it shouldn't matter where the player comes from as long as the have the passion and ability (potential)to play as we do now what must happen is that we get them in early and get them up to standard if they cannot do that then we have to find replacement prior to season starting and loan out the players that need extra training/experience and as of this season we cannot sign anyone after the season starts, so important to do business early
A weird way of looking at things. It doesn't follow that they are equals on the football pitch, just because they both haven't played much. There's no comparison between the two in their assuredness as defenders. Your flawed logic also completely ignores that Angus had already lost his place before the calf problem and Roberts was actually in the team when he hobbled off with a 4 month injury, playing the rest of the season when he did return.
I have full confidence in Paul "relegate the b*strards" Conway. As well as Dimitre "you f*ckin reds" Cavare.
I didn't say we didn't have successes like Yids I said we struggled a little bit. Ryan Kent wasn't ours and anyway it's really down to opinion, given his lack of end product, if he hit the ground running. Bradshaw scored what 8 in 40 odd appearances in that first season? Hardly prolific. I never said we can't develop players either, I'm talking about recruiting players who are ready. Maybe if there aren't wholesale changes we can concentrate a little bit more on quality rather than quantity but all I'm saying is given the list of signings in the 2016 and 2017 it doesn't feel like a high percentage were ready for championship football from the off: Cameron McGeehan Mamadou Thiam Kieffer Moore Brad Potts Ethan Pinnock Matty Pearson Christoph Knasmüllner Liam Lindsay Stevie Mallan Jason McCarthy Lloyd Isgrove Matt Mills Zeki Fryers Dani Pinillo Dimitri Kevin Cavaré Joe Williamsa Harvey Barnes Tom Bradshaw George Moncur Alex Mowatt Cole Kpekawa Omari Patrick Andy Yiadom Adam Jackson Stefan Payne Elliot Lee Angus MacDonald Kayden Jackson Elliot Kebbie Ryan Hedges Sessi D'Almeida Loans Ryan Kent Samy Morsy Matty James Gethin Jones Callum Elder Saidy Janko Connor Mahoney Oliver McBurnie Ike Ugbo Joe WIlliams Harvey Barnes Adam Armstrong I'm not saying we won't nail it this summer, I'm just wondering how we will try and bridge the gap especially if we avoid loans who we don't have an option on, as has been suggested is now the policy.
Nice copy and paste job but your original post did question the quality of our signings in that first year of promotion, but if you look at who we signed, how they contributed, and how the team performed (plus where some of them are now), I don’t think you could the strategy failed in that regard. Where it did fail was the loss of so many first team players over a six month period, the recruitment of too many players not ready for Championship football at the same time, and then a mad panic to sign anyone that might have kept us up. If we’ve made progress here then the strategy is far better equipped to work for us next season - challenge being our whole back four are out of contract next Summer so we could be faced with the same scenario. Calling out Bradshaw’s stats when a high percentage we’re off the bench is a bit harsh too. He was seen as a positive signing by many Barnsley fans both before and after he kicked a ball for us.
You logic is flawed as you’re claiming eight starts in one season generates regular playing time up until December and then from April. In the team when he was injured doesn’t mean first team regular. You’re making out I have a side in this when I don’t. I’m just saying I think you’re being harsh on Angus with your critique of him. He proved alongside Roberts he could handle the Championship, even if one was obviously better than the other, but it led to him being made captain and being signed for a significant fee from another Championship side. All that suggests to me he was a decent signing on our part. Not amazing, not one to have this much of a debate over, but he wasn’t a failure.
No, you've misread what I've said. I'm saying we haven't had a high success rate when it comes recruiting players ready for the championship. I never specified a particular season and I never said we didn't have any success or that we can't develop players. What percentage of that list would you say hit the ground running when they were first signed? What's the relevance of the cut and paste comment by the way? Are you talking about the list of signings?
You could probably cut and paste a transfer list from every team that doesn’t finish top six in a division and highlight all the failures. Maybe I misread it, or maybe it didn’t come across, but it felt like you were questioning the strategy based on last time we were promoted. I can see why people would question it, I was just pointing out that we had some transfer success that season and the failure came down to a different part of the strategy being flawed other than the recruitment process. My view is that we lost track of the strategy in that second Summer because we were signing a whole new team. As a result, not many hit the ground running at all. But we did only get relegated by a point and had a clown in charge for a few months, and a lot of those players just gave us one of our best ever seasons.
The issue with previous recruits in the championship was the wholesale changes. How would Mowatt or McGeehan have done if they were playing alongside Hourihane? Our best chance of staying up next season is to keep the core of the squad together, we have to keep at least one out of Lindsay and Pinnock here next season, then they can form a spine of the team with Mowatt and Moore / Woodrow who are all contracted to 2021. The positive sign is that there have been signings that have come in and improved the team (Moore, Woodrow, Dougall). Jordan Green hasn't had much impact, but a pacy winger was the sort of thing we were missing, so was an understandable signing.
I don't know about that. My expectations feel pretty well met - because I listened to what the new owners said when they took over, that they wanted to carry on the current recruitment strategy that has made us a sustainable club.
Nigel Adkins would appear to disagree. He felt so strongly about his deficiencies, he chose to comment publicly. https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/spo...ews/angus-macdonald-told-must-improve-1935406
This is the same recruitment strategy that had us pushing in the top half of the championship though, before our players had to be sold in the oft mentioned January 17. That's what people are referring to as 'last time'. There are many parallels actually. First season with the new squad not good, second season promotion, third season championship. We'll have to see if we can do what we did last time, again. A lot of players are out of contract next summer again though, so don't be surprised if we have to sell again in January. Getting something for the players is key to staying sustainable, for better or worse. I can completely understand the frustration of this, by the way - we are here to support the club and team, not to support the accounts remaining balanced. However, I think we can progress nicely from here on, with some additional revenue streams (all signs point to a much more lucrative shirt sponsorship deal, for example). According to some on here, the owners have pledged 4 million to keep out of contract players on board, then a further 2 million for new players. (EDIT: My apologies, it's 4 million for new and 2 million for existing) I can see that being accurate, but we will have to see. I'm excited to see where we go, though.
Even if the transfer strategy works the fundamental issue is player retention. The promoted team of 2016 proved to be good enough in the Championship until January when the heart of the team was sold. Comparing player wages sees Barnsley with a budget of £14m last time in the Championship with two teams with budgets over £60m. Even if we can identify talent if the club doesn’t have the contracts in place the lure of a five fold wage increase will see the team break up and the transfer fee not reflect the value of the player. For all the contention on recruitment what did us over last time was not bringing the players in, it was the contract situation.
I think you and I are on the same page with this, there is nothing wrong with the strategy it was just implemented wrongly last time. For it to work seamlessly you have to be always looking a year ahead, so when your regular player leaves the next one steps in. What happened last time was we never recruited until we had too. Whether that was a failure of people managing the system, the fact that a guy out was on the cards and the then owners did not want to invest or bit of both who knows.
While there's obvious improvements with some elements of the strategy, i.e. contracts, there's no sign we've learnt with recruitment. Our next centre half for example should already be here if he is to be developmental and maybe loaned out.
Can’t disagree with that in principal. Having said that these owners have never recruited for Championship before, having just come second in Lge 1 they can claim to have got it right for that league, so am happy to wait and see what they do. They might surprise us and buy from higher up like Woodrow who could slot straight in.