Uncomfortably numb

I don’t know if it’s my age, my stage of life or something else, but I can’t recall ever feeling this ‘numb’ about following Barnsley.

I’ve seen some dross over the years but I’ve always felt passionate. Even that Johnson season when we were bottom at Christmas, I still enjoyed the games. We were losing but we had something. We went on to make the play-offs and win at Wembley, twice. One of the greatest turnarounds ever.

But now, even though we might have made the best points tally in 20 years at this stage of a season had we beaten Charlton, I just feel numb. Uncomfortably so. It’s almost like I don’t care any more.

The FA cup disqualification was an embarrassment for any professional club. The misdemeanour earlier in the season for which we still await our punishment - shouldn’t have happened. The lies about players not leaving, then leaving, again, avoidable. Unprofessional.

Year after year we seem to build and then destroy, yet never seemingly learn?

I’d have Hecky back in a heartbeat. Get Macca or Redders alongside him and **** everyone else. Let’s rebuild a Barnsley team to be proud of once again. A team comprised of individuals that care, people whose heart beats the rhythm beat of Barnsley people. Let’s get our club back.

 

Passionate post pal and I agree with its sentiments but without financial backing survival is the best we can hope for.
If we could harness the sentiment side and back it with a reasonable amount of investment we could well be onto a winner.
However, the present board is doing the best it can, imo, with the resources at its disposal

 

Nail on the head. When you've seen this pattern so many times (from the Taylors and Robledos down to the Andersens and Kitchings) you begin to ask: what's the point? Since 2017 we have supposedly had the wealthiest owners in our history, yet still the same pattern emerges. No reasonable offer refused. It seems to be the way of the modern game, so it is probably unlikely we will ever again see sides of the calibre of 1980-82, 1996-97 or 2015-16.

 

I bailed out about 3 seasons ago and glad I did. I see nothing that would tempt me back. I didn’t even feel it with the play off game because I’ve seen it all before. All I do now is check the result at tea time.

 

The key resource that the present board is lacking in my opinion is any ability to run a football club. I believe they're trying their best too but I think that they're so far out of their depth that their best is just nowhere near good enough because they don't have the ability to run a football club. Mainly because they've come from backgrounds that have absolutely nothing to do with football clubs.

 

Lee and Conway tarnished my loyalty big time. Was like having a poor man's Cummings and Johnson at Oakwell

 

For me we were sold yet another lot by Khaled “Big News “ one of many so glad he’s gone, we were told in setting Collins on we would keep our identity attacking, high tempo chasing down etc !what we’ve seen from day one is negative, sideways drippy teapot boring to watch football with no plan B.
We need gone now and we need the director of football in now the window Is two weeks away, yes I know Bobby is in that role temporarily as is the acting CEO, Bobby may get the role full time but whilst these things no doubt take time why wasn’t a new CEO in post ? We knew Billy liar balls was going!

 

Since last season we have lost the ability/willingness to press from the front. Cole doesn't seem to be ar@ed half the time and Cosgrove/ Watters pressing game is not has good as Norwood/Aitchisons was.
Our mantra of attacking, high intensity pressing football seems at odds with our recruitment policy of only signing players to make money on, rather than players that fit into Barnsleys playing ethos.

 

Don't think it was "lies" about players leaving mate. Circumstances change week to week, day to day even hour to hour.
More of Neerav showing his inexperience saying something was definitely not happening when he really should have just kept his trap shut.
I think Khalid and Julie Ann do/did the same. They tell the the fans what they think they want to hear, instead of the truth of the situation. Something that will always come back to bite you.
No malice, but inexperience, They think their management skills are universal when they're not. We are not customers to be fobbed off at the end of a phone..
Football is different, don't know why, but just is. Way, way more personal than business. Until they clearly get that, they'll struggle

 

To be fair, very few football club owners come from backgrounds that are anything to do with running football clubs. It used to be the case that many clubs were handed down in families, but that's no longer the case. The closest any new owner has to experience is if they own other sports clubs.

You only gain the experience by making the mistakes and learning from them. It's fair to say these guys have made plenty, so you'd expect them to be learning pretty damn quickly. The criticism that's due is when they make the same mistakes repeatedly, or fail to act quickly enough when the mistakes are highlighted. Certainly there is much to be concerned about in that regard with the current group.

