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Why are barnsley better than us?


Guest Therealrealist

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It's like saying why are Burnley better than us. 

It's all down to getting a proper owner in that has empathy for the fans and geological knowledge of the local environment. He also knows his own football knowledge limits, so surrounds himself with proper football people and MOST IMPORTANTLY of all gets the right manager in and just let's him do his job. 

Until we have a change of leadership at the top or he learns to do the above were always going to struggle. 

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3 hours ago, Zarostulus said:

Honest assessment from a Barnsley fan. Most of us (some were a bit brighter than me) went from optimism over a new board in 2017 with 'billions of pounds', to disappointment and resentment because they sleepwalked us into League 1 football, then to elation because we came back to the Champ at first time of asking, and finally to anger at the sale of the spine of that team last year. 

 

We were fortunate to escape relegation last season. It took two 90+ minute winners in our last two games and a Wigan points deduction to keep us up (although to be fair they spent over their means, which means cheated, so that's their fault). The hype over such an escape masked the perceived, and I mean perceived - not concrete, failings of the board for many, but there were still misgivings in many quarters over the loss of the spine of our L1 auto-promotion team ( E Pinnock, A Davies, L Lindsay, K Moore). 

 

Our board have been vindicated this season. At the start of the season, most of us would have bitten your hand off for 4th bottom. We're currently 6th with 10 games to go. If this team had gone down last season, I have no doubt we'd be many points ahead in 1st place in L1 now ready to build for a good Championship campaign next year. 

 

The first and most important thing our new owners did was take a realistic snapshot of who we are as a club, the potential fanbase that can be tapped into, and therefore a realistic annual turnover if managed correctly. Investment is only put into the club if it guarantees a return for the club - for example with talk of purchasing Oakwell from the council to redevelop our 100 year old West Stand to modernise our press facilities, west stand bogs, crowd safety, and future potential. The club is run essentially as though we still have local owners without tonnes of cash; our transfers are paid for through player sales and our wage bill is closely tied to our annual income. Our highest paid player reportedly gets £8k/week, as opposed to £40k+/week elsewhere in the division. Our transfer record remains Mike Sheron in 1998 at £1.5m. We don't like paying over 500k for a player if we can help it - there are exceptions but not by much.

 

The primary goal at Oakwell is self-sustainability, and our investors respect this and trust their data-driven methods to eventually improve the club's profitability and turn a profit legitimately. There are no millions flowing in, no fake taxi firms, no ego-centric sponsorship deals. Our owners have mostly managed their PR well, improved facilities where easy to do so, and brought experience in scouting and mathematics to improve the on-pitch experience. Some of the PR stuff has been easy and helped to improve the club's image and therefore average attendance - things like providing free sanitary products in the ladies' loos, free merchandise at away games, free pints and pies on occasion - etc etc. They've previously engaged well with our fan groups too. 

 

The play-offs are a bit of a lottery, and that looks like where we're heading, so there's a 75% chance we won't go up this season. But with this board, we know that if we don't go all the way the club is safe and we'll have another crack at it next year without worrying about the cost of our 'big push'. We'll have gained valuable experience and might make a huge profit on one or two of our star players, which will go straight back into the playing squad. 

 

Ultimately we have a long-term vision based on sense, experience, and maths. We buy low, sell high. We negate our smaller attendances in the division by making money through our players, who are paid more modestly because they're young and haven't experienced this level of football before. And we have a board who have a great knack for picking up a superb head coach out of nowhere. 

 

 

Highest paid player on £8k a week. 
 

So you could pick any 3 Barnsley players and have change in exchange for a 35 year old keeper who sits on the sofa for 9  months of the year. 
 

And people wonder why we are losing so much money.

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Guest Therealrealist
27 minutes ago, 83owl said:

Highest paid player on £8k a week. 
 

So you could pick any 3 Barnsley players and have change in exchange for a 35 year old keeper who sits on the sofa for 9  months of the year. 
 

And people wonder why we are losing so much money.

Winnall was on 4500 a week at barnsley..we quadrupled his wages😯..bizzare way to carry on..there will be plenty of good players in league 1 we could snaffle on 6-7 grand a week if not less..but we will probably carry on signing past it 'names'..for double that😕

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1 hour ago, Therealrealist said:

Winnall was on 4500 a week at barnsley..we quadrupled his wages😯..bizzare way to carry on..there will be plenty of good players in league 1 we could snaffle on 6-7 grand a week if not less..but we will probably carry on signing past it 'names'..for double that😕

It’s mental. You would think any successful businessman would have a grip on something like this. Obviously not.

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5 hours ago, Zarostulus said:

Also, just to add, our tickets have remained affordable with adult season tickets starting at £235. This is important in areas like ours where there isn't much cash sloshing about. 

 

That's the sickener for me, being an owl that (now) lives in Barnsley. 

 

I'll be expected to pay £555 to watch us struggle to a nil nil with Gillingham next season whilst the team 2 miles up the road are paying half to play in the Prem. 

 

 

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@Zarostulus Excellent post yesterday.  An interesting read.

 

But there’s a part of that post that doesn't ring true to me.

 

On 17/03/2021 at 07:29, Zarostulus said:

 

We were fortunate to escape relegation last season. It took two 90+ minute winners in our last two games and a Wigan points deduction to keep us up (although to be fair they spent over their means, which means cheated, so that's their fault). The hype over such an escape masked the perceived, and I mean perceived - not concrete, failings of the board for many, but there were still misgivings in many quarters over the loss of the spine of our L1 auto-promotion team ( E Pinnock, A Davies, L Lindsay, K Moore). 

