Originally Posted by
pass_and_move
I also mentioned the selling of the 2016 team which Conway had nothing to do with. The moneyball system has many flaws. I was pointing out that in 10 years of it's use at Barnsley, it doesn't work at championship level unless you're prepared to invest in it.
Pat and James Cryne deserve credit because they identified the likes of Winnall, Hourihane, Scowen, Roberts, Mawson to mention a few of the 2016 team and they were all good players. However, they were on modest contracts at Oakwell as we were in league one when they all signed for us.
They were offered new deals when we went up but wouldn't sign. This is where the investment factor comes in. Had we been in a position to pay them the going rate and get them to sign new contracts, then it would've made our position stronger as a club, so instead of losing Hourihane and Winnall for peanuts, we could've commanded millions for them. Even better still, we would've had a solid championship team and could've kicked on to better things.
To me it seems that we want to use moneyball to finance the club. That was Patrick Crynes idea as he was sick of putting in his own millions to finance things which he had done prior to the introduction of moneyball. Fair doos. However, it's a catch 22 situation in regard of ambition. You can't expect success if you're not prepared to invest in football. This is why it will never work for us at championship level using this moneyball system. Our better players will keep getting cherry picked by wealthier clubs and we remain as the yo yo club that we've been in these last 10 years.
It's been crying out for investment but there's nobody prepared to finance it. It just tells me that the people behind our system don't truly belive in it to be brutally honest. We've been standing in a puddle for so long we've now got webbed feet. It'll not change either imo. We'll see Connell leave, Mads leave, Cadden etc leave for bigger clubs and modest transfer fees because this is what happens.