Leon Wobscholl

Excellent post, and your recollections of the media rights undervalutation are the same as mine in terms of identifying the 'niche' that they intended to exploit as owners. The flaw that they discovered was that promotion and relegations do make a hell of a difference to things, particularly if you have a track record where every club you get involved with has historically awful seasons under your stewardship.

In terms of the head coach appointment, the key thing is that it's someone who the fans and players can buy into, regardless of their background. An unknown foreigner has to have more gravitas than a known entity to achieve that, but they have to be able to develop and improve players if the recruitment model is to work. They also have to be able to mould a competitive team together while developing players. It can't be one or the other.

Looking at recent examples, Stendel did a presentation to supporters when he arrived, where he outlined his 'swarm' methodology and he was a passionate presence on the touchline, which supporters loved. Val had some experience of English football as a player and came across well in interviews, so you could easily see how he could command respect. Duff was quieter in this regard, but came with the track record of his Cheltenham role, so got more leeway due to his relevant experience.

By comparison, Schopp, Asbhagi (especially) and Collins lacked the same charisma and didn't visibly do much to impact games from the touchline that anyone could see, or demonstrate. Collins had the benefit of significant experience as a player in the English game, and got much more leeway than the other two on the basis that it was expected he'd know how to develop and improve players at this level.

It's a very tough requirement to work to, but the more unknown a head coach we look to bring in, the bigger the personality requirement becomes for him to build a relationship with the players and the fanbase and hit the ground running with some positivity. I have no idea who we'll ultimately bring in, but my confidence has been rocked massively by the identification of Thalhammer as being the target they first went for. Hopefully they'll reflect on this with the benefit of hindsight.

 

Writes to the crowd IMO as opposed to something new.

 

And do the vast majority have a similar business model?

 

If you want to gauge the business model of most football clubs I'd definitely suggest finding a chart that shows the staggering amount of debt that the vast majority have.

 

I was reading where Batman and Robin at Wrexham are owed 9 million pounds from the club its self.
Just think what will happen if they decide to spit their dummy out and go back to the USA.Perilous business this football lark.

 

As someone who first entered Oakwell in October 1966 I have absolutely no illusions as to our place in the grand scheme of things. However, and perhaps it’s an age thing, I find the repeated ‘fact’ that we can’t hope to survive and prosper without a ‘rinse and repeat’ approach that means selling our club to prospective signings as merely a stepping stone to better things; and then cashing in on them with apparently little thought as to how it might affect on-field performance, extremely dispiriting. Since Adam Hammill left I can’t think of a player I’ve developed any affection for. I’m renewing this time in the probably forlorn hope that something might change. Triumph of hope over expectation I guess.

 

It all depends on what the payment terms are on the loans.

Patrick Cryne financed the club via loan debt, but was on record as saying that he would only seek repayment if we were promoted to the Premier League, or upon sale of the club, which is how they were ultimately repaid.

The fact that the current owners have chosen the equity route to invest is as positive a signal, in terms of their long-term aims for the club, as it gets. They could just have easily gone down the loan route.

 

Was thinking exactly this today- if someone can provide me an example of a successful club that hasn't had shi1t tonnes of money ploughed in I would be much obliged.
Success = debt. Football is fckd.

 

What difference does business model make if you’re losing money?

 

I get what you mean. I think it is as much down to player attitudes nowadays though as much as club strategy. I started around 66 too. We can think back to long serving club servants and heroes like Winstanley, McCarthy, Redfearn, Glavin etc, etc. There's no way clubs like us could hold on to players like that now the way we were able to back then. The wages available to them for moving are exponentially bigger.
Money was always a huge factor in football but these days it's killed a lot of the real connection to the game. Certainly for me. I couldn't give two hoots for football outside Barnsley FC.
If I could see a better model other than spending way beyond our means I'd be all up for it.

 

So you are saying there is no way to compete without accruing massive debt, and therefore the last few seasons are representative of the future for our club? Even if we didn’t continue to waste resources in the way we appeared to have been doing? Fantastic.

 

Erm. Not sure what you mean. Our business model loses money but is also, apparently, the only available option for the club.

 

So all the successful clubs this season only achieved success by running up unsustainable debt? The game is finished I guess.

 

And, if successful, gone in a year?

 

Not sure I’d go as far as ChurtonRed but look at all sports. Does the plucky underdog manufacturer spending a minuscule amount in F1 ever win a Grand Prix regardless of the driver?
Is there a reason why first Chelsea and then Manchester City have dominated the Premier League?

I’m sure we have wasted resources, but anyone thinking that by getting Michael Duff back and re-investing transfer fees received into buying new players is going to magically fix our problems this summer is deluded. We almost got lucky under Val when the stars aligned, but since then the appointment of Schopp and Asbaghi has taken us back 10 years.

 

Yep, you'll always get a club whose stars do align and get the right group of players together at the right time. But it's not something that they can sustain long term. Luton have beaten the odds, Burnley too but, even with parachute payments that give them a massive advantage eventually most will slip back. Blackpool, Reading, Blackburn, Charlton, Bolton, Wigan etc.

 

On a related topic, in terms of resources, who was the last player to have come through the academy and then established themselves in the first team? Arguably Marsh and Jaló may end up doing so, but besides them I’m struggling to remember any that have done so. Yet there’s a list as long as my arm of young ‘speculative’ signings that have come and gone over the last few seasons. Perhaps that’s also down to bigger clubs hoovering up all the talent, but it does beg the question that if we are so skint why are we continuing to invest so much in an academy that doesn’t appear to produce much?

 

@admin - Can we please add "scattergun" to the list of bleeped words?