Interesting article, the interview with Neerav

[Young_Nudger]

Has anyone seen the Tweet by Doug - regarding the Neerav interview.
OMG !!!
If anyone can post the link that would be good.

[POGGYWELL]

Reds chairman answers questions on various topics
21/03/25 ? By Doug O'Kane

INTEREST IN THE HEAD COACH POSITION
We have had a lot of interest from Championship managers to League One managers. There has been a lot of people who want the job. Far more than last summer. But we made the clear decision that the best options will be available until the summer.
We have talked to a number of coaches, one is a fantastic option but is being paid by his ex club until the summer. Another potential option is another fantastic coach and has personal reasons why he can?t decide until the summer. There is plenty of work going on in the background and we?re confident we will get a really good coach in.

INTERIM BOSS CONOR HOURIHANE?S CHANCES
Conor will be in the hat. We?ll assess him over the next nine games. But it would be unfair to say he?s a frontrunner. It will be open to everyone and he will absolutely be one of the candidates.

DARRELL CLARKE?S SACKING
?The table speaks for itself. I think Darrell was an excellent man, an honest guy and very hard-working.
I can only say good things about him. Unfortunately I think both the performances and results weren?t what we expected. We think the squad is a top three or top four squad at worst and that was the level of performance we expected.
We were tenth and, given it?s a results business, we had to go ahead with that (the sacking). It?s not something we wanted to do. We were hoping to have him here for at least two years or longer. But we have to move on now.?
When asked to elaborate on the claim that Barnsley have a top four squad, he said: ?We have looked through the data across all the clubs and our players. I know a lot of people ignore stats. There are a lot of different reasons why players don?t perform at certain times for certain periods.
?This is a top four squad. I hang my hat on that. I would bet ?100 to charity that at least five of our starting outfield players will play in the Championship or higher in the next three or four years. I believe we have quality and it?s a lazy misnomer to say the players aren?t good enough. We?re not as high as we could be but the responsibility spreads from the players to the head coach to us in the boardroom because we should be doing better.?

ON ONLY SIGNING ONE STRIKER, CLEMENT RODRIGUES, IN JANUARY
If you look at goals scored, we are level with third-placed Wrexham and ahead of fourth-placed Charlton. I don?t think scoring goals is the problem. Up until last week, I believe Davis Keillor-Dunn had the most non-penalty goals in the entire league. We believe in data very strongly and Max Watters had the highest XG of any player in League One. Adam Phillips has scored double digits for however many seasons you want to count. I don?t think there is a dearth of goal-scoring players in the squad.
If we could get a striker who we thought was affordable and good in January, which is a tough window, obviously we would have gone for him. But that didn?t materialise. Clement came in as one of the players but we know who our starting players are. Clement came in to provide competition and a body. If you were expecting him to score ten or 15 goals, I think that?s unrealistic given the other firepower we have at our disposal.

ON JANUARY IN GENERAL
"We could have got more players in. We tried and there were reasons from one of the players? wives just having a baby and he didn?t want to move up north, to some being financially unviable, to the other club changing their mind at the last minute. In an ideal world we would have got more players who could have contributed but it?s not as easy as it looks. We did get some very good players in. I don?t think it was a failure but we could have done better if we had a little bit more luck or things had gone our way."
He also said: "There isn?t a magic money tree and we have to be realistic in what we can spend. One of our rivals spent somewhere around ?5million getting in two players. One of our rivals turned down a bid of something like ?6million for one of their players.
"People overspent. We have to balance the books and pay what we can afford. Unfortunately in January we didn?t find that ten or 15-goal striker that we could afford.
"Joe Gauci is extremely highly-rated and understudy to maybe the best goalkeeper in the world in Emi Martinez. He is not a downgrade to pretty much any League One goalkeeper. It?s extremely unfortunate he got injured.
"Neil Farrugia has shown what he can do and played most of the games.
"Some of the others have been brought in as squad players. It wouldn?t be fair to comment on Jon Lewis because he?s been injured for a month.
"I disagree that the squad is weaker (than before the window). We have brought in good players. Some things haven?t worked out with injuries."

SPORTING DIRECTOR MLADEN SORMAZ
He has done a good job, I know this is not what a lot of Barnsley fans think. He?s had to work under financial constraints. He?s been extremely diligent working within those parameters. I think a lot of signings will come good in the next couple of years and we need to give him credit for players like Davis Keillor-Dunn. Everyone has a good relationship with him and recognises the work he?s doing. It?s easy to pick on the sporting director when the team is not performing well but there are a lot of other factors at play.

NEXT SEASON?S BUDGET AND POSSIBLE SALES
Football in this country is broken. Clubs are losing money hand over fist. Even if we didn?t sack two managers, the loss for next season is forecast to be somewhere in the region of eight to ten million pounds. It?s completely unsustainable. For the last two or three years we?ve chosen to sell as few players as possible and give ourselves as good a chance for promotion as we could have. That will have to revert to the model where we have to sell a few players in the summer, like a lot of clubs do. But we will reinvest into the squad as we have done and the books show that.
We?re dealing with clubs who are willing to burn unlimited amounts of money. There is only so long I agree to fund millions and millions out of my own pocket.

Realism is probably something we need. We have to be pragmatic. We want to get back to the Championship but I don?t want any fan to buy as season ticket thinking we?re going to invest a crazy amount ? ten million or 20 million pounds.

