SPLIT OF THE BANANA VARIETY

Split appears behind the scenes at Oakwell


BARNSLEY chairman Gordon Shepherd said 'no' emphatically and rejected Sheffield Wednesday's inquiry about manager Andy Ritchie without hesitation.


Talks about a new contract tying the young manager to Oakwell were arranged.
Now, less than a month later, a question-mark hangs over the future of Ritchie's reign.
So how have things turned sour for club and manager just six months after securing promotion?
Both Ritchie and Shepherd know full well that all that matters in football is results.
Barnsley's position second from bottom in the Championship inevitably destabilises the manager's position.
If a change at the top would guarantee survival in the division, it's a very tempting path for the board to take.
The other side of the argument is that with 17 games played there is just under two thirds of the season left. Time may well be on Barnsley's side, patience could be the answer.
After all Ritchie's leadership brought promotion a season ahead of the schedule agreed between management and boardroom.
Memories are short and expectations are high in the game.
After just scraping through the play-off final against Swansea on penalties, it was clear that survival was a big ask facing the club.
Ritchie chose to stand by the players (minus Chris Shuker) who had won him promotion and only Sam Togwell, Michael McIndoe and Colin Healy were brought in to bolster the squad.
Early league form fully justified Ritchie's decision but the recent run of two wins in 11 games has fuelled calls for changes in the squad.
Shepherd and Ritchie agree about the probable benefit of new recruits.
Shepherd made it plain in his Radio Sheffield interview on Tuesday that finding fresh talent was at top of his agenda ahead of securing Ritchie on a new deal.
He was concerned that players were recruited as soon as possible.
Shepherd's interview was aired while Ritchie was out of the country. Inevitably word of it reached and alarmed him.
Shepherd seemed surprised that Colin Kazim-Richards, Ritchie Jones and Matthew Bates had slipped the Barnsley net.
Ritchie knew exactly why all three had fallen by the wayside and explained when asked.
At the very least there has been a breakdown between chairman and manager. At worst a loss of confidence.
Something is not quite right between the two leading public figures at Oakwell.
It has to be sorted.
The sooner the better.

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All that matters

is Barnsley FC winning football matches. everything else will fall into place.

 

horrific journalism

to think that someone is paid to write an article like that. shockingly written

 

RE: All that matters

Yes and a couple of clever magic tricks will sort that out.

Doesn't everything need to fall into place for us to start winning matches?

 

Forget magic

a couple of phone calls would be a start.

 

RE: Forget magic

Do we have a realistic budget to improve our current team? My guess is we don't.

 

My guess is we do

cos I'll play for coppers and I reckon I'd score more than Marc Richards. seriously, there's probably a small amount of money available for permanent signings which we cant make til January anyway, but there's definately money available for loan players wages, enough money to cover the experienced players 'we' need. can we find them? well, we have scouting contacts and agents and Andys actively searching, fingers crossed......

 

RE: My guess is we do

Fingers crossed indeed. As a club we haven't ever really struggled to attract players in the past, as the facilities seem to sell themselves and potential signings always seem impressed.

I really don't understand what's going wrong at the moment, given our position we'd struggle to attract permanent players, but loanees have nothing to lose. They potentially get first team football, put themselves in the shop window and get match fit. The only thing that would appear to stand in the way in my opinion, is financial.

What else can it be?

 

What's wrong with it?

 

RE: What's wrong with it?

It reads like a kid wrote it, with lots of short sentences.

 

Loan deals are generally agreed between managers

permanent deals most often involve the 2 Chairmen as there's more financials at stake. the manager picks the team. the Chairman sits there like us and watches games, frustrated at times and elated at others. given the current scenario, it if the Chairman tells the manager that the player he's suggested is outside our reach he'd be committing suicide by radio.

 

RE: Loan deals are generally agreed between managers

so hypothetically speaking, Andy Ritchie could potentially be suggesting players we cannot afford, but the Chairman isn't telling him so? That would be a bizzare arrangement, but could be one of the reasons we haven't got anywhere yet.

Do you think he'll tell him when he's getting 'warm'?

 

Hypothetically,

I dont think the manager is suggesting anyone. Or when he does, he then hy-pathetically changes his mind. I hypothetically guess that we wouldnt have even signed McIndoe and Togwell if the manager had hypothetically his way.

If the calibre of player being suggested or just turning up unannounced for a trial is somewhat suspect, what then? Im hopeful that there's something good about to happen.

 

RE: Hypothetically,

So you're saying, hypothetically, the the manager is happy to go through the whole season with a weaker squad than the one that scraped promotion, and that he is happy to turn down cash that would bring in better players?

wittotalandutterdisbeliefart

 

RE: Hypothetically,

I'm hypothetically crossing my fingers that you're right. Whatever you're hypothetically talking about regarding something good potentially happening. I'm guessing you're getting new shoes.

 

Whole season

hypothetically not. but starting, I hazard at yes. after that I lost my crystal ball in the younger but experienced targets black hole. the same black hole that Danny Cadamateri magically appeared from.

 

Like Ritchie hypothetically wanted Eddie Johnson, Steve Foster and a third, unnamed player

on permanent deals that did not go through? Or how Ritchie, hypothetically. wanted to resign Shuker but GS, hypothetically, overruled him and withdrew the contract offer even after Shuker had, hypothetically, said in public he wanted to resign on less money than he'd been offered elsewhere?

You really have been got at.

 

Danny Cadamateri

Chris Shuker.

witgotatandshitart

 

But it's

.. easy to read and understand, factually correlates with what we are all led to believe, sets the story out in a logical fashion and is correct both grammatically and in spelling.</p>

Short sentences are what people like to read in newspaper reports. We don't all have to be Sir Humphreys do we. Ever heard of the fog index?</p>

 

4 inches taller nt