 

 

When a club spends beyond their means, they don’t always go into admin though do they?

 

Wigan Athletic went into admin because their owners made the decision to put them into admin.

 

Half the club’s in the Championship are losing large sums of money per season - I’m assuming Barnsley might be an exception to this and fair enough, if that’s the case.  But in the last 10 years, it’s been rare for a Championship club to go into admin whilst still a Championship team.

 

It wasn’t Paul Cook’s, Wigan’s player’s or their fan’s fault that they were put in that situation.

 

To imply otherwise is disingenuous IMO.

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On 17/03/2021 at 07:29, Zarostulus said:

Honest assessment from a Barnsley fan. Most of us (some were a bit brighter than me) went from optimism over a new board in 2017 with 'billions of pounds', to disappointment and resentment because they sleepwalked us into League 1 football, then to elation because we came back to the Champ at first time of asking, and finally to anger at the sale of the spine of that team last year. 

 

We were fortunate to escape relegation last season. It took two 90+ minute winners in our last two games and a Wigan points deduction to keep us up (although to be fair they spent over their means, which means cheated, so that's their fault). The hype over such an escape masked the perceived, and I mean perceived - not concrete, failings of the board for many, but there were still misgivings in many quarters over the loss of the spine of our L1 auto-promotion team ( E Pinnock, A Davies, L Lindsay, K Moore). 

 

Our board have been vindicated this season. At the start of the season, most of us would have bitten your hand off for 4th bottom. We're currently 6th with 10 games to go. If this team had gone down last season, I have no doubt we'd be many points ahead in 1st place in L1 now ready to build for a good Championship campaign next year. 

 

The first and most important thing our new owners did was take a realistic snapshot of who we are as a club, the potential fanbase that can be tapped into, and therefore a realistic annual turnover if managed correctly. Investment is only put into the club if it guarantees a return for the club - for example with talk of purchasing Oakwell from the council to redevelop our 100 year old West Stand to modernise our press facilities, west stand bogs, crowd safety, and future potential. The club is run essentially as though we still have local owners without tonnes of cash; our transfers are paid for through player sales and our wage bill is closely tied to our annual income. Our highest paid player reportedly gets £8k/week, as opposed to £40k+/week elsewhere in the division. Our transfer record remains Mike Sheron in 1998 at £1.5m. We don't like paying over 500k for a player if we can help it - there are exceptions but not by much.

 

The primary goal at Oakwell is self-sustainability, and our investors respect this and trust their data-driven methods to eventually improve the club's profitability and turn a profit legitimately. There are no millions flowing in, no fake taxi firms, no ego-centric sponsorship deals. Our owners have mostly managed their PR well, improved facilities where easy to do so, and brought experience in scouting and mathematics to improve the on-pitch experience. Some of the PR stuff has been easy and helped to improve the club's image and therefore average attendance - things like providing free sanitary products in the ladies' loos, free merchandise at away games, free pints and pies on occasion - etc etc. They've previously engaged well with our fan groups too. 

 

The play-offs are a bit of a lottery, and that looks like where we're heading, so there's a 75% chance we won't go up this season. But with this board, we know that if we don't go all the way the club is safe and we'll have another crack at it next year without worrying about the cost of our 'big push'. We'll have gained valuable experience and might make a huge profit on one or two of our star players, which will go straight back into the playing squad. 

 

Ultimately we have a long-term vision based on sense, experience, and maths. We buy low, sell high. We negate our smaller attendances in the division by making money through our players, who are paid more modestly because they're young and haven't experienced this level of football before. And we have a board who have a great knack for picking up a superb head coach out of nowhere. 

 

 

 

This is a really excellent post. 

 

When you read that you can see why they have done so well and sod it, I'm going to say it, I hope they get what they deserve if they get a playoff spot which I think they will. 

 

Secondly you read that and it's pretty much the exact opposite of what we have. Whilst Barnsley will no doubt get what they deserve, we all know that we are also getting exactly what we deserve. 

 

That's a sad statement to make because whilst Sheffield Wednesday or Chansiri FC or whatever it's called is getting what's due we fans are the ones who truly suffer 

Edited by poite
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Hate to say it but thinking of taking my pre schooler to barnsleys community training sessions. Much cheaper than ours and the club seems much more family oriented.

 

Not that I'd go to watch their first team kids session tickets are only a tenner.

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They've done really well, and looking at their fixture list, they've a great chance of making the play-offs. In fact, their form is so good, they might even have an outside chance of going up automatically. Of course, they were lucky not to go down last season, but they've made the most of it (and their fans have had to suffer even more than ours this millennium, so good luck to them). I suspect that the extremely unusual circumstances of the current season might be working in their favour, in terms of the type of football they play, the lack of crowds and the fact that the financial situation means that other teams haven't been able to make major signings (or poach their players). But that's not to take anything away from the system they've got now and the organisation they put into it - there are certainly lots of things that we should be looking to emulate.

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looking at the dingle stats yesterday v. norwich shows only 32% possession...

yet they mustered 15 shots on goal...

they had only a 61% pass completion rate...

yet their high back line caught norwich offside 5 times...

compare that with us, 

we'd would have had more possession...

with low single figure shots...

our pass completion rate would have been higher, as many of our passes would have been in the wrong directions...

with zero offsides as our backline hasn't enough pace to push up and effectively cover.

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