Andy Dallas

Signed for Barrow on a season long loan.

 

Good move but we aren't Man City mate. Why do we sign these players to sell on if they hit their stride on loan?

Baffling one. Dallas played, scored, farmed out on loan.

Maybe the club will waste another year with him out on loan. He'll come back, impress and leave on a free?

 

He was a cheap, no risk signing. This is a good move, to see if he can step up and he is off the books for a year

 

I think the club knows the lads not up to it wouldn't imagine he's on big money Barrow pick some if not all of his wages . Let's hope they can do similar with few more of last season's punts free up wages for player's who can challenge at the top end of league 1.

 

Who knows he might land up at Notts County.

 

https://www.barrowafc.com/news/2024/june/27/andy-dallas-joins/

Hope he has a wheelie good season for them and scores a Barrow full of goals.

Can't be true though because it says they have signed 4 players but apparently you can't sign anyone yet....

 

They've been tapping players up.

 

Good move for all.

Didn’t do anything on loan last year, and likely not to play this year much either - especially with Marsh and Jalo expecting to be more involved.

A loan works well - gets some wages paid and an opportunity to come back if he discovers some form.

 

Dont you think this joke has had its time yet mate?

 

I've been a big critic of this policy. even if Barrow take on half his wage it's still wasted money for the other half and not forgetting he's not the only one. last season we had around half a dozen of these but are expected to accept there's nowt in the kitty. Spend on players who can improve the team. We've just freed up 4 or 5 wages...nows the time..

 

Poor inept recruitment clearly.

 

I don't believe it's a policy - i.e. buying players to loan and sell if they're successful. Instead I think we quickly realised that we'd made a mistake and he'd be nowhere near first team standard, so we're therefore cutting our losses. Mladen may have reserved the right to recall him in January but imo that's purely to ensure we remain in control. My criticism is about the poor recruitment rather than a supposed recruitment policy.

 

Judge us by our actions. (Again)

 

Ya may be right mate but that's a lot of poor recruitment in a short time..

 

I see what people are saying in terms of signing players who don't make the first team but I'm not sure the signings from non league were bad signings.

Dallas had scored, what did it say, 41 goals in two seasons so deserved his move. It will not have cost the club much and with full professional training it could be expected he'd improve further. With hindsight, he hasn't managed to break through but even then he's playing at a higher level (League 2) than he was. In theory he's worth more than Barnsley paid for him.

Same for Shepherd. He'd shown he deserved a move up the pyramid. To be fair, he even looked decent when he was forced into the first team, a few mistakes towards the end aside. It is reasonable to expect him to improve considerably now he is a full time professional, not having to fit it in around plumbing or whatever it was he was doing. Even though he couldn't hold down his place in the first team of a club intent on promotion, he did manage to play for a lower League 1 club. So he's also worth more than Barnsley paid for him.

Two low risk examples who could have and still could fulfill their potential and become stars.

In context, look at the Belgians and signings from higher leagues who haven't been playing first team football. Taking tiny gambles on promising lads from non league isn't so bad.

 

** This with bells on **

 

I agree with everything you've said. But just to add, it's all well and good doing as you've described, but these types of signings need to be peripheral to the actual squad in my opinion.

The previous incarnation of our board talked about layering. It's a good idea. But this only works if you have a performing, experienced first team squad to add these types of signings to.

What we did, was sign the "layering players" and play them in the first team pretty much straightaway, which, as far as I know, isn't how the layering approach is supposed to work.

These players should be getting signed on 4 year deals, loaned out for their development and experience for a season, perhaps two, then integrated in the third and (per our boards model) sold with a year left on their deal or sign/trigger an extension and then sell to reinvest.

We appear to be doing that with Dallas, Shepherd, Lopata, Shaw and Lofthouse. They were never supposed to be in the first team straightaway, it's just that circumstances dictated that they did. Circumstances being that we didn't sign, as well as the layering players, the players needed to be first team starters straightaway.

Let's see what the board does this time...

 

It's like Neil Diamond, Gene Pitney and Neil Sedaka. They churned out hits for everyone else as well as themselves. Who cares if they never play for Barnsley as long as we hold their registration and take the royalties when they become a hit that someone wants to buy. Most likely on the cheap because they're at the end of their contract and don't want to sign another because they've been farmed out on loan for two years.

 

I wonder if Schopp or Asbaghi could have got a tune out of them?

 

If we don't want him , sell him