The 'BIG' statement

If he had gone to say Wrexham or Salford I think people may have a point, otherwise people are coming across on here as being totally out of touch with reality and a tad hypocritical if they are honest with themselves.

 

I honestly get that people are gutted, I am too. But I am really disappointed in the attitudes of a sizeable number of our fans slagging him off when he has done a great job for us and is only trying to better himself.

People take the piss out of Wednesday fans but christ some of the stuff on here is embarrassing.

 

I think most people are upset not with the leaving but with the lies. The building up of hope and expectation that here at long last is the guy we've been looking for to take us to, and keep us in, the promised land. Only to turn out to be a bullshitting chancer who had his eye on the next gig even before the season ended.

 

I'd agree to a degree but why not let him answer for himself. He frequently claims to know what's going on behind the scenes. a bit different to end of his tether. Used to work at the club. And often say things have hardly changed if at all. If that's the case there is still someone there in full knowledge of what happens at top level. Passing information. That informant may also be not involved with the club anymore for all we know.


As said before 9k have renewed. There will be a few dissenters. But they are laying the blame at the wrong door. And most are aware of clauses in contracts. And the club tried everything within their power to get him to stay.

I am an ex employee of YW. I've explained why I think/know why they are a useless organisation.
Having been at the end of their pathetic excuses. Of the failures of the industry. Often pointing it out to them. Even At board level. The excuses they use to the public don't wash with most employees. The others have got their heads up their arse or are part of the problem. as the same practices are still going on. I keep in touch with lots of colleagues I used to work with.

But one thing I don't have information on. is what goes on at board level behind the scenes. (Closed doors) I get the impression Goldy does.

Most practices are the same at most clubs re contracts. Clauses are the norm in a lot of cases. It benefits the employee more. But if clubs take the risk it's with best intentions.

If connell has a similar clause he may leave. If not, the ball is in Barnsleys court for another year at least on whether to release or not. (Ever since Bosman. clubs have to be more savvy to bring much needed finances in) We either have to accept that fact or you will never move on. I'm as disappointed Duff has gone as anyone. But he made the decision to leave as he is ambitious. he said that from the outset. Some will wait but if for example he'd stayed and didn't achieve a similar outcome next season. His stock would have dropped and his potential income. Such is life so to speak.

Goldy says he held back from buying a season ticket and it's made his mind up for him.

Supporting a club that will always throw up scenarios like this. is not for anyone with a same mindset as him. The in inbetweeners I call em. Some may use fickle. But I reserve that for some other types of supposed fan. Or as recently used, a potential fan.

 

Hooky, I wouldn't call leaving for Swansea ambitious. I've got them chalked down as relegation contenders next year.

If anything it's the flip side for me, it shows a lack of ambition to jump ship without having achieved what ended up as a very realistic goal with us even if it didn't look like that day 1 of the season.

If he really wanted his stock to rise and rubber stamp his credentials, then 100% he stays and finishes the job off next season.

 

I have no issue with people moving on to bigger and better things.

I am though very angry with this situation with Duff and it is all his own doing.

His words at the time of joining us and at all points since suggested he came here for the long haul, to manage a project long term, to integrate into the culture of the town and return the club to its standing in the community.

He was brilliant for the first year, didn’t get us promoted but not one fan saw him as a failure in any way shape or form; even in defeat and in the knowledge of the fact we will lose at least one or two of our top performers, there were still reasons to be very optimistic.

And after all that, the ‘I’m not here for five minutes’ and ‘I’ve had two clubs in 27 years’ rhetoric, he’s ****** off to the first bidder who happens to be a bit of an also ran in the division above. It has unrealistic promotion prospects you might argue - and barely any closer to home for that to be a consideration either. He’s gone to the first sniff he got.

I had no issue when Val left. We knew the score. He never pretended he wanted to make Barnsley a long term project. It was disappointing yes but not unexpected. There were no broken promises or any expectations set that were ignored.

