Is the board selling to that...

well at least thats one club prepared to invest

 

"Nah he won't go near tarn. He's a Wednesday fan thanus".

 

No sensible businessman would take on a football club unless they ran it similar to what we have tried to do, ie find a break even somehow. We are now finding that an impossible task hence the money being put in to sustain us.

An underwhelming window yes, but genuinely interested as to where people think this money to buy players should come from. Do we want to end up 40 million in debt and end up with no club? Surely that is where it would lead. We haven't a massive squad really and in league 1 still struggling to balance the books.

Either the complete model needs changing, and to what I have no idea.

How do Exeters books look? They are fan owned technically. If they are doing well, surely that's a model to consider.

But without a fan with ultra millions or a stupidly rich foreigner who just wants to throw cash away, can't see anyone remotely different to our current owners doing owt different.

 

Makes you wonder why they knocked it back if they are having to put in so much each year. It's sad to see the club how it is at the minute.

 

Agree.

The whole game is knackered due to high player wages.

I don’t blame the players for taking it, but that’s where the problem lies.

 

I genuinely respect everyone on this board. Enjoy seeing other people's opinions, love that it isn't an echo chamber, and genuinely enjoy and take on board alternative thinkers.

But people who still:

1) Think lockdown worked and was an appropriate course of action

and/or

2) Think that in 2025 there wouldn't be any viable buyers for a 140 year old football club with a 10k support base and a tradition of being in the top 2 divisions

I still respect you - kind of. I'd enjoy a beer with you. I just think you're gravely mistaken

 

I don't know what it is about people from Barnsley. It's like being trampled over by Thatcher in the 1980's destroyed our sense of self worth. There's self deprecating, and then somewhere 50 leagues below self respect there's Barnsley.

We have an amazing town centre, its the best night out in Britain, an incredible and proud tradition of being record breakers in the second tier and winning the FA Cup, and yet folk have this pathetic,grovelling gratitude to a bunch of divs who at best are culturally naive and are taking us inexorably down to a level we haven't been at for 45 years. And yet people are grateful to them!!!!! 'Orrr, at least we have a team to watch'.

Man up. Grow some balls. Get a sense of our own worth. Demand they do better or ask them to fuuck off.

 

Nail. Hit. On. The. Head.

Sick to death of seeing folk on here this forum, Barnsley fans in general with a proper defeatist attitude - we’ve had crowds of 14/15k regular when doing well, there’s a decent stadium there & our away fans are up there with the best in the country in terms of support.

A massive change of attitude is needed, out with the old & in with the new - get the club sold & get the traction back in a positive manner.

 

Can't disagree with any of that @Tyketical Masterstroke. Cryne gave the impression way back when that there wasn't a queue out of the door to buy us, and that he only wanted to sell to someone who would have the Clubs' best interests at heart. This led to the assumption that we weren't a decent proposition as it seemed to drag on ages.

He also failed in that second remit as he eventually sold to Conway and Lee, possibly the biggest conmen in European football.

Now, I know that he may have taken his eye off the ball towards the latter stages due to his health declining, and I cannot blame him for that, not would I.

But the truth is, there would be prospective buyers. Every Club in the 92 have been bought and sold multiple times over. Why should we assume that BFC would be left ownerless?

We really do need to shake this Stockholm Syndrome we seem to have acquired with these owners. We got PTSD from Conway and Lee, now we are blind to the fact that Neerav, JAQ et al are equally inept, we just appear to be happy with the fact that they aren't corrupt like the last couple of incumbents, and that should be enough.

It's not. They've tried, admirably you could argue, to right the ship in the wake of Conway and Lee. But at pretty much every turn they have failed miserably, and continue to do so on a regular basis.

Time's up. Sell the Club.

 

Majority of fans I've seen/know wouldn't be against a sale. It's just that the ridiculous expectations of certain fans on here are far too much. It's all well and good say just sell, buy loads of players, etc. Then they make accusations that the owners take money out. It's just stupid and completely ruins any good/sensible points they make. This board almost got it perfect in their first season with Duff, it was only bad refereeing and a poor miss by Connell what cost us promotion. Last season was iffy but we still managed to get in play offs and yet again, an offside goal cost us making the final.

This season, this window in particular, I don't think there are many excuses. But people tar this board with the old board, who by the way, set this club back years and years, and they've done that since they first took over and it wasn't fair to do because they did get a lot right to begin with. But now, they at least need to come and explain the decisions made this window, why we've done certain things and tell us their failings and expectations for the rest of the season.

 

I get the people wanting to talk the club up, completely get that.

