Even if we wanted to sell him, he'd command a bigger transfer fee with two or three years left on his contract than he would with one. I think it's far more likely that we knew we wouldn't be matching what he could get elsewhere.
Obviously they weren't the only two options. We could've offered him another 12 months and sold him at the end of next season. I'm far from institutionalised, I'm going to be making 160 mile round trips to see us next season (slightly less than the 220 mile round trips of last season) and thus am even more pissed that we're flogging our best players at the drop of a hat, again, and in Robbo's case apparently not even bothering to offer him a new contract. I want to make those trips and see us win, selling Robbo and the rest arguably lessens that probability. This just appears to be the norm for us now though.
Sad to see him go, but I trust the judgement of Hecky & board (don't believe for one moment he was sold against the wishes of PH). Perhaps Hecky had the view that Robbo might not hold his place until the end of the season. At that point Robbo wouldn't have been as valuable an asset if on the bench. Hecky has bought these new kids, maybe he thinks they are (or will be) better players. We have a model, which I really like, and model logic says to cash in on players at the right time. If we hadn't sold him now and his contract couldn't be renewed we'd have been selling him in January for £500K and the people on here would have been in melt down. Like others I worry about changing so many players at once, and the lack of experience at this level. If we can hold out for 1 more year at this level then I think the future is very bright (Phase 2 as someone said). All the new players are on 3 year contracts. That fact alone will allow the club to better manage the sale of players going forward.
Sent from my iPhone using Barnsley FC BBS Fan Forum mobile app Statement from Barnsley CEO Gauthier Ganaye responding to claims Marc Roberts wasn't offered a new deal: