At least there has been a glimmer of hope before. Looking at us now, in some respects I do feel for the board because it’s their money that keeps us going and I know that they mean well ( let’s face it there are hardly buyers out there clamoring to buy us) to but they have to bear a lot of responsibility for our current plight . For a start what’s the point of employing a director of football who seems to know knob all about the game and have any affinity with it! What was wrong with getting in a reall ‘football man’ who knows the game in real life, been there done it and not just studied spread sheets! It takes a special kind of idiot to help assemble a squad of similar players , no variations in speed , unbalanced across the pitch etc. We have actually got some talented players but it’s all bits and pieces with nothing to bring them together as a team. Not that that excuses some of the recent performances, struggling with basic passing, letting the opposition to attack without getting a tackle in, refusing chances to shoot ourselves etc. God only knows what our assembled crew of coaches do, maybe it would be a good idea to clear them all out and go back to one manager and his own coaching stafff not inherited ones. Because this lot have all had a long go and a total change would be for the best. It’s not as if the team go out looking fired up any more , quite the reverse they look scared to death to try anything let alone standing up to the opposition!
It's been a week that doesn't sit comfortably with me, two poor defeats, Clarke losing his job and Connor being used as a human shield for Mladen, but at the same time if we'd won those two games we'd be right in the playoffs mix even a win yesterday would have pushed away a lot of the negativity. In my opinion its the terrible recruitment that has left us falling short this season and it has left Mladen scrambling around trying to get fans to buy into the club for next year.
Some good points in there. I know it’s 2025 and not 1985, but I’ve not seen much evidence to show that our football structure is helping the Club to progress. I know it’s not popular with owners but a genuine Football ‘Manager’ who has responsibility for ALL football decisions is the way for me. No problem with the Manager choosing specialists to assist with Recruitment, Coaching etc… but - it would be their decision to do so and they would then be truly accountable for their actions.
It takes a special kind of idiot to help assemble a squad of similar players , no variations in speed , unbalanced across the pitch etc. We have actually got some talented players but it’s all bits and pieces with nothing to bring them together as a team. This with bells on!
A few things I think we need to achieve some element of relative success: 1) A backline with a bit of pace and coaching to function as an effective unit (maybe a new dedicated defensive coach) 2) The individual and team fitness to maintain a performance for ninety minutes, and to start our press higher up the pitch (maybe a new dedicated fitness coach) 3) A resolution of the losing/don’t appear to care mentality prevalent in our current squad (consultations with a sports psychologist, performance based pay built in to contracts, and a clearout of all the deadwood) 4) A recruitment focus on the first XI and giving more of our youngsters a chance to get minutes/experience 5) A manager here for longer than a season to get to know the players, get the players knowing a system, and for everyone to buy in to a collective future
I wholeheartedly agree, but I think that at least one of the reasons for moving away from a proper football manager is to allow arms-length stewardship by the owners. If you think back to Danny Wilson et al, John Dennis was very ‘hands on’, and effectively managed the club through Michael Spinks. It’s obviously easier to be more hands on when you live near Locke Park rather than Mumbai! I know there are other reasons, perhaps the main one being that we don’t build teams any more rather than speculate on players in the hope that money can be made. Unfortunately that model now appears to be completely broken but I can’t see any way the current owners can fix it.
On your second point ... Our tail-off in the second half of games is atrocious, and totally unacceptable.
Football has changed massively since the john Dennis days. Some of the players we have signed 100% can't of been with a intention to make money.
So you would have to explain exactly what the intention was. I accept that the odd one has been signed with the intention of adding experience or to sell season tickets. But in general I struggle to see any semblance of coherence.
Still unbelievable really when you think back our net spend in the summer of 96 was approx 200k, Wilson had bit by bit been building a team from the back adding De Zeeuw the summer before in 95, come 96/97 we had got young energetic players who'd got 2/3 seasons behind them, experience pros such as Sheridan, Redfearn, Davis, Shirtliff. We then complemented the squad with even more experience, this time adding mental strength with players that had been there and done it Wilkinson, Thompson and later Hendrie, a bit of unknown in Marcelle and Bosancic. Fantastically masterminded by everyone at the club, very unlucky not to make the playoffs in 94/95 but we just kept building. We still sold key players along the way Payton, Taggart, O'Connell etc but every time we sold a player we made sure we either upgraded or strengthened the squad in other positions. Can still be done, with sensible ambition and proper football people.
