Is it just me

or is anyone else pretty sanguine about relegation?

I know its not a particularly positive thing but I'm not particularly upset about it either.

Perhaps its a case of I'd accepted it months ago or that the real possibility (not certainty) of a positive season to come with more wins than defeats that sweetens the pill a bit.

Cant say I'm bothered about this Saturdays match but it would be nice to go out on a positive note before the beer festival!

 

Think relegation has been inevitable this season so it almost feels like relief that the end has finally come; it has been a miserable season with so little joy or expectation so I really hope next season will bring more wins, more positivity and the feeling that the players do care and want to do their best for our club.

 

In some respects it felt like a weight had been lifted of my shoulders.

 

This. Nothing else needed from me.


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When my missus used to tag along to the football with us down in London, her favourite game was that one where we got stuffed 5-1 at Fulham, with Mitch Ward's delayed sending off and all that. In the pub after the match she said that we were good fun when we won, but even funnier when we lost! I think as Reds fans we become used to a certain level of disappointment.

I'm actually already looking forward to next season more than any I have for years. It's a bit like the weight is finally off our shoulders. My mate who's up from London for the weekend has already started asking if we really want to go to the game and not straight to the beer festival, so I've told him of course we are, because it's not often we get the chance to boo the useless gets on to the pitch as well as off it!

 

Having spent one season in the Premier League with inflated prices, 5, 6 and 7 goal stuffings and crap refereeing decisions week in week out, when we got relegated I pretty much thought I didn't really want to go through all that again... And now things have shifted down another rung - 8 long, miserable seasons scraping around at the bottom of the Championship and I'm kinda glad it's over. There's been the odd cup run and Flicker's remarkable Houdini act last season, but it's been mostly thin and thinner so relegation is a bit of a relief. In the modern, cheque book style of football League 1 is probably our level, with maybe the odd flirtation with the second tier...sad but true.

 

I had to look up 'sanguine' but yeah, I know what you mean, I'm looking forward to it. As long as we aren't getting turned over every week I'll be happy.

As someone said the other day, support the club not the division.

 

I don't care if we're never a PL club ever again! Call it short sighted! Call it defeatist?!? But I don't. I really don't.

 

This is true for me too. Started feeling that way a few seasons back and got hammered by my mates for saying it. They felt we should aim for the standard of Norwich and Swansea but I don't see how we can. They have richer boards than us and don't have six or more clubs of similar stature within a few miles of their stadia.

Don't get me wrong the Premier League was an experience I'll never forget and I dislike the fact that I'm effectively saying I want to deny my son the right to see the club in that position but I don't want us to be the kind of club that throws huge sums of money to chase a dream to ultimately crash back to earth in **** loads of debt. And while the likes of Wednesday, Bolton and the rest have that debt and nothing is done about it I guarantee we would be punished for it via a spell in administration and possibly losing the club.

 

Over the last 15 years or so there are some (traditionally) division 3 and 4 clubs who have really pushed on through investment from generous owners - off the top of my head you've got Fulham, Wigan, Swansea, Blackpool, Hull and to some extent Brighton and Cardiff who had been very quiet for a long time. But we just haven't had that investment and I suppose we should be thankful we haven't dropped really low like Luton, Grimsby and Stockport - teams that we shared the league with for a long time.

We do seem to be at a tipping point fan wise though, we seem to have levelled off at a hardcore base of about 8000 home supporters and we need something to get the 'now and agains' to come more regular as well as attract the younger fans - this might actually be easier to do in League One if we can put some runs of wins together and be closer to the top of league as I can't imagine scratching around, barely surviving, in the Championship has attracted any new fans at all.

 

Of course, it is hard to suggest that relegation is a positive thing, but all the views above are ones I share, and your point about fan levels hits the nail on the head.

I suspect that our average attendance will take a small hit at the start of next season but nothing drastic. The drop in averages will be mainly down to smaller away followings. It is a prediction that may not come off, but there is a good chance that regalvanising the club around a positive marketing message and good results increases supporter buy in and adds numbers in the medium to long term. One thing we know, from experience, is that bumping around at the bottom of the championship, with no outward ambition each season to do anything other than survive another season will not temp the occasional fan to the ground - it hasn't been doing in recent years and won't in the future either. But winning a few games in L1 just might.

