Hecky big interview

Thanks, that makes much more sense than some claiming he only signed the contract to get the club compensation.

 

1. It wasn’t the most money spent in a summer by the club

2. It wasn’t him making the ‘awful decisions’. He certainly didn’t want to sign as many ‘number 10’ type players. He got no more than input on a choice of two or three. He identified nobody and had no real say on what type of player was being signed.

He was absolutely desperate for a centre forward or two. He thought he’d got Olly McBurnie but somebody ballsed up with the paperwork and we ended up not getting him until January.

Heckingbottom was hampered by the playing squad but also by the fact there was nobody running the club above him for large parts and he was doing the job of two or three people. He saw what the owners were doing and wanted no part of it.

The football was dreadful that season but he had to go negative and tread water just to stay in touch until January when we would have a chance of getting goals into the team.

There’s a lot of rewriting of history on this thread, apportioning blame for issues to the wrong place.

I certainly can’t blame him for wanting out, his direct bosses at the time have gone on to be charged by the efl after the current board shopped them for their dodgy dealings.

After making sure they got a decent compensation package for Heckingbottom they then replaced him with arguably the worst manager we’ve ever had - even considering the later appointments of Schopp and Asbaghi.

The fact that a manager so steeped in the club and with so much credit in the bank from the fan base was so desperate to get out of the club is very telling about what the club was like to be part of at the time.

It appears that at least has improved, things don’t outwardly appear as toxic behind the scenes - even if the current board haven’t completely learnt from past errors in rebuilding the paying squad.

 

Who were all the number 10 type players we signed that summer? I think this is the full list of our signings:

Jason McCarthy - right back
Dimitri Cavare - right back
Ethan Pinnock - centre half
Liam Lindsay - centre half
Matthew Pearson - centre half (could also play fullback)
Zekki Fryers - left back

Cameron McGeehan (central midfield)
Brad Potts (anywhere across midfield)
Lloyd Isgrove (winger)
Stephen Mallan (somewher in midfield I guess, dunno, didn't really get a good look at him)

Mamadou Thiam (Striker)

 

Think Hecky is being a bit loose with the truth , he would have signed for for anyone … offering more money . The idea he would have signed for Oldham on less money is ballacks .

 

I thought he was backed very well as it was the summer when the stones money landed too he was also backed in the January before leaving for Leeds in February.

People say he wanted none of those players he took so of those players he didn't want to hibs with him. He had pinnock as 4th choice center back, played mowatt out of position and then loaned him out, played Bradshaw and Thiam as lone strikers, and blamed everyone else. He signed a few midfielders that summer but I always thought he wanted to play 451 he played it after we sold winnall, then after the summer window and played 451 at both Leeds and hibs after leaving us.

 

Yes but if he was so Peed off with the club’ why did he do them a ‘favour’ it was known Leeds were after him before contract was offered. He could’ve just not signed the contract and gone

 

Brilliant post. Couldn’t have put it better.

 

He could have played.

Davies.

Yiadom, Pinnock, Lindsay, Fryers.

Hammill, Mowatt, Potts, Barnes.

Bradshaw, Thiam.

We didn't need Williams or Gardner. They offered nothing going forward.

 

Paul Heckinbottom was absolutely shafted by all the owners he worked under. He should have been Barnsley manager/head coach for a long time, & im absolutely certain he would have given us the best chance of playing Premier League football had he been backed properly.

January 2017 will go down as one of the worst transfer windows in the history of this club, it’s stuff of legend, will always be talked about for years to come. We are still recovering unfortunately.

I wish him nothing but success & keep a keen eye on his Sheffield United team, I hope they manage to avoid relegation. He’s a top bloke!

 

The contract was signed quite a while before it was announced. I’ve got no idea why it wasn’t announced sooner.

Heckingbottom wanting out was nothing to do with the new owners. He’d wanted out for a while. I don’t think it’s any secret that he wanted the Norwich & Sunderland jobs months before.

The new contract was in my opinion signed because he wanted to be paid his worth & felt he might not get a move after the Norwich & Sunderland talks fell through & if it worked in Barnsley’s favour then I suppose that was an added bonus but I’m sure he’s the same as most people in football in that he wants to be paid in line with his peers.

