Results now are meaningless..

MrsHallsToffeerolls · Apr 21, 2025

Would imagine the board wanted more wins from Hourihane to sell a few more Season Tickets and the fans would want to see an upturn in form and results, so no not meaningless at all.

Bazza · Apr 21, 2025

WG Red said: ↑

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.
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He as but it's time for player and club he moves on.
Will play at a higher level than this.

KamikazeCo-Pilot · Apr 21, 2025

troff said: ↑

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.
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A lot of what you say there (and you took a bit of time to explain) I agree with. I have a different take on the 'improvement' I've noticed. Yes the defence has possibly been worse (I say 'possibly' because we can never know if they would have conceded more under Clarke) but I'm cutting Hourihane some slack for now, that's all. He's still learning, still trying things out and I think he needs judging well into next season if he has been supported in what he wants to do and in who he wants to keep and bring in. I suspect the support will be limited, Sormaz-dependant and some players Hourihane wants to keep will be sold. I think its also still too early to see how effective Hourihane is in organising the defence yet - I want to see how he sets them up in the new season. So for now I can't see the point in over-criticising him. I'll wait till next season for that. I'm just as concerned about the decline as you and others but, as I said, I just have a slightly different take that's all. Cheers.

Burgundy Red · Apr 21, 2025

Russell made that look easy.

Edit: Oops, wrong thread.

Boaty Tyke · Apr 21, 2025

Bazza said: ↑

Preston nailed on, Hecky wants him.
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Preston 3 points above relegation and certainly not safe yet, no saying Hecky will be there at the end of the season.

BarnsleyBomber · Apr 21, 2025

Absolute ***** again today. Boring as hell. On the beach. Lets hope 90% of the overpaid ass holes stay on the beach. More chance of relegation next season thsn going up. Replace all the defence bar roberts none of em are anywhere nr good enough to play L1 football.

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Results now are meaningless..

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