I have been a fan of Shepherd throughout his reign as chairman -emails that I have sent him have always been quickly responded to, in good detail, really as though he was only too happy to help in any query I had. Always seemed a really genuine guy. Even now, nothing I have seen has made me change my mind at all. I have no doubt that he wants the best for the club, and above all else does not want us to go back into administration. I can only credit the guy for that. Its just such a shame that the purse strings are a little too tight. We dont have great strength in depth at all, we all know that. But the thing we are now building is depth. The problem being though we have too many average players that aren't upto the standard required to stay in the division. personally I would rather have 1 quality player than 2 mediocre players. In case of injuries then, im sure we have got players in the youth team that could step up and do just as good a job as these fringe players -even if only on a short term basis until the better player(s) regain their fitness.</p> As fair as chairmen go though,I really think that John Dennis would be a better option at present. For years we kept a steady ship, minding our own business in the (very) old Division 2, modern day Championship. People questioned our desire to go up - which was ludicrous to say the least, but we never seemed in danger of dropping through the trapdoor into the alehouse leagues. We never brought in the greatest players, but JD would do his best to provide for the club, without hurting the clubs finances. Stands were being built - modernising the club, and a fantastic academy was builtthat wasadmired by most. In 1997 the dream of reaching the Premiership became a reality. No longer were we the club who didn't want promotion. We were little Barnsley who had reached the Premiership for the first time in our 100+ year history, having only spent a few hundred thousand on players too.Wolves' millions couldn't touch us. But, we did it. This was perhaps JD's biggest mistake - but at the time, he,and none of us, realised this. Of course we had our year in the Premiership. And to be honest, I wouldn't change that season for anything.And although JD, being a Barnsley fan himself, wouldn't swap it either, im sure after releagtion there would be quite a few things he woulddo differently, in heindsight. There were a few decisions that were rash, of course. Big things were expected of us at the time, beinga team that comes down from the Premiership are expected to be challenging for a return ticket. The pressure must have got to him, and wrong decisions were made. Human error is the only excuse, plus the fact that he wanted what he thoughtat the time was the best thing for the club. He's a man who still watches the matches at Oakwell - because he is a fan. And where is Ridsdale now? After all Ridsdale's mistakes he still gets taken on by other teams. Yetit seems that all the years of hard work thatJD put intothe club were suddenly forgotten as soon as things turned sour.</p> Sorry, I hope I didn't lose you halfway through that- I almost lost myself.Realised I had to stop there though (nothing to do with my tea being ready - not at all (hatsoff) )</p>
You mean the Chairman who brought the Club to it's knees?</p> </p> Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration,</p> Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration,</p> Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration, Administration,Administration,vAdministration,Administration,Administration,Administration,</p> Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration,</p> Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration,</p> Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration,Administration,</p>
I agree with you NP. Ignore the Coach, what does he know, he thinks Davey is moving us in the right direction. (furious) (furious) (furious)
Like I say.... he made mistakes, human error. But that was because he got too ambitious and too carried away with being a fan. He had a taste of the Premiership and he wanted more. Unfortunately his plan backfired and sent us the wrong way. Getting us into admin was a big mistake, I agree. But then you look at the amount of errors that Riddy has made, in his relatively short Chairmanship of 3 clubs, yet he still gets taken on somewhere else.
RE: Yes, I agree with that! ditto mistakes were made but you couldnt dispute is love and com itment of the club, administration was nearly a disaster but in all reality the sums of money concerned were small compared with the situation a lot of clubs find themselves in and we are now in a pretty poor financial position as we no longer own the ground,
RE: What if, ITV had not gone Belly up We wern't the only club affected and we by no means had the largest debt and we owned more land than any other football league club ......work that one out
RE: Work that one out (durka red) Easy to work out, quite simply the bank immediately withdrew the overdraft facility putting the club into a position of not being able to carry out its normal day to day business. Then called in the very small debt. Barstewards.
RE: Work that one out (durka red) Were there no other banks than Nat West ,didn't we have someone with brass who was supporting the academy who could have been approached,didn't we have assets that could be 'swetted'
would not have dennis back for a gold pig. cryne did approach with an offer to help and was refused,he also offered to fund the loan signing of ashley wardin the final few month's of our last season in this division,again he was turned down by dennis who went and got richard naylor instead,and we all know what happend after that.
RE: would not have dennis back for a gold pig. Bring Chairman and effectively CEO of Barnsley FC he should have called an EOGM so that the shareholders (approx 400) could have been informed of the periolous state we were in. Those shareholders, had been loyal to the club by not accepting silly money (I heard £200+)for the shares when we entered the Premiership. Their loyalty resulted in them losing every penny.
OnDigital, OnDigital, OnDigital We weren't that in debt actually. I was surprised we went under for what I seem to remember was only £2million peanuts compared to our big city friends in Leeds and Sheffield It's just we lost a big chunk of TV money ... and the income wasn't there to sevice the debt. It doesn't matter if the the debt is ismall, if you haven't got the income you're dead in the water. Dennis didn't expect the OnDigital money to disappear.
Thats what I thought The shareholders were not, it seems, given the opportunity to address the problem. As far as I am concerned he can come back after he spends a week in the stocks in the oakwell carpark and supplying the rotten tomatoes himself for the masses to chuck at him. Its not the collapse I entirely blame him for, its the failure to call for or accept help in the immediate run up to it and his subsequent silence. For the club ending up in popeyes hands he deserves nothing but public humiliation.
Good Post Some on here have short memories - Dennis is the guy who nearly took the club under and oh yes he appointed many bad managers!!!!
RE: OnDigital, OnDigital, OnDigital The problem is just that though, when the debt is reletively small, because the banks will call it in. If the debt is far larger the banks are more unwilling to call it in because they lose it all.
How come Popeye was able to effectively mortgage the assets yet the existing shareholders did not get the option? There's a story to be told...
