0.66 points per game under Hourihane

The Hourihane experiment because that's all that it is hasn't got off to great start and that might be a understatement. He must be given time and our patience I accept we were on the edges of the playoffs under Clarke but it was only going one way and it wasn't up. He's trying to implement his way's and playing style with a group of players who are about as flexible as a brick, remember the game Clarke tried a back 4. The club needs stability if Hourihane is their man they need to stick with it even if in the short term it's not great is it 10 and 8 months the last two lasted madness. We are back to the beginning again, for me it's a 3yr rebuild far too much wrong to sort in one summer. We are all big girls and boys be honest we understand we aren't going to spend our way out of this mess so a steady rebuild is the only way.

 

It's been a poor start for Hourihane and an extremely disappointing end to the season especially as the play offs were still a possibility (albeit slim).

As a result, he's put himself under extreme pressure for the start of next season and will need a good start to stop the contagion.

However, I feel it's far too early to say the appointment is a disaster, let alone an unmitigated one and I feel as other's have said, it's far too early to make predictions for next season.

The first 10 games of next season are going to be super important and I see it - with my twisted logic* - as a win win situation. If we get off to a good start then we can get behind the team. If not, we call it an unmitigated disaster; Conor will be removed and it will surely - and finally - make Sormaz's position untenable.

*Note - I realise I'm discounting the distinct possibility that we continue with the Great Mladen even with poor results. I'm happy to bury my head in the sand with the thought of this outlandish scenario.

 

Is that why we play the depressing Country Road song like they do?

 

Clarke was a strong striker away from having us in the playoffs, even a fit Jalo would have made a big difference.
Mladen sacked him to deflect pressure away from himself which worked initially but has now massively back fired.
Sacking Clarke has taken us from needing a few tweaks to now apparently needing a total rebuild.

 

I really do think we need get away from the ten game rule we aren't in that place anymore. The Duff season was the last time i felt that way and we've had two seasons of going backwards since then. I was asked at the beginning of this season how will Barnsley do this season I said I haven't a clue it will be this with bells on next season.

 

I think Hourihane has a way he wants us to play, but we currently lack the personnel to make a success of it. Perhaps it’s naivety or bloody mindedness, but playing and pressing higher up the pitch with our defence isn’t a viable option currently. Makes us look better up top, but even worse at the back. This isn’t to say it can’t work with new players, but I don’t know how successful we will be at recruiting them.

 

In general, I agree with your logic.

However, on this occasion and in this position, I don't think the club will be able to discount or even write off the end to this season. If we start next season badly then it's going to be uber toxic very quickly. You can see the current negativity in this thread and it will take extremely strong leadership to manage through anything less than an average start.

 

The issues we’ve had aren’t down to the coach alone. Players, unbalanced squad and recruitment were equally to blame.

You can’t change most of that in April - and if players can’t step up, then they’ll be gone too.

Hence why Conor said ‘we are where we are’. That to me spoke volumes - he knows fully, and is under no illusion.

I expect quite a big clear out this summer - although I accept some who are under contract still might not be able to be gotten rid of, so they will remain for next season.

I also accept there’s a small handful of players who can actually perform for us, but haven’t, due to the incorrect formation/tactics/squad. I’ve said many a time, our defence has no protection from midfield - so even Saliba would have struggled at times. It doesn’t make them bad defenders.

 

I wasn’t just happy with Conor’s appointment, I called for it. So you’d hope that at least I would be able to get involved in one of the many threads of this nature that have been created since full time yesterday, to offer up counters to the points raised. But I haven’t done, and I’m not going to in this one either. I see no reason to argue with the majority of views which are based clearly on facts.

All those criticising him at the moment, for the last nine results, you’re all correct. It’s been a shocking run. Relegation form. On the basis of him being set on to get us into the playoffs, it’s a disastrous appointment.

I don’t believe that’s why he was given the job though. I am choosing to believe that the club feel, exactly as I do, that there now needs to be a culture change, a reset, and a long-term project is now about to start and that Hourihane is the man in position to lead it. I fully expect huge change in terms of players and staff over the course of the summer and that it’ll be a very different BFC come August, with a fresh squad having had a full pre-season working under Conor and his staff, well-equipped to attack a new campaign.

I might be wrong. It’s been known. Maybe they did think he’d bounce us into the top six. Perhaps there is no plan at all, that things will continue to go wrong with no change in approach. And maybe Conor is a poor coach. Time will tell on all that. I don’t believe now is that time.

Also, I’ll hold my hands up and accept that there is an element of romance about it, for me. I have a little bit of insight I feel, but I’m not Nostradamus. As I say, it could go south in no time at all (it’s hardly got off to a flyer). And it isn’t just Conor’s responsibility. We’ve to rely on Mladen and recruitment also. But I’m not going to apologise for daring to dream, for hoping that we are about to see real change and an upturn in our fortunes under a modern day hero.

