Where's bluebrid when you need him?

Have to agree with much of Bluebird's reply. The situation at Cardiff is far from ideal and goes against everything that I believe football should represent, but the same goes for many, many clubs in English football these days. Sadly football has become a play thing of billionaire foreigners and the like and the ordinary working class fan is gradually being marginalised, but facing a choice of liquidation or dancing with the devil then most fans would take the dosh...

 

Nice post.

 

Good read and interesting points.

Are we basically saying, as football fans, we don't care what happens so long as we have a club and if we actually see some improvement on the pitch, we'll even accept the utterly ridiculous?

We've never been in that situation at Barnsley. No one has ever tried to force anything daft on the club, while every hardship we've ever encountered has gradually made us worse. Nothing has come along to improve us. There's been no oligarch with one hundred million burning a hole in his pocket and a penchant for mustelidae, insisting we wear stripy tops and call ourselves The Barnsley Badgers. So, we just don't know how we'd react to it. We've got a moderately wealthy business man as owner, and while we're all very grateful for that, he props us up rather than bankrolling us. I'm not suggesting he should do more, he's put way too much money in from his own pocket already as far as I'm concerned, I'm just explaining the situation. Even with that help, we're nowhere near the level we once were. We play in the same division, but we're very much making up the numbers. That didn't used to be the case.

Between 1981 and 2002 we were a mid-table division 2 (championship club). We'd occasionally flirt with promotion or relegation, but we'd usually finish 12th. We paid our own way, built three new stands after the Taylor report, bought players, sold players, had the odd cup run and basically went about the business of being a decent second division club: hard to beat at Oakwell, a bit soft away from home. Other clubs would come in and buy our best players, but we weren't above poaching the best players from other clubs ourselves. We certainly never had a problem with attracting quality players to the club. If we sold one good player, we'd go out and buy another one. And the majority of those players were happy to play here.

That simply isn't the case any more. We pick up the scraps. We get what's left. We strike it lucky occasionally, but anyone even slightly better than a plodder is rarely here more than a few months. We've been in the ridiculous situation recently where we've agreed loan deals with Premier League clubs for players not getting a game, who have turned us down. Apparently, there are dozens and dozens of players out there that would rather not play football at all than play for Barnsley, such is our lowly reputation.

After our season in the Premier League and a trip to a Wembley play-off final a couple of years later, we imploded. Administration followed by a decade or so of dire football. Even the promotion season back to the Championship was forgettable, apart from the final in Cardiff, which was a highlight. Either the club is still sickly, or we're the same, football has moved on and we can no longer compete. Whichever, we're a long way short of where we once were and that looks like it's going to continue for the foreseeable future. We're living on borrowed time in this division.

Do I want it to go back to what it was like in the 80s and 90s? You're damn right I do. Would I accept us changing the colour of our shirt and the chairman riding roughshod over the manager to achieve that goal? And where would it stop? Do you accept anything so long as the money keeps rolling in? Would I carry on cheering as the club sold its soul? I can't say for certain, but I don't think I would. You're right that such actions don't destroy the history of the club, that will always be there, but in my opinion they destroy the present and the future. I don't know if I'd want to stick around to see that. I desperately want to see Barnsley football club do well. But that's this club, the one that we've got right now. I don't know how bothered I am about the future success of a club that simply keeps the name, but loses everything else about its identity and turns in to something I can no longer relate to.

 

I wouldn't object to a rebranding. Always thought a change to the Barnsley B*****ds playing in black would be good. Chanting 'B*****ds B*****ds' throughout the game would improve the atmosphere, Dave Flitcrofts Black and White B****ds Army, B*****d army B*****d Army, BFCST would become the Redtards ST

 

Made my ******** tingle that Jay.

 

That last sentence is bang on Jay. It might look similar from the outside (but not by much) but on the inside it's rotten to the core. But 'fans' are happy to lap it up for the sake of short-term success.

 

I'd just add one more thing Jay. The reason we are in this position is because of every club that are doing what Cardiff and others are doing. We can't compete because in trying to do it the right way we are up against clubs prepared to spend some random millionaires money who is either massaging their ego or gambling on the clubs existence to try and make money from them. For every fan that turns round and says 'But that's the only way we could compete', well maybe you are right, but you've just shafted every other club's fan even more and destroyed another little part of the game.

 

Ragingly gay.

But absolutely 100% bang fcking on.

 

I spotted this thread first thing this morning and decided to save it so I could read it properly during a coffee break. With all due respect to the long and illustrious history of this BBS, that's a bit of a first.

Much as I agree with pretty much everything you write, Jay, I do think that these things build up incrementally. I'm not sure there's one clear point where any club and its supporters sign on a dotted line to say "Yes we agree to let you turn our club into a soulless corporate whore in exchange for the hope of overnight success". One day it's the ownership, another day it's the colour of the shirts, another it's the scouting team, etc. It looks inevitable in hindsight I know but who's to say which step is the one too far? Where might increased spending (£1.5m for Hristov!) have led us if we'd have stayed up and been offered more to be able to compete but with strings attached - small ones at first but then . . .

