Why do Barnsley fans always get on the backs of home grown players

Since I first starting going to Oakwell in 1989 I have been aware that a section of our fans seem to think the best way to get our team to play well is to heckle our own players.

It really ticks me off when people claim to be supporters, yet do the opposite of supporting the team.

Home grown players I think of who recieved unfair treatment at the hands of Kn**head supporters:

Eaden
Liddell
Baraclough (jnr)
Mclaire
Kay
Hecky

Who am I missing?

 

Jealousy, envy, players have done something they never could....It is a fact that we English just knock our achievers no matter what the skill. Except if your an Arctic Monkey but I bet there are some knockers there

 

Hecky isn't a home grown player

He may be from Barnsley but he served his apprenticeship elsewhere.

Some of my all time favourite Barnsley players in that lot.

 

You missed Morgan ...

In any event I happen to think that you're wrong that there is an active decision to target 'home grown players'

From your list I have had at go at:

1) Eaden
2) Kay
3) Heckingbottom.

When I say had a go I meant that I have singled them out more times than their team mates for criticism, not that I have had 'a go' at them for no good reason.

Eaden was very good going forward but I thought he was a lazy f##ker when it came to Defending. Often there were enough acres behind Nicky Eaden to build a farm in let alone play a ball into and other teams exploited that. That was why I disliked Eaden as a player, nothing to do with him being from Barnsley, he'd have got the same criticism regardless of whether he was home grown or not.

Kay, for large parts of the season(s) was a very good player and got an awful lot of praise. However there were also many a time when the red mist descended and Kay was more interested in b###cking his team mates and trying to pick fights with oppostion strikers than he was playing the game. That irritated me no end and I would give Kay sitck because of that. Again, he'd have got the same criticism regardless of whether he was home grown or not.

Heckingbottom. I think that I've posted here before that although I recognise Heckingbottom as a very good passer of the ball sadly I think he is too slow and is often caught out of position. As a result of that he gets criticism from me for (a) being too slow; and (b) being out of position. He doesn't get criticism for being 'home grown'. I know that he's a big mate of yours and I'm sure that you'd like to think that he, along with those others you mention, are singled out because they are local lads but I simply don't think that's right. I think that any singling out comes from limitations they have as players rather than anything else.

 

Not saying I know the answer, but maybe

when they are "homegrown" they tend to be looked at as a Barnsley through and through etc, and sometimes it maybe is easier to target these as has been previously mentioned, due to jelousy envy etc.

As some fans sit there and dish the dirt out, as a die hard myself, I would walk through fields of broken glass to play for BFC, and to that end, you would expect as a through and through person to give 100% for 100% of the time.

Sometimes, this doesn't appear to be the case, and as such it then becomes easier to target the homegrown, because you then think, "you are supposed to be a BFC fan, and play for your home town club, now give it everything you have got"....

Not sure if this gives an ideal answer, but its just a thought (hopefully I have explained it in an understanding way)


I don't particularly target home grown myself, just the ones who clearly don't "muck in" so to speak.

 

Mick McCarthy

He was very good! The others were/are just ordinary!

 

well said. People seem to think that home grown players are singled out but it#s just not true, people just conveniently forget that players signed from elsewhere get stick too.

Mattis, nardiello, colgan, wright, devaney, hayes, sheron, donovan, gibbs, just a few that I can mention.

 

To include Nardiello in there is a little rich - for the majority of his time at the club, the fans viewed him as the saviour and thought the sun shone out of his arse!

 

"The others were just ordinary"

I agree, so it makes you wonder what the value to the club the academy is bearing in mind the cost, especially as there are so many other clubs in our 'catchment' area. And of course Mick Mcarthy didn't go through an academy.

 

Maybe it's because

If we played for our home town club instead of paying to watch others we would run our blood to water game in game out. Some of the players don't. We can't expect players from elsewhere to have the 'pride of the shirt' because they have no connection other than their wages, home grown players do.

However...

We as fans also forget that to these players it's a job and always has been. They haven't paid to watch their team for 5 years and then be picked out of the crowd to live the dream. But maybe thats a way forward!

To add to that it's not just home grown players that get stick, and I don't think they get anymore than the other players. I feel most players get stick from Barnsley fans and most of it isn't deserved.

IMO of course!

 

Plain and simple answer is...when things are going wrong and the team need some passion the home grown lads should know this and, last season being a fine example, the lads didn't deliver the passion at times. We are all proud folk from t'Tarn and these lads know it. We lose 6-0, they show passion, I don't get on their backs. We lose 6-0, no passion...they deserve it?

I always tell my lad...try your best and even if you fail at least you've tried your best and you can hold your head up high. If you fail and don't try your best....ONLY YERSEN TO BLAME!