If we carry this form into the new season, I’ve absolutely no doubt that the toxicity will remain. These 10 games have certainly made Conor a harder sell. I fully get that. But that’s why I bang on and on about engagement and being present as a club, communicating with the fanbase. They have the absolute power to shape the narrative over the next three months.

 

Agree started with the Collins sacking ( spooked by a certain section of fans negatively) Clarke was a poor appointment but sacking him for a novice is bonkers , you can only assume our first choice targets turned us down . Wish Conor all the best but at the moment just don’t see what others are seeing in his potential

 

I find it extraordinary that a club with serious promotion ambitions could appoint a manager with no managerial experience. It makes no sense to me at all.

Obviously I'll be overjoyed if Conor makes a go of it next season, but given everything that needs improving/changing, I just can't see it.

 

We’re sleepwalking into massive trouble next season.

We’ve got Mladen Sormaz who has come out & said that part of the reason Collins & Clarke got the sack was because they didn’t play high pressing football but the obvious caveat to that is that we don’t have the players to play high pressing football.

Most of the defence is under contract next season & none of them are particularly fast. Apparently Humphrys is getting a new deal & in my opinion his effort levels are very questionable, you’ve got Jalo on the other side who is very fragile, you’ve got Russell & Nwakali who also don’t seem to suit any kind of pressing football & both Watters & Cosgrove are still under contract for next season.

The one player who is suited to a high press is Keillor-Dunn but most fans expect him to leave.

If Hourihane persists with this high press with a lot of our current squad then we will be looking over our shoulders at league two next season.

The scary thing is that many of us could see the issues last summer & they weren’t addressed & with all the talk coming out of the club from Sormaz & Hourihane it sounds like they’re only going to add to our problems this summer with this insistence on a tactic that doesn’t suit the majority of the squad.

 

As it stands currently then it's unarguable that we wouldn't be relegation fodder next season. Not going to repeat myself about who I think is good enough and who isn't. Just as a whole we clearly aren't
So see what appertains over the summer ins and outs wise is all we can do..
But with a owner and a head of all things football in denial about the quality of previous recruitment, plus the lack of quality of others at our disposal, at least publicly anyway.. Houston we have a problem ..

Even with Conor's best intentions it's going to be a tough old summer. Your guess is as good as mine what we'll go into next season with.

 

Maybe he would have, but I also wouldn’t have been surprised if it’d gone the same way under Clarke too. The main problem is the squad imo. I’ll be judging Hourihane into next season if he’s backed.

 

There really feels something toxic about the club and player culture at the moment. Thinking back to pre-season when I watched several of the players train at Loughborough, I don’t think I saw any of them look happy. The club needs to focus on getting some good characters, bonding them together, and getting a driven team mentality where they like and support each other.

 

The Clarke sacking surprised me and the Hourihane appointment surprised me too.

Clearly we are all down in the dumps with how this season has gone but until the squad for next season is known, I don’t think any predictions of promotion or relegation can be made. I guess using history, we could assume that the players we recruit in the summer won’t be great but, again, we will have to wait and see how it goes.

 

I think just about everyone in this thread has made really good points. The main feeling I get from reading the above is fear and trepidation for the future. That's perfectly understandable I think and the statistics of Hourihanes tenure so far are dreadful and add further concern to the anxiety.
However I agree with YT's post above on this overall.

At the moment, given league position, the .66 points total is immaterial for me. Its not nice, but at this moment it doesn't really matter. Its the whole culture and recruitment decisions of the club after the season ends that matters. A lot needs to happen of course, but specifically Hourihane needs to be backed with enough finance and enough trust to reshape things as he wants. That's key for me. This also means there needs to be a change in Sormaz' role and his relationship with the coach. I dont think Sormaz will be sacked, even though I think he deserves it but he needs to become the junior partner in the DoF/coach relationship at the very least (I'd prefer him replaced).
Hourihane is in a difficult position, he's inexperienced and its a critical time. If he can't alter the drift at the club, get decent players in, get a positive reaction from who remains then the pressure will really be on very early into the new campaign. If its .66 points per game by October, after we've seen the recruitment and team-building, we really will be in a bad place. Cut Hourihane some slack for now is what I say. Give him a chance going into the new season and watch to see if and how he's supported by the board and the DoF....

 

Hourihane is playing for his future career as a manager. He won’t get many equivalent chances with other clubs - ours can make or break him.
I think he knows this, and I can only feel for the bloke.

 

On the subject of communication, I have noticed recently that after some of our worst defeats, I cannot find the Manager and Player post-match interviews on our iFollow site. They shouldn't be hiding.

 

Cosgrove is out of contract happily, we've seen the last of the hapless gimp.