https://www.efl.com/news/2023/decem...Qg8ZkOH0dHkZRCBeDC4QF4jhyoq-9vqq8z1VD5QgdqAEc Good article on it.
Can everybody who disparages the EFL Trophy and claims to want us out of it at the earliest opportunity please read this.
It’s barmy. Them 2 days out at Wembley were unbelievable. I know people who didn’t go to Wembley for the JPT as they regard it as tin pot but will go to instantly forgettable games in miserable weather on Tuesday nights in the middle of winter.
Exactly. It's why the limp surrenders to Bradford and Blackpool were so annoying. That final against Oxford was a day that our fans of all ages will never forget. A day that for clubs like ours doesn't come along too often.
We had a great side back then. Even had Ivan toney on the bench. The Oxford final was one of my favourite trips to Wembley. I'm sick of the place now though.
That side was a division below what it needed to be in. The wasted season in 2014/15 cost us when we were in the Play-Off positions with a few games left and faded. Had we gone up that season instead the players like Hourihane, Winnall and Scowen would have peaked in the Championship with longer contracts. Instead of in the Championship with six months left on their contracts.
Adam Hammill started the ball rolling that season. Scored on his debut (return) in the EFL trophy against York. He galvanised the team. And I believe made Hourianne the player he became.
NO Cryne sold them so that he advertise to the potential buyers that they were buying a midtable championship club with money in the bank, on a parallel the company I worked for at the time the owner did the same, he built the company from nothing recruited a board of directors with experience in the industry that it was in and did make good profits year after year, then sold to a massive American corporation for a rumoured £55M and went in to semi retirement in his late forties. IMHO both the Crynes and the new owners work off statistics and probably thought after selling off the good players that they could just fetch another set of unknowns in with good stats and everything in the garden is rosey, like components on a production line; but they are dealing with human beings, with all their imperfections as well as talents. As Danny Wilson states in his autobiography you need to do research in to the potential signing's personality and behaviour to see if they if they of the right character, a spread sheet or database does not do that!
We weren't good enough to go up that season in 2014/15 the 1st 2/3s under Wilson were at times some of the worst I've seen. He got sacked with us close to the relegation places. Johnson came in we went on a run but then faded unfortunately.
A few points. If we hadn't of sold those players who wanted out they'd have left for nothing 6 months later. Danny Wilson brought us Leroy lita and Keith treacy as he wanted some experience maybe he should have looked into them.
Agree Some were offered more than we could really afford. But take Hourianne for example no way could we compete with villa. Alfie Mawson Another. Went to swansea in the premier. 4 yr deal..
I'm pretty sure I've read that players' character and personalities were absolutely built into the recruitment equation.
Did they want out? PC did not negotiate new contracts and so the players were looking to their futures as they thought that the club was not ambitious, Danny Wilson new those players characters but made the mistake that he had not checked how they were playing at the time and they had deteriorated playing wise quicker than he thought. Remember Danny was still playing really well in the championship at the age of 36 when he hung his boots up and probably thought they could still do a job.
Patrick cryne was terminally ill I don't think players contracts were high on his prioritys. As the story goes before Connor left he went and saw Patrick in hospice at Sheffield, Patrick offered him a offer that would have made him the highest paid barnsley player ever. He said no and went villa. It was Patrick and James scouting that brought these players. Keith treacy had bad depression and drink problems. Wilson also brought in turnbull with his glass back.
The same Hourihane that LJ said couldn’t play in a midfield two. Hammill was definitely the catalyst though.
