Predictions for next season?

League One will likely be tough to get out of. I expect Peterborough and Derby (if taken over and retaining Wazza) making a strong showing. Similar, Wednesday, Sunderland, Wycombe if none of those three go up. It seems to me that we will need to strengthen the squad considerably - possibly after losing the likes of Helik, Morris, Woodrow and possibly Styles. I assume the loan players will all go back. There must also be question marks about the head coach, which will need to be resolved one way of the other very quickly after this season ends.

Do we have any confidence in the Board/CEO/both being able/willing to address these situations? And if they do, and we go up, will the high-performing League One players depart leaving us to start the whole wash - rinse - repeat cycle yet again while trying to cling on in the Championship?

 

Exactly this. Monday was depressing but watching Quest was more so as the panel went through the state of the 4 Clubs (us, Reading Peterborough and Derby) and concluded we were in the worst state in terms of next season. Bearing in mind the state of Derby, that’s a pretty damning indictment.

Next season looks like a ‘lose, lose’.

Scenario 1. We’re pants. We struggle in the Division or are relegated.
Scenario 2. The Owners toss their coin of fate again, and it comes up with a good Coach who brings in 10 new players who turn out to be decent. We have a great season and come straight back up. Brilliant - except under our ‘model’……..well, we know where that goes.

It’s that second scenario that makes this such an awful time in our history. No hope - no future under these Owners.

 

I agree that L1 will be tough, much more so than last time imo. Sadly, I think bouncing back straight away is highly unlikely and expect a prolonged stay. I don't believe we'll be relegated again but imo that's more likely than immediate promotion.

 

You don't know who's going to be coach. Then there's who goes and who stays. Also who is going to be incharge of recruitment..
So at this stage it's impossible to even hazard a guess about anything to do with next season.

Ed... If there's even any recruitment possible and we're not shoving the U23s in

 

My guess is probably around 10th. I was confident last time we went down as we had a lot of talented young players who had nearly all joined a year to 18 months earlier. There wasn’t much of a rebuild needed.

This time round it’s going to be tougher.

I can’t see Helik, Woodrow & Collins staying. I’d also expect Anderson to leave. We’re also losing 4 regular starters who are loanees.

At best I think there will be 5 regular starters here next season - Morris, Styles, Brittain, Kitching & Wolfe. Morris only because of his injury record & Styles & Brittain may still have interest based off last season.

Even if we recruit well it’s likely that we’ll be building a new defence with at least one new centre back & a new left back combined with a new keeper or Walton stepping up so it’ll take time for them to gel.

I think we’re going to have to use Leya Iseka, Kane, Thomas & Benson because we’ve spent good money on them & right now we’d get next to nothing back for them. The hope is that a couple of them come good & that we can keep players like Jordan Williams & Morris fit. If that happens then we’ll be up around the play offs but there’s a lot of ifs involved for that to be the case.

Probably looking at something like -

Walton
Brittain, New CB, Kitching, J. Williams / new left back
Kane Wolfe Styles
New lad / any of Oduor / Thomas / Adeboyejo / Cole, Morris, Leya Iseka

 

All depends who we appoint as manager. I thoroughly expect the three going down to be up there and in top six. McCann knows the league and Derby will get a squad together despite their financial difficulties. If we appoint a manager who’s on the front foot and the CEO is organised, there’s no reason to suggest we cannot bounce back or at least challenge.

There’s a lot of doom and gloom around and we can’t take League 1 for granted but we know these players are good enough. It’s the fact they don’t have bottle and we haven’t had a good manager this season. We need an experienced manager. Unfortunately with the way the club is ran, we’ll see a younger person fulfilling a head coach role.

 

If we assemble a squad that competes for top 6, without adding any extra debt, then the club will have done an extraordinary job. There would be question marks about the midfield, even without any departures, then you have the returning loanees and the shortfall in revenue to factor in.

If the contractual salary reductions reduce the wage bill by 3m, and we can get a similar figure for Helik, that will go a long way to cover the deficit, and might only need to sell one or two others. If we struggle to get 7 figures for players for whatever reason, then there'll be a fair old clear out, and we'll need a number of players to surprise us next season.

 

Too many variables to make a judgement at the moment but for us to challenge for promotion it will take a change of approach from the owners as we have no cash to play with this time around.
Unless they do something unexpected I reckon lower mid table.

 

Top 6 no probs. Rotherham are 2nd and ive watched them a fair few times and they are a poor team. I think piggies will go up with wigan and rotherham

 

Do we know that there is.. contractual salary reductions.. in place..?
This is Barnsley remember.

 

Promoted as champions with games to spare or relegated.

 

Have you seen us this season?

 

We will win some games, draw some games and lose some games - hopefully more winning than losing.

We will play badly and get points, we will play well and drop points.

We will find new heroes. We will find new villains.

Same as any other season really, except more is in the "unknown unknowns" category.

 

There will be some in place, Khaled spoke about it in the supporters trust Q&A, https://www.barnsleychronicle.com/a...of-unpopularity-but-have-upped-investment-ceo

Though, it wouldn't surprise me if Conway was so arrogant to think they wouldn't be needed for contracts handed out in the summer.

 

So if some have and some haven't.. then there's a chance of disunity in the squad next season.
Could do with those..who haven't.. out the door asap..

 

Not sure about that. It might be that all players have the clauses, or the ones that don't will be lower paid anyway. My comment about contracts in the summer was more sarcasm than anything.

Thing is, while salary reduces, so will the fee we can sell for, as there will inevitably be release clauses on relegation.

 

I can't see anybody wanting Schmidt, Halme or Thomas. Likewise Oulare and Iseka will most likely still be here. If Smith can perform for Rotherham there's hope for Oulare.

We could have a tasty squad next season putting aside the gloom.

Walton,

Brittain, Halme, Kitching, J.Williams

Thomas, Benson, Kane, Oduor

Oulare, Schmidt.

 

Halme’s out of contract & Oulare left on an 18 month loan

 

We'll have to swap Halme for Moon and Oulare for Cole or Iseka.

 

We won't get promoted next season or in the foreseeable future with the current Hong Kong ownership. I think it's becoming clear with all their clubs around europe,they don't have a clue. I expect us to survive just but enter Administration and start season 23/24 with a 12-15 point deduction. What happens then? I don't know, the prospect of community ownership is a positive one. The fact that the club don't own the grounds, help too. The future is bleak,anyone expecting some Stendell inspired, swaggering promotion is wrong. The club is broke,badly run and poorly financed, with a poor squad of players and no coaching expertise.
I do expect that there will be thosands who will turn up to home games to cheer on the team and hundreds attending away games. The misery and bleakness of the current situation will not stop people supporting their home towm team. It is that which will prolong and promote the wellbeing of Barnsley FC.