January Window

[animallittle3]

Herbie Kane , Jordan Williams , Devante Cole and Nicky Cadden will all have only 6 months left on their deals when the window opens on January 1st and this is the club's last opportunity to get a fee for them before they leave for nowt at the end of the season .

I don't envisage any of them signing new deals to be honest and I'd be looking to get them out next month whilst we can .

I think it would benefit Shepherd and Lopata to go out on loan for the second half of the season and you can add McCarthy to that list too .

If we can get Styles out of the club and put this thing to bed for good then that would be for the benefit of everyone .

Given the above and with the addition of a Director Of Football we can then start the process of rebuilding the squad and in a manner in which Collins wants to play .

If the work hasn't already begun behind the scenes at Oakwell then it should have done weeks ago .

Personally I'm giving Collins two transfer windows with a Director Of Football at the helm and the opportunity to rebuild the squad and see where we are with regard to progression and see if a championship ready squad can be assembled in that time .

[pass_and_move]

Championship ready squad in newt 2 windows is optimistic at best. Personally I dunt think we've got a prayer with the level that we're now recruiting from. I'd say 4 or 5 windows need to come and go before we'd be anything like ready and that is assuming we up the ante in terms of the level of recruitment. We'll have to box very clever indeed to assemble owt of that magnitude within budget.

My crystal ball predicts a bleak future. What influence would a Director of Football actually have at this club? He can't set our transfer budget for instance, that lies with the owners surely as do many other big decisions. Personally I think that unless the owners are prepared to trust a DOF implicitly, then it would just be another waste of time and a waste of salary on the clubs payroll.

Time will tell of course. If they hand the responsibility down(which I have my doubts about) and the DOF is savvy then that's the only way it could work imo

[animallittle3]

Championship ready squad in newt 2 windows is optimistic at best. Personally I dunt think we've got a prayer with the level that we're now recruiting from. I'd say 4 or 5 windows need to come and go before we'd be anything like ready and that is assuming we up the anti in the level of recruitment. We'll have to box very clever indeed.

My crystal ball predicts a bleak future. What influence would a Director of Football actually have? He can't set our transfer budget for instance, that lies with the owners surely as do many other big decisions. Personally I think that unless the owners are prepared to trust a DOF implicitly, then it would just be another waste of time.

Time will tell of course

I wouldn't disagree with any of what you say Pass and you could well be right .

I've thought long and hard about Neil Collins and I've obviously watched his team , much of that time I've struggled to see what he's trying to do .

It's only my opinion and this obviously doesn't mean he will be successful either .

Collins wants to pass the ball and I firmly believe he wants to build a team at this level that play a style of football that they take with them up to the next level that will allow them to be competitive , competitive would be not getting relegated instantly .

I think if we were to sit down with the man for half n hour me and thee , that's what he'd tell us .

I'd put money on with the right players recruited he'd want to play 4-3-3 .

One of the things I've noticed since we dropped down in to this league is that whilst I've seen some shocking teams play against us , in some of those shocking teams I've seen footballers that are actually technically better than we've got .

They play in poor teams , in poor systems but put them in another team with better players around them they'd do very well .

I know we had him on loan as a young lad when he was talked about as a wonder kid but the lad Dan Crowley who was part of the Morecambe team we smashed 5-0 last season was superb technically in that game , probably better than Herbie Kane who I think is our most technically gifted player .

But Herbie Kane cost us £1.2m and Crowley went to Morecambe as a free agent and it's examples such as Crowley that convince me it can be done .

But only if the recruitment people have the football intelligence they should have and deliver on that intelligence what the HC wants which is overseen by the Director Of Football .

That's the only way this works .

The way this club has used statistics is totally wrong and was never designed in the way James Cryne interprets them , it was designed to build low budget teams capable of outperforming teams with far more resources also known as Moneyball .

That's how Luton Town and Brentford have always used them .

Cryne is always looking for the sell on profit , Luton and Brentford are and were always looking for league points .

[Shadrack the Red]

The thing is we are going into january without either a chief executive or a DOF , I know that those positions are currently occupied by temporarily acting up staff but neither of these will be planning for the future they will be just trying to oversee the daily running of the club & to be honest I think it is farcical that the owners have allowed this situation to develop . On the playing side I would love to see two big strong experienced central defenders brought in plus retain our quality players and extend Kane , Cadden & Coles contracts & most importantly tie Jalo down to an extended deal , I would also send McCart back & try & get Shepherd out on loan, whilst I am not impressed with either the French lad or Leopata I think it would be foolish to try & change two much whilst we are still playing games , the summer break will give us more time to clear the decks & start again but every time january is on the horizon there is always a lot of speculation about cart loads of players being sold but apart from one noteable season this rarely happens & I actually think it will be a relatively quiet window again , we will see .

