The cycle of decline

I was with you Red Rain until this bit:

I'm not calling for Johnson to go, as I don't think it will make a jot of difference in the long run. But I completely disagree with your conclusion that it's the fans, the lifeblood of the club, who are to blame for our current situation. They're not the ones letting the club down on the pitch, in the dugout, on the board. They're the ones who pay stupid money to support the above after 5 losses and no goals from open play in 600 minutes, and still sing and clap their team off at the end despite being given nothing in return. Not once yesterday was their a chant, song or shout for Johnson to leave. There might be some on here who call for the manager to go every week, but it's not the fans that go week in week out to places like Scunthorpe (for the 3rd time this season) to see us lose in pathetic fashion.

On that note, you mention the withdrawal of financial support from the fans who quite rightly decide they've better things to do on a Saturday/Tuesday than watch Barnsley labour to a 6th loss in a row in the third tier. 690 could still be bothered to trek all the way to Scunthorpe yesterday. 3,000 went to Doncaster the other week. Nearly 500 to Southend. That of course has no bearing on our own clubs finances, but we draw among the biggest home gates in the division to go along with the support our team is offered away from home. Walsall and Burton barely attract a third of that, their financial support is minimal compared to ours. So why is it that despite this lack of finance they're top of the division?

What is your financial contribution this season out of interest? If you trek up and down the country every other week and are at Oakwell the next, fair enough. If not, I'm not sure you're in a position to talk about our fan's financial contributions, less blame them for our current situation.

 

DWs team weren't in the relegation zone were they?

 

All valid. How do Walsall, Gillingham, Coventry, Burton etc do it then who all have similar issues to contend with and arguably lower budgets and without the same infrastructures, academy etc as us?

 

Soz
Should have said relegation zone or thereabouts.

 

You are clearly an intelligent and articulate poster RR

Quite why you offer such deference to those who just happen to be involved when you've got just a clear a handle on things as they have is therefore beyond me.

One point I'd love to get an answer to is where the extra money the owner puts in gets spent? He's not getting any value for it that's for sure.

 

Where have I claimed that? DW wasn't great but I had more faith that he'd improve us because his record indicated he's been s good manager before. LJ is at best untried with little track record.

We were never in this position either. Certainly not 1 point off bottom.

If you think LJ is going to keep us up never mind take us up (!) then fair doos. I've seen precious little to convince me of this.

 

7 points. Let's be reight.

 

Let the manager manage?

 

So is it attention seeking or self-flagellation?

"The club" no longer exists as the romantic notion in your vision. You therefore need to ask (with your business head on) whether those who purchase entertainment as a leisure activity are being given value for money.

Subjective one that, but I can tell you my answer.

 

I think you'll agree with me that we don't purchase an St with the expectation of being entertained in a footballing sense every season,its more a lifestyle

 

Precisely - once we get the right one:

http://bbs.barnsleyfc.org.uk/showthread.php?234082-Disastrous-Managerial-Appointments

 

7pts weren't it?

 

"its more a lifestyle"

Said tongue in cheek but it's bang on for some. Part of a social gathering which can be enhanced, even through the ****, by having something you all care about, a common theme, sumert to make you gather as a community, sumert even just to debate and chat about. Even if it's ****.

That's 'football'.

For some.

 

The fact that I totally disagree with you Marlon is the whole point. The 'lifers' will continue to purchase ST's come what may, cause that's what they do. And credit to them. But the 'floating voters' (and I count myself as one) will not continue unconditionally. And it's that extra support (which could make a crucial difference) that the club puts at risk when it perseveres with a strategy of appointing cheap option managers without experience, and consequently serving up a product with zero entertainment value. I dipped out when Keith Hill was appointed, and I'll be dipping out again next term unless there is a fairly seismic change in our prospects of providing that entertainment.

 

As far as I could see there wasn't a fault to be had when we sacked Wilson. We were 7 points off the play-offs, 7 points off relegation. Neither were going to happen, we were midtable, largely due to the fact that we'd rid ourselves of almost the entire squad in the summer and started from scratch. Midtable was fine by me. I could see we'd signed some good players, and some not so good ones, and I expected us to replace where we were weak in the summer, keep what was good, and have a much better crack at it this time around.

We hadn't just been on a long losing run when we sacked him either. We'd won 2, lost 2 of his final 4 games. We'd won the previous 4 home games before the Fleetwood game that got him the sack. The football had become dull, particularly compared to earlier in the season when it was pretty damn good at times, but we'd lost Winnall to injury, while Cole had returned to Man City.

On the plus side, we'd signed Scowen to fill the gap we'd had earlier in the season when we'd been overrun in midfield and brought in Pearson until we got Scowen up to speed. We'd stopped conceding goals, keeping a number of clean sheets in games prior to Wilson's dismissal, while a plethora of young academy lads were given first team experience. We weren't setting the division alight, far from it, and there were a few disappointing results (but some very good ones too), but there was summat there. We needed a couple more good players, but there was summat to build on.

We're now 13 points off the play-offs (after only 15 games!) and right in the relegation zone. We're on a 6 match losing run, we're not scoring goals, we're not keeping clean sheets, we're not using our young players any more and I can't see anything there at all. Nothing. And it's not like Johnson had to start from scratch, he inherited some very decent players from Wilson. He had the players Wilson left him with and the summer transfer window to get more in. Yet we're doing far worse.

I'm not advocating sacking Johnson and I don't blame him entirely, or even believe he is most at fault, but there simply is no comparison between how we were doing under Wilson and how we are doing now.

 

DW was the man to back. Opportunity missed.

 

Fantastic post. I see things exactly the same

 

Correct.

Selecting the right one has been a bit of a problem

 

The fans that I refer to who are withdrawing financial support are not those who travel all around the country and who turn up to every home game. They are not the people to whom the board looks when making a decision about sacking the manager. The people the board take notice of are the people who are prepared to stop going to home games, who are prepared to stop buying season tickets. The people who decide whether a manager stays or goes are not the faithful, they are the fickle few who are prepared to withdraw their financial support because the argument that withdrawing your support reduces the budget for player wages, and therefore reduces the quality of player that the club is able to sign means nothing to them. They can come on here and argue that the manager should go, that Cryne should spend more and yet they do not see the paradox that comes with the threat to stop going if it does not happen.

I am a season ticket holder. I do not travel to away games. Last season was my 50th continuous season of support. My first full season was our first in division 4 and the following season when the team was 92nd in the league, I was one of the 1400 that constituted our lowest ever attendance. I reckon that I have served my time and am entitled to my say.

 

What an insult to blame the fans for our current situation!