of contract. My mate Pep said he would come to Barnsleyas coach but says he wants a release clause in his contract incase a Prem club comes back in for him. He says that £2m is a fair sum and won't agree to anymore or he won't sign. I'll tell him to not bother just in case.
I’ve seen it all now. Val didn’t coach any of our young players. Absolute horse shi.t. Yes he played a direct and intense system, but the players were also technically and tactically astute. The Callum’s at wingback for example showed good technical ability, more than this season. Romal Palmer was brought into the team after months of training and looked the part under Val. But I think I’ve figured out what you meant. You didn’t mean they weren’t coached. You meant they weren’t coached to play tippy tappy football. They weren’t coached to play sideways and backwards passes. As that’s the only way it’s acceptable to play ‘football’ nowadays. The club couldn’t retain Val. Or Mowatt. And they couldn’t have offered any more to make that happen. No issue there to be honest. As you say, you can’t cripple the club. They then lost the assistant manager, a lot of the rest of the back room staff. Ok. Then the ceo and club Secretary; in the same summer. None replaced quickly enough. But it got worse, more people leaving - even the long serving physio, who seemed to be nearly as Mr Barnsley as Rimmo. Does that not alarm you? Does it not indicate problems behind the scenes? Whatever you think, we were where we were. Sort the squad. They’d lost pretty much all the leadership and character - we needed an older head and so could and should have kept Sollbauer. Nope. So let’s sign some? We brought in kids like Benson, Vita and Hondermarck. We’d had a hugely successful season. The style couldn’t be sustained realistically, with losing the players we did and not having five subs. We needed to adapt. Just tweak it. They did not need to rip up the whole thing and bring a polar opposite manager in. Marcus Schopp was clearly not brought in to carry on the good work done, but to ignore it and start from scratch to create some saleable assets. Focus solely on individual player development and not on the team. Poor, muddled thinking. It can’t work. There has been no rudder or proper leadership in the team on and off the field. The team have looked unfit and undercoached. Out of their depth and unable to do what is required of them - or not actually certain of what they are actually meant to be doing. We appointed a ceo who couldn’t start work for months. We had Conway doing the job officially but apparently doing little. Did he even come in? Or just do a zoom once a week? We’ve got in-fighting amongst the owners. We’ve got season ticket holders not bothering going. We’ve got a decaying and ageing stadium that nobody wants to get sorted, with arguments about its ownership. This club is on the bones of its arse. Make no mistake. The owners don’t care about the club, it’s fans, the team on the pitch. In itself that is fine. You’d think they’d at least make decisions to protect their investment and their chance of profiting in the future - but it seems to me they’ve written this club off and are more interested in the swathe of other clubs they are accumulating. Conway famously said they’d leave when they felt they weren’t wanted. That was clearly a bloody lie. As it is very clear that the vast majority of supporters wanted these to **** off well before now. There are some people in for a big shock in league one next season.
Reply to me next time pal so I dont miss it, also reply to what ive wrote not what suits your rant please. Schopp appointment failed fact. Recruitment of CM s has failed so far fact. The 80 % dont own the ground fact. Injuies and the players not transitionong quick enough to Val leaving leading to a shockingly bad start to the season fact. The clubs not on its arse, ask Derby, Wednesday, Bury, Wigan about a club being on its arse. Helik and Woodrow should have been experienced and strong enough to lead this team along with Anderson and Morris,. When this turns itself around either this or next season and fans are singing Poyas name and it will please bring back your rant and explain your hysterical drama queen comments. If you are right and there are any clear facts that they squeeze every bit of money out of the club, sell all our players, let the ground crumble and we are coming close to losing our club then i will be at the front of the crowd fighting back. They are investers not a mad group of extreme Wednesday fans looking to destroy Barnsley FC.
There’s a cure for not liking threads you’re not interested in. Don’t read then and start one you are interested in.
I’m sorry but it does feel like we are on our last legs. When in our history have we not been able to have a 4 sided ground unless we were constructing new stands.
This is pretty much the definitive description of what has gone wrong. I think most of us know this. There was no way we could have kept Val or Mowatt. It is rumoured we made a very good offer to Mowatt. Unfortunately we signed a basket full of crock & useless players. Can anyone, (Conway), step up & tell us who that was? Conway was CEO. Even DJ Khaled has hidden under the duvet. We'll see what January has to offer. Most fans I would say think Pacific Media Group need to recognise the plan needs tweaking. That seemed to happen when Solly was signed, what the **** has happened? Two summer signings, (one on loan admittedly), one no starts, one a ludicrous sub appearance by a pub league player.
Things are grim no doubt they have been before and we've come through it and will again. I think the West Stand is opening back up the players are trying for Poya its just not quite clicked yet. We just have to keep going and not through the towel in by forcing the 80% down a road that no one will benefit from.
Bottom line for me is I’m just not enjoying going to Oakwell anymore. A combination of many things but match day experience and state of the ground are big factors. Things can change but it’s the club that needs to change not us. They are in the leisure/entertainment industry which is massively competitive and are making zero effort to retain customers.
I'll answer your questions with this, VI wasn't the only decent manager that jumped ship or been just about to jump ship allegedly before being sacked. You won't progress a club with a constant stream of coaches year after year the board need to try and slow down the revolving door. Buying young players to improve them is fine but we've gone backwards in the standard we recruit under PC we looked to sign the best players from teams below us in the pyramid now we go for quantity not quality. To say VI didn't coach the players is quite frankly ********. He coached them quite successfully to play in a way he recognised would bring them success on the field and by God it worked. The simple fact is the players are currently being asked to play in a way that the are incapable of carrying off at this level. This was obvious after 10 games and is still obvious after 24. The bôard are demanding that U23s play like Barcelona in probably the most competitive and physical 2nd tier league in the world which would be fine if we had recruited Barcelona U23 team sadly we haven't. They have a misguided belief that if you play this type of football no matter what the on field results are you'll get more money for the players you sell. In reality you won't because what you will do and its very much in evidence at Oakwell is suck the confidence out of the squad by stacking up defeat after defeat. The reason I lay the blame at the boards door is simple if you analyze what's gone wrong at Oakwell every issue as its foundation in a decision made by the board.
The matter of the fact is Val guided us to the play offs by winning football games. That’s the only stat & development I’m bothered about. What we are seeing now isn’t development, its regression. Regression as a team & as individuals. The only decent player this season has been Collins, but that’s because he’s had the most to do. The owners are 100% at fault, by employing a manager who couldn’t even bring his own trusted back room staff in, & not replacing key players with like for quality & experience. All because of this “plan”. Well the “plan” is a load of ******. The sooner this mob move on & sell up the better.