Khaled: "The vision of the club is to have 23-year-olds and younger."

Patrick Cryne instituted the current policy in the first place. He sold the club to the current owners because they shared his vision for how the club should be run. To draw a line after he sold the club is to ignore that fact. He instituted the policy for the reasons that I have given, after he had wasted a lot of money in pursuit of a different policy. It is a policy that is a result of a previously failed policy of trying to buy immediate success, and is the result of difficult lessons being learned.

You have not shown how your new policy will result in the club breaking even over the long term.

 

He sold the club because he was dying and the vultures came in. It's as simple as that.
He also deviated from the policy. Our players weren't just kids then.
And you haven't shown how our current policy breaks even. I have however shown that deviation from the policy would have seen Alex Mowatt on a lower transfer fee than Josh Benson.

 

Unless I've got it really wrong they signed those players quite young @SuperTyke. Left winger for example they had to wait until he was 18 to join but they agreed at 16

 

Alex Mowatt did not stay because we could not match his pay demands. He wanted to play at a higher level. That is always going to be the case with ambitious footballers, and our policy accepts that situation.

Our policy is designed with the idea of breaking even, because it is designed from the standpoint of buying players cheaply (or bringing up players through the academy) improving them, and selling them to clubs with more cash than we have. I began a thread recently that compared the financial results of Championship Clubs. Barnsley lost more than £4m during that year, a figure that has left us in financial trouble. Nevertheless, Barnsley was in the bottom 5 for losses for that year. There are owners of clubs in the Championship who are prepared to fund losses of £20m plus. For Barnsley supporters, the loss was equivalent to a price increase of £400 each in season ticket prices if supporters were to fund those losses via ticket prices, and yet all I read on here is that season ticket prices are already too dear, and the owners are robbing the club and the fans. Frankly, the fans want it both ways. They want a winning team, and they want it for nothing. There has to be some honesty. There has to be some honest answers to honest questions. The club can only progress if we all take responsibility, both financially and in sport.

 

The problem is you refuse to accept that there is any other way of being profitable than buying cheap cross and selling a few of them. The fact is that there are other ways you are just blind to them

 

I agree.

But where did Oulare, Iseka & Cole fit that bill?

It is clear we need a couple of experienced pros in our side & the rest will be kids. Isn't that the message from the forum?

It isn't easy running BFC, or any club of our size. Luton, Burnley (pre their Prem days), Wednesday obviously... ha ha.

 

On the contrary. I have asked you to tell me what the plan is if we ditch "buy young, improve and sell on". So far, you have given me nothing but hot air. You have got to have a plan. You cannot just go forward with hope and nothing else, or you end up running out of cash. That is the situation we are in now, and by the sounds of it, we have arrived at that place because Conway thought he knew better. It is time to get back to the plan, and this time we need to stick to it through thick and thin.

 

I think ending up in the play offs in the championship in 20/21 season suggests we got it right that season , the age & experience of the players was not brought into question then but of course the difference between that season & last years disaster was the the man at the helm , if Val had been in charge last season in my opinion we would have stayed up & this conversation might not have been debated , what I am trying to say it is all a balance of ability & experience not only with the players but with the coaches as well.

 

Josh Benson's transfer fee was higher than alex Mowatts transfer fee. Alex Mowatt would command an higher transfer fee to day than Josh Benson.
We can we not buy experienced, improve and sell on? We can we not sign the MANY free transfers or disgruntled players from other clubs? Why are you so blinkered that you can only see one way?

Nobody is saying we can't sign young players but EXCLUSIVELY young players doesn't work.

I put it to you that mads Andersen for example was improved and therefore his value increased by playing alongside and learning from an experienced older player.
I'd say that without Bobby Hassells guidance and influence next to him John stones wouldn't have developed in the way he did at the rate he did. Was having those older players a financial drain or a benefit to the team and ultimately the bank account?

 

We had sollbauer at the back and Mowatt in midfield. Both vital players that complimented and guided the young players perfectly. It isn't just the man at the helm that changed but we got shut of our experience and replaced it in the matchday squad with kitching, moon and Benson.

 

I think the first priority has to be a successful team. Then bring young players through. Average players look much better in a successful team. Just look at the number of players Brian Clough made look like world beaters only for them to flop after mega bucks transfers when they returned to type.

 

The goes for the majority of players the club. The list of flops will massively outweigh the hits.

 

You don't have to be a Cryne to be a Barnsley fan and an owner.
As previously said all the current board are Barnsley fans and between them they control over 60% of the shares.

 

Sollbauer hardly played under val in the 2nd half of the season and sibbick was preffered for his pace with the high line we had.

 

Mixed in with Pallister, Bruce etc it doesn't matter having great young uns. Just not 11 of them !

 

As Neerav said, Solbauer's contribution was invaluable and went far beyond his time on the pitch. His presence, leadership and advice in training and in the dressing room went a long way to speed the development of the youngsters.
He says that is the way the board will be thinking regarding the value of more experienced players going forward, and they intend to shape and balance the squad in that way.

 

I don't think Val would have saved us. Reverting to three subs would have meant that we couldn't have used the high press in the same way, and there are signs that teams were getting wise to it by the end of the season anyway. He obviously would have been an improvement on Schopp or Poya, but without Mowatt in particular we were holed beneath the waterline - that critical experience in the middle was lost and needed to be properly replaced. Hourihane would have been ideal and more cost effective in the long term, compared to the £6m a season by which we are now worse off, and that's the approach the board will take going forward.

 

It is not just about transfer fee. The pay budget is just as important in balancing the books as it transfer fees paid. Mowatt wanted to move on, and we could do nothing about that. Forget Mowatt.

Benson has been poor, but he is still very young. His wage demands were within our budget. Whether he proves to be a good investment or a poor one will not be decided after one very average season. These things can only be judged when he leaves (either for a profit or a loss). The problem last season was not that the players were too young. It was that there were so many injuries, there were so many changes in the team from week to week. They lost confidence in themselves. They had a good experience in the previous season, but they were not good enough when everything changed, and furthermore, they were poorly managed with too many changes of direction and strategy. They played the forward press very well in the previous season, but they never played that way last season. It was all very depressing.

I am not blinkered... far from it, and if you show me a better way, then I will congratulate you for your foresight and wisdom. The problem is that you have not showed me anything, all all you keep doing is provide a series of tenuous links to things that prove nothing. I say again, what is your new policy and how does it allow the club to break even and be successful on the field.

 

you have not shown how the current strategy allows you to break even given we have accumulated massive debts and spent the cash reserves doing it. So flip the question to you how does the policy, which has been an abject failure in financial terms, allow you to break even.

Please be precise.

 

You also need a plan and not hot air. The current one you champion has failed. Outline your new one.