Mladen Sormaz

More chance of “the man from Del Monte” or the “Man from uncle” mate ha

 

Do you remember the time I knew a girl from Mars?

 

This is what you get with absentee owners. For reasons of geography they can't have the hands on the tiller in the same way that John Dennis and Mick Haysleden did who also had Mick Spinks, who JD was effusive in praising, to lean on for day to day operations. It helped that all three knew the game. Sure they made mistakes, appointing Nigel Spackman and backing him in bringing umpteen midfielders being a case in point.

 

Me and @Chef Tyke are from Harrogate originally. I can confirm that we're not in the running to buy BFC.

 

Prince of Risborough from what I heard. ;-)

 

What about @George Spicer ?

 

Have read all this with interest, and although it is clear that Sormaz would be out of his depth in a puddle, I personally think Flatman has more to answer for.
New broom sweeps clean, fair enough, I get the sentiment, but sometimes you have to be man enough to hold your hands up and accept it ain't working.

I'll slate Sormaz with the best of 'em for the recruitment, but the malaise and apathy spreads much deeper than the playing surface, so for me Flatman can go, with thanks for his efforts.

 

Oh yeah.

 

Be bop, bop, badap bo.

 

The man from Delmonte perhaps?

 

You keep saying this, so who do you mean?

 

In his new role with Barnsley, Mladen will lead football operations for the club, including negotiating incoming and outgoing transfers as well as player contract offers across the men’s and women’s teams. He will support a number of the club’s departments in achieving their objectives, including the men’s and women’s coaching teams, the sports science team, and the youth Academy.

He will lead recruitment at Oakwell and negotiate contracts while working ‘with the existing coaches to create and implement a game model and coaching methodology to be used across the club

 

Nah, appreciate it’s your opinion, but totally disagree.

We’re not perfect, but Flatman is a good CEO. Makes tough calls, open and honest with the figures and is well regarded in the sports industry for his work. If we lose him, he’ll have plenty of offers elsewhere. He’s commercially switched on. Matchdays may be seen as being flat at the moment, but plans have been communicated across in regards the fan zone and safe standing as well as other improvements. But they take time to do, so if you want to judge him, do so when his big projects are completed within 12months time.

All our previous CEOs have said it’s a tough role to do, and too much for one man - essentially mixing the business side with the football side. Hence why it was split. And most clubs do these days.

Mladen - I’ve no idea how good he is or not. Getting players in and over the line is notoriously difficult in January, so we’ve no idea who we targeted and how that went. I think there was another striker targeted, but we must not have been able to get it over the line, which is not always the clubs fault. The French lad for me was the future option to see if it worked, not the main man. As for his other signings - we had some good players and some poor players. So again, time will tell.

As Whitey has said numerous times on here - he knew this season was a rebuild season, and that it meant probably a year to forget. Sometimes that’s what you have to do. No different to Klopp and Arteta when they first went in.

 

Can you clarify the bit referencing me please? I’m confused (it’s not difficult).

 

Yes I understand that. But if the club is officially put up for sale then who knows if there are any suitors out there? There just may be someone out there who finds us an attractive prospect. Either way carrying on like we are is just leading us one way.

 

Apparently you've told us all multiple times that this season is one for rebuilding, promotion is not on the cards and is not something we're really aiming for.

Personally, and I tend to read your posts, I haven't seen that you've written anything of the sort.

I agreed with the point made about you as much as I did with the rest of that post.

 

I don't know if he's any good at his job. My analysis from my perspective suggests not but I'm well aware I'm not seeing anything like the full picture.

I do take exception to his first name though. I can't pronounce it without sounding like I've got special needs.

 

Splits his time between Knaresborough and Tuscany doesn't he?

 

This was part of his interview in the Chronicle pre season 2024, just brings home the level of interference and how difficult a job Darrell Clarke has under these conditions.


"As we start executing things, there will be more communication from me on the football strategy.”

Barnsley sacked Neill Collins with one league match remaining last month and put Martin Devaney in charge for the play-off semi-final against Bolton.

Trailing 5-2 at half-time in the second leg away from home, they came back to 5-4 and almost forced extra-time.

Sormaz said: “We could only do that (sacking Collins) because we trusted Martin. We thought we would play either Peterborough or Bolton in the play-offs and the only way those teams lose is if they are pressed and attacked consistently throughout the game.

“We saw that in the second leg at Bolton, we dominated and came within a goal of taking it to extra-time and maybe getting to the final.

“Obviously, it didn’t come off so we take any criticism.

“But the thought behind it was the style of play for those games.

“At some point we thought Neill couldn’t do that for us long-term.

“As much as I respect Neill and enjoyed working with him, we thought long-term he wasn’t going to provide the style of play we wanted. So why wait?

“The easy thing would have been to let the season die off and try again next year. There’s no scrutiny if you do that.

“But we know if you attack it and maximise chances in the short-term, that’s all you can do.”

The aim now for new head coach Darrell Clarke is clear.

Sormaz said: “For Barnsley in League One, the goal will always be promotion.

“Part of the reason we got Darrell is because he has a track record of five promotions. He knows how long and tough an EFL season can be, especially Saturday, Tuesdays.

“We have got him in to maximise what we’ve got in the squad next year and get us towards the top end of the table in what will be a dogfight of a league.”