At the end of the day though 14/15k fans is not going to pay the wages and transfer fees for the type of player most folk want to see. Under the current financial climate in English football, it almost ultimately will result in any owner having to seriously pump lost money into the club. Forget a clubs history and the town centre, it's all about the bottom line when it comes to business.

A great shame but it's true.

I'd love to hear a contrasting viewpoint on this from someone who thinks it could be achievable without building up a big debt.

 

We might as well fold then. Because in football, in 2025, and for the last 2/3 decades, no club barring the odd couple ever break even. Modern football is run at a loss, that's just what happens. Do I agree with it? Nope, not at all. But we either compete and do the same thing, or we attempt (and currently spectacularly fail) to keep a balanced book and remain bang average, with fans hating attending matches.

These owners were sold a pipe dream by Conway and Lee, that they could emulate "Moneyball" in football. That's why they're here. They're currently trying, and failing miserably, to keep us competitive on a shoestring.

It can't continue either way. They keep on how they are, and the Club will fold anyway as nobody is attending matches anymore. They cover bigger losses and sign better players, which will keep more fans engaged, but certainly won't guarantee success from an investors point of view.

It feels to me where we're at a point of saying "either sh*t, or get off the pot". We can't keep doing "this". Whatever "this" ultimately is. It's not working.

 

He didn't just "give the impression" - he publicly said the club was for sale for years. There was the odd rumour of interest, but the only thing that came to pass was the Lee/Conway consortium when time became somewhat constrained. We'll never know what due diligence was done or how they compared to any previous offers, but hindsight would suggest that a deal needed to be done. The fact that his family have since played their part in removing their influence only backs that up.

None of that is to say that there might not be potential buyers out there who could do a better job now, but there's nothing at all in history that suggests there is anyone willing or able to show us a better path.

I'm pretty sure if anyone else had a viable proposal for how to run the club, then the current owners would be more than happy to consider a solution that saved them pouring millions of their own capital into it.

 

You might be right. But the truth is, none of us know for sure what went on, it's all speculation.

As for the here and now, we've seen countless clubs be bought out, investors coming onboard etc. it happens on a regular basis. My contention is that whilst there's nobody stood outside Oakwell wearing a sandwich board shouting "sell me the club!" And ringing a bell, doesn't mean that there wouldn't be suitors.

I'm not sure how public a potential buyer would be about wanting to purchase the Club prior to doing so anyway. We've seen how secretive we can be regarding player transfers, let alone the sale of the entire Club. They're very sensitive, protracted and delicate negotiations that take a long time to iron out, which is probably why they take so long to materialise and a lot fall through.

But I just simply refuse to be told that we'd struggle to find a serious buyer. It's just down to whether our current owners are willing to stomach a large financial loss, or are they going to be stubborn and hope a miracle happens on 78p and a multi-pack of wotsits and they end up selling us as a Prem Club (lol).

 

Are we not just realistically seeing a rebalance of where Barnsley FC now naturally fit in the pyramid because of the finances in English football?

Are our expectations too high in terms for being a consistent championship club? Although the TV money is far greater, so is the level of player and transfer fee for those players. Longer term the wage bill is far higher.

Obviously every fan dreams of promotion and we shouldn't ever stop dreaming but we also need realistic expectations season on season.

I wonder over a period of say 5 years, is it more financially viable supporting championship football or league 1 football when you consider wages/TV money etc.

 

This is the important part though. Given that the current owners are losing money hand over fist, it's pretty reasonable to assume that they're working within their means and contacts to find a solution that saves them from that fate. If there were interested parties, they'd be the first people that want to know.

Clearly those means and contacts aren't finding a solution right now, hence why we're all really pissed of with the situation.

 

I just think there's a decent balance to be struck between being as near as possible to solvent, yet being competitive with it. There's plenty of "smaller" clubs than us a lot higher in the pyramid as we speak.

Brentford and Bournemouth being two prime examples, although Brentford have really kicked on in terms of infrastructure etc and are now, quite obviously bigger than us, but they weren't 8/10 years ago.

Look at L1. Take Wycombe, barely any fans, ramshackle stadium, but seemingly well run, good squad, right up there at the top of the table.

We could be a cracking Championship team looking at our stadium, the facilities (not match day stuff but academy and training facilities).

I see us, if run correctly, with a decent wind behind us, as a Preston-esque Club. Not massive by any stretch, but certainly not a Club that languishes in L1 signing French 2nd division unknowns on loan at the death.

We could, and should be a stable Championship team. Although I completely understand we have no divine right to be there. It's purely through our own mismanagement that we are where we are and it can and should be rectified.