We will put money in. We will live within our means and push towards the Championship because we still are one of the bigger clubs in this division.

[POGGYWELL]

JON FLATMAN: Progress on safe standing and fanzone application
21/03/25 • By Jon Flatman

THIS weekend Conor Hourihane will lead Barnsley Football Club into our home fixture against Cambridge United as interim head coach, and I know the town will be behind him.
Conor had to step up at short notice last week after the club parted ways with Darrell Clarke.

Everyone connected to the club wishes Darrell every success for the future.
While sadly everything did not go to plan on the pitch, he conducted himself around Oakwell with kindness and dignity and we thank him for that.

Conor has not had a great deal of sleep in the last week, his work ethic has been impressive as it would be at any club he represented.
But this isn’t any club to Conor, it’s home. I’m sure it will be an emotional day for him on Saturday and hopefully we can get back on track.

We launched season tickets this week. I’m pleased to confirm that we have frozen prices again this year.
The club has experienced significant rises in running costs this year with National Insurance, national minimum wage and utility bills all contributing to it costing us an extra ?500,000 per year compared to last year.
But we know that you are all also experiencing soaring prices and felt that a freeze was the right thing to do.

We fully appreciate that the matchday experience must improve if we are to continue to ask you to invest your time and money in us. I’m pleased to confirm that we will be introducing safe standing at Oakwell shortly with work beginning in a section of the Norman Rimmington South Stand in early April which will be completed ahead of our home game with Bolton Wanderers.

Some of you may also have seen that our new fanzone is now at the planning permission phase and, should we pass that point of the project as expected, we are fully confident in having this in place over the summer and in full swing for the start of the 25/26 campaign. We are working with the leader of Barnsley Council, Sir Steve Houghton, and his team to try and deliver even more improvements around Oakwell and I’d like to personally thank all of them for their efforts.

Thanks again to fans of the club and the wider community for getting behind the team.
I am hoping that the season ticket price freeze and progress on improving Oakwell goes a small way to helping us show you how much we value you.

[Young_Nudger]

When the facts change.
I change my mind.

[NerfHerder]

If anyone wants to listen:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0...n=share-mobile

The fact he says that the computer/data says we have a top 3 or 4 squad for the division I think means Neerav needs an upgraded computer. I often have red tinted glasses on but I don?t think anyone can say that our squad is that strong.

He?s put a lot of money into our club and is still doing so but this interview is bonkers.

[Shadrack the Red]

If anyone wants to listen:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0...n=share-mobile

The fact he says that the computer/data says we have a top 3 or 4 squad for the division I think means Neerav needs an upgraded computer. I often have red tinted glasses on but I don?t think anyone can say that our squad is that strong.

He?s put a lot of money into our club and is still doing so but this interview is bonkers.

You are absolutely spot on Nerth and anyone who needed convincing that this lot are out of their depth just have to read or listen to this report , top 4 squad ? they are surely having a laugh and the financial issues where they are including the rise in national insurance etc as a factor when the rises do not actually kick in until this coming april not the previous 9 months of the season, of course we can all cling to the fact that DKD has been a success which balances against all the other failures that have been signed , absolute tosh !!!

[Young_Nudger]

There?s a hell of a lot to mull over in that interview.
First thoughts - it seems Neerav is involved in football related decision making at the club.
Which is contrary to what I thought was happening.

I?ll be listening to the interview a few times and picking through it before forming any opinions.

I would say - the time for ST renewals - and reading the message boards has forced Neerav into making a statement.

[NerfHerder]

You are absolutely spot on Nerth and anyone who needed convincing that this lot are out of their depth just have to read or listen to this report , top 4 squad ? they are surely having a laugh and the financial issues where they are including the rise in national insurance etc as a factor when the rises do not actually kick in until this coming april not the previous 9 months of the season, of course we can all cling to the fact that DKD has been a success which balances against all the other failures that have been signed , absolute tosh !!!

Yeah he certainly mentioned DKD a few times and sure, he?s been a great signing but the majority of others? Maybe not.

I know football clubs cost a heck of a lot to run and are notorious for haemorrhaging money but I don?t get how we can be losing ?8-10 million next season or ?750K per month. Especially when we should still be getting in the monthly installments for Andersen and Kitching. I?d like to think those 2 sales alone are bringing in ?100-200K a month. Unless it really was a ?fiver a month until the end of time? transfer deal.

[NerfHerder]

There?s a hell of a lot to mull over in that interview.
First thoughts - it seems Neerav is involved in football related decision making at the club.
Which is contrary to what I thought was happening.

I?ll be listening to the interview a few times and picking through it before forming any opinions.

I would say - the time for ST renewals - and reading the message boards has forced Neerav into making a statement.

I?ve listened once, not sure I want to listen again. I?ve defended Neerav a bit because of the money he has put in and I dread to think where we would be without it but clearly, based on previous evidence and then this interview, something is going wrong in his ownership.

People on the forums have been crying out for Neerav and Mladen to do interviews with radio Sheffield so I guess it?s a ?well done? for fronting up but I feel like this interview may sway some people out of getting a season ticket that were maybe unsure before so it?s had the opposite effect of what they probably wanted.

[Jules88]

As i said on a previous thread, and Nerf has just touched on?? He has probably put more people off than he has convinced to buy