[animallittle3]

The thing is we are going into january without either a chief executive or a DOF , I know that those positions are currently occupied by temporarily acting up staff but neither of these will be planning for the future they will be just trying to oversee the daily running of the club & to be honest I think it is farcical that the owners have allowed this situation to develop . On the playing side I would love to see two big strong experienced central defenders brought in plus retain our quality players and extend Kane , Cadden & Coles contracts & most importantly tie Jalo down to an extended deal , I would also send McCart back & try & get Shepherd out on loan, whilst I am not impressed with either the French lad or Leopata I think it would be foolish to try & change two much whilst we are still playing games , the summer break will give us more time to clear the decks & start again but every time january is on the horizon there is always a lot of speculation about cart loads of players being sold but apart from one noteable season this rarely happens & I actually think it will be a relatively quiet window again , we will see .

It's very rare we've had anybody sign a new deal with only 6 months left on their present one Shad , we've had plenty of players sign extensions but not with only 6 months left on them .

After Mowatt went for nowt I'd personally never let it happen again , got to be ruthless with this thing now and money in is better than nowt .

[Young_Nudger]

Some good points made - eg some teams are technically better than Barnsley.
Presumably that means with regards to playing possession football.
So Collins is trying to change the direction of the club and play possession football - but some teams are better than us at possession football.
Will that get any better if we go up a league?

Nope.
So if we amazingly get promoted - in the long term we are onto a loser.
Therefore promotion or no promotion Collins needs to go as the season is now half way through.

The situation we are in with no point in pursuing the season any further should have a big influence on what happens in January.

It’s going to pee off the supporters big style - but I would not sign anyone in January.
I’d try to get some funds in from those that won’t sign an extension.
Then with a new HC in charge there would be money available for a push next season.

In other words - this season should be written off because of a poor HC appointment.
And because of that the directors should keep their powder dry during January for the start of next season with a new HC.

[Shadrack the Red]

It's very rare we've had anybody sign a new deal with only 6 months left on their present one Shad , we've had plenty of players sign extensions but not with only 6 months left on them .

After Mowatt went for nowt I'd personally never let it happen again , got to be ruthless with this thing now and money in is better than nowt .

I think Woodrow extended & so did Styles & Kitchen when they were all expected to leave but you are right it rarely happens & I agree with you the chances of these players extending their contracts is virtually nill but what I have said is what I would like to happen not what is going to happen lol , I would also iet their contracts run down as I would hate for other clubs to get our players on the cheap , I would sooner let them go for nothing & let other clubs compete for their signatures in the summer because the money we get for them in january will be no where near enough for us to by replacements of the same quality & we will end up buying more dross at least in the summer we will be able to look at out of contract players from other clubs & try and attract the best available .

[pass_and_move]

Some good points made - eg some teams are technically better than Barnsley.
Presumably that means with regards to playing possession football.
So Collins is trying to change the direction of the club and play possession football - but some teams are better than us at possession football.
Will that get any better if we go up a league?

Nope.
So if we amazingly get promoted - in the long term we are onto a loser.
Therefore promotion or no promotion Collins needs to go as the season is now half way through.

The situation we are in with no point in pursuing the season any further should have a big influence on what happens in January.

It’s going to pee off the supporters big style - but I would not sign anyone in January.
I’d try to get some funds in from those that won’t sign an extension.
Then with a new HC in charge there would be money available for a push next season.

In other words - this season should be written off because of a poor HC appointment.
And because of that the directors should keep their powder dry during January for the start of next season with a new HC.

Are you actually for real?

[EthelRed]

They fired their powder in the last window and because of that we have ended up with the squad of players we currently have. Way, way short of the required standard.

Lose the players with 6 months left on their contracts in January and we are shafted. That’s the reality of our current situation.

And as someone said, managed decline or incompetence or not a penny left to scratch your arse with? Doesn’t matter what the explanation is, that’s where we’re at.

[animallittle3]

Some good points made - eg some teams are technically better than Barnsley.
Presumably that means with regards to playing possession football.
So Collins is trying to change the direction of the club and play possession football - but some teams are better than us at possession football.
Will that get any better if we go up a league?

Nope.
So if we amazingly get promoted - in the long term we are onto a loser.
Therefore promotion or no promotion Collins needs to go as the season is now half way through.

The situation we are in with no point in pursuing the season any further should have a big influence on what happens in January.

It’s going to pee off the supporters big style - but I would not sign anyone in January.
I’d try to get some funds in from those that won’t sign an extension.
Then with a new HC in charge there would be money available for a push next season.

In other words - this season should be written off because of a poor HC appointment.
And because of that the directors should keep their powder dry during January for the start of next season with a new HC.

I didn't say that , I said there are some players I've seen in poorer teams with better technical players than we have , I didn't say the teams they played for were technically better than we are .

The lad Ellis Harrison at Port Vale is way better technically than Cosgrove and Watters .