If the finances of the club are stable and, (Ben's words), we have a budget that is competitive, then, along with the chance to get the marketing right and build the feel good factor and supporter buy in, things could get a whole lot better and we could be soon seeing this as a turning point in our fortunes.

It may all turn out to be ******** and we have another ***** year, but just one level further down. But I am buying the feeling at the moment that it won't be like that and I am actually looking forward to next season much more now than if we had stayed up!!

 

I can't believe how the Board have succeeded in downgrading our expectations so much. They must be rubbing our hands. Yes - there were some thumpings in the Prem. But there were away wins at Anfield and Villa Park. And the cup run that saw us knock out Bolton, Spurs and Man Utd. Every home game was like a cup final. And we were agonisingly close to survival - probably until Garry Willard intervened.

I'm not saying those days are likely to return, or that that's my demand. But FFS, entertain us in the home games, at least. If we carry on with all the "punching above our weight" stuff and our growing fondness for the lower leagues we might as well drop out of the FL altogether and takeon the likes of Worsbrough Bridge. The administration have killed the soul of this club.

 

I feel like this too. I feel like I can go to the match on Saturday and just enjoy it.

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No, not just you, it's the same for me.

Ever since we decided that, like any other business, we were only going to live within our means, relegation was inevitable. Unlike a "big" club up the road who lost £1.5million every month and lost just 3 matches fewer than we did. That's how fine the margins are.

 

The second half of the Leeds game was probably the most depressing I've ever experienced watching Barnsley. Not that we were so terrible, Leeds rarely even made it in to our half, but we clearly didn't have what it takes. We filled the team with all our attacking players, everyone in the squad with a bit of skill was on the pitch, but we couldn't fashion a half chance, couldn't muster a shot on goal. We were fighting for our lives but had no armoury. I knew then we were relegated.

I wasn't a happy chappy that night, but I've had plenty of time to get over it.

Unlike many others, I do believe we can compete at Championship level. I don't mean hang around the relegation places, surviving by the skin of our teeth. I believe we can win as many games as we lose, occasionally flirt with the play-offs, entertain the fans. But we can't do that if we continue to do what we've done for the last 8 years: waste a huge proportion of the budget on loan players, hand out release clauses that see our best players leave for a pittance, allow the contracts of bright young stars and talented established players to run down to six months remaining before offering them new contracts, employ managers intent on doing battle with the fans who ostracise club stalwarts like Hassell, Foster and Steel. Do that and the team will be relegated and you'll lose a lot of fans on the way.

We need to scout the players we want sign far better than we have been doing. We need to identify younger players who we can nurture over a four year contract, who we don't allow to leave when the first bid comes along. We need to identify players who want to play for Barnsley, not those who want a pay check. We'll always sell our best players, clubs like ours have to, but we need to get the going rate. Or above the going rate as we always seemed to do when John Dennis was in charge.

The noises coming from Oakwell at the moment suggest this is what we intend to do. Unlike the last time we were relegated from this division, we're not in a financial mess. We don't have a squad full of no hopers on inflated wages and long contracts. Kennedy aside, the players still in contract are the players the vast majority of the fans want us to keep. Those out of contract are the ones we'd let go. This is the perfect opportunity to change the way we do things. League 1 is the ideal division for that to happen in. That doesn't mean we should expect instant success, but we can start to build and this relegation could be the making of us.

 

I've got a horrible feeling that we're in for more of the shocking negative ***** we've had on the pitch this season, wile ever Wilson is in charge, but due to the amount of rubbish in this league it'll be a bit harder to stomach turning up to nick it 1-0 against crew and other at home even though I feel most weeks we will win 1-0

So mixed feelings from me

 

Whilst not quite as optimistic as you Jay, I nevertheless agree with everything you say there. The only difference for me is that after so many disappointing seasons lately, I want to see evidence that all this is happening before I sign up again.

 

Nail on head. Especially "We need to identify players who want to play for Barnsley, not those who want a pay check".

 

Excellent post. The Championship used to be our 'natural' home, but it's almost exclusively populated now by clubs who are either enjoying the fruits of parachute money or are bankrupting themselves in an attempt to get back to the Prem to get some more parachute money. Horrible, horrible place.