Would you stop going if Flitcroft got the job?

You will mate. Redstar will point me out to you no doubt - I reckon he fancies me.

 

He does. He told me after too much red wine.

He's not going to Palace though. Just the hardcore I'm afraid. The reight supporters.

 

Bit like that time he didn't go to a game this season to go to a music festival full of under age girls.

 

T4 on the beach I think he went to. He has a valid reason this time which I'm sure he will announce nearer the time.

 

Is it because he has posters of Rick Edwards on his wall where the Che Guevara one has got too dog eared?

 

I reckon he's more a Steve Jones type of lad. Or vintage Demot O'Leary.

I'm more Jameela Jamil.

 

Keith Hill did alright in the transfer market. He had next to bugger all to spend and got decent value for his money. He signed too many players like, but most of them were OK.

But that's not what being a manager is about. It's about getting results on the field. Something he completely failed to do.

You could argue he was brought in to make money in the transfer market. According to Don Rowing he wasn't but you could argue that. But even taking those parameters we've only sold two players he brought in. He's not really made us a fortune. The big money sales have been from players who have come through our youth ranks. I know you'd like to give all the credit for John Stones to Keith, but he was at Oakwell for over a decade before Keith even got here. Butterfield was already in the first team before Keith got here and to my mind our best player. I'm not saying Keith wasn't part of their development, but the £millions we made were not down to him.

Signing some decent players on the cheap and helping to sell our youth players while getting relegated does not a good manager make.

 

I agree with all of that.

He wasn't getting the results, he got sacked. But I still think there are factors that should be taken into consideration to put his record into context.

 

My favourite Barnsley team in the last decade was the one up to the January transfer window in Hill's first season. They were great to watch, a complete tonic from the dourness of Robins team.

My favourite Barnsley match in the last decade was Leeds at home on New Year's Eve. Some of that was due to other factors - I'd found out that morning I was going to become a dad, I brought a load of non-Reds fans with me who loved it, and I went out that night and sang we all hate Leeds scum outside York Minster at midnight.

I loved Hill's non-sensical interviews, I loved how homourless people on here got themselves so worked up by him, I loved how he made us stop pinging aimless balls four foot over Andy Gray's head who somehow then got the blame for it. It was just fun being a Barnsey fan. And it was all done whilst breaking even.

It all went wrong after Charlton away. Hill panicked, made poor descisions, and abandonned his comitment to players like Dagnall. In hindsight it was the right time for him to go, but only because the board have dropped on in giving the job to Flicker. They sacked him without a clue what they were doing and have got lucky.

I would argue the counter, that those who hated Hill are massively overstating how different the football is under Flicker. It is still posession football but played at a higher tempo (ike Forest under O'Driscoll) and is benefiting from having someone to hold the ball up - just as we played at a higher tempo with Andy Gray in the side last year.

But Flicker is a breath of fresh air in terms of positivity, in terms of going for the win, sticking with a team, and I don;t care what anyone says, he's luckier than Keith. Not a chance that Jason Scotland goal would have gone in on Saturday under Keith. It would have bounced off every defender and come back off the post.

Still think Keith's a good manager. You don;t do what he did at Rochdale without being good. But he lost the plot here towards the end and should have gone. But my answer wouldn;t be the same if we'd appointed Butcher. Or Hignett. Or Branson.

 

Chortle

 

Definetly. Without a doubt.