I had little issue when Heckingbottom left. We knew he’d been doing all sorts behind the scenes as well as managing the team - we knew he didn’t get on with the owners and board, so even going to Leeds, whilst it wasn’t great, I got it.

Duff, though, has gone back on his word, words he freely spoke. He, not us as fans, not the football club, gave the expectation that he was here for the foreseeable. He, nobody else, made a big play about how loyal he has always been in his career. He was the one who said he wasn’t a fly by night.

He has gone back on each and every one of those things he said. All of them. So criticism of fans for being angry at him are for me wide of the mark. I think it very justified.

I think criticism of the club itself is a bit harsh though. The release fee seems to have been peanuts ok but look at world football, everyone seems to have these clauses. Borussia Dortmund had to sell Haaland last year for comparative peanuts compared to his actual value (yeah I know the numbers are ridiculous though they paid about £50mil for a player who without the clause would likely have demanded two or probably three times that. They got nearly all that fee they paid from Chelsea for raheem bloody Sterling! Chelsea also paid more than double the Haaland fee for Enzo Fernandez. Haaland was in effect dirt cheap looking at the market, and this was because of the release clause they had to put in) - they’d never have had him in the first place without inserting it though.

So no, I’m not angry with the club. Yes, I’ll still be there next season.

But I’m furious with Duff. If he’d just said he was ambitious and we were the next step this time last year, and didn’t add all the bullish.it about loyalty, long term, not here for five minutes etc, then fine. But he did. He bare arse lied. Even after the playoff final he talked about dusting ourselves down and going again, yet we now know he knew of interest during the season. So he knew he’d be fuxking off even then.

He’s a charlatan, a fly by night. And that would be fine if he hadn’t made a big song and dance about saying he was not those things.

 

I've left it until now, so I wasn't saying something which was based on too much emotion.

I haven't had a ST now for two years (after 23 years of having one), and that decision sat squarely with Conman and Co. (There was 5 of us, me being the longest).

After the season just gone, my Eldest and I had really got the bug again. He himself pushed me towards us getting season tickets again. And I was very much going to. We missed the early bird and all that, which was on me, a choice I willingly made before committing and letting the dust settle.

As Duff himself said. I wanted to "take stock" and assess my life choices, especially with having a very nice life going on at the moment.

And now this. Duff. I won't thank him, and I'm not even going to give him the time of day wasting effort on it. I'm not interested in what he has to say following his arrival speech and the actions he followed that up with nearly 12 months later. See ya, don't let the door smack your ass on the way out.

Now, next season. I'm very much now against a ST. It is what it is (which is a term thrown around on here about players and managers), and with that, my own actions are "is what it is". I will sit out the close season and wait. I have no intention of parting with hundreds of pounds and watching all our star players leave.. Again.. I know that people will then ask how we can keep star players if I don't buy again. Well, that's not my problem. We have had 2 players in Iseka and the other waster, who have single-handedly taken out of the club multiple times more than I have or will ever manage to put into it. So me not renewing/buying ain't gonna make one bit of difference. The general football world, has absolutely no idea what the real world is all about. My season ticket, will equate to probably a days wage of one of our mid-range players.

If we appoint someone who has a bit about him. We don't return to the days of having an entire squad rebuild again, I may just join in. But as it stands, I am very much on a pick-and-choose basis again and will continue to have the good times I am having right now outside of football.

The club still have a long way to go to having me blindly chucking in money season after season with no questions asked.

Spectemeur Agendo.

Believe me; I am doing exactly that... Big strides have been made to reconnect with the fans, and try and get an atmosphere going, but, I don't see much difference in anything else. The whole modus operandi hasn't changed.

This may not be to everyone's liking, and I'm aware of that. Throw pelters, I'm really not fussed. But @Marc hinted at hoping people were avoiding an emotional response. So this is the flip side. My emotional response would have been to buy a ST again. I took the emotion out of it and let the dust settle, looked at things differently, and concluded not much has actually changed. Which has resulted in me doing the exact opposite of what I envisaged, I would do.