From what I was told yonks ago by someone I trust-

He was the lowest paid manager in the league.
They had the lowest amount of first team staff in the league.
He was working more hours than any Barnsley gaffer has before or since & felt like he was been taken for granted.
He had little say in recruitment.

I know there’s people who work for the club who post on here so if I’m wrong they can put me right but I don’t believe any of that’s untrue.

On the playing side I always had the view that it was crazy signing so many kids in one go in the summer of 2017. After the McBurnie deal fell through I thought all we had to do was to stay in touch until January, get some firepower in & we would’ve stayed up. We got the firepower in with Moore & McBurnie & should’ve stayed up but we appointed the worst manager in my lifetime in Morais. Yes, worse than Poya & Schopp. I’ll never forget Andy Yiadom sat at home watching sky sports news whilst we were playing a crucial game in our battle to stay up because Morais didn’t believe full backs could play more than once a week. Not just Heckingbottom but any competent manager would’ve kept us up with the firepower we added & the experience the rest of the side had now had playing together.

I spoke to Liam Lindsay at an end of season do the following year who laughed about how bad he was & he was in no doubt we would’ve stayed up if Hecky stayed in charge. Matt Mills said the same on Under the Cosh. I’ve not heard it myself but I’m sure I’ve read that Hammill’s said similar. I’d imagine if you spoke to any of the players they’d say the same.

Whatever you think of Hecky as a bloke the club made huge sums of money whilst he was in charge & won twice at Wembley gaining promotion whilst grafting his ******** off for the cause. Successful on & off the pitch, you can’t argue with that.

 

If going 17 matches without a win is great management and success. You must have an extremely happy life. I wish I was you.

 

I asked him a couple of years ago. He said he signed the contract prior to the takeover. The way it was sold to him was that the new contract would protect him if the new owners decided they wanted their own man and protect the club if he was poached (better compensation for both parties).

I can't vouch for this, but that's what he told me.

 

Thanks I do.

 

Yeah as much as I’ll defend his record whilst here and stuff, I find the very idea that he signed a new deal only to get the club compensation a bit fanciful. He wouldn’t have detrimented his chances of a move to a bigger/better paying club, if it was clear he was going, that’s a nonsense.

He signed it weeks/months before - as it was beneficial to him at the time, with uncertainty around his future with the new owners etc. The fact we got compensation is a benefit to the club but surely wasn’t the driver for Heckingbottom, I can’t believe that.

I make no suggestion that he was brilliant in his last season, and I do think he was over negative in setup; but he was clearly hugely overworked and undervalued. That, and the issues with his assistant (…), drained the life out of him. I think he was poorly treated, and that his exit set the club back quite a lot.

We’ve had a series of one step forward, two steps back ever since.

 

Hecky said at the time that the contract was sorted out months before, so it was nothing to do with getting the club compensation. He wanted out and was not in good terms with the club, so why do them a favour and make it more difficult for himself to get a new job? As far as I’m aware John Stones is the only bloke who signed a new contract specifically to get more money for BFC. In fact, I’ve never heard of anyone else do that anywhere. He’s a good lad, John!

But in regard to Hecky, whenever I’ve hated my job and desperately wanted out, I’ve resigned and looked for a new job. And I didn’t have the luxury of a football salary. As far as I’m aware, the club didn’t have a gun over his head, so Hecky might want to do this next time, rather than spending weeks not giving a **** and letting this show in the team’s performance, letting down those that paid good money to come and watch.

 

Apart from Fryers and Thiam, every one of them would walk into our team today. That’s a decent side.

 

Yeah, but it was ***** for the Championship 7 years ago mind.

Hammill's legs had gone. Pinnock & Lindsay had never played at this level. Fryers was rubbish. Mowatt & Potts not good enough, Barnes a young kid, Bradshaw decent, Thiam rubbish.

If anyone thinks Paul Heckingbottom left here with anything but a heavy heart then they're obviously wrong. No other manager would've done what he did for us that year & he was let down by the board he worked for who were focussed on selling up, some would say quite rightly considering PCs health.

Great coach, great man, great memories.

 

Or the tactic of playing one of the smallest strikers we had up front alone and hoofing him the ball then in the post match interview publicity slate players and blame everyone but himself.

 

Barnes was really good at that level even as a kid. Lesciter cut the loan short as they didn't want him in a relegation scrap.