Does the board lack ambition or are they just realists?

You look at the amount of foreign investment in the championship and how much debt there clubs are in?

Under PC’s ownership it was by and by always about financial survival, these seem to have them same mantra.

Have they bought us to continue on the same path as the previous owner with the hope that they can be more resilient to offers coming in for players and get that bit more due to there business nous?

I have a feeling they got more for some recent players that’s gone that what we would’ve previously.

Would folk like them to throw caution to the wind and spend millions we haven’t got in the hope we might get in the top 6?

I’ve watched us for 30 year now and we’ve never spent big but always recruited from lower levels.......a wish it was different but that’s the harsh truth I’m afraid.

One last thing.......there was hardly a que of other folk lining up to but BFC was there!

 

The board's ambition is simply to make money from the football club and anything related to it. That means any assets such as players, managers, land, infrastructure are all fair game. If by some miracle of biblical proportions the team got to the Premier League there would also be the lucrative money that comes with tv rights, better sponsorship and marketing etc. The board are concerned about the club but only in so far as it is a vehicle for them to make money.

 

I certainly wouldn’t want us to be in the same financial straits as a lot of other Championship clubs, clubs that fair enough are above us but are on very shaky financial ground.
On the other hand I think it’s obvious if we don’t bring in at least a couple of players including front man who knows how to put the ball into the net any economising on that basis will be very false economy and an affront to our fans!

 

It could be argued they do. However as you say, some folk class ambition as 'throwing caution to the wind'. Spending millions on bug names and over the hill players, like Wednesday have done in recent years, isn't showing ambition to me, it's stupidity. Going out and spending £5m on a striker on transfer deadline day isn't showing ambition either, like Sunderland, it's desperation.

I think the issues off the field need resolving before we can finally start to progress on the field. I finally felt we had a breakthrough when we stayed up last season. It was imperative we did so, if we want to continue to progress. We've not had the mass exodus of players leaving either, so we are moving in the right direction sort of. We just need to get the recruitment better on the field. But it seems as though our issues off the field might be hampering that. I do think prior to the ground ownership issue, that we were moving in the right direction. I don't think Covid has helped either in terms of recruitment and available funds.

Overall the signings we've brought in this summer have been positive. Helik and Ludewig appear to be good players, the jury is out on Frieser, and Christie-Davies looks like one for the future. We're still a couple of players short if you ask me.

I've gone off track a little bit. But I wouldn't say the owners lack ambition, I just think it's a careful plan we've got laid out, that will take us to the next level gradually. And I think that has been hampered by the ground issue, Struber issue, and Covid.

 

When we say investment, no one is expecting £10-£20 million spent.

Just spend to make us at least have a chance. We still have the Jacob Brown money so even if they spend £2 million there not out of pocket.

Put £5 million into players NOW and give us a fighting chance. 3 players will be ok.

 

Agree, although I don't even expect that much. AND they said they would reinvest the Jacob Brown money. I believe they are trying, but clearly failing right now.

 

I have literally no expectation that we can be top-6. I was rather hoping though, that we would not be bottom-3. Again.

 

It’s the same old discussion I’ve had with Red Rain on here. There aren’t only two options, it isn’t break the bank or the current approach.

In my opinion we waste lots of money by trying to sign almost every player as a sellable asset.

Inevitably they can’t all play & you end up losing players you’ve paid substantial fees for for nothing. See Thiam, Hedges, Pinillos, Dougall & probably McGeehan.

We also generally carry a big squad. What’s wrong with having multi-positional players instead of lots of players who aren’t up to it & have a bit more quality than quantity.

Jordan Clark was a perfect signing for us in the summer but Luton signed him on a free instead. He would’ve given everything for his hometown club, lots of football league experience, can play various positions in midfield & off a striker. What does Frieser do that he couldn’t?

 

Do you not think they're trying to sign players though?

 

If they would’ve signed Jordan Clarke the fans would’ve been up in arms about it too!!

A do get your point though about sellable asset, I’d maybe rather us sign on one quality proven player than 4 unknowns hoping there good, but that wouldn’t suit the plan then

 

They need to find a middle ground. No one is looking for daft spending but I don’t think year on year incremental progress is too much to ask. The insistence of filling the squad with too many players in the hope one it two makes ya money ties up wages and prevents us getting our main targets over the line.

It’s a difficult balancing act but for me at the minute they are getting it wrong.

 

Define silly money?
£7m that we haven't got could be described as silly money and make us look like Wendies or Sunderland.
But 10 Bob on woeful nobodies from the footballing hotbed of Austria could also be described as silly spending.

Its as clear as day we need some middle ground, its the stubborn refusal to tweak that get my goat. It shouldn't break the bank to achieve mid table standard and then kick on from there.

 

My beef with the Board isn’t the levels of investment they are (not) putting into the Club. It’s the fact they are Football incompetents.
Their decision making on and off the pitch coupled with the worst approach to communication with the fan base I’ve seen in my lifetime makes them unfit to carry out the role.

Let me put that another way; if we had owners who hadn’t or didn’t want to invest even a single penny in the Club but could:
- buy and sell players for their true worth
- not introduce ridiculously restrained recruitment policies
- not sell players on at wholly inappropriate times with no replacements.
- put in place appropriate contracts.
- speak to each other in a civil manner
- communicate with the Local Authority
- not Seemingly take it as a mission in life to pi§§ of the support with their ill thought out public pronouncements
- and ‘did what they say they will do’

then I think we could be successful.

Whether they are ‘bent’ or malicious I think has too little evidence to support a theory one way or another. That they are incompetent is ‘proven’ in my mind. That’s why regardless of what happens in the current situation, we won’t move forward until they have departed.

 

They are a Private equity group fund
there only ambition is to make a profit on there initial investment at least double or it would not be worthwhile over a five year period
Full Stop.

 

i believe they will sell the club before they have even paid for it

 

Football is about living the dream and nobody dreams about losing games all season and escaping relegation at the last minute. If I want realism I can go to work, or think about Covid. I don’t go to Oakwell for realism.
That’s realism in football.

 

Cryne knew it was tough, and wanted similar folk to carry on with it.

Cryne made this clear, and the new owners made this clear. Nothing silly and it’s long term.

The new owners have not taken money out, and I believe the accounts show this.

I accept our position, and so long as the owners don’t start taking loads of money out, I’ll support them. They’re not perfect, but they’ve stuck to what they’ve said.

Look at the state of most other clubs in the Champ. Only really Luton, Rotherham and Wycombe who can claim similar. Although I believe Luton have pumped a bit of money in too?

 

Agree with all of that

 

I can't recall any previous Board at Oakwell selling both first choice centre halves in one transfer window this following the first choice goal keeper leaving on a free and they then compounded it by selling the previous seasons joint top scorer on the last day of the window and still haven't replaced him. They don't just lack ambition they lack football knowledge they are trying to run a football team like a retail organisation with no comprehension or concern of how transfer activity will affect on field performance and league position.

 

Correct im sure multi billionaires could raise finance for peanuts on say 10 million peanuts to them. A lot have been brainwashed into thinking you can't do it either for ffp or brainwashed it might jeopardise the club.
Or do a Wigan ect. No it wouldn't not necessarily and I wouldn't want the club to be run like some but sensible investment.
If we are only spending what we make i might aswel own it with 10 bob and a blackies egg in bank