Val did a remarkable job at our club getting us in to the play offs but at the same time there's little doubt everything about last season was set up for him to succeed .
1, Everyone one of our players are recruited to play the high press style of football , we've adopted this system for three seasons now and all Val did was put his own mark on it .
2 , You cannot underestimate how the five sub rule gave us a massive advantage last season over our rivals , three fresh forwards would come on at the 60 minute mark and keep the high press effective .
That isn't an option this season with reverting back to three subs .
3 , There was less pressure on him at Barnsley than he'll find at WBA , we were massively over-achieving but fifth spot at WBA in the championship wouldn't be considered that great .
4 , With such a young squad at Oakwell playing in front of empty stadiums wasn't a problem , most of our young lads aren't too long out of development football playing in front of three men and a dog .
Plus there was no negativity coming from the stands when they made mistakes and young players make plenty of them .
5 , Last season the standard in the championship was woeful although it may well be the same this season given nobody has any money due to the pandemic .
6 , We were extremely fortunate to obtain the services of American Daryl Dike , he got on the field for the US from the bench just hours before the January transfer window closed which enabled him to qualify for a work permit .
Without his goals we wouldn't have got anywhere near the play offs and we were fortunate the lad hit the ground running over here which is pretty unprecedented for a 20 year old American kid with less than 18 MLS games behind him .
He's taken on a very different challenge at WBA , a challenge where they may not be the same advantages at WBA that he found last season at my club .
This post probably comes across as a bit bitter but I'm not that kind of poster , Barnsley are what we are and WBA are a much bigger club and as a fan of 55 years it's nothing new and it becomes water off a ducks back after so many years .
Besides I wish Val well , he gave us a great season to remember at a time in history when life was difficult and kept our spirits up , gave us something to look forward to every match day .
I sincerely hope it works out for Val but at the same time I do honestly feel it probably may not be the quick fix many Baggies are hoping it will be .