I said it at the time and I will say it again now

The decision to accept half a million pounds for vaz te and let butterfields contract run down meaning we had to accept around 1m for him will send us down. We were quite fortunate to get promoted from a very difficult league and i can't help but think we have totally fcked it up. I think hill will go on to be a decent manager elsewhere, as will robins. These guys are not the problem. Football is totally driven by money these days and the task ahead of the new manager is in my view, more or less impossible with a complete lack of funds. But that is of our own doing.

We have very little money, we know that; this is what makes our amateurish transfer dealings all the more unfathomable. Our two chances to cash in and we blew it. Big time. This resulted in hills budget being restricted. He hasn't covered himself in glory in the transfer market but he has shown success in the past for spotting a good striker; lambert, le fondre, Murray, vaz te. It can't be fluke that he spotted these lads and who knows where we could have been if we got the right money for vaz te and butterfield, I.e. 4m for the pair. I think that hill lost the plot slightly in the last month but he hasn't been helped. If we hadn't undersold then we would probably have a much stronger side including Norwood, Greer and perhaps hammill. I'm sorry to be so negative but I think the club is heading for some dark times. If the new man keeps us up then he's a miracle worker.

 

I see your point.


http://v2.barnsleyfc.org.uk/showthr...s-Cryne-Rowing-and-Taylor-to-go-in-my-opinion

 

Were La Fondre and Lambert at Rochdale before Hill took over or did he bring them in?


I do think that Hills tenure here was based on 3 things

a, being left a cracking player in Butterfield
b, getting lucky with Vaz te
c, getting Drinkwater with those 2

Since they went Hill has done absolute zero with any player. Also Drinkwater has pulled no trees up without the other 2, neither has Butterfield. Ok Vaz te has looked good for West Ham.

 

Pretty much sums up my feelings which is why I have absolutely no confidence in the current board to both make a decent managerial appointment and then provide the support that is required.

 

I can't see how we were in any position of strength with Vaz Te. He was rightly signed on a short-term deal after being released by Hibs and failing to land a deal elsewhere - Sheff Utd had him on trial and turned him down before he came to us.

He was poor in a fair few games early doors but had glimpses of brilliance. As I understand it we were hesitant to offer him an improved contract early on in the season, only to see him capture form he'd never sustained at his previous clubs. By this time, even if we'd offered him one he wouldn't have signed it, knowing he'd get offers from bigger clubs in January. I am skeptical he would have maintained this improvement had we forced him to see his contract out and then we'd have lost him for nothing. I am not privy to what offers were on the table for him but £500k is the only transfer fee the lad has ever generated in his entire career to date. I really can't see how that is bad business.

Butterfield I have more sympathy with your argument on. He had been steadily improving year on year for some time and to let his contract run down was scandalous.

All the same, I have always believed in building from the back - you defend your way out of trouble and shoot your way up the table. Hill has not strengthened - and has arguably weakened - the back line in his tenure and even in spite of his tedious, negative formations could not stem the tide of goals against. Whilst I do not believe Hassell to be the solution to our problems, he at least has experience of relegation crises and surviving them. That, I think could have been critical. As it is we have a mountain to climb.

If we can get good money for Stones and invest it soundly in a solid central defence, all is not lost. But we need to get his true value and make an astute managerial appointment to bring any of this to fruition. Here's hoping...

 

Stones true value is what other clubs put on him. Supporters who put a value of 3/4/5 million are not realistic unless a top 4 club come for him

 

Steve Parkin.......

 

Defence is not the major problem.

The major problem is that we don't score enough goals. We have a conversion rate of 1 goal per 11 chances. We can pressurise teams for long periods but fail to score. Our goals against column has only recently started to rise sharply, coinciding with the failure to score when in the ascendancy.

Hill kept working at recreating the impact of the Perkins / Drinkwater / Butterfield / Vaz Te midfield which not only created chances but also scored a high percentage. For a club of our size and status that sort of quality comes around very rarely.

 

Re: Defence is not the major problem.

Were heading for dark times, I've gotta agree.

We'll finish bottom of the league this year no matter what. I'm suffering thinking about it but it allows me to be overjoyed if we stay up but also take it easier when we do go down.

At the moment, with certain managers being linked and certain players who I think will stay i.e Stephen Dawson, David Perkins, Jim O'Brien, Stephen Foster, Scott Golbourne, who I think are gunna be top class League 1 players. I can see us fighting for a play off place, whether we get it or not.

 

Agree almost entirely. For me the promotion was a bonus, I think there were better teams around but we pulled through and got lucky on pens at Cardiff. Since then we have not managed to push on barely whatsoever. I don't compare us with teams like Norwich or Swansea because they have financial backing and a potentially massive fan base. I look more towards the Burnleys and Prestons and Blackpools. The former two came up in 2000 and managed to be consistently top half, before fading. Blackpool we all know went on a miraculous adventure. Neither have much bigger crowds than us.

I think our failure to push on is clearly financial but also miss-management. We've have players over the years that should have bankrolled our pro-longed stay in this division. Howard, JCR, Anderson, Muller, Hammill, Vaz Te, Butterfield, Shackell, Bogdanovic, even at one time Nardiello. There's probably about £15m of players there if sold when their stock was highest. Time after time however we have been shafted in the transfer market due to contact lengths and lack of pro-active thinking. Especially since Shepherd left we've been meandering aimlessly about, being sucked gradually towards League One.

I honestly think Hill, but more so Robins, had what it took to establish Barnsley in mid-table and maybe push forward towards a play-off place... a bit like a repeat of the 1990's gradual momentum towards promotion. Sadly, financial constraints and miss-management have meant we've missed the boat in my opinion. We may need to dip back into League One and come back again with more emphasis on the academy and a proper, effective board making intelligent, savvy but ambitious moves.

 

Totally agree Tom and have said so on many occasions. We have to maximise income from player sales and have not done so. Wish we'd got close to a million from Done and McNulty too!

 

Villa paid a League One side £3m for Matthew Lowton...

 

Great post. Left Hill with the unenviable task of finding another diamond in the ****. Quite difficult to keep doing.

 

Which is about what well get for him.

 

Who is also 3/4 years older than Stones. The alternative is to keep hold of him and build the defence around him.

 

Nothing, they'd just refuse to pay it and we'd be stuck with a player not wanting to play for us and 500k down the swanny.

He was as much a punt for them as us.

 

You never know. I know I would if I had the chance to go to West Ham.