Quote Originally Posted by Young_Nudger View Post
It’s always been a business.
It’s just that it swung one way and now it looks like it’s swinging again in the other direction.

Owners.
Many on here remember a time when for decades players had to get a second job to make ends meet.
Typical example was Warnock having a stall on Barnsley Market.
What sort of profit were the owners of Barnsley Football Club making back then ???
They definitely weren’t spending it on trying to get Barnsley out of the old 4th Division.
Barnsley for many many years were nothing more than a glorified pub team.
And the owners sat back and took the money.

Then the pendulum swung the other way and players started to want more money.
Now we find ourselves with players in the Premier on disgusting amounts of money.
Owners competing against each other to try and secure the best - and hence most expensive player to ensure success for their club.
Consequently clubs and owners have become bust.
Famous clubs with £100s of millions of debt around their necks.

Then along comes Chien Lee and a consortium that takes over unfashionable Barnsley.
We read that this consortium has a total combined wealth of about £14 BILLION.
That’s wealth much greater than all the other owners in South Yorkshire and Leeds combined.

Oh … that’s great we have owners now that can out spend most other clubs and buy better players.
But these owners are cuter than that - they arn’t going to play the same game as other owners in the football league.
They arn’t going to out compete other clubs in paying players wages.
These owners come up with a simple but brilliant blueprint of how to make a football club work so they can tap into the stupid money being thrown about by other football league clubs.
As it happens the consortium drop on a club Barnsley that for years has been failing to compete with the transfer fees and wages in football and started to think differently on how to do things.

Different way of doing things has confused many football pundits as well as supporters.
Barnsley are no longer playing by the same rules of throwing money at their club.
These pundits and supporters are thinking in an old fashioned way - an old fashioned way that if implemented would put Barnsley into a mountain of debt.
For years we have never been able to compete with clubs like Wigan, Bolton, Sheffield Wednesday or Derby.
We can now.

IMO we are fortunate to have this ownership.
We know that the club when sold will be worth more than it is now and will be free of debt.
Something solid to build from.
Nudger,I was at the club the same time as Neil Warnock and I can tell you he was not short of a bob or two,for a start he owned two greengrocers shops in Sheffield and used to supply the players and other people in the club with fruit and veg.He was also a qualified Chiropodist I think he had a practice in Sheffield and also looked after the other players feet which I would think he was paid by the club.Also he could supply you with anything you wanted,he was the original Del Trotter and Arthur Dailey combined but a lot smarter than them.He offered me a new sheepskin coat when they were in fashion but I didn’t need one,as I said he could get you anything.But he never tried to rip anyone off and was a smashing lad.I have always admired Neil and followed his progress in the game.I think he would have made a good manager at Barnsley and made a success of the team if he had come back to us but that is my opinion.Also Nudge I never knew of any players at Barnsley having a second job.