I'm as underwhelmed by it as you are, but am more puzzled than frustrated as to what's the route cause behind it. It feels like a combination of factors overall, some of which were avoidable, others not. Outgoings: Winnall / Hourihane - both ultimately down to player power (albeit conducted by each in very different ways). Ultimately unavoidable, so the objective is to get as much in for them as you can. Hourihane feels like we did, Winnall feels otherwise. Morsy - this seems completely avoidable to me, and feels like a huge administrative **** up on our part. Not sure who's ultimately responsible (and maybe it's the reason that Linton ultimately left us) but this is the one that frustrates me most. Ultimately, we fell victim to Wigan appointing a manager who valued him, but it seems to me that we weren't pro-active enough on this. Bree - ultimately this is a commercial call for the club as to whether or not the price was one that we couldn't turn down. I'll trust their judgement on this one. He was always likely to be the next one after Stones and Holgate, so it was always a case of when, not if. Payne - this made some sense, as a developmental move for him, assuming that there was a like for like replacement coming in (i.e. a more physical striker/target man). In the absence of that it seems utterly bizarre, and the only logic (which last night's selection seems to confirm) is that we view Marley as being the one to carry out that role. Time will tell, but that then leaves a big Marley-sized hole to fill on the wing, where he's been excellent this season. Incomings: Matty James - I like the look of him, but he's lacking match fitness. Seems a McPhail type of midfielder (no bad thing) so could ultimately be a great loan signing for this season. It seems unlikely that he'll become a permanent signing though, so not good from that point of view. Alex Mowatt - Ignoring the red card last night (prior to which he'd looked good) I'm really impressed with the potential of this signing. He's a different type of player in open play, but he'll replace the Hourihane set pieces, which were a big part of our success this season. Sky report the fee as a bizarre £493k (and I've seen figures quoted from £275k-£700k). We ultimately don't know, but at any of those figures he looks to be a great addition. Gethin Jones - has been up and down so far but seems decent enough cover for Bree. We'll naturally improve our options a full-back when Yiadom returns so he adds to the depth, at the very least. Callum Elder - seems to have come about due to White's injury issues. Ultimately we've filled a gap with a loan, so fair enough. Ryan Hedges - another permanent signing, so that's welcome among the loans. I know very little about him, but trust the club's judgement on him. I suspect he's a replacement for Marley's wing role, when Marley is asked to play the Winnall role like last night. I'd have preferred a more direct replacement for Winnall, so this feels to me like we've missed out on a planned target somewhere. Moncur - I was initially pleased to see that he'd come back, but the fact he hasn't seen any playing time since then suggests he's unlikely to play a significant role for us in the short-term. In that sense he joins Kpekawa and Elliott Lee in the ranks of not yet good enough to trust. Maybe that changes over time, with further coaching, but I have question marks about his attitude given how easily he jumped ship. Going nowheres: Roberts - given all the speculation, I'm thrilled that he's still here and is now captain. Watkins - has become even more essential to us now, and he hasn't shown any signs on the field of being affected by having his transfer request turned down. I'll make the most of seeing him in play until May before he departs (which feels inevitable to me). Scowen - I never saw any prospect of him leaving in this window as we're ultimately talking about whether or not he signs a new contract in the summer. Davies - great to get him signed up on a longer term deal and it shows we can do it! MacDonald - I think this was just agent/paper talk. I didn't realistically see us selling him so early into his contract. I think that's everyone of note. Looking at it overall, it feels like we're much weaker overall than before the window. That was always inevitable but I'm concerned as to lack of depth in the squad, which is already being exposed via Mowatt's suspension, James' match-fitness, White's injury, etc. It seems like we have a lot of question marks with regard to the backup options available to us, and this is where we're at risk as and when injuries/suspensions occur. The lack of Chief Exec explains some of it, but I can't help thinking that Hecky must be ultimately frustrated by the business we've done across the whole window. He'll make the best of what we have, without a doubt, but there's no denying that this has been a bad transfer window for us overall (and the timing of Brown's departure was probably a significant factor in that).
1) there is never a strategy which is going to be 100% with recruitment but the system has been highly successful with the players it has got us and these more than compensate for the occasional signing that doesn't work out 2) loan players worked excellently for us last season so there's no reason why we shouldn't use them again: the system's there so why ignore it? 3) finishing mid-table would be a phenomenally good season having just been promoted
It would have been asked in the summer. Now though if we finish mid table it will feel underwhelming because of where we currently are. It will show that our team is weaker and that those that have come in haven't continued the good work from the first half of the season.
Well to me it won't feel underwhelming. On December 2nd we were 18th, a team that contained Hourihane, Winnall etc. We haven't been in the play-offs since September, we might not have finished in the play-offs with the players we have sold. We might have collapsed and finished 16th. All ifs and buts and that's exactly what people are doing now about our current crop
I think that's a very fair post. I'm really enthusiastic about Mowatt - the right age, experience & ultimately talent that makes it seem a really worthwhile investment. I do worry we've not been able to bring in a striker of similar ilk to get them up to speed in the second half of the year, using Bradshaw & Armstrong as the main partnership & dipping them in where appropriate. I'm sure that was the aim but it's just not worked.
This comment from Hecky worries me greatly: "Now the hard work starts, we've got a changeover of players and it is too much, you can't build anything and that's the frustrating bit." Read more at http://www.barnsleyfc.co.uk/news/article/2016-17/hecky-3547983.aspx#WLWH1Dt5CSCsiR56.99
And he's bang on. I do enjoy our supporters saying they're not frustrated & it's all part of the plan when our very own manager is saying he's frustrated & it's not part of the plan.
I think we could have made the play-offs, but it's all hypothesis. I fear Hourihane's departure might have as bad an impact as that of Hignett in 2000. He was our most influential player since Hignett.
I wouldn't be writing off any of Kpekawa, Lee or Moncur as flops just yet. It's way too soon in my opinion. Others have took a while to establish themselves & it could be the same for these especially when you consider how young they are
Absolutely. Having a go at the glass half empty folk on hear rather misses what Hecky is actually saying. "Too many players have gone". Happens again and he'll seriously consider his position IMO. He's ambitious too and he wants to be successful - he won't be if key players are sold at the business end of the season.
Last time we were in the Championship it seemed that finishing 4th bottom was the limit of our aspirations. When Robins seemed to break us out of that cycle and wanted to lift our horizons it all turned sour and it was significant that his replacement, Keith Hill, was soon dampening down our expectations.
This January was a disaster in the making for weeks in advance. Put it this way, the staffing shortcomings that meant we didn't adequately replace outgoing players were there before Winnall's departure.
