Duff linked to Swansea

Well I was one of the people who renewed my season ticket after the covid playoff season and I was repaid with the greatest sell off in history and a year of toilet football with disinterested and unfit players coached by absolute numpties, so you’ll forgive my current reticence in repeating that experience anytime soon.

 

I’m the same as you, just pointing out that as supporters we can’t have our cake and eat it. If we want the board and managers and players to commit to and invest in the club’s future, we all need to as well.

We should think about selling 10 year season tickets or something.

 

We're not the dee dars!

 

I disagree with this. It’s basically like your wife cheating on you every year, and then accepting her apology but then the wife being upset because the husband won’t trust her.

The fans are dubious, we’ve been let down badly far too many times. If they treat the club like a business then we are no longer fans but customers, and not many customers remain loyal when the business lets them down persistently.

 

How do you know that?

 

Has duff resigned and left the club, if so, I haven't seen anything about it?

 

The onus is on the owners of the club to create something that people will buy into. They made a very good start on that last season, but that was just one season. If they fail to build on that then they will undo some, possibly a lot of that work.

 

Buy-out clauses in manager's contracts are to the benefit of the club the manager is leaving, not the manager and not the club poaching the manager. Prior to these clauses, Barnsley would have asked for compensation, Swansea would have offered a derisory amount, it would have gone to tribunal and the fee we would have received would have been a long way short of what we believed Duff to be worth. With a buy-out clause it's written into the contract what the club believe he's worth (after negotiation with Duff and his agent, but much, much higher than what we would receive via adjudication from a tribunal.)

You can say "No" without a buy-out clause but that's pointless. All we'd end up doing is putting Duff on gardening leave as he ran down his contract and eventually left for free. It would prove a point I suppose but very much to our detriment. And you don't put someone who doesn't want to be here in charge of the success of the business.

Buy-out clauses guarantee us a decent wedge if our manager is successful. We wouldn't be protected from losing managers without them, we'd just be a lot worse off when they leave.

 

Khaled did say that there were deals on the table, but wouldn't say who for. It was a shock when Styles signed a new deal prior to going out on loan, not exactly the same thing, but I don't think it's as cut and dry as us letting anyone go without a fight.

Anyway, I'm still yet to see anything reputable that says we're any further than 'preliminary discussions' stage.

 

I have numerous friends in oakwell after my time working there. If you think a L1 club would extend a managers deal after 1 year into a 3 year deal then you are crazy. Potential suicide at this level of you need to pull the trigger the following season. Managers getting anything longer than a 2 year deal at this level is extremely rare.

 

Sadly, such is the way of the world of agents these days, if the clubs are in talks, then the individual has likely already agreed terms.

 

If we don’t want the club to be a business then a Barnsley fan needs to buy it and throw money at it and then we all need to hope they don’t get bored/run out of money and sell up or we’ll be the next Wigan.

Find me a club that isn’t run as a business in the EFL and I’ll show you one that’s in serious financial peril.

We are all dubious, and with good reason, but I don’t understand why we are surprised that when a team in the league above us comes in for our players or managers, we expect a different outcome.

The only player I can think of recently who turned down a move to a higher league for the love of the club was Barry F@cking Bannon.

 

"for the love of the club"

Combover's been hiding in L1. Nowt more to it than that.

 

Mate, at no point did I say it should run as a business, however that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t treat it as that. The sentiment is a one way transaction. We care for the club, they don’t care for us. If that’s the stance that the club/business takes then why should you remain fiercely loyal when it persistently lets you down? The last 25 years of BFC show you that trusting them to get it right makes you an idiot.

 

And 16k a week.

 

By jove, sir, I like the cut of your jib.

 

I think that’s the point I’m making. Very few fans are fiercely loyal, and the next generation will be even less so. I don’t however think it’s a Barnsley problem. It’s an EFL problem. If you can’t get to the Premier League you can’t afford to be successful.

 

On high end championship wages!

 

I agree. I don't think we should be offering new deals a year into a 3 year contract at all. I guess if he does leave, he leaves us on a better position than he found us, permitting we find a suitable replacement.