Lee Johnson

Ten times?

Blimey.

Anyway "The stretch" really involved the last 4 games. When we were just immense.

The previous 6 to that we got 9 out of 18 points. I think.

Like Leicester, the team became greater than the sum of its parts. At the very end.

With regard to all this LJ slagging, it has to be said that he got us on the right track by the time he left. That his spell with us warrants such abuse I find sad and a sign of the times. And this is likely to transfer too prematurely to Hecky when so called fans expect the impossible.

New season. Let's shock em all. And start by believing in the impossible. Without wanting too much.

 

Let's set our sights on doing a Leicester ,why not we,ve got the momentum from last season.

 

You and many others seem to believe that the policy of austerity was all the idea of Keith Hill. I do not share that view.

Changes of policy come out of the board room. They result from long discussions and are usually the result of some perceived threat. I believe that the Board of Barnsley FC and specifically Patrick Cryne had grown tired of the constant need for re-financing caused by the difficulty of trying to compete in a league that the club just could not afford to be competitive in. We had spent money over the years, and no matter how much was spent, it never bought us a position much above bottom four. I believe that the board had decided to see if there was an alternative, cheaper and more intelligent way of doing things. The policy change started by appointing a manager who had had significant success in the past by find undiscovered gems and polishing them. In Keith Hill, they found such a man. However, the policy is not too far from that we are operating now, except that we now seem to have a trusted scouting web that is helping to identify the right players.

The first 4 months of Keith Hill's reign were a brilliant watch, but it all went wrong when we lost 3/5 of our midfield almost overnight. Do not forget that the match before it all went pear-shaped, we beat Leicester City away 2-1. The contrast in the changing fortunes of the two clubs could not be more marked, and it illustrates the narrow margins that describe the difference between success and failure. It was Keith Hill's reign that convinced me to take a new look at the game, and Keith Hill's reign that has convinced me that the game is mainly about cash, partly about systems and policy and only perhaps 10% about the man who picks the team and the system it plays. And yet for most people, it is the very opposite. I shall continue to support Hecky, no matter what. I hope that he can rely on you as well.

 

I don't think that at all. I think the policy of austerity was Patrick Cryne's idea, and I understand his motives for embracing it. I think hiring Hill was a part of that policy. But I think that Hill, as well as he has done at Rochdale before and since, was totally unsuited to our club. He didn't have the experience to safeguard our Championship status in my view. I'd cite the game against Birmingham away as the high point of his rein, but his methods and selections were not capable of sustaining that level of performance (against what may have been a very poor Birmingham side in any event). I think he set us back several years. Only my opinion, of course.

 

Maybe eleven.

The stretch being the end of the season. Hence the word stretch. Because we extended it.

Agree on your points about LJ and Hecky.

 

^^That.

 

Go on then, I'll make it three ... as I stated earlier in this thread too early for me to judge LJ, but have always thought highly of Keef. Agree that what he is doing at Dale is impressive. He was doing pretty good here too, until he lost his entire midfield over an Xmas period.

 

My issue with Johnson was that he delivered the most safety first, tedious football I can remember seeing at Oakwell.

I've never seen a team with as little bravery & unwillingness to attack other teams.

All this with players like Hourihane & Winnall's who's quality was obvious from the season before.

 

My problems with LJ are too long to go into fully but the way he ruined players confidence, like Davies and Winnall by either playing them out of position or dropping them completely, for very little reason, his downright refusal to be seen as wrong by accepting his formations we're pathetically bad and reverting to 4-4-2 which everyone was calling for and his arrogance in the media are very high on my list of reason why I cant wait to see him out of work and managerial chances.

As someone said further up, he's your modern day, career jumping, brown nosing **** with no clue how to do the job properly.


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That first paragraph is a strange one, because since he's been here, we've approached games in an attacking manner, and on some occasions too forward thinking and a little naive.



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The fact he was that clueless to play Winnall out wide and boring side wards football that took us to the bottom of division 3 before peer pressure forced him to ditch his stubborn mind numbing boring to watch football is enough proof for me that the bloke was and is a knob.

The football dished up by Keith Hill before his sacking was also mind numbing and boring to watch.

 

He sticks out to me as one of these young managers who's no doubt watched hours and hours of Barca's/Bayerns games and believes he can replicate the blueprint set out by Guardiola, the only problem is that when it doesnt work, like it didnt here, he has no reasonable football brain to sort out the problems for himself. Hence the reason he couldnt turn around the mess he'd enforced on us until outside intervention came.


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The people on here slagging him off are stupid.
It's his job to be upbeat and positive, and with the right backing there's no reason why they can't accomplish precisely what he's set out.
Personally I liked what he had to say and the way he built a good strong side.
People move on, get used to it.

Imagine a bloke in the pub one night with his mates. Chap walks in and says ...
Hello, I understand you work at a local factory
Aye, so what?
And you're on £9 an hour?
Aye
Well my company thinks you've got the right stuff to be a manager with us, we can offer you £40 an hour and a company car. What do you think?
Not interested.
Why?
Because when I came back in here my mates would turn their backs and wouldn't talk to me
Oh ok, so you're as stupid as your mates then, right?
Looks like it.
Fair enough, enjoy your menial life then.

 

To be fair when he first came here some of his selections and decision making were real head scratches, as others have said I think he was extremely fortunate to still be in a job come Xmas however he was/is a young manager and perhaps he learnt from his mistakes, I couldn't help but like him and I think personally you will but comfortably top half come the end of the season.

 

What a ridiculous over simplification.

Even if you're taking that stupid metaphor its more like
"not interested"
"why"
"because I've just spent 6 months starting fires around the factory and breaking tools and the CEO was kind enough not to sack me and give me a chance to learn the required skills to not be dismal at my job, its only in the last month I really realised that was a mistake"
"oh"

 

I could pick that post apart all day. Firstly, he had a top 6 budget here last season and had us bottom. Secondly, imagine a bloke in a pub who's completely inept at his job, yet has been kept on because he's an excellent brown noser of the management even though he's more or less run the company into the ground, baring in mind he's well known as being a **** up and his career would probably be over if he was sacked. Somehow, after a few weeks of not ****ing up any further he's offered another job, albeit a sideways step. Should he turn his back on the management who've kept him in a job and a career at the first sign of other interest or show some loyalty?

P.S I'm absolutely ecstatic he didnt show the loyalty. ****ing hated the useless ****.


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Hopefully he's learned his lessons then. He persisted in playing a 4-5-1 with no overlapping, players not trying to run at the opposition & it was really slow build up play.

I felt he succumbed to pressure & played a 4-4-2, got a few wins & you guys came calling

 

Only way they`ll be in Europe in 5 years is when they go down to Thomas Cook and book their holidays