Remember this Kev. I love Connor, love him. I love Sam but not as much as I love Connor. Followed by laughter
The thing that interests me is that the article in the Chronicle says that Connor Hourihne "suggested" not that he "said". You can think I'm reading too much into semantics but I have seen how journalists seek to make a story. If kit was so clear cut then the words used would have been "said"......
http://www.barnsleychronicle.com/article/hourihane-deals-might-have-been-done-last-summer That article says that Conor 'told the chronicle' and then gives a direct quote
http://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/foot...from-aston-villa-celtic-and-rangers-1-8299051 Article from the Star in December 2016.
here's the first line copy - pasted: "Conor Hourihane has suggested that he and many of his team-mates would have signed new contracts with Barnsley had they been offered last summer. "
I'm fed up of reading this time and time again. In what bizarre universe do people thinkthe club would NOT have offered new contracts to our best two players? It's ridiculous to even suggest it. Do you think the club is run by 6 year olds? Hourihane and Winnall had no intentions of staying beyond this summer because they knew they could at least triple their wages elsewhere. The club would have been mad not to offer the extensions just as equally the players would have been mad to sign them.
In a universe where the club knew it would have to offer improved contracts but was **** scared to in case they ended up being relegated?
It's not a rumour. He said it in an interview an sim sure it was then printed in an article. It matters not now anyway. He's gone.
This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ..All day with nobs on... We would sooner have risked losing players for nowt or having a January fire sale (which is what actually happened on both accounts) Than offer players deals good enough for them to stay. Just in case we went straight back down ..
I give up, I really do. The only deal Hourihane would have accepted would have been one so far beyond our wage structure it would have led to our ruination. Do you think he'd have signed for something like 10k a week when he knew he could get 3 times that at a bigger club? Or maybe we should have offered him 30k? And Sam 20k, and Watkins 15k and Scowen 15k. Thank god we've got people with brains running the club.
So you think someone would have offered Hourihane £30k a week in August - before he had kicked a ball in the Championship?
Firstly - these meetings - silly and full of nervous childish giggles. Even from the announcer. Serious issues reduced to idiotic laughter. The YouTube clip is a poor advert for Barnsley Football Club. Pathetic. As for players contracts: No one is blaming the club for selling players in January- in fact they should have also sold Scowen and Watkins if they knew there wasn't much chance of signing this summer. Barnsley can ill afford to let players walk out of the door for nowt. As for players contracts: 1) most of the contracts were up at the same time. So the wheels well and truly dropped off in January. 2) why isn't the club trying to introduce more flexible contracts for these players that to be honest are players that need a lot of time and money spending on them to develop them. The low standard of these players - they should be accepting any sort of contract to play in the Championship shop window. 3) The players should have contracts that benefit both the club and player when the player is moved on.
Benefits the player and his agent to move for now't that way the player can attract a better signing on fee cos the new club is not having to pay any transfer fee. Would think that Hourihane, Scowen, Watkins and Peppa had no intention of staying with Barnsley. All of them were probably contacted via their agents with offers they knew we could never hope to match well before their deals at Oakwell were up. Read the biographies of Ball, Wenger, Revie, Clough Snr, Graham , Ferguson etc. All allude to advance "discussions" with future players who went on to play for their clubs. It's an unofficial but accepted ( illegal) practice in the game and involves the signing of players and managers alike as outlined in the posting headed West Stand bogs re- John Dennis " met at Aiinley Top away from prying eyes " etc.
Huddersfield has just gone to the premier league and I don't think they were as good as Barnsley before we sold Conor and Pepper if Barnsley had kept these 2 and Mosy and just added 1 player it would have been us in the prem and not Huddersfield. Just my opinion like.
There'll always be that "what-if" in my mind for us this season had we kept the side together, but I genuinely thought Huddersfield were one of the more impressive sides I watched last season. They were 8 points ahead of us when we beat Forest at New Year, which was the last game Hourihane and Winnall played together in the league I think? Big gap to close. Only Fulham got close, admittedly from below where we were. Other sides strengthened and couldn't get near them. I'm not sure we'd have got into the top six myself main based on the mediocre run of form we had through the autumn with a full strength side. But, part of me frustrated that we'll never know. Sent from my SM-T710 using Tapatalk
You need to get out more. Suggest saturdays down Oakwell are a good way to get some fresh air and also to support the club.
Roy Keane Biography ISBN 978-0-19399-7 Pages 81&82. "I had promised Kenny Dalglish I would leave Forest and sign for Liverpool. "Presumably Keane must have then been contacted by "someone" at Man Utd. " Alex Ferguson met me at the Airport. Brian Kidd was with him. We drove to his house nearby. We had a meal and a game of snooker. " Fergie said to me " United are going to dominate Europe with or without you Roy". " I decided to sign. I contacted Dalglish and told him I had changed my mind. He said " nobody does that to Kenny Dalglish you wee ba*tard you won't get away with this." " Players screw managers, managers screw players, directors screw both and agents are despised for their skullduggery. Dalglish was insistent that I sign a deal I hadn't yet agreed to. This is the same Kenny Dalglish who had spent months tapping me up behind Brian Cloughs back" etc, etc.