Here’s a thread from the Morecambe away game last season. Worth a read, and it’s just one of many such threads throughout the season. Things seem bad because it’s now, but it doesn’t mean everything that went before was much better. https://barnsleyfc.org.uk/threads/mdt.317314/
Good post. if we have to take no promotion this season but also keep the squad together for the season after then we may look like a team, unfortunately if we sell Cole, Cadden and Connell as many think we will then what were watching now, with the loss of our best players each year, will be the norm while the current board own the club. I did post at the time Duff left that I thought he realised what was coming and it wasn't what he thought he'd singed up for when he came, (could be wrong) so he went.
It's not just the players for me, the organisation and setup looks wrong so many times this season we've been all over the place the defensive line is shocking. Watters looks worse than last season, Phillips has gone backwards, Styles is a passenger who has zero influence on games. To say its just the defence thats not right is a understatement.
I'll disagree about Watters. He simply had no service last night. I find it difficult to be critical of the strikers, when the 3 centre midfielders behind him couldn't pick out a pass. Watters was at least trying to drop deep to get involved. I agree completely regarding Phillips though. He's having no impact this season whatsoever.
Cole and Cadden are out of contract in the summer so for me the likelihood is they'll be here until then (unless we get a silly offer). Connell signed a new 4 year deal in the summer, with the option of a 5th year I believe. I'd be surprised if he's not here for at least another 18 months. It's one thing the club got right in the summer.
When Duff arrived he talked of Barnsley being a similar club/ town to Burnley, remembering the times when he played against us. I wonder if he had the wrong impression of us and his ultimate disappointment resulting in him leaving. Certainly over his tenure he kept mentioning the lack of atmosphere here, it just seemed even during the season he wasn’t too enamoured.
There's been a lack of atmosphere since admin. The club needed someone to carry on the good work and ambition shown by John Dennis. Instead we got the austerity of the Cryne era and fans were brainwashed into being happy to just have a club and accepting 5 hit e. Then these owners came in and carried on where Cryne left off.
Any mention of the Cryne name and it's association to anything negative will always be met with vitriol on here. It's akin to suggesting politicians are behaving like Hitler in modern politics, it immediately shuts down any form of debate, people just lose their minds immediately. I'm torn on Cryne. The fact is, we wouldn't have a club without him, he spent his own money to keep us afloat, and we should all be eternally grateful for that. But you are right. We are being brainwashed into believing that we have found our level, that we cannot progress. Other clubs have done it, why can't we? In my opinion, our current owners aren't willing to risk their shirts , which is absolutely fine by the way. I just wish they were honest and say so.
Happy to enter into civil debate on this. I find your opening paragraph interesting. You're accusing a section of people of being reactionary, yet the words you've chosen to articulate that, in my opinion, are every bit as reactionary. It almost feels like you're inviting it. Anyway, onto other things. The idea that football club directors, or owners should be 'willing to risk their shirts', or declare that they're not, I find bizarre. Is there anything in life you would be willing to risk your shirt for, beyond your family? It just seems like a really strange expectation. Personally I just naturally expect that they're not willing to do that, and I don't need them to tell me they're not. However, it's now common knowledge that the current owners have put over £10m into the Club, to keep it going. That's a LOT of shirts they're risking. As for the level-setting, is this debate really a new thing, or a Cryne? One of my earliest memories of being a Barnsley fan, was my Grandad and his mates saying 'they don't want to go up'. It's still used today by Barnsley fans, as a bit of a pi$$-taking metaphor. I imagine Patrick Cryne also heard that as a Barnsley fan growing up. As long as I've been a fan, there's been this underlying sentiment that the Club owners are somehow trying to 'keep us down'. My personal take is that's not the case at all. I think there are some basic facts, that many people just don't seem to want to accept. We're a relatively small Club, with modest attendance. We're surrounded by other town and city clubs, and have very little commercial reach beyond Barnsley. Football is an insanely expensive game, and most people in Barnsley are largely skint. I think the current owners are trying their best. I think they genuinely want success. However, so does every other Club in the football pyramid. There are exceptions. Of course there are. There are always exceptions. 'What about Burnley'? 'What about Luton'? I'm almost certain the club ask the same questions, and constantly study those examples, when trying to move the Club forward. BUT. These are exceptions. By definition, an exception is something that rarely happens. If their recipe for success was easily explainable and repeatable, everybody would do it. We've had 18 seasons under the Cryne family. 15 of those have been in the 2nd tier of English football. We've been relegated 3 times, and promoted 3 times. We've been to an FA Cup Semi Final, won two trophies at Wembley and got to within 3 wins of the Premier League. We've also wrestled control back from arguably the most destructive influence in our Club's history. Against the backdrop of all the constraints that Barnsley Football Club have to operate within, I personally think we've been incredibly resilient and have punched well above our weight for a very long time. I don't think that's being brainwashed, or a happy clapper, or rose-tinted. I just think that's applying some perspective. The expectations of football fans are notoriously unrealistic, and I think this applies to Barnsley fans as much as anyone else's.
The biggest driver of football success is playing budget. We would sit in the third tier based on budget. That’s not emotion just fact, as mentioned earlier there will be exceptions.