There's also, of course, the argument that "Virtue never tested is no virtue at all", as Billy Bragg sang.

Having said that, things at Cardiff certainly seem to have taken a further leap into the ridiculous if those reports are to be taken at face value.

 

So are you saying bring back the Don?

 

I'm interested in this Bluebird, why was the club going to fold? There's many more clubs in the land with fewer resources/fanbase than Cardiff that have survived financial troubles.

Was it really a choice of either taking the money or going bust or was that how Tan and the rest put it to the fans?

 

there are worse clubs it could happen to other than Cardiff....but not many

 

I agree entirely. It doesn't all happen at once. These things sneak up on you as Cardiff fans are now beginning to realise. I think that was the point of my post - which step is the step too far? What are we prepared to accept and what will make us say: "Hang on a minute, I've had just about enough of this ****." I guess the breaking point will be different for all of us, but if we take Cardiff as an example it seems that changing shirt colour and bringing in your son's mate to oversee transfer dealings has had very little effect at all. Actually, attendances are still going up, if the extension to the stadium that bluebird mentioned is anything to go by.

What's the next step? His son's other mate to play centre forward? Getting rid of the management team altogether and doing it himself? Losing the name Cardiff and calling the club The Welsh Dragons or even Tan's Dragons? Moving the club to a suburb of London in order to attract the Asian immigrants?

Are any of those suggestions any more ludicrous than employing the guy who paints the walls to oversee transfer policy?

If you accept someone's money who has no emotional bond with the club, don't be surprised when everything about the club that you hold dear is gradually eroded away. That's why I think we should all be very sceptical from the start and not be in such a rush to welcome 'investment'. Investment is exactly that, it's not a gift, you'll pay for it in the long run, 10 times over and in ways you couldn't possibly imagine.

 

Very good post, Jay. As you and others say, it is a matter of degree as to whether fans are willing to accept change by investors.

Perhaps the Financial Fair Play rules and regulations will make a difference, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

Tan had made a statement that he was to invest £100m into the club, wiping the debt (£60m+ seemed to be the accepted figure and he was also pumping in £1.2m/month to keep it afloat), investing in the stadium, training facilities, academy and first team. Fantastic news.The caveat he added a few days later was that he'd be changing the kit colour to red. There was uproar. He retracted the kit change later that day - but stated that he'd no longer be able to invest into the club as he saw this as a vital component in his marketing strategy. He'd be looking to invest "elsewhere" and actively looking to sell on/fold. Basically, it was sold as "Red or Dead".

We'd had a "lively" recent financial past in which a certain Mr Ridsdale was representing us at the High Court what seemed to be every week. He didn't pay a bill, mortgaging everything with a value at the club, and creditors were well peeved - particularly HMRC who were pushing for liquidation.They were targetting football clubs at the time and clearly wanted to make an example. It would have been far easier to liquidate little old Cardiff than Rangers for instance. We would have gone, no doubt about it in my mind.

 

We are living on borrowed time and the reason for that is the Premier League.

When the PL reduced it's numbers, that meant those teams were now inhabiting the 'second division', normally our turf, so we have a league that now has a few more 'big' teams in it.

Then comes parachute payments, clubs coming down from the PL have access to lots of cash.

Then come the oligarchs, certain clubs have sugar daddies who want to get into the PL to let their toys play with the other big boys toys.

There is simply no way traditional old Barnsley (and I like it that way) can compete, it has never been a level playing field, but it was never as badly skewed as this.

If we go down, I accept that, we still get to play football and we have a chance of competing and winning games.

 

Jay - the most 'c'onservative chap on here...

You're right though, some will have a sense of pride in their club, others will be raving nutjacks who'd turn us into 'Yorkshire Tykes' or some such nonsense.

 

Would you like to write something about it for our fanzine? Nothing too serious, be good to get someone's opinion that supported the decision in the first place.

 

So basically brinkmanship on his part to get what he wanted.

Oldest trick in the book - present an abhorrent scenario that will materialise unless the one presenting the scenario is given and gets his way.

There's a long way to go yet in his plans imho. We all have a breaking point.

 

Let's be honest, this new guy isn't going to remain in his new-found position. It's been suggested overnight that the manager & backroom staff have become far too comfortable and powerful. The players have "banned" the owner from the dressing room (something I agree with btw) over a now-resolved bonus row. There have been many detailed leaks to the press (Daily Mail in particular), clearly from within the club. The owner thinks his budget has been exceeded. Could be a case of him flexing his muscles and saying "I run the show here". He's suspended the managers trusted lieutenant and replaced him with anybody - because he can. Don't know any reasons, just speculation on this at the moment. More to this than meets the eye imo - and it'll inevitably emerge in due course.

With regards the step too far, it would be a name change for me - and many others. We've changed kit before, badge umpteen times. The name is sacrosanct.