Rain check

[DOOALI]

Me as well pass the silly money thrown into football has just spoilt our what used to be beautiful game it's now getting completely out of BFC level

[Kevthetyke]

Well thanks for cheering me up guys!!! A quick summary - were a small club with no chance at all in this league and we might aswell just give up and ask the FA to put us in league 2 because thats are level... Mmm i like to take Burnley for a good example, same size club as ours with the difference been they have been ran properly at board level. You dont see them as selling all the team in 1 month and they stay competitive so why cant we, the answer is simple the clubs core is rotten and needs replacing thats the issue. For instance we make over 30 million on player transfers over the last few years we have 2 years of championship money 12 million, we have spent about 4-5 million max 3 million on players wages..... All the rest is spent where 'Running the club' ok nothing suspicious here.

[Old Goat]

Pass, I agree with everything you said. The biggest problem with The Plan is that we're the only ones following it. Most of the clubs we're playing are merrily spending money like water on overpaid players and their agents fees. All in a mad frenzy to get up to the next level. Every season I think to myself surely one of the big household names is gonna go bust, but they all seem to carry on as if it's Monopoly money.

All I really want is to go to Oakwell and be entertained a bit, watch a decent game, come out feeling like we gave it our best shot (even if we lost). In short, I just want my money's worth. My biggest worry about this season is that it's bloody hard work, almost a chore to watch, and whether we stay up or not, I can see attendances dropping next season because folks just won't want to shell out to watch the kind of stuff we've seen recently.

[animallittle3]

The plan always hinged on discovering under the radar talent , developing and selling for a significant profit and repeat .

There's nothing wrong with that if it's done with your eyes wide open and a respect for football history , you could argue this is nothing new at Oakwell and it's a policy we've followed for 130 years .

I accept that keeping Hourihane , Mawson , Winnall and Bree here was almost impossible , yes we could have kept them here until last season ended and attempted to keep up the challenge of a top 6 finish , I'm not convinced we would have seen them perform as well as they had previously and we would have missed out on good fees as a consequence if we'd have followed that path , as disappointing as that was I have accepted the club's stance although the owners comment " under no pressure to sell " can be filed alongside " box office signings " and " we didn't know how good John Stones was " , whatever .

Having received a colossal amount of money by our standards at least we still couldn't keep Scowen or Watkins here , heads turned maybe by the amount of money they could receive elsewhere as free agents and a sense that the club were lacking in ambition and let's get out of Dodge while we can .

Marc Roberts seemed a different kettle of fish to me , I always formed the impression he was led out of the club , even pushed you might say , regrettably by the clubs own admission which suggests there was room to maneuver on an improved deal , we could pay him a competitive salary but chose not to and cashed in instead is how I read it .

So we come to the summer recruitment and this is my main criticism of the club and fuels much of my anger towards them .

It's one thing to have a plan , policy call it what you will on recruitment , it's quite another to ignore the facts of football history and reality .

People within the club needed to take stock and put their ego's to one side , you never invented anything to start with in my opinion , you discovered some good players for relatively little outlay , about half a dozen and assembled a league lower and over a longer period of time , what on earth made you think you could rebuild a whole squad in one summer a league higher ?

With cash in the bank it then needed putting to good use , I'm not suggesting caution to the wind , utilising the profit to protect our momentum and championship status with a continuation of the plan aligned with ready to go experienced talent , a six and two three's .

All I'm suggesting is keeping our heads above the drop zone and not some pie in the sky attempt at the top six , as if .

I get sustainability , I get financial prudence but without the necessary ingredients on the park sustainability and financial prudence goes to shyte anyway , young players brought here don't develop , confidence takes a hit and the investment we made initially quickly disappears .

You have to pay a going rate at this level with at least 3 or 4 stock players , you fit the up and coming cheap and cheerfuls around that , there is no getting away from it .

To me if you have saleable young talent then that is the source of your funding for the higher and proven talent that help the process along , it needed to go hand in hand or it brings the whole philosophy crashing down and you end up with a squad full of young players who you collectively paid £6m for and only actually worth a quarter of that if you are lucky .

Throw in the loss of £5m due to relegation and you've taken a real hit .

Where's your sustainability now ? , the surplus you created by selling the top talent just disappeared down the plug hole just as quickly as you created it .

[Jules88]

Good post, At this moment in Time I’m inclined to say that we have made a massive error in not having bought a couple of older heads in at the beginning of the season. Hammill and Davies are seen as the senior pro’s and that’s not right.
I’ve said before a signing such as Garett Barry to “orchestrate” in midfield is what we need, coupled with an experienced defended alongside Lindsay. There’s too much youth. Totally agree.
But I wouldn’t ditch too many of the young ones we have, I think there’s potential in almost all of them. ( Ugbo excepted).

[Ponte_Steve24]

I think I'd just like to see some effective football.