I am writing this because I feel both upset and angry over what has happened at Barnsley FC over the past 24 hours. I say upset AND angry because I feel there is a huge difference between the two emotions. I am upset because one of my heroes has been sacked. I will never forgot the glory years of him in charge during the 90’s, the Brazilian style football, the promotion, the premiership, the FA Cup. I am upset because it didn’t work out for him this time when I so badly wanted it to. I am upset because we will never see Danny Wilson as Barnsley manager again. I am upset because someone who seems such a genuinely nice bloke has lost his job. I am upset because someone who I think cares so passionately about Barnsley (unlike the two previous managers who seemed to view us as a stepping stone) is no longer at the club. Yes I am upset. But I have been upset before. I was upset when we sold Redfearn. I was upset when things didn’t work out for Hendrie. I was upset when we went into administration. I was upset when we got relegated. I was upset with the way Steele and Hassell were treated by the previous manager. Upset and being a football fan go hand in hand. I’ve got over it before and no doubt I’ll get it over again. I can’t argue with the poor results since Danny came back. I can’t argue with the awful football at times. I can’t argue with some of the misjudged signings. I can’t argue that sometimes his tactics and team selections were baffling. Perhaps in time I’ll come to see things from the point of view of those who wanted Danny out. Maybe a new manager will come in and get us playing exciting, attacking, winning football and the board will be proved right. Maybe I am upset because I am viewing Danny through rose tinted glasses. Turning my back on Barnsley FC because one man has lost his job is ridiculous. Stopping going to Oakwell because I am upset is daft. Yes, I’m upset, but I’ll get over it. Only the thing is…I’m not just upset…I’m angry. I am not angry because Danny has lost his job. I am angry because I feel I have been lied to. I was under the impression that Barnsley was owned by a good family man, not in it for himself but who only wanted the best for the club and town. I was wrong. According to the statement delivered yesterday, Barnsley FC is run by a business man who sees the players as saleable assets, a way to make money and if he isn’t making money out of the club, he will be ruthless in getting rid of those under him who are failing. I was wrong, I was lied to. I am angry. I am angry because Barnsley always had a reputation in the game as a decent club that gave managers time. The last ten years have made a mockery of that though, and now we are a laughing stock, in the same way that I laughed at Fulham last season. I was wrong, I was lied to. I am angry. I am angry because we were promised a long term plan. This summer was the start of a new vision, a new philosophy. No short term planning, no quick fixes, we were in this for the long haul. We were developing youngsters, trying to build a solid foundation for the future that would lead to long term success even if the immediate future would be full of ups and downs. Now just months into this plan, we have ditched surely the best manager to help fulfil this plan, an experienced manager with a track record of developing youngsters I was wrong. I was lied to. I am angry I am angry because now we have to start all over again. Again. Now another new manager coming in with his own players, his own staff, his own style. What his brief…to play academy graduates and sign lower league players. To develop them and get them playing so well that they attract interest from higher league clubs. These players are then to be sold for a huge profit and the manager has to then replace them with players of the same quality but for less money. But he has to do all this while playing great football and getting us promoted to the championship. Yeah right, good luck finding someone who can do that! I am angry because although the “plan” can continue, there seems to be no idea what that plan is. We have sacked a stable manger but have no idea who will replace him. He could be old or young. Employed or unemployed. Promoted from within or coming from outside. Once again, Barnsley have acted with no long term plan in place I am angry because of Ben Mansford’s press conference where he manipulated attendance figures and unfairly hinted at Danny Wilson’s budget compared with the rest of the leaugue. This was poor form. Things like that should be kept in house. I am angry because he said that Danny had over 20 games to turn it around, like that was a long time to bring in a whole new set of players and get them to gel. I am angry because this was a business decision because we have lost a lot of money in recent years. I am angry because one of the main reasons we have lost lots of money in recent years has been the hundreds of thousands of pounds we have spent paying off managers. Great business! I am angry because I have lost total faith in the people running the club. They have no plan, no strategy and if they ever did they have lost faith in it after just a few months. Clueless or spineless? I am angry every time Ben Mansford speaks because I don’t believe anything he says. Wasn’t it only a couple of weeks ago that he said Danny would be given time to turn this around? I am angry because you can tell Mansford is uncomfortable with the whole situation and is clearly a puppet for Cryne I am angry at Cryne for the above reason. But then again, I am angry that I am angry at Cryne as it feels a bit like hating your parents, where would