Strategy and being a Barnsley fan

First off I rarely post so excuse this post if I ramble abit.

First point our owners stategy, Im sure I read someone have a bit of a Conspiracy theory on it early in the season.

It looks like we could well be facing a second relegation in 3 years under these new owners. Which I didn't expect when they took over and I'm sure most of you didn't either.

My question on this is do we think they are that concerned? The conspiracy theory I read was that the owners could see our club as being too good for league not good enough for championship but by buying young players who would perform in league one they could consistently sell those well performing players for a profit each time we get promoted.

For example buying kieffer Moore cheap, buying ethan pinnock cheap then selling on when they have performed well a league below and then rinse and repeat.

When I first read that I laughed but now I'm starting to wonder, it does seem a good way of making money for them without investing like the other owners in the championship.

My other question is what does everyone see being a Barnsley fan as or want? We have always been a championship team bar the dark days in the old 4th division and the one season in the Premier league.

What do you all expect for us as a club? Do you think we can reach the Premier league again? Is that what the goal as a fan is?

I've enjoyed the last few years more than any since the late 90s

Even In a season like this bar Preston and Stoke games I don't think we've been rolled over the players try more than those years we kept staying up under davey, Robins etc.

The two promotions were brilliant, much better than finishing just above the relegation zone but being pretty **** every week.

If we could challenge and get back to pl I'd love it obviously but for me having a team that tries every week and the potential roller coaster of going up and down is more enjoyable than tmjust surviving.

There are other teams around that don't achieve anything every season imagine being a Morecombe or Cambridge utd or Carlisle fan they never threaten to do anything.

Anyway it's turned into a ramble I was just curious what you good people thought

 

I'd like to be an established championship team with the possibility of maybe one day getting to the playoffs again. I refuse to accept that that is beyond the realms of possibility.

 

Championship stability would do me. That, after all was Mr Conway's stated aim. You can not be much further away from that than getting relegated in each of the two Championship seasons in which the club you own has competed. The standard of football in the Championship is better, and the media coverage and the feeling of 'buy-in' is greater.

 

At the moment the club is too divided the board wants everything done on the cheap ie buy for nowt sell for profit.The supporters obviously want a winning team that plays with heart sadly missing this season,what I’m trying to say that everyone at the club should be pulling in the same direction right down to the west end bog cleaners Unfortunately we’re not even near that ,players know when there being backed managers know when there being backed ITComes from the top Sadly our owners have FAILED

 

Personally I don’t believe the conspiracy theory as the numbers just don’t add up, £6 million loss just on TV Revenue, you have to make that back up from profits before you start, so if you take the 4 players who left in the Summer we probably made 7/8 million tops as a guess but that’s on a good year, realistically the chances of having 3 players you can sell like that in one year are slim. But even based on that it’s only £2 million after the 6 is factored in, to you and I that’s a lot of money but not for a consortium. Also if you take someone like Woodrow, he will be worth much more this season than last due to his goals in the Championship, so you’d think they would be better off financially by hanging in each year and selling one or two players.
That said none of the finances make sense to why they are here...

In terms of personal expectations, like a lot I’d like to see us like a Preston, steady Championship with occasional threatening the playoffs.

 

I don't believe that our owners will be happy to see another relegation. I do believe that they have been naive in the extreme in thinking that a squad full of young, largely unproven (at this level) players could compete in the Championship. Most of us could see the problems with that approach before the season kicked off. The board couldn't. That tells me all I need to know about the board's collective footballing knowledge.

That leads me on to the next point. Given that the board know so little about football, why are they so set on dictating the style of play (high pressing game)? Perhaps it's time they were more flexible and allowed the style to be set by the manager/coach rather than blindly recruiting to the same template each time.

I found myself thinking about Neil Warnock recently. Given his track record in rescuing struggling sides, I wondered what he might have done to save us if we had set him on in, say, January. I came to two conclusions. One, that even he would have struggled, because we simply don't have the players to get out of this mess, no matter how you set them up. Second, he wouldn't touch us with a barge pole, because he'd want more say and influence than the owners would allow.

I don't know where we go from here. Down, in all probability, but whether we'll see any football next season - or ever again - is anyone's guess. The idea that we'll ever become a mid-table second tier club seems a million miles away.

 

The good old days of “mid table mediocrity.

 

Yeah the sweet spot for sales is when we just go up or just go down. Thats clear but the financial side Of losing money is the issue on relegation.

I want to be established in the championship. I want my annual influx of ‘hope’ to be can we make the championship playoffs and not to be can we get out of L1 or can we stay up.

some teams like Bristol City have moved into the championship and incrementally improved year on year and thats what we should aspire to. But a lot of things are stacked against us. Firstly we are competing against in-balance of cheating and finance. Some clubs abuse the system and some are funded by parachutes. What is financial fair play these days? We have owners who have made it clear we run self sufficient, no money coming from them ( i guess it proves a fans ownership model could work ), we dint have income on sponsorship or ticket sales to match the likes of Leeds, or some others. Can we attract the right players as our model is encouraged to be a stepping stone for young players and thereby affecting continuity and momentum. We have abandoned the loan system to supplement the quality and experience. We sell to survive again stunting any momentum we gain.

So what i want and what I see as being realistic right now are a million miles apart. The evidence is suggesting we are a league one side right now and maybe thats our new norm.

 

Strategy and being a Barnsley fan.

Shouldn’t that read ...........

Tragedy and being a Barnsley fan.

 

I like the principle of our so called business model. I like that it is potentially financially sustainable. I haven't liked the execution. If the board is confident it works then why not invest some adequate working capital into it. With recruitment we are supposedly 'following the science' with our spreadsheet but there are interpretation issues with the science and the data that sits underneath it. I don't particularly feel the owners are disinterested in our fortunes but I do think they have been poor in action, flexibility and agility. I also think that to make the model work you need a truly talented manager who is allowed to do what works with the squad possessed rather than stick to a dictated system. And that manager needs all the usual competent support in scouting, coaching etc.
With the apparent current board mindset, we're some way off making the model work. But getting it right, for me, is the only way a club of Barnsley's profile can expect to be an established Championship club - without the sugar-daddy or 'creative' finacial strategies that other competitors have or use.

 

The only thing I can think ,of is they have seen the top teams play that way and think it’s the best way to play.
Certainly naive and flawed if true though.
All we can hope is that they learn and adapt

 

I think to have a shot at making things go we need to stick with a manager and back them. And hopefully "train up" other coaches to step in their shoes when they do leave. I thought that was what the club intended to do, train the same way from the academy up.

 

But Davies had expired and the other two had a year. Have we used different contract lengths for Collins, Diaby and Andersen or are they all 4 years?

 

I'm not disagreeing, I'm just wondering if all these new contracts will end at the same time too? And were extensions offered at the start of our league 1 season?

 

You would hope that the one thing a four year contract gives the club is options.
With the age of most of them some might renew half way through as they develop, some will be transferred and some won’t make it. If we did have a scenario of all these players contracts ending at same time then they have really messed up big time.