Honest response to Poet's post about negativity

Apologies this is quite a long post, I am merely trying to put forward a reasoned case to why I do not believe Davey is doing a good job at BFC.

Once again,like many things it boils down to opinion, and it wouldn't do for us all to think the same. Poet is clearly of the view that 4th bottom every season should be seen as an achievement, and points (quite correctly) to some of the "big" clubs at this level or even the level below. I however am of the opinion that as we are now entering our 4th season at this level we should be making some progress towards being a solid mid table Championship club by now.
Take a look at last season's final table and you'll see clubs like Swansea, Bristol City, Donny, and Blackpool who were all promoted to this level AFTER us finished higher than we did. I do not believe the Championship is that hard a division to do well in, many of the "big" clubs are "big" clubs on reputation alone and very few sides really impressed me last season.

If you look at Davey's reign to date overall it is not fair to say he's done a poor job, but if you just look at the last 12 months it is very difficult (IMHO) for anyone to say that he is taking the club forward. Our best spell under Davey came in the first half of the 70/08 season when some of the football on offer at Oakwell was a joy to watch (Bristol City 3-0 Watford 3-2 and Wolves 1-0 spring to mind) At that point we were playing a positive 4-4-2 with a balanced midfield De Silva and Howard and WINGERS and we were going out and attacking teams. We weren't far away from being a really decent Champioship side.

For some reason that only he knows Davey went away from this and decided last season that it would be better to play with no width, a load of defensive midfielders all tripping over each other and JCR playing anywhere but his best position. This tactical nonsense in my opinion was the main reason why we had such a bad season. Mind numbing performances against Charlton, Blackpool, Ipswich, Southampton and Forest, all games we were capable of winning with an orthadox 4-4-2. He stubbornly refused to change these "tactics" when the whole ground could see what was wrong.

There is little doubt IMHO that in the last 12 months we have gone backwards under Davey's management. The failure to sign even one first team player so far this summer is simply not acceptable for me, and unlike others I am not clamouring for a Davey statue to be erected because we have fended off Gainsborough Frickley and Buxton.
I agree it's better to be winning these games than not, but it does not alter the fact that come 8/8/09 we will be kicking off the season woefully under strength to cope with a full season of Championship football.

When you avoid relegation on the final day of the season, and then weaken the squad it does not bode well for the following season regarless of your friendly results. This is not negetivity, this is REALISM. There is of course still an outside chance that I'll be wrong and 3/4 players might arrive within the next week and if they do I'll be happy to come on here with a little more optimism, but as things stand I am really worried about our prospects.

One final thought, didn't PC sack Andy Ritchie because he failed to strengthen an inadequate squad?

 

An honest, genuine opinion. Respected by me.

Thank you for entering a 'mature' debate.

As always, time will tell.

If I'm wrong, and we are bottom after the first 10 games, I'll hold my hands up and acknowledge the fact.

 

Fired.

You had me at 'I agree'...

(heart)

 

That's a very good post.

 

How can it be unacceptable not to have signed a first team player. I'd be more concerned if we had kept some of the released squad members that were'nt up to standard. We reduced the squad to afford the wages of a better level british player with Championship experience something that every other club is after as well.

 

Like I said opinions. If you think 14 players with 1st team experience is enough, you're entitled to say so.
If we sign 3/4 in the next week, I'll hold up my hands.

 

drbloke
people keep saying about that bad start last year but people have got to remember that barnsley where with out muller/kouzluk or hassell/colace/anderson/Jcr/ and a few other players. If you look at the midfield what ended the season you will see non of them played against QPR(hammill,colace,anderson,JCR). On august the 8th i wont all the reds fans at Sheffield Wednesday to make the same noise as last year and get behind the team as last year. what im trying to say its a new season and we should all start again.

 

Problem is..souza was up to standard in most games...

and what does davey do? let the lad go, leaving us with no recognised championship central defensive cover!...thats the genius of the man! (clown)

 

drbloke. How many times have barnsley finished in the bottom 4. They didn't last season and they didn't the first champ season but I'm not sure the middle season but you said every season.

 

Re: Hemsworth Tyke

At no stage in my post did I say we had finished 4th bottom.
What I did say was that some people were seeing finishing 4th bottom each year as an achievement.
What I meant by that is that some supporters would take 4th bottom when we kick off in August.
I am looking for more than that, but I don't think we will ever be anything more than bottom 6 strugglers under this manager.
And if you are finishing bottom 6 every year eventually you finish bottom 3.
I'd love SD to prove me wrong, bring in 4 really good players within the next week and go on to have a solid mid table season, but I just don't see it happening.

 

Drbloke i must have put it on the wrong thread. I must have read it some where but on this in particular thread when has poet said that 4 bottom as good. I also think you are going over the top with what you are saying as barnsley only finished 5 points off 13 give or take a point and only 10 points off 10th or there abouts(above Bristol and below Ipswich).

 

Souza was a clown. He cost us more points than anyone! nt

 

Doesn't matter how many points we "only" finished below certain teams, point is we did finish below them.
Our squad is weaker now than what we finished last season with, therefore if ( and I emphasise IF) signings aren't made we are in deep trouble this coming season.
I'm looking at clubs I fancy to be down at the bottom end. Plymouth could struggle, Blackpool, Watford have lost their manager and a few players, Newcastle could even go down again if that clown Ashley isn't removed but that's a long shot. Scunny I think will survive having learned from last time and I think Peterborough and Leicester will be ok. There's not many I see finishing below us as things stand at present. Still time for things to change though, but I say that more in hope than expectation.

 

Gi' O'er. He wern't that bad.

Fair enough he made a few errors now and then i.e. Reading home.

But at times he was a rock - QPR at home.

Would have definetely have kept him for back up, maybe even to replace Moore. Who will cost us on many occassion's next season (N).

 

Personally; i reckon Plymouth, Scunny, Blackpool, Watford will struggle.

So will we unless some severe movement in the transfer activity occurs (N).

 

dont you think that barnsley have got some good u18/u21 players tho. I really do see butterfield/potter playing a bit next year with RNL/Adam/hibbert playing as well. barnsley didn't play many off them really last year and all could do really well. Jamil adam and RNL where playing good in the reserves last year and RNL played in u18's when he was 12 so he has played against people who are a lot older than himself. Adam did score a lot in the res and u18 but if barnsley bring in many more players he will just leave like Atkinson and other players.

 

Moore is technically adept.

Souza was technically inept.

Moore's only downside is his lack of pace. However, that being said, he's always lacked pace, all through his career. If we can work to cover that then we will be fine. However, I'd still like to see another defender brought in. Darren Ward, Zak Whitbread etc...

 

with all due respect, Hemsworth, its alright talking about only being 5 points off mid table, but that was 5 games we didn't take anything from. It all adds up....or not, in our case.....

 

RE: That's my point Scott

We are about to witness another season of no improvement in my opinion.
I don't see why we can't be finishing in a solid 14th place or thereabouts by now, but I really think it's bottom 6, hoping not bottom 3, all biting our nails and doing the BBC predictor thing from Feb onwards again.
Not good enough for me, but as I say everyone's opinion is different.