Back me or sack me

Do we think that was Hecky's message?

 

Most likely, and I don't blame him.

 

yes. 'people think they know better' than what he said would happen if they didn't get '12 players' (now 13 after Robbo).

Who do we think he was talking about?

 

I would agree with your prognosis, yes Hecky is saying "back me or sack me." This storm has been brewing for a good few weeks and now it is out in the open. We have sold the Crown jewels and currently the Board are sat on the cash. The cautious, keep churning out We must live within our needs, we cant afford to spend this much on that player or we will go bust and will no longer exist as a Football Club."
I would ask how many Clubs can you tell me have gone out of buisness from being in debt ? Portsmouth, Bolton Wanderers, Blackburn, QPR, Coventry all at certain times have been/are in debt to the tune of hundreds of millions.
I am not advocating imprudent spending on the scale of the sides mentioned above. But, market forces dictate the price of a commodity, and as much as the Club would like to ignore it. the basic fact that you cannot consistently offer below the market deals to unproven players and expect to be successful.
What is required now is for both our Manager and our Board to sit down and modify our on field businesses plan. The idea of young players with potential needs to be adhered to. But to make a success of this we need to add some experience to the squad, a couple of "Model Pro's" who would give a bit of a spine to the team. I am sure that there are players who fit this bill are out there and available. Players who are currently unattached to a club who we could bring in without having to pay a fee, willing to come in on a 12 month contract, payed a salary slightly better than the "National Minimum Wage" we want to pay our bunch of novices. I feel Burton Albion survived last season on a team of "Journey Men." a classic example of this was Neil Thompson, the ex Barnsley Fullback. Came to the Club late in a career, a career which had been spent at smaller Clubs totally unnoticed by myself. The guy didn't have bags of pace or anything like that. But, he brought his experience and a good football brain to the team. This is exactly the type of player we need to bring to the squad now that type of level headed experience is currently simply not in the squad at present. Our only "experienced" player Adam Hammill, as much as i like him, is struggling with his game and is too emotionally involved to be much of a use to the squad as a leader, if he was up to it wouldn't he be Captain. A player I have seen mentioned, and while I am no fan of him, is Karl Henry, he maybe the type of guy who can fulfill this type of role while the current crop learn from his leadership and learn how to compete at this level.
I have been hoping and expecting transfer activity at our Club for weeks, which for whatever reason has not transpired so far.Friendly results so far have only served to paper over the flaws in the squad. In Hecky's interviews over recent weeks, has been very honest about how far we are behind as a squad in terms of being prepared for the coming season
The spotlight now has firmly being placed on the Board. This is not a situation that they will enjoy, and doing nothing is no going to suffice. I expect transfer activity through out the next week and right through to the transfer window closing at the end of August. People in Football like to tell you it takes months to organize a transfer. But when the paying customers turn on you it is amazing how quick a deal can be done. Didn't Paul Hart or Gudjohn Thordarson sign almost full side in about 7 days, Bobby Hassell I think was one of the players.
So to the Board back Hecky NOW !!! I am sure that they don't fancy being the next Blackpool

 

Nope, disagree with you. The sustainability of the football club is the main driver. The board are not stupid and will have discussed all the issues you mention. But the key thing for the Barnsley board is obviously staying in the black. And who can blame the board for that? It's ok saying 'back Hecky' and it's a good soundbite. The reality is that things are more complex. Indeed, I suspect the board are already backing Hecky in many ways. We will NOT be the next Blackpool......

 

And we won't be the next Huddersfield either.

 

I think we are more likely to be the next Rotherham.

Not a knee jerk reaction I have thought this since January and the failure to replace quality with players of equal quality.

 

Agree in terms of club survival being the number one priority. Unfortunately.

 

You've missed off crack me!

 

Back or Sack me.
No - it's nothing to do with that !!!

 

Well if you publically slate your management / board and blame them for the teams woes then you are putting them a position where they have to take action either to correct the root cause or remove the one they deem to be causing the noise. He has basically said they are mismanaging the team.