I will always be a red, but for now, it's mostly from afar, with the odd game here and there and an away trip somewhere.

 

It really hasn't.

I think you're doing a great disservice to the people at the club, from the people behind the scenes to the playing staff, who have evidently put a lot of work in in the last 12 months to get us back pointing in the right direction. We're in a better position than we were 12 months ago, and Michael Duff leaving doesn't undo all of the work done in the meantime. We've just lost the play-off final by mere seconds in a season where many predicted us to finish below mid-table, and the majority of the peoe who got us there, are still here.

 

Did someone compare you all to confirm that?

 

Lol. Very good.

I was trying to be serious

 

The fact he interviewed with us and Blackpool - he is the only player to have played at every level. Had he gone to Blackpool he'd have skipped over league one. Now he's done L1 he's in the champ to tick that box. After next season first PL club that comes he'll be off - although he probably ultimately wants the burnley job. Cynical? Maybe but id hazard a bet there is some truth in it.

Oh for Swansea to turn up some FFP issue, points deduction, subsequent relegation and we pass em on the way up . lol

But onwards and upwards for us - its about us now and who we bring in. And as I also saw someone else say - Duff never managed to get us winning when behind - he lacked that nouse. Did that cost us promotion? Maybe so! Ipswich, Plymouth and SWFC managed to do that and finished above us.

 

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Honestly mate I disagree. When it seems that some players were there because they bought in to Duff. Him leaving puts us back significantly and may well impact on players wanting to come here.

It is also missed time in the transfer window which cost us dearly a few seasons back trying to do business at the last minute.

Time will tell I guess, but so much had been built around Duff, I feel this time unless we get the new appointment bang on it's gonna really cost us.

We 100% need promotion this season with the new TV financial package coming into place after this season. That new deal will see the gap widen between the Championship and L1.

 

I agree with some of this and would never personally base my ST decision on the this criteria but the fact that they have put some of their money into the club last season to keep it going does not automatically mean the Board are being ambitious enough - not even from a business perspective. The plain and simple fact of the matter is that unless they get out of this league they will keep needing to put similar sums in, year after year, or drastically reduce the non first team budget (or go into administration). That is fact.

Therefore, they do need to go that extra yards to try to do what it takes to get us up - they had the perfect base with Duff and a half decent squad. It probably only needed Isted, Bobby Thomas and two more productive strikers than Watters and Tedic bringing in, plus replacement of Mads and/or Williams if they go (but if so both would have brought their own revenue stream to support replacement).

The environment this season with no great shakes coming down and the likes of Wrexham coming up a year away means this is probably the season in which the cost of 'the extra yards' will be the lowest. And so any business analysis would suggest this is the year to make a modicum of additional business investment at reasonable odds of a substantial return and/or proofing against future losses. Maybe a £1-1.5 million tops but then again we've got the play-off money, Oulare's wage saving, Duff's compo, more season tickets and higher priced season tickets amongst other things so maybe not even anywhere near that much.

Duff's gone now so they need to work efficiently and effectively at pace (these aren't mutually exclusive either) to find his replacement and on recruitment, in such a way that the new person is able to spend a goodly part or pre-season with an at or pretty darned near full strength squad - as per Plymouth last season. It's still doable but they need to act and take decisions and may need to put that little bit more financial oomph behind things so as to move at pace. That's how I'll be judging them - not by what's gone but how they deal with it now.

Two other things - I also think that somebody getting involved in a football club knows that they are likely to have to put their own money in - these are all successful business people and would/should have done the requisite research as they would with any other investment. And secondly I can be pretty darned certain that in my case and in that of many, many other supporters, our financial commitment to BFC is a far greater proportion of my '(lack of) wealth' than the sums that the Board have put in are of theirs!

 

Iniesta in as player manager.

Duff jumped before he could be pushed.

Tiki-fan-taka-stic

 

Well said @Marc