I know all the talk now turns to who will leave and who will stay but here are my thoughts..

Whilst it is difficult to retain the outstanding performers... Mads Duff etc. it is not impossible. There is 'gambling' and spending beyond your means to win promotion spending big in the transfer window on top of offering huge wages and then there is offering competitive wages to keep the key players you have got when it clearly hugely improves the odds of automatic promotion the next season.

Nothing is guaranteed in football but owners must see that the best opportunity for a return on their investment is to reinforce the initial outlay to support growth.
Losing your best assets by not paying competitive wages and allowing them to be poached by bigger clubs and 'start over with unknown quantities' is the norm but, now and again, a clear opportunity comes along to 'break the cycle, when you have a group of players who work as a team. As someone has said, the risk vs reward connundrum sometimes favours the brave.
IF our owners can just see the potential and IF they are prepared to 'dig deep' meaning we could persuade people to stick around for one more season the Championship beckons. The key for me is that it is a young side.
Even after yesterdays sickener I feel we are better placed than the massives with their ageing squad huge debts, crumbling stadium and, IMO, and barring some miracle, destined to come straight back down.
The despondency of coming so close, having a side with huge potential only to have to start over (particularly if we lose Duff) does impact on the fan base. 'Speculate to accumulate' ...easy to say...but honestly it is the only way. All business is a gamble... time we stopped playing so safe and never getting anywhere.

 

I wonder if offering Duff a million quid bonus if we get promoted would do the trick.

 

I think mads will go I read a interview where he said duff persuaded him to stay last summer and he's glad he did.
I think j Williams will leave talk of clubs interested in January and I think we signed cotter as his replacement.
Duffs a tough one talk of Huddersfield but would he really want to commute to Huddersfield from Cheltenham who are looking pretty skint and I expect to struggle again next season?

Hopefully we can sign isted and Bobby thomas and a striker.

 

How many goals against has Mads single handedly saved through blocks etc.? Very difficult, nay impossible to replace IMO. To get promotion we need to hit the ground running and not be playing catch up into November. When was the last time a club like Barnsley ending up so close to promotion managed to go a second season retaining their manager and core of a winning team?

 

If the club is being run without putting the future at serious risk (unless the owners fancy a £5m+ contribution) players will need to be sold and the wage bill cut.

That’s why yesterday always so cruel, the way in which we got beat and the impact it has on the club both on and off the field.

 

Didn't Millwall do it after we'd beaten them at Wembley?

 

We'll all av an opinion on who, why, what, when, where, but if the moneys on the table, they'll fooook off simple as that. Long way to go before a ball is kicked next season, a lot of ins an outs and i'll judge the team on the completion of the transfer window, av a great summer everyone and dont forget wer all Barnsley aint we

 

As per above unless the owners can bankroll a promotion push we are stuck in what is essentially a 10 month "strategy" of do well and get coach and players plundered. Rinse and start again.

 

Anderson, Collins, styles and Williams could potentially generate 5 million depending on who's interested and how desperate we are to sell.

 

It’s a choice the board have to make. If they decide not to put more money in, and offset all losses with sales then we’ll be mid table at best, and all the work done to rebuild this season will be lost. And probably lead to more losses. Hopefully they’ll get the balance right.

 

But the situation with Collins could be the same now as it was last summer. Who is in the market for a goalkeeper and willing to pay decent fee?

 

Just makes me wonder with collins if a deal for him to move has already been sorted more or less. As we brought in isted in jan and many saying with a option to sign and Collins hasn't played since.
It's good to get oulare off the wage bill. Hopefully someone sells who we have a sell on for but can't see that either. We will have made some money from the play offs I'd expect but the club need to sit down with duff ASAP and see if he is committed to next season.

 

Definitely need to get Duff committed to next season. Oulare off the wage bill, Odour also gone, and Thomas likely to have to accept reduced terms if he is to stay. Then any fee for Styles and a possible promotion clause for Morris would get us off to a good start. Iseka remains a problem though

 

Any thoughts on Tedic? I for one wouldn't mind taking him for another season if that's possible.

 

Agreed. After Conway and Lee running us into the ground I really feared for the club this time last year. But since then we got back to how we used to be run bringing a up and coming English manager who's achieved promotion before in, signing the likes of connell, cadden and Phillips. And using the loan market well with players like isted and Thomas. I'm gutted with how the season ended yesterday but we can build on this I hope.

 

I hope we retain everyone but let’s face it we need money to exist Duff is the key but if we get £2m for him like Struber and Val he’ll be off

 

He's good for 1 game in 8. Thought he was poor 1st half yesterday. Can't see him been needed at city.

 

Possible the good news was about duff?

 

We need to manoeuvre to get some cash for a more natural striker to get on the end of more of the chances that we make. If we could added to the players we have we would be a real for e to be reckoned with.