you be without them?! I am angry because although we are told the supporters are the most important thing, we clearly aren’t. No one cares about what we think. Hill had become very unpopular by the end of his reign. Flitcroft…I think there was a sad inevitability about it. Wilson, he had still the majority of fans willing to give him time. This a sacking that was uncalled for, unnecessary. A sacking just for the sake of it. A new manager now can only use the same players Wilson did. I am angry at the constant lies, cover ups and spin that comes constantly out of the club. What happened with Hassell? Why did Flitcroft fall out with Steele? What do Barry Taylor and Maurice Watkins do? Who signs our players? There just seems to be so much that goes on behind the scenes that is swept away, with no thought as to how the fans feel. I am angry that we don’t have a new scoreboard. Not that I could care less, but because it sums the whole thing up. Something else we were promised but that has failed to be delivered and now seemingly forgotten It’s because I am angry that I can no longer go to Oakwell for the time being. Its because I am angry that I have just had enough and give up. I am not packing in the club because Danny has been sacked. No man is bigger than the club. I am packing it in because the club has become something I hate and the men in charge make me angry just thinking about them. I’ve no doubt that one day I will be back. It’s like the end of a long term love affair. I am sure that one day we will be friends again and can hang out together. But for now its just too painful. It hurts too much. Hate football – love Barnsley is a great motto. Because we are different. Only, we aren’t now are we. We have become the thing we hate. Hate football – at the moment I hate Barnsley too. And that hurts.
Got half way down and felt like I needed to jump out of my window, run up the street and lay down in the middle of the main road.
For your first post, that is one hell of an effort, but it is another long post that sums up my feelings almost exactly. Well said!
What a thoroughly superb post. I'm sure that this succintly captures the emotions of many Barnsley fans, and I hope those who don't understand the anger and were just fed up with poor performances take the time to read it. Yes the team were perfoming badly and there clearly needed to be an improvement, but it's not about that. We've been lied to. We were told that there was a long term strategy that would take four or five transfer windows to get right, and that we were rebuilding. Now we're told that we need to get back to the Championship as quickly as possible. We thought that we had a family run club, with supporters at the helm. Yet we have businessmen who seem to dictate decisions on costs and then roll out PR men to attempt to justify them, men who don't seem convinced with what they are having to say. We thought we were above the disloyalty and unseemly cash-driven nature of modern football, yet we are ready to get rid of the one manager who haf a geniune attachment to the club in the last ten years on 'business rationale'. We thought we, the fans, were valued, and our opinions important to those in charge. Yet the wishes of hard core majority of season ticket holders and reasonable fans seem to matter for nothing as its taken for granted that they'll always be there whatever, the club more bothered about a minority 'floating voters' who will only pay to watch the club if they're entertained. I hope people can understand that its about so much more than results and performances.
Excellent post. Couldn't have written it any better. Sums me up perfectly too. I hope the board take note of the bbs. The minority who wanted him gone shout the loudest. The majority speak when it's needed to be spoken.
Interesting read.Not sure I agree when you say Patricks out to make money.The way I read it is that saleable assets are designed to let the club stand on it's own two feet.
Good post. I said earlier, it's like the end of the Wizard of Oz. The curtain was pulled away and instead of seeing a great and powerful long term plan, there was just a guy in a suit counting money.
Brilliant. If I had the time, and the way with words, that is exactly what I would have written because I agree with every word. Never been more angry with the goings on at my club. I have no interest in who comes in now to replace him, I couldn't care less. I think Ben Mansford needs to be next to go because whether they were his words yesterday or whether he was just mouthing the words on behalf of the cryne family, after everything we have been led to believe over the last 12-14 months about how this club is being run, its strategy and vision, he now has no credibility left and will never be believed again. This will take a long time to repair.
Thanks. A frequent viewer of the board but never posted before. Just so fed up with the situation that I felt I had to vent my feelings somehow. Everytime a new manager comes in I get excited and optomistic about the future only for them to be sacked in 12 months time. In some cases these sackings were justified but this one just came so out of the blue. I have no enthusiasm to listen to yet another new manager come in and us start again. So I'm taking a break from going to games and watching press conferences for time being. And if I hear Ben Mansford talk about "the fantastic support from the owner" one more time I might throw up. Yeah, we know he's pumped cash into the club no need to keep going on about it
Not angry at all. It was always going to happen. Just happened much sooner than I thought. Life goes on