That doesn't mean they can't or won't learn due to the absence of a footballing background, and they'd do very well indeed to get some more people around them who understand the game far better than they do.

 

Get Hecky ,Redders and Macca in who care,but do they?,one left us for Leeds,one admits he loves Leeds and the other don’t seem to even want to be anywhere near the club,so not as to tarnish his legacy of cult hero
People need to realise game as changed,we have 10k fans at most,playing in a pub league ,we are not going to attract big name players and hopefully if the under 18 team progress to be good first team we might have a brief bit of good football to watch,but the big clubs will come to take what we got sadly,it’s not a matter of being numb it’s a matter of being realistic

 

One of the big issues for me is we don’t have legends anymore. Theres no attachment to anyone because you know they’re leaving the first chance they get.

I’d love 3 or 4 Hassell & Foster types who you feel are here for the long term & can have some kind of affinity to.

Only feels like Kane, Cole, Cadden have been here two minutes yet all the signs seem to be that they won’t be here next season.

 

For me the manager and his philosophy is everything for small clubs like ours but unfortunately when we get a good one their not here for very long.
I feel like Collins isn't getting anywhere near the best out of our players and the team as a unit just doesn't feel as effective as it could be although I'm sure he'd argue that 10 wins is a decent return.

 

Are they though? Their way to make cash is to weaken the team. We could all be BFC owners if that's the way forward. They have been here years and don't generate revenue streams. The whole Oakwell experience is poor. Let's look at yesterday...

The stupid ideas they have in place for the car park must have cost them thousands because again it was nothing like full. Programmes unavailable way before kick off so more cash lost. Concourse TV switched off. No visible pricing at catering on our food signs still. No sign of Toby Tyke upstairs and why when he is at games does some guy follow him around like Toby doesn't know where to walk for himself? No Rocky music or Timerider. No wonder it was like a library most of the game.

 

Exactly my thoughts and that is what is slowly killing the club

 

Most of our fan base saw immediately, what our board were doing as mistakes (too many to list and some done to death).
I do believe our board are trying their best to rectify their mistakes and the new posts of director of football and the *** thing are starts...I also hope these posts are totally inclusive in their decision making and not just lip service to appease the unrest.
The problem they (the board) have is they are trying to reboot a reboot and ask us to believe them and back them. By continually making the same mistakes and expecting a different answer is the ideal of madness.
The summer signings this year were bloody awful and obvious to us all...scattergun quantity over quality, which we have seen before and know is a poor substitute. We now have a kind of disjointed squad, who have abandoned the successful press we have employed.
Look ......
they are honest enough to come out, meet the fans, listen and then do something. Our CEO leaving was a good start as he was clearly out of his depth, used having a lesser role with infinite money and better people around him in his previous job.
There has been something numb about our season so far (even after our first game) and its down to our suits to put it right. Stop destroying everything overnight and give us at least a medium term plan that we can build on.
I want to believe in them ....and I kind of do....its just so hard when we see .....well what we see.

 

This is at the heart of it. I look after a software business in the UK. Do i think i could run a fashion business in New York, or any sort of business in India, Christ no, and the bloke they brought in to do it for them - of questionable quality anyway - has had his head up his arse and one foot out of the door since September. No one should be surprised that we're making novice errors and they'll continue until we get some proper expertise into the football club - and that someone needs to be in the building daily both in body and in spirit.

 

If you look at what’s happened since the ousting of Lee/Conway you will find that in their first full season we got to the playoff final. We all know what happened there.
We are now approaching the halfway point of their second season and whilst it’s not going quite as we all would like, equally it’s far from being a total disaster.
Yes away from the football side there’s been many administrative issues, but as you have often pointed out, these were very much of Khaled’s making. Well he wasn’t appointed by the current board and he is no longer at the club. What is crucial now is that they get Khaled’s replacement and the DOF appointments right. Only when these have had time to make an impact will we able to properly judge Neerav, Quay and the current board

 

Aye. Right enough. We’re all aware that we need to sell to stay afloat but that’s really just a supposition. No one has actually come out and said that this is our business model even though it’s obvious enough. As for the team, there are a few too many sows ears in there to make even a moderately decent purse. I’d like a little more transparency from the board, more consistency from the team management, and more effort from the players.
Is that too much to ask?

 

Same, rot for me started when we sold kieffer moore and Ethan pinnock. Lack of ambition and brought in dross.