Are the owners failing yet again ?

[Shadrack the Red]

With the transfer window nearing an end I ask the question " are the owners failing again " ? , last season brought a new coach who was clearly let down by the owners , bringing in players who were not ready for division 1 and still not in some cases and then selling our captain on the last day , is history about to repeat itself ? , players whose contracts were up have not been replaced , Cole, Kane and MCatee were moving on and the suits new this last april and yet another new coach has been brought in who so far has not received backing , in 4 months we have so far not brought in a striker or a goalscorer as such to replace the 40 plus goals a season we have lost , fans are fickle and when results do not go our way they will turn on Clarke who currently be pulling his hair out , so far he has been badly let down as was Collins last season , it might be that I have got it wrong and the recruitment team pull the rabbits out of the hat, but I fear the worst and Clarke will suffer the same as Collins did by being dealt a very poor hand by our wonderful owners .

[SBRed48]

Clarke sounded like a nod and a wink had been given to him by Sormaz concerning getting business done early when he said he hoped he could work with more or less the new squad at the Loughborough Training Camp.

The anticipated rush to buy our Hungarian international after the Euros didn't happen and a few clubs seem to have got cold feet. Preston were rumoured to want Phillips but the manager was sacked. Sormaz was relying on money from these moves to fund any incomings.

As it stands the club is skint with no cash reserves and income not covering day to day expenditure. The 50% share of the ground has been sold and we are now tenants. The Share Issue card has been played to exhaustion and £3 mill is still owed for the purchase of the club nearly seven years ago.

The owners will not "prime pump" any transfer dealings so for the days remaining this transfer window we are reliant on a player or players being sold. If not it will be the usual late loan signings who will be dressed up as our Top No1 targets all along.

[Shadrack the Red]

All true but one of our main assets last season was MCatee through the loan market and so far we have not used this route but something has to be done otherwise Clarke will be following the same route as Collins , expected to perform miracles with a weaker squad than their predecessor , rinse and repeat .

[SBRed48]

All true but one of our main assets last season was MCatee through the loan market and so far we have not used this route but something has to be done otherwise Clarke will be following the same route as Collins , expected to perform miracles with a weaker squad than their predecessor , rinse and repeat .

We have swooped on "Gaga" Slonina from Chelsea and Matthew Craig from Spurs on loans but there may well be another Premiership young striker to come under the radar next Friday.

[POGGYWELL]

It’s the same old repeat and rinse, “Exciting times” waiting for the next big silly money pay day.

[Shadrack the Red]

Sorry I could have put it better , I meant to bolster our striker dept hence the reference to MCatee , however the point of my original post was to highlight how our beloved owners are once again laying the foundations to throw another new HC under the bus , some on here believe that our owners are the best thing since sliced bread , my opinion is somewhat different , I hope they prove me wrong .

[pass_and_move]

Tha spot on Shads. Same old routine season after season. I felt for Collins and I feel for Clarke who has an even tougher job than his predecessor.

I have absolutely no hope of things improving either. Every season at league 1 level is costing the club while ever we have players on championship wages- Styles and Benson. It's also a rather large loss in terms of TV revenue from Championship level to lg1.

Empty promises and excuses from Sormaz. He's simply another spokesperson put in place to try and try and vindicate the lack of investment and ambition from the owners.

The Mads Anderson and Liam Kitching money is clearly going into covering debts that the club has accrued over the last few seasons. It certainly has not been reinvested into signing players, that's for sure as most of our recruitment over the last 18 months have been free transfers.

The head coaches are not miracle workers. Those who are 'pro' towards our owners seriously need a re-think cos the stench of bullshyte is getting stronger and stronger from Grove St.

The owners want to make a success of things I'm sure but how realistic are they? I believe they're better people than Conway and Lee but their principles, in terms of running a football club without any personal financial investment, are fundamentally the same.

Can anybody say in all seriousness that any of our signings over the last 18 months will yield a decent profit? Apart from perhaps Donovan Pines, for me the answer is a definitive NO. Our only hope of bringing in profit (once Luca, Phillips, Pines, Styles are sold) is by producing an academy star. Seeing as the Academy hasn't produced enough barring Stones, Holgate and Butterfield in 25 years, is it realistic to expect things may alter? Again it's pretty much a definitive no in my opinion.

