Exactly, Duff gave us a brilliant run of wins, thrashing Plymouth, Derby, Wednesday etc, bet too many weren't complaining about him then, the truth is that because of a slow start we were always playing catch-up and we eventually run out of steam, so maybe like Duff says if we'd kept hold of just one of Helik, Woodrow or Morris maybe we'd have hit the ground running. No doubt this season will be another case of don't judge em before 10 games etc etc, which translates to we aren't prepared again.
Morris lied to us about his injury, it's fairly certain he was never staying. Woodrow took absolute dogs abuse and loads of people accused him of downing tools. Why would people want someone who downed tools to stay? As for Helik, he was superb, but wanted a move for his international career and we got decent money if i recall
I didn't say they had been reckless themselves, it was more or a general statement of how football is run nowadays. (I don't know Huddersfield's finances because I'm not that arsed). But when people say 'ambition' what they tend to be mean is spend more on players or keep players on big wages to have a better chance of going up. There's a lot of clubs who just p.iss money up the wall spending on top players with fees and wages and if the person fronting those losses walks away then they're in trouble. How exactly do you think Barnsley lack ambition? The owners put millions in to keep us going in league one as it is. They have openly said at fan forum meetings that they would love to get to the Premier League but not at the risk of the club's future and I'm glad. We are competing with other teams that spend a shi.tload of money that we don't have. We don't lack the ambition, we just aren't throwing money around and we're trying to be more sustainable. MLH can cry all he wants about ambition, easy to say when he's not the one putting the millions in and dealing with the aftermath when it doesn't go to plan.
Duff knows more about what went on than any of us mate, so I find it interesting to hear what he's said even though it is bit classless.
His best season for me was under Duff, with Thomas and Kitching. He was commanding in the air and finally looked more comfortable with ball at feet. The season prior we got relegated and the whole team was awful and went down with a whimper. Andersen played 28 games, least of his time with us. Season before that was Val ball and we were very direct and didn’t play out from the back. Maybe a bit harsh to say I’d have gladly given him away, although I would have that first season, but I definitely don’t think we saw the best of him until the Duff season. He was captain, player of the year and in the league 1 team of the year. The point I was making was that he hadn’t always been the player we sold. It took him 4 seasons to get to that point.
When that goal went in, my son turned to me and sighed “That’s just so Wednesday”. Funny thing is I’m so used to it, it didn’t bother me that all, and everyone said the same driving back up.
Well some managers don’t get credit for improving players, so I guess you saying Duff improved him so maybe does?
These two things don't exist in unison. The answer isn't , Wigan, Reading, Wednesday, Derby or nowt. There's a huge middle ground where smart recruitment gives a return on investment.
Bolton and Birmingham will get the autos, Huddersfield will make the play offs and Duff will play it safe and fluff it again. I'll not shed a tear, well maybe laughin
Im not generally one of those people that doesn’t give credit, and Duff did a good job in his only season but who really knows? Could have been Duff, could have been playing with Kitching and Thomas, could have been the dropping down a level? Could have been a bit of all three..,,,
Yeah I get that, recruitment hasn't been perfect but it never is at any club. We don't sign players with the intention of them not being very good though do we? We've signed players like Shephard from non league who isn't ready for the first team yet but not all signings are going to work out. We've signed Pinnock from non league before and he wasn't too bad. This board have signed Adam Phillips and Luca Connell also which I would argue is smart recruitment and I'm sure they'll be giving us a return on our investment.
The hype behind Duff is unreal. Don’t get me wrong, I was all about having him back but people worship him. Wasn’t hard impressing taking over from Poya and Schopp but he isn’t in the same library of what he did for the club compared to Ismael and Heckingbottom. He was just another Lee Johnson. Good manager but full of ********.
