Firstly I’d like to thank the BST and the volunteers at Redfearn’s for putting on a fantastic event last night, I’m not a full BST member but its very obvious that you are all doing a great job and are an assist to our club and fans. Keep up the great work! Patrick, Ben and Lee were all very honest with their answers, they spoke very well and it was clear the 3 get on and make a great team, spending time together outside of work as well. Patrick’s love for the club was evident in abundance, he admitted he’s made mistakes (who doesn’t) and that everyone of them has hurt him because he’s a Barnsley fan and the last thing he wants to do is detriment the club he supports. Ben had nothing but good news to report, on the business side of things everything is looking up, sponsorship is fantastic, our supporter database and social media following is bigger than ever before and our best players all have long contracts, which protects the club from losing them for peanuts, this includes our best academy players, the highly rated younger GK we have was mentioned to have just signed a 3 year deal. Lee went into great detail about the efforts put into each transfer target, putting the whole spreadsheet saga to rest, god knows how many hours he must work to do all the background checks and scouting that he does. He gave an example for Smith, the striker from Swindon, saying firstly he will ask for video footage of every touch/run/interaction the player has made in the last 5 matches, all the clips would be put together into one video, he would then watch the video several times looking at movement, body language, mistakes the player makes, what he does that’s good, in Smiths example what kind of goals he would score. If he likes what he has seen he then sends scouts out to watch the player several times, if they report back positively he will then do background checks on the player, calling the players past managers/coaches and former team mates of Lee who have played with the player, if the feedback is good he will then ask for video clips of the last 10 games the player has played, just to make sure the first 5 games weren’t one offs, if that's good he then goes to watch the player live, again looking at everything even if the player shakes the managers hand when he is subbed off, and after all that he then speaks to the board and starts the bidding process. Lee explained that there can be up to 50 players for each position he wants to fill and he will repeat this process for each of those targets. I don’t think any of us can complain about that There were many other topics, all of which had great answers and as there are a few posts about last night I won’t go into any further detail. The evening did leave me a little uneasy about a few things. Firstly I am worried about how much weight this forum has on the club. Patrick, Ben and Lee all mentioned looking on this forum at different times, the reason they do this is so that they understand what the fans are thinking and feeling, which is great, unfortunately the BBS in my opinion is not a great reflection of what every fan is thinking. The majority of posts on here are written by a minority of this forums users and of that minority not all of them may go to games regularly or at all. I worry that those who shout loudest could be deafening the opinion of what the majority of us are thinking. That isn’t a criticism at that minority, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and in football everyone has an opinion, but if Patrick, Ben and Lee are going to look at this forum I hope they are taking note of names of the posters and making sure they are getting a wide scope of feedback. When I come on the BBS a lot of the posts are always written by the same names each day and some of those opinions are way off the mark of what I think of our club and are widely off the mark of the many season ticket holders I speak to offline. The second worry I have is that Patrick is spending between 1 and 2 million of his own money each year to keep the club breaking even and competitive. Patrick’s son, who Patrick was hoping would eventually take the rains when he “gets hit by a bus” doesn’t want to be a director due to the amount of criticism and abuse he has received online for doing something he never did (spreadsheet saga), who can blame him. So Patrick’s long term business plan is to make the club as self sufficient as possible, which includes signing young players, on long contracts, who are likely to increase in value. These type of signings would protect the club and eventually allow Patrick to stand down and “hand the club over to the fans“. My worry is A) which fans? because there are some right morons out there and B) what happens when the club makes a few bad signings and those players do not return a value, how on earth are the ‘fans’ going to come up with 1 to 2 million every year? Patrick explained that during his time as owner he has only received two legitimate offers to buy the club, but both of those were going to be financed by borrowing money against the 30 odd acres of land BFC own, which obviously is a recipe for disaster. He said he has approached people he trusts and people connected to Barnsley who have the finances to buy and support the club but no one wants it. The biggest problem we have is that Barnsley is not a city and can not fill a 30k stadium, which is what the majority of investors are looking for. I really hope that Patrick’s son eventually changes his mind because I can’t foresee any scenario where we have a secure future unless a suitable buyer comes along, and based on our history of potential buyers I can’t see that happening. On a side note the people who abused Patrick’s son wants naming and shaming and removing from this forum if they are on it. Apart from those worries I thought everything the 3 said was great, I came away from the meeting excited about our short term future, Patrick, Ben and Lee are not daft by any means, in my opinion we are in safe hands and I genuinely trust them with the club I love. I’d also like to say how fantastic it is that BFC are this transparent and accessible, I don’t hear about any other clubs doing this. Thanks again to the BST, my Dad was over the moon with the signed shirt
There not stupid, are they really going to take a few peoples opinions on a fans forum as gospel? If they do then god help us!
You forgot to mention LJ's response to Jason about the smallest violin being played and him toughening up in relation to social media. I think your concerns are unfounded related to the social media issue in terms of the effect you think it as on them (those three I mean, not PC's son which is a different issue). For me it was a plea from PC to cut them a bit of slack. It would be folly to completely ignore social media as it would to pander to it. The strangest comment for me was when PC stated that LJ would be the last manager he would set on unless LJ leaves when it is made clear fairly often that he is a chief coach and not a manager.
Social media isn't just The BBS. I think the abuse came on Twitter / Facebook. have you ever read the BFC Facebook site. They aren't daft enough to think this board is representative of 8000 fans. The future of the club is a worry. However for now I trust what we have. Can you imagine the fans forum in future and who could be sat in the chairs. Maybe Thereev .....
If you draw up a budget to keep us in the black rather than £1-2 million in the red, you don't have to.
The fans buying the club when Cryne leaves is not beyond the realms of possibility. This summer, Hyde United's supporters' club bought the club. What happened was anyone could invest as much as they wanted so that they could raise the fee needed, I believe around £150,000, but I'm not sure. It was a bit like shareholding in the club. Obviously it would be difficult and I'm not sure on all of the details but it is certainly possible
Its ok buying in the first place its running the operation on a week to week basis where I would foresee the problems.
If Cryne Jnr can't handle a few comments on Twitter (was it really 'abuse'?) then I'd suggest he probably isn't the right man to run our football club.
Maybe. But if he wants to live his life out of the public eye, away from any position that can attract strangers giving him abuse then I don't blame him in the slightest. It's not a failing on his behalf as far as I'm concerned, but a sensible life choice.
At some point he is going to inherit enough money never to have to work again and I have long since reached the point whereby if I had enough money never to work again I'd do exactly that. As years go by the amount I have in mind reduces further, to the point now that I would imagine somebody as wealthy as Mr Cryne wouldn't even notice the amount missing from his savings that I would gladly put my feet up on! Maybe I should spend less time on here and more time writing begging letters?