Worrying times ahead for this club unless the head coach can produce a miracle

[Shadrack the Red]

Tha spot on Shads. Same old routine season after season. I felt for Collins and I feel for Clarke who has an even tougher job than his predecessor.

I have absolutely no hope of things improving either. Every season at league 1 level is costing the club while ever we have players on championship wages- Styles and Benson. It's also a rather large loss in terms of TV revenue from Championship level to lg1.

Empty promises and excuses from Sormaz. He's simply another spokesperson put in place to try and try and vindicate the lack of investment and ambition from the owners.

The Mads Anderson and Liam Kitching money is clearly going into covering debts that the club has accrued over the last few seasons. It certainly has not been reinvested into signing players, that's for sure as most of our recruitment over the last 18 months have been free transfers.

The head coaches are not miracle workers. Those who are 'pro' towards our owners seriously need a re-think cos the stench of bullshyte is getting stronger and stronger from Grove St.

The owners want to make a success of things I'm sure but how realistic are they? I believe they're better people than Conway and Lee but their principles, in terms of running a football club without any personal financial investment, are fundamentally the same.

Can anybody say in all seriousness that any of our signings over the last 18 months will yield a decent profit? Apart from perhaps Donovan Pines, for me the answer is a definitive NO. Our only hope of bringing in profit (once Luca, Phillips, Pines, Styles are sold) is by producing an academy star. Seeing as the Academy hasn't produced enough barring Stones, Holgate and Butterfield in 25 years, is it realistic to expect things may alter? Again it's pretty much a definitive no in my opinion.

Worrying times ahead for this club unless the head coach can produce a miracle

Good post Pass , I think this what others have alluded to being the " Barnsley way " , which translates means we muddle through the season hoping to do well , we then sack the HC , replace him then weaken the squad from the previous season and the whole annual process begins again, now two things can happen , we either get lucky and perform a miracle or we slide the wrong way , we all hope for the miracle but eventually if you keep playing roulette the banker will win .

[pass_and_move]

It looks like the loan market is our only realistic hope. If we use that facility in a shrewd manner then we could perhaps mount a play off challenge. The squad isn't strong enough to stay the course of the season at this moment in time. I think the high energy pressing game that we see this season will take its toll eventually. Perhaps a fair few fans didn't appreciate that last season was the same in terms of lack of squad strength and Collins didn't choose to play high press yet we still tailed off badly due to lack of options and lack of quality coming in.

Clarke is faced with an even bigger challenge than Collins. Perhaps Clarkes high energy style will burn this squad out come March and we will suffer through it. I question if that style of play is the correct way of going about things when you haven't got the necessary cover in the squad available to combat burnout?


Unless he has our players in supreme physical condition, then it's going to be a long old season keeping that kind of workrate up, especially for Cosgrove and Watters and the wingbacks.

The owners apparently want a high energy pressing game (the Barnsley way ) yet aren't giving our head coach the tools to do the job.

Even in Ismaels season, he was duly backed by Conway and Co in terms of us bringing in Carlton Morris and Dike which was badly needed to take the strain off our other forwards. We also had cover in defence with various options of decent quality- Mads, Sollbauer, Sibbick, Helik, Halme, Moon, Kitching. That's 7 central defenders for 3 places. Does Clarke have owt like that? No, he has feck all in terms of decent cover.

Some fans may well want to bear that in mind because expecting certain players to do a job, especially the ones who are clearly not up to it is barmy. Our defensive cover is, to put it bluntly, just poor.

Our forward line badly needs strengthening, that's not to knock our current forwards but as I say, can they sustain that kind of workrate over a potential 50+ game season?

[EthelRed]

If the Birmingham World is to be believed their left back we were after has declined a move to us as he couldn’t agree personal terms ie we would t dig deep enough. He’s agreed to join Cambridge.

How many times this window have we been outbid by smaller clubs? Plenty apparently.

This is why fans are frustrated and feel let down. If the board were as good at bringing in players as they are at sucking i early bird season ticket sales we’d be in a far better position on the field.