Well done Stendel...

Write something to end up where you started..

Point 1. He wasn't the manager.

 

I'll ensure all my postings from now on meet your requirements. I apologise for failing to meet your personal standards.

 

He's a fantastic manger. He took over a team in decline, shipped out the dead wood, had the shut down period to sort out the rest of their players and put out a proper team. We sacked him and brought in Struber which just makes me giggle it's that bad, even though it's very serious.

 

Do you not reckon much to Struber then? As a fairly lucid poster I'd be intrigued to read your view on him. I have to admit I was very impressed after his first few games and him dropping certain players, putting Brown anywhere but full back and getting a real tune out of Chaplin. And it's only the last two games where I've been left wondering what the heck has happened. All in all I don't know that we could have asked for more?

 

To be honest the debate is not really about the managers, in my opinion. Both could be successful, given a competitive squad for the division the team is in. The problem is when one day they arrive at work to discover a key player or two have been sold without their knowledge.

 

Is it OK if I answer that tomorrow? I'm very tired and wouldn't do your eloquent question justice if I attempted it tonight.

 

Sstendel got us promoted at the 1st time of asking after relegation the 1st time that's ever happened in our history, he achieved a record points total and we went the full season unbeaten at oakwell (something I doubt I will see again)
If we go down this season I dont fancy us to bounce straight back

 

But that will probably always be the case for us. I've always seen us sell our better players. And that's under Barnsley men, Barnsley owners. For sure it's worse now under a group with no ties, pure business people.

I liked Daniel, last season was extraordinarily good and would take some topping.

I think Struber has worked wonders at present.

 

I look forward to that.

 

All true, I agree. A change is well overdue. "But we've always done it that way" doesn't work any more for me.

 

To change would mean to find money from elsewhere to proceed. What do you suggest?

 

Buy fewer, but better, players. What do you suggest we do?

 

I genuinely don't know. As may be shown from my posts over time, I don't claim to know the answers and tend to be supportive of the cause. I run my own business these days and it's going well but I had lots of help and gained much advice from more experienced people that I believe has stood me in good stead.

 

We were favourites to go back up.

 

100%

 

So? Weren't Sunderland? This was a manager with very limited English, enirely new country, club and squad. And he got them playing exciting , attacking football, got all the fans behind him, the club and the players and broke the records already mentioned.

 

It’s interesting that lots of fans were adamant that Stendel deserved to go as he couldn’t adapt & would only play one way despite him regularly alternating between 4-4-2 & 4-5-1 & even going with a back 3 on occasion whilst saying that Struber knew what was needed & found the diamond system to get the best out of them. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes for these same fans to turn on Struber as he’s shown no willingness at all to adapt his system up to now.

I maintain the biggest difference in Struber getting better results is player availability.

Brown, Diaby, Dougall, Woodrow, Radlinger & Mowatt all missed games this season under Stendel.

Struber was doing well with a fully fit squad, as soon as we’ve lost Woodrow, Oduor & Diaby we’ve looked significantly weaker.

The two biggest things Struber deserves credit for is getting goals out of Chaplin, although it’s come at the expense of Woodrow scoring & also the introduction of Oduor, although no one knows if he would’ve been ready at the start of the season seen as he’d mainly played as a midfielder previously.

Ultimately whenever there’s a big turnaround in players it often takes a season for us to develop a competitive side, we saw it after relegation with Wilson, after losing all the stars of 2016 the following season & we’ve seen it the summer just gone after losing half the promotion winning side.