My view is they are a group of clever guys who have wealth and influence. What we've seen about them doesn't suggest they'd throw huge amounts in a folly to indebt the club and just walk away. I'm left with 2 possible outcomes. A long term incremental holding, and the moneyball chap gets to have his way at replicating his baseball theory in football to try and attain top flight status once more. Or, and this could be just as likely, a Milan Mandaric style flip. Invest moderately and swiftly, get the club up a league (worked at leicester, portsmouth but not wendies) and then sell for maximum return with as little invested as possible. What I hope they don't do is follow the dozens of foreign owners who followed the lights of name players and managers and ended up near bankrupting a club and ripping its heart out. I don't think we'll see that, but it still has an underlying risk.
If they don't invest and we don't go anywhere fast (or worse start to fail) the supporters wont give them long and those wafer thin ties to the club will become a source for discontent. If they do invest and we do well then we can join to ranks of those other clubs buying success. *shrugs* For me the fun of following Barnsley is we upset the odds. We've always been the underdog and the club has always been owned locally. After 130 years that's about to change - and so will expectations.
What about the current model with more finance behind it. That's the next stage. It's not one or the other like you are suggesting at all for me.
What's that to do with this thread? That old thread still applies IMO. The new owners need to keep on board the old directors. Especially Maurice. I still think John Dennis should have been kept on as a director by Patrick Cryne. There needs to be a certain amount of continuity at the club. The club should evolve at a pace that ensures all the good things happening at the club stays there
I'd actually be quite worried if they started throwing money on players, as others have said it would be nice if maybe when we get a gem on loan we have a chance of keeping them, or indeed being able to avoid scenarios like January 2017...you're never going to stop players wanting to move up a league but it's very frustrating seeing players moving to clubs in a similar position in the same league.
Fletcher cost £7 million 'recently'. So there you go - a prime example of when to buy a player e.g. When he is on loan at Barnsley. And when not to buy him - when he's already being traded between Premeirship clubs - or clubs just out of the Premeirship.
That's a very dower and typical Barnsley statement. 'never had owt - so we dunt want owt nar' No wonder the town is like it is now. Liven up a bit FFS !!!
That's fair enough. But if, twelve months into the new ownership, we're not challenging for promotion are you going to retain the same positive outlook or will you be screaming doom and disaster from the rooftops and wanting to know why Barnsley's bilionaire owners aren't outspending those of numerous other clubs?
As far as i'm aware, the club has only ever had 2 owners, Peter Doyle and Patrick Cryne. Prior to that the shares were purposely shared far, wide and thinly to stop anybody taking full control. One of the biggest I think was Yorkshire Traction, all to do with their involvement in the Queens Ground car park which was occasionally used to park buses.
I would hope that, with a little advice from Patrick, the first aim would be to re-establish us as a "Top-Half" Championship Club ready for another tilt at promotion to the Prem, in say 3 years time. Or is that too negative?
I hope the new owners opt for a policy of steady and controlled growth. Spending money doesn't necessarily guarantee success. For example, to date, Everton have spent close on £140 million on new players and yet they are presently in the bottom three of the Premier League. For me, we need to continue the same recruitment model that we have been using but probably look to sign young players that are on the fringes of a place in their Premiership squad. As I've said previously I also think that some proven experience in the defence and up front also might be beneficial in influencing some of the young emerging talent that we've got.
How could we possible not have missed out on the Championship play offs whilst simultaneously looking forward to playing Fleetwood?
Best laugh I've had all week. More chance of me standing for the Tory Party than PC giving JD a role!