Because, unless you're pretty old, you won't remember us being properly crap. There was a blip during administration, but ever since we appointed Allan Clarke as manager on 1st June 1978, almost half a century ago, we have been a successful club, usually punching well above our weight. We've had a few temporary set backs, getting relegated to the league we're currently in, but then we've quickly turned things round and blasted back to the Championship. I'm not saying you won't have seen a poor performance or a bad season, but not an extended period of not competing. I can't think of a another club who have outperformed their budget for as long as we have, for almost 50 years. Pretty much all I've ever known is this halcyon period. I was taken to games during the Iley Out era, and I do have some memories of that time, but my fully formed memories of Barnsley FC begin in the 78-79 season. If you're 47 years old or younger, we haven't been crap while you have been alive. What we achieved is nothing short of astonishing considering the budget we've had and what we've been up against. But nothing lasts forever. You've got to be at least 60 to have previously experienced what we might be about to enter in to. Those younger may think we have a divine right to be, at the very least, challenging for promotion from League 1. But we haven't. So people are disillusioned. Of course they are, they've not seen this before. The generation who last witnessed something like this were disillusioned too. Look at the attendances in the 60s and the 70s, prior to Clarke's arrival. That could be happening again. And the fact is, our income does not eclipse our current league position. We've just been out performing it for a long, long time. All we're doing at the moment is hitting par. Almost all other clubs have experienced being over par. Might be our turn.
that's why it hurts now! Personally I never want to go back to those times when we were proper crap and with better management of resources I don't see any reason why we should do. I started in '67 so have seen some pretty poor **** along with the proverbial one man and his dog, when Johnny Steele was manager and Bob Earnshaw was running down the wing seemingly incapable of stopping at the other end
But isn't that also true for all our competitors? We've got to out perform our rivals as a business as well as on the pitch. And we have done for almost 50 years. But we can't expect that to be the norm. Birmingham and Wrexham (and plenty of others) can be less than 50% efficient and still beat us if we're performing at 150%.
If the intention was still to make money on every player why did we let 4 or 5 key players go last summer on a free? When we could have cashed in in January? And surely we didn't sign the likes of Cosgrove Humphrys who have done little all career late 20s and thought we would make money on them. I doubt it
But you are assuming two things. Firstly, that another club wanted to buy the out of contract players. Secondly, that the players themselves weren’t simply happy to run their contracts down because it would be to their advantage financially. As for signing Cosgove, who knows? And to me, Humphrys was a panic buy.
I don’t reflect too much on the 60s/70s. The whole of the footballing world and society in general was much much different. What I look at is the future and do we have the ability to do what Brighton or Brentford have done, or even Bristol City and Millwall to consolidate in the championship. We took a lot of pride at being the team who spend most time in the 2nd tier. Now we can only dream of spending back to back seasons there. Football has overtaken us. As it looks today we can’t compete at the top of the third tier and are moving nearer to the 4th. Our strategy, ambition, resources and ability don’t seem to be progressing so we should expect the outcome to match.
Number Five difficult to achieve because if they are unsuccessful they will be sacrificed to protect the board if they are successful they will be off at the first sign of a better offer and the release clause being met.
Bigger clubs than us have struggled to get out of this division. We have no divine right to do so and to be fair we've done ok in recent years, just been unable to get over the line. This year has been disappointing, but signing players isn't an exact science and we have in recent history signed some exceptional ones with the current recruitment system. I certainly wouldn't want to go back to the previous one. It wasn't long since we were loaded with older players and loans and everyone wanted younger players we can sell on. We've done that and done it fairly well but sometimes for various reason it's not going to work out. DKD, not an out and out striker but has scored 12 from 22 appearances in that position. We certainly are a bit soft mentally, something we've struggled with for a few years imo. Our midfield seems to lack a bit of bite and someone to do some organising. I do think the spreadsheet maybe needs to take this into account. I still think we're only a few players away from being playoff/promotion candidates, because until the last few games we've been in contention despite being decidedly inconsistent and at times below par. And this is division 1 and some quality generally shines through.
Correct. They came from a modest background, attracted ambitious investment and have now consolidated their premiership position.