Relegation is now inevitable in practical terms. There appears little unity or confidence in the players and they are not on the wavelength of the Head Coach or his team. The HC has tinkered with players and formations and has been unable to motivate or organise his sub-standard squad. The statement "we are not going to do anything crazy" strongly suggests that we can expect next season's squad to be little better than the current one. The Head Coach has not understood or been able to deal with a relegation scrap at the lower end of the second tier. There is little reason to think he will be suited to the demands of an even lower standard of football. When the new ownership team took over, their press conference was peppered with statements such as (I paraphrase here) 'this is a well-run club', 'we believe in Paul', 'we are going to stabilise in this division then improve', 'we want to improve the matchday experience', 'we want to link with and invest in the town'. This puts me in mind of the Conservatives and their 'country that works for everyone', or Labour's 'for the many not the few'. All we have seen from either is further divisiveness. If we had to cash in the successful 2015-16 team, then we should have been recruiting their replacements long ago and beginning the slow and gradual process of their development. Instead we have a squad that was late to be recruited, is practically worthless, and will be diminished further by the departures of the loan players and Andy Yiadom. So what is the recruitment plan going forward, and are we really going to entrust that to the people responsible for the present shambles? Are we going to stick with a head coach and team who appear to have little understanding or experience of lower grade English football? If they are to leave, who will be responsible for the next appointment(s) and how will the same mistake be avoided? And underpinning all of that is: what level of investment in the team and club are the new owners going to make to begin our recovery from the present shambles? What progress has been made on the purchase of the share of the land and facilities? The solid, dyed-in the-wool 6-8,000 will still be there next season. Their support is to be highly commended and their stoicism admired. But to succeed while living within our means requires the extra few thousand to buy in to whatever it is that the new owners are truly wishing to achieve. That will in turn require a detailed and substantive future plan which is believable and is backed by actions (spectemur agendo).
Good post. I would query the not so anything crazy though as they appointed a manager with a poor record and no experience in this league when we were desperate. Looks crazy to me
In terms of judging the board on this season I think it's difficult to do. You can have all the cash you like but in January what players of guaranteed quality to keep us up were likely to join a club in very serious danger of going down? Next season they start with a blank sheet of paper. I'm hoping it's going to be both interesting and enjoyable.
I hope so too, Churton. But I feel that unless some of the issues mentioned above are addressed our hopes will be in vain. It's difficult to know what might have been doable in January had we pushed the boat out more. But regardless, I don't feel this coaching team is the right one to take us forward, and I have serious doubts about some of the decisions made by the CEO.
Agree with you...all businesses (in our case footy club) have a plan....they have performance stats and stakeholders or share holders. We have all those those things....we are the stakeholders...the fans.... our plan has failed and the stats are poor....we are judged by how we react in advesity.....we have seen how we react to success and that has been bordering on the arrogant!....i really think we missed a trick with our recruitment....including the coach. Now lets see how the club react.
Great post orsen,i think the new owners. have found a huge oil field under Oakwell and aim to run the club down and then get the oil.Its the only reason I can think of why a group of millionaires would invest in Barnsley FC and not spend any money.Also not happy with the lack of direct communication with season ticket holders regarding renewal, shows a lack of care.
