AR sez- sorry if already posted....

REDS boss Andy Ritchie gave his thoughts ahead of tomorrow's trip to Birmingham City.


He said: "I met with the Chairman yesterday and hopefully we will get everything sorted with my contract next week. It has gone on a bit now and with a bit of luck we will get it finished.


"It has gone on a little longer than we thought it would but hopefully it will be done next week. We had an initial meeting and it has just dragged on a bit from there. I do not want it to go on any further.


"We have not sorted out the final details in terms of length of contract but hopefully we can do it next week because we have to move forward. We need to get things down because people are asking all the time. We need to put it behind us because the games we have coming up are more important than my contract.


"You need security as a manager but you also need to be able to tell players what the situation is. They are affected by speculation concerning a manager and they need to know that they will remain in the plans here. They need to know who they will be dealing with and it is all about security for them.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I want to get it sorted and be here at Barnsley for as long as I possibly can. I am happy here and when you look at what we have done - we won promotion in our first full season - that was a remarkable achievement. We are only half way through and there is still plenty more to do here.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



"I want to get it sorted and be here at Barnsley for as long as I possibly can. I am happy here and when you look at what we have done - we won promotion in our first full season - that was a remarkable achievement. We are only half way through and there is still plenty more to do here.


"I am not going to go overboard and say that we are going to get into the Premiership because I do not think that will happen at a club like this. Finances in football have moved on so much that we cannot compete with the money it takes to get into that position. We have seen that again this morning with Alan Smith talking to Cardiff - Alan must be on £20,000 to £30,000 a week and we simply cannot compete with those financial terms.


"It would take a very, very long time for us to be anywhere near competing on that level and, being the realist that I am, I do not think it will happen. Unless this club gets someone who is willing to just back us to the hilt like an Abramovic, who has no worries about money at all and can just chuck whatever into it, then a club like Barnsley will not get up there. It will be very difficult for a team like Leeds to challenge simply because of the state the club is in and the finances it needs.


"That is not being pessimistic at all - it is being realistic when you look at the way football has gone in the last few years".


He added: "I am happy and we have all been boosted by the victory over Leeds United. We have not been playing badly but we have been losing games even thought we did not play as well as we can do in the first half. We would have lost that game 2-1 in other weeks because that is how things have been going for us. We clawed things back and did very well after half time.


"Hopefully our luck will change from that and it is the start of an upturn in fortunes for us. We have one of the most difficult games of the season now away at Birmingham and they were rightly tipped as promotion favourites in the summer.


"I cannot believe the amount of criticism Steve Bruce has had in the last few weeks because they are sitting third or fourth in the table and have been winning matches even though they have not been playing as well as they can. I would gladly play badly but still win matches and be up there. You are up there challenging and you will get your form right at some stage.


"We went out to Ireland and the game we saw was atrocious to be honest. Our interest in Peter Thompson is dead now. It was hard to rise above the mediocrity although I went out to see him last season and the game was good but the money they want for him is just too much for us in terms of taking a gamble. We cannot afford £125,000 for potential - if you are going to pay something like that so a player over here who you know can do it then that would be different.


"I have spoken to the Chairman about it and when you look at the lad Roberts who went to Ipswich recently, we simply cannot afford to take a risk with £200,000 on potential. That is too much money for us and we cannot afford to throw that amount away if it does not work. We need players who we know can come in and do the business for us.


"The Board have said that they will look at different players on merit and that may mean that there could be more than that in the pot but it is all about getting the right person and the right price. That has proved to be difficult this season.


"We want to keep Phil Mulryne with us for another week, if he wants to stay. I believe he has an offer from abroad on the table but he is looking to get something here. I have not seen Phil for a while and we may try to get him into a reserve team game, if he wants to play.


"You can see more in a game than you can tell from training. You can see more about his game from that so hopefully we can do that.


"Danny Stott is a little too young for us at the moment especially when we have a very good left sided player in Robbie Williams here. Robbie is making progress all the time, he is getting better and he is really pushing Paul Heckingbottom to the limit. I think Danny would find it hard to push into the first team.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


We are still talking to one or two clubs about one or two players and there may be the possibility of bringing someone in on loan with a view to a permanent deal although the club may want to wait until January - they have not made their mind up yet.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



"We are not resigned just yet to waiting until January to add to our squad. We are still talking to one or two clubs about one or two players and there may be the possibility of bringing someone in on loan with a view to a permanent deal although the club may want to wait until January - they have not made their mind up yet.


"We have had one or two enquiries about some of our players to go out on loan. Colin (Healy) has gone to Bradford and getting five or six games under his belt will do him the world of good. We will reassess things after then.


"We have had enquiries for Robert Atkinson, Nathan Joynes, Michael Coulson and Simon Heslop so hopefully in the next few days we will see a bit of movement out of the club.


"We are mindful of leaving our reserve team a little bare at them moment because we do not want to force our Under 18s to play two games a week".


He said: "I believe that we are as good technically and physically as anyone in the league but it is the other part of the game that we have to be on top of tomorrow. The mental side is costing us dearly and we have had too many people switching off and it is costing us every time.


"Everybody is fit. There is only Dale Tonge who will not be in contention tomorrow simply because he has not had any reserve team games".