Doug Sez

Bad choice of phrase on my part, fair enough. But I can't see head coaches banging door down asking for some of these lads. They will be trusting the board and recruiting team as most of the managers won't know who these lads are and also are having to work on the budget they are being given. They might want someone else but told they can't get that person so it's what they've found or nowt.

Either way, there's been an issue with the recruiting of late bar the odd one like DKD who was best player in L2.

But as I have said. This summer seems to be going back to what we've had success with in the past so just hope it continues.

 

You keep saying we've signed players from well below this level we signed Dallas, Lofthouse, Lopata, Shepherd and Killip in the last 3 years.
Collectively they are very low risk financially so if it doesn't work it doesn't hurt us too badly.
Killip got a move to champ and we got a small fee, Shepherd looks every bit a great player, Lofthouse looked OK but it hasn't work Lopata and Dallas haven't made the grade.
Compare those players though to Oulare, Iseka, Benson, Watters and the cost and outlay, all came from higher levels.

 

But all those add up and cost us what one or two half decent L2 options would cost.

You've also mentioned 4 crap and yes expensive signings the club failed with from higher leagues etc. but 3 of those were when we were in championship when we could offer more etc. as you referenced in an earlier reply when I spoke about Mads etc.

Two of those were also dodgy deals done by Conway and it's what ultimately got him kicked off the board and so on. So again poor examples to use as there was other motives at play there.

Benson only didn't work out due to powers outside our control which was injuries. He is a really talented player but can't stay fit which is a shame for us who invested a lot in him but also for him too.

Kilip as a cheap back up was fine. But not to start and he's gone for a tiny fee to be third choice.

And as I've said before. Shep looks now to be good. But it's taken 2 years to get here when he's been away from club for 18 months of that.

The other 3 are rubbish and clearly club is trying to shift em on again

 

Those signings will be a fraction and on very low wages.
We've had 1 poor season last year it's hardly been a disaster trying to compete in a ridiculously tough division, it comes down to money at the end of the day and what clubs are willing to pay, we can't live with likes of some clubs in this league on wages, it's not going to happen, we have to hope we can develop players.
Wage bill has to reduce its that simple.

 

All speculation. The board need to be held to account by someone on its ambitions, spending etc.

The fans also need to work out what they want.

The problem in the main at Barnsley is a fan base that doesn't know what it wants.

 

They will be on small wages etc. You're right. But my point is those wages and costs all add up. Would be interesting to know how much total has been spent on there such as agent fees, wages, any transfer fees and human hours taken to do the deals etc.

The money could have been spent on one or two slightly more expensive options from L2 who were doing well there and more minutes given to some of our academy lads rather than spend on several supposed low risk options who's costs will all add up.

 

Thing is though if those signings paid off you wouldn't be complaining. They could easily have paid off, on paper they don't look dissimilar to players in the past that really pressed on and became very successful. They didn't and that's a mix of bad recruitment and some bad luck. It's all hindsight though. Players like Andersen, Helik etc. were roundly slated on here when they signed (and even all throughout his first season with us for Andersen) and then they worked out. It's impossible to know which players will work out, it's all a gamble to some respect. I can see the logic behind signing more players cheaper in the hopes that some will work out rather than 1 player from a higher league that has a higher chance of working out, but if it doesn't there's no backup plan.

 

Bang on

 

The Landscape has changed SD, yes the championship was our natural home, but we're now in a league with clubs buying players bigger than our all time record transfer fee and paying massive wages, some fans want us to keep up with the Jones irrespective of financial consequences.
No doubt we've made some poor signings and we are still paying the cost of those and will do until next summer, Conor isn't daft just needs time.