Results now are meaningless..

Not having that.

If it’s not about results you keep Clarke with Hourihane learning underneath him & build over the long term.

 

Yeah, I know mate. Said it many a times, bigger clubs who have huge fan bases dont want season tickets. They want tourists etc. My point was fans who can, should support the club. Strangers who have no affiliation to the club, who have been getting dogs abuse for years now, will eventually just stop funding the club outright at some point, certainly if they see fans walk away. I get people's frustrations, it's so obvious they are incompetent. I just don't like how some fans have acted as though it's their intent, they're just rubbish, not malacious like Blackpool owners, glazers, etc etc

 

I think that’s a really good summation of our owners. Well meaning folk who are incompetent but equally unwilling to take advice.

There will come a point when continuing to fund, what was a relatively small investment, becomes an issue. I just hope there is someone there to pick up the pieces.

 

I'd prefer our owners to cut their cloth accordingly and look very closely at what every single Director and coach actually contributes.

 

Results are never meaningless. If CH had won five or six of the games he’s taken, the results would be being spoken about plenty. They’re only ever said to be unimportant when you aren’t getting good ones.

I do get what you mean. Also see what you and others are saying about a spark in attack.

But it’s very sporadic - and you are all overlooking the very obvious drawback to the argument - namely, at what cost has the perceived improvements on the ball and in attack come?

The defence and overall defensive record hasn’t only not improved - it has worsened remarkably. At one point on Friday we were playing a very high defensive line, which is pretty risky for anyone, but for us, with a back four without half a yard of pace among them, was absolutely suicidal.

There have been glimpses and odd moments I’ll grant, but we haven’t lost games unluckily after performing well. We have performed poorly - and deserved nothing out of the games lost, and also barely warranted the points we got in a couple of draws against sides well below us in the table.

We have nothing to play for in effect so the point I assume you make is that performance means more than result for now - I agree - but like I said on another thread to another poster, I’ve seen nothing in the performances to enthuse me for next season whatsoever.

The attacking improvement, if we can call it that, has been achieved alongside becoming defensively worse, has been achieved alongside averaging less than a point a game, and has been achieved with standout performances or moments from players who for differing reasons we are unlikely to see in Barnsley shirts next season.

The club have sacked the last two head coaches - and I’m a fan of neither and was disappointed on neither occasion - though history is already showing the reasons why neither employed an attacking and pressing approach to games.

I can only assume that the good will Hourihane gets, and the benefit of the doubt he is credited with, is due to how much cash in the bank he has from his playing record here.

Had the job been given to Jon Stead or Disco, and we’d seen the same results and performances as we have, I have a strong feeling that there’d be a lesser tone of tolerance.

As for letting him build in the summer and only judging him if he’s backed and fails - what building are you expecting him to do? How do you define ‘backed’?

We won’t hold on to some of the better players in the squad. In fact if we get a reasonable bid everyone and anyone is likely available. That isn’t to say they’ll sell them all - nor that even bids will be attracted for all. Some we’d do well to give away and we’ll want them gone. Some are out of contract and shouldn’t be retained.

But it will take some resolve, an investment of funds the chairman/owner has said he doesn’t want to continue to provide, and a complete change from what he’s publicly stated we need to do this summer to keep either of DKD and Phillips. I’d suggest we won’t. More could go.

I wish nothing but success for Hourihane - but I’ve seen nothing from his games so far to suggest he will have much success. I’ve also seen nothing in previous windows to suggest he’ll be ‘backed’ or that the mistakes made in the past will be rectified or learned from. Or even recognised and acknowledged.

We need to be realistic when setting expectations; we need to completely overhaul the squad in summer, both to replace the people we will have to sell to remain solvent but also to clear out a lot of dross and deadwood.

We won’t have the funds to add stacks of quality for replacements, and we should avoid the signings of multitudes of players for the sake of it to get quantity.

We need some character and backbone, some proper leadership and bottle, a player or two who won’t accept the capitulations we’ve routinely seen this season. If we can get six or seven million in by selling DKD, Phillips, Jalo, maybe Flavell, Russell, Connell, clear out some others to whoever will take them - use £4 or £5million to plug a lot of the gap and spend a million or two on replacements, we could rebuild and end up with a better team, albeit without standout performers.

But honestly, I’m not holding my breath. The gradual decline we’ve seen year on year shows no sign of abating. We seem likely to finish somewhere between eleventh and fifteenth this season. We have a hell of a lot of hard work to do to even match that next season. The trouble with my numbers above is that we won’t get anything approaching six or seven million even if we sold the whole lot. So we are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

As things stand I’d say we are much likelier to be relegated than promoted this time next year. I’d snap your hand off for a consolidating season, somewhere in mid-table and green shoots of promise as the season progresses. If they set promotion as a realistic target for next season, but continue to go down the same path using the same methodology, then they want their bumps feeling.

 

The result was meaningless. If it wasn't, Conor could have parked the bus at 3-1. But it was meaningless so they kept exploring and attacking. Lessons learnt. Points dropped. Doesn't matter.

 

This squad hasn't shown much progress since last summer. In fact its deteriorating. We could have let CH manage for a few more weeks before appointing him but i agree the timing isnt a real measure of performances and results. We already know the squad isnt good enough.

Three things seem inevitable. One, we have few players with ability or potential to compete in the upper quartile of this league. Two, we dont seem to have the money to strengthen, build a team with quality and develop it positively. We have no money and will have less as the interest in attending gets less. Our modus operandi is to sell. Three, our capability to run club effectively, sign quality, punch above our weight and bring the town together seems to have gone.

There would be a lot for someone to do but that doesn't start with the manager.

 

Well let him go fir £900k first bid

 

I'm pretty sure we won't. That's not much more than we paid for him when he was unproven at this level and he's on a long contract.

 

He's got 5 points in 7 games. Unless he improves dramatically, we're getting relegated in bottom place with that form.

People can say the squad isnt good enough, but its nowhere near bad enough to justify being that bad. How's he going to get on when it gets worse after the summer? He cant appear to get a tune out of this one....

Really, really hope he can do it as there's loads to like about him, but there's plenty to worry about at the moment.

 

Think we’ll get £2m in all honesty. Ought to be more but he’s not exactly young so that makes it difficult to demand.

 

I'm worried, the owners just keep banging on about style of play and plucking things out of the air, I get it they want to sell tickets and believe the way is to entertain, but losing 4-3 every week would soon become tiresome.
The problem is we aren't aligning the 2 strategies, style of play v recruitment and it shows their lack of knowledge understanding the game.
If we try to play the high line next season with pretty much that same defence, we won't be far off relegation, we will get torn a new one.
If that's the playing style they want to adapt then they have to understand the recruitment needs to match, and defenders with pace aren't cheap.
They'd be better just keeping their mouth shut it just creates unwanted additional pressure and expectation.

 

Results are not meaningless to me & never have been, gutted last Friday.

 

Pointless saying results are meaningless if we finish this season poorly and next season starts off the same people are going to point to it continuing. Best thing he could do is try and finish with 3 wins that then gives something positive to build from.

to show improvement would be to tighten us up defensively and getting more points than we have been. We have got worse not better.

 

What’s betting on you moaning about results and performances between now and for ever more Amen

 

Spot on this ^

 

Preston nailed on, Hecky wants him.

 

He’s been a good player for us Bazza, time to move on though, be good if we have suitors for such as MDG and Pines to bring a little bit of brass in, but won’t hold me breath mate.

 

And they would if the club speculate to accumulate, its surely better to buy some decent players then too much crap.

 

This bus?