 

Your right about the other clubs you mention about being in debt to hundreds of millions ,clubs that have had recent and popular success.
Little old Barnsley went into debt of just a few million and the vultures couldn't wait to pounce
There's a warning there imo some clubs can get away with murder and some clubs (especially ours) will be punished and let go as Insignificant to make out the FA are pushing the fair financial play agenda.
Those clubs will not go under choose how many millions we however will have to tread carefully.
I never want us to be in the position of a few years since ever again.

 

I am sorry, but, I feel your thoughts of putting the cash under the bed for a rainy day are wide of the mark, and this is why I think your wrong. First of all that rainy day is here, we aren't currently equipped with a squad of players good enough at this time to compete at this level. Some of the players may over time develop into players who are good enough, so relegation, in my opinion, even at this early stage looks inevitable.
Second, If we just put the money to one side to insure it's sustainability it will get eroded by Tax. When Spurs sold Gareth Bale to Real Madrid Spurs went on a spending spree signing in excess of 10 players, many of these players turned out to be Gash. But Spurs felt it was better to sign these players rather than hand over the money to the tax man. I am not advocating buying players for buyings sake. Rather, investing in better players to make the Club sustainable. Doing nothing as you seem to advocate is not a solution it is a sure fire way of insuring that we won't be around for our Grandchildren to watch.
All large buisness and many small small buisness run on sustainable debt financed by borrowing from the Banks Why should we be any different ? The cost of borrowing money is at it's lowest point in a generation, why arn't we taking advantage of this to take our Club forward ?

 

In the last published accounts drawn up to 31 May 2016, the club owed roughly one and a half million to the bank. Because the club has no assets, this was secured by a promise to pay the debt by Patrick Cryne in the event that the club could not pay. That situation still applies should the club borrow any cash. Someone with assets greater than the amount of the promise has to promise to make good on the debt if the club cannot.

Also, at the time of the last accounts, the club had a negative Profit and Loss Account balance of £9m, meaning it had accumulated losses of that amount since its formation. It does not require a huge jump in logic to suggest that its tax losses will be similar. This means that the first £9m of any profits will not incur corporation tax because they are covered by past losses.

 

Thanks for that Red Rain, I bet you were tough to beat a Monopoly, having such a good grasp of the rules lol. Red Rain you are a man with strong opinions on our Club, it's on the field performance and what goes on behind the scenes. What do think of the Clubs chances for the current Season and what is the way forward ?

 

I concur however the trading in the transfer market may have used the losses forward.

 

I think that we are certain to have a difficult start. Lee Johnson receive no end of stick from fans when he had problems integrating half the number of players into the team that Hecky has to integrate. It will be a very difficult opening 3 months for Hecky, and he will need all the internal support that he can get in order to ride out the storm. In that respect, he did himself no favours at all with his post-match comments yesterday. Part of LJ's appeal to the directors was that he never tried to share blame around. He stood tall (well you know what I mean) and unflinchingly took all the abuse from fans, giving explanation where he could. That sort of attitude appeals, and it is what bought him the time. The new campaign has not even started, and Hecky has begun whinging and looking around for excuses and for others to blame. I like Hecky. He has done a brilliant job of coaching, though the jury is out on his recruitment and team building as most of that was done by those who went before him. I hope that it all works out for the best, but I must confess that the omens do not look good.

 

Sorry but Hecky is no miracle worker, and at present the current squad just isn't big enough, and probably not good enough. He's got no options to work with. If we have a bad start which is looking likely, then we will get cut adrift before the seasons got going, and that's going to spoil the development of these young players, just being the whipping boys week in week out. We need experience and quality through the door in order for these players to profit. We have lost our spine in Robbo and Scowen and we haven't properly replaced them. And the most frustrating thing is that we didn't need to lose those two players.
A long hard season of struggle and strife beckons unless we loosen the purse strings somewhat.

 

The transfer window does not close until 31 August. I expect us to sign other players including 2 forwards before that time. There is no cause for panic just yet.