John Stones won our young Hoyland poy award a few years ago. 2011ish. came to accept. And sent us a nice thank you card and message. After the event. Great to see him proud of his roots and his support of Barnsley fc.
Got the MOTM in The Sun. They mentioned it being another masterclass as he had 51 touches but only 6 in his own area. He had a pass accuracy of 88% from 42 passes, 1 shot and 2 tackles. Great game.
Him and Tommy Taylor, poor Tommy's life was cut short but he would have been one of the England greats.
With regards to buying the league, yes they had a big budget but Man U had a manager who outperformed their expected points total by a large margin based on wages- by this measure he’s the best ever English club manager. And wages as a correlation measure explains 80% League finishing position over long-term performance.
He should be honoured by the town IMHO or do they wait to see if he wins a world/euro cup? Hes not far off having the full house. Hope they win the champions league and he gets that one!
The argument about Citeh buying success is only valid up to a point. Throwing money at something like football does not in anyway guarantee success. A collection of prima donna footballers in it of the money does not make a team. What does though, is a manager who motivates highly talented players and gets them to put in the workrate, support each other and develop a winning mentality. I noted John Stones being interviewed post FA cup final by Lineker and the pundits and was talking about still learning from team- mates and developing further and Grealish alongside him was slightly critical of his own personal performance. I agree that the business model of hoovering up the best players with a seemingly bottomless pot of money has damaged the game hugely, but don't blame the players, the coach or the fans (we all dream of that level of success for our team especially the attacking type of football they play). Some comments not just on here but social media smack of the British disease of bringing down anyone or thing that is a success (and some sour grapes thrown if for good measure).
