Get on a plane, block a month out in your diary to devote a bit of attention to your investment. Please don't say 'it's all in good hands'. Come and see for yourself. Delegation of tasks is one thing; dereliction of duty is a whole different ball game. You've trusted the people you put in place to run the show. That trust has failed. Some tough decisions need making. None of this 'hold steady' ...... 'stay on course' rubbish. We are rudderless, direction-less and dying a painful death. Apathy, indignation, in-fighting, fan-against-fan. Even the players are down in the dumps. This is about as far removed from the community-spirited, strong-willed, respected fighting underdog of a club (and town) that I grew to love many years ago. COME AND GET IT SORTED. (and we are far beyond the stage of another fan forum as another sticking plaster).
Even in the Hillcroft dark days at least there was some kind of goal (I mean that goal was to make us part of this Trans-Pennine League 2 conglomerate with Rochdale as the HQ), but at least we had a board that were present.
I wish the owners would say, this is the plan, and this is why we are doing what we are. I would love to hear their short and long term plans. The most important thing is the first team, nobody buys tickets for the under 21s or academy. The under 21 league is very poor, kids v kids and not like the reserve leagues of the past. How are they to develop in that league? I really think we should look at the academy future with finances being as they are. It hasn't produced anything for years. Jalo, Yoganathan in first team squad but miles and miles off. Would they get in rival sides? Marsh, lovely lad but no. Have a 1st 11, and a reserve side playing matches against local league sides. What is the financial cost of, for example, U21's playing Colchester away? Is it worth it? Owners, plan please.
Don't worry they usually check in around end of February/beginning of March for a little chat to get us all up and at it and salivating before early bird season
If the owners came out and said "we have a clear plan to cut costs and utilise youth and it may result in being as low as league 2". I wouldn't like it but I'd respect their openness and honesty. As it is a lot of fans have hope and belief in something better and are dumfounded that the board sits on its hands. Be up front and give the fans an inform choice whether to suck it up and renew or do something else on a Saturday.
But they haven't got a plan to cut costs and utilise youth. We don't have an academy player in the matchday squad most weeks. The only academy player in the squad in the last game was Josiah Dyer and he didn't get on the pitch. He's 20 years old. The next youngest player was Gent at 21, signed from Blackburn, who was a sub, then Connell at 23, also a sub, signed from Bolton. We've then got Russell, Gauci and Lofthouse all at 24. That leaves 12 players of an 18 man squad who are aged 25 or older. Of course they're not got to say they're cutting costs and utilising youth because that isn't anything like what they're doing.
Well, firstly, no he didn't. He was just reaching. If there was some big conspiracy to dupe us all he would have given it. It's just hot air, not an example. A fallacy to justify a theory that has no basis in reality. And that, if anything, should be challenged. I don't believe there is some Machiavellian plan to deceive fans, so why are you asking me for one? If you believe there is, tell us what that is rather than give an 'example'. I'm not going to start making stuff up to fit a crazy notion. That's not to say I think those in charge of Barnsley FC are doing a good job of it. I don't. But it's Occam's razor, the fewer assumptions made the more likely you've uncovered the truth. And the simplest explanation is they're just not very good at a running a football club. There are caveats in that: running a football club is ludicrously expensive, the whole system is broken. The deal signed with Sky, where fans can no longer rely on set kick off times, could very well result in the whole house of cards collapsing. And we don't have a divine right to be successful. Where we are in the league is not too far away from a league that is purely based on budget, which is the best indicator of how a club is going to perform. But there's no doubt, the last two transfer windows have entirely failed to address what the team and the head coach required. But it's not due to any of the crap people delude themselves with and post on here, it's just not being very good at it, not having the ideas and vision, not employing the right people. It's that simple.
This, with the biggest cherry to go with the most amount of icing on a cake you can get. Whatever plan they supposedly have needs looking at and measuring, what's it based on, what's the timescale for success, is it working, how do we measure it and when. All valid questions any organisation would look at and review.
Whose holding them to account though? A lot of the bodies work in conjunction with the club. That's the problem for me.
