Balance or over reaction?

Less than 4 weeks ago we were on a 4 match winning run beating the like of Wrexham and Bolton for example.
We're now in the middle of a rough patch which most teams will have during a season.4 weeks ago Stockport couldn't buy a win and there fortunes changed and look at them now.
Without a shadow of doubt our form will pick up again and we'll be there or thereabouts.
I can't recall anybody praising the recruitment during our winning run but suddenly its like a school ground pile on.
The time to sit down and reflect is at the end of the season.The time now is to support the team and see where it takes us.
One more thing I'd like to add is the amount of posters on here but more so on social media who are telling blatant lies to show they are angrier than the next person just to be more popular.
The squad is where it is now possibly with another signing this week.Support the club and lets evaluate at the end of the season.

 

The problem, and social media makes it worse, is it seems everything is boom or bust and nothing in between. Realistically most of the time its somewhere in the middle.

 

This is the reason why political populism is spreading. The steady as she goes middle of the road mentality which served us ok for decades isn't aligned with the social media world.

 

Quite how anyone looking at a forward line of Rodrigues and Joshua Dyer thinks we will pick up I have no idea.

The state of the club is a cause for concern off and on the pitch. Of course balance is important. But at the moment this season looks very much like being a write off. The longer we stay on L1 the greater the chance of leaving it via relegation not promotion increases.

 

problem being is that 4 weeks ago we thought we would be coming out of the window with a stronger team and well yeah all the same problems persist and we haven’t got the right incomings.

 

Not seen anyone on here "telling blatant lies to show they are angrier than the next person just to be more popular". It makes no sense to me actually

 

Although I’ve always respected Brian’s opinion over the years, I do disagree on this.

We don’t seem to be building anything.

Usually I can tell when things are improving or see lights at the end of the tunnel. I don’t with this team.

How you can say things will improve when we haven’t even got a 10 goal a season striker is beyond belief.

We are relying on DKDs figures solely this season who isn’t an out and out striker.

Clubs will come calling for him this summer as well as Adam Phillips and I don’t trust the recruitment to improve us over this summers window.

At the minute we are in a position I expected us to finish at the start of the season given the players we inherited plus the ones we already had.

I would love to say we are in transition but I don’t think we are.

I think it’s a serious f**k up that will take more than a season (possibly 2) to rectify.

 

Whilst we can over analyse the current situation and try to find positives, the reality is that this is all happening as a compound effect of bad decision after bad decision. It has happened over many years now and at every junction where the opportunity to grow and stabilise was presented, the owners have made the wrong decision and set us backwards every time... managed decline as others have quite rightly labelled it.
If this was a business in any other industry, the whole thing would have been turned on it's head long before now in an attempt to turn it around.

 

I always admire your optimism, @Brian Mahoneys Waist.

 

There's some truth to what you say but there's a malaise on the pitch which has been building for some time. Its two years now since Barnsley had something approaching a good team at this level, 4/5 years since we had an ok team at Championship level. There's a decline in quality of player which is quite evident. The football is often also, and has been for well over a year, dull and unentertaining to watch. Again, a sign of poor quality. So you're right to say judge the season at the end but there's a longer-term decline going on here which is why I think lots of fans seem to be getting angry easily.

 

What’s your thoughts Andy given you can now give a more balanced view on things since departing?

 

I guess that’s the way of world really. Something good happens, it kind of gets brushed off but when bad things happen, people complain. How it is with loads of things.

I think because we had those 4 good results, it makes this run even more frustrating as we should’ve been building on the results, not going backwards. Throw a disappointing transfer window in there and I can totally understand the frustrations shared by most of us.

If we’d have had a good deadline day, that could’ve been a “quick win” in terms of giving our fans a boost but it was the opposite and it has just to more frustrations.

 

I may not be very smart but as far as I can see our forward line options are Rodrigues, Dyer, DKD, Phillips, Farrugia, Jalo, Watters, Humphrys......."

 

I think we’re all frustrated and hate loosing football matches. The personal abuse directed at some of the board members, JAQ in particular, is disgusting. The reality is that if the current board are hounded out we’d still not agree with everything a different ownership group did and they probably wouldn’t put the same level of investment in as the current board do. There’s a lot of money about in league 1 these days, it’s becoming like a second championship with the emergence of the likes of Stockport and Wrexham. That’s not me saying we shouldn’t be doing a bit better or that decisions shouldn’t be criticised, I just think demanding the board leave is ott and wouldn’t necessarily be good for the club. I hope we start winning football matches fast because the doom cloud over Oakwell is poor for everyone involved.

 

I respect yours and everybody elses.I didn't say things will improve though I said our form will pick up.
If it doesn't pass me the blue touch paper.

 

Thanks Andy,I find it better than the alternative.

 

Depends on your sensibilities really. Some people think throwing the Teddy out is rational behaviour.

 

I think this squad will finish 10th ish thought that pre season and haven't changed my mind. We will be fine but there or there about is unlikely for me. Nothing we could have done in January for me would have made any difference that window you either over pay or buy someone's problem. As disappointing as it is take your medicine don't waste your budget in January have a clear out with some that will happen anyway. The business needs to be done early in the summer though as understandly people's patience are running thin,we need a smaller better balance squad.

 

I admit some might be over reactionary but largely the criticism is justified. The January transfer window was the last straw and it’s killed our season.
Even the most optimistic must be able to see the decline of the club to the point where we’re going to struggle to compete at third tier level. When will the penny drop that proper football people should be running recruitment not some data analysis mate from uni?

 

I believe the owners mean well. Their intentions are pure and especially in the case of Jean, she proper cares about her hometown football club and her late husband’s legacy. But it’s the people they charge with running the club on a daily basis who are at the coal face. And again, although these figures did change towards the end of my time there, they seemed good, honest people who worked hard and only for the betterment of BFC.

I’ve only one complaint but it affects my opinion on all things I suppose. I don’t agree with the club’s strategy. I would prefer a complete change of approach to the way it builds its football team with more focus on the academy, recruiting externally only within the club’s financial means. But I appreciate that would maybe limit ambition and might prove hard for fans to swallow. My counter to that would be to point at the £5,000,000 annual losses. Fair play to the owners for the continual upkeep, but it’s not sustainable. I’m not privy to each of their bank accounts, but we aren’t talking Bill Gates here.

I struggle to give enough of a toss to discuss the current first team setup. Because I don’t believe in this strategy. I tend to limit myself to reviews of whatever game I’ve watched. As it stands, the club (and thus its fans) aren’t getting value for money from the team from what I can see. It feels - for me - an absolute chore watching them this season, much as it was last year. And I don’t see any plan, progression or positive end goal.

Hopefully the lack of spend last month is a sign of change, which I would get behind. I appreciate I’m in a minority on this.