Anyone who has followed Barnsley FC over recent years knows the side have been on a downward spiral. Slowly but surely they’ve drifted lower and lower down the football pyramid, placing blame on parachute payments and TV deals. “Love Barnsley, hate football”, fans decided to tell themselves.
Manager-after-manager they’ve discussed ‘stopping the rot’ of negative tactics and poor performances – although, as the club begins to spiral out of control, many are beginning to realise the ‘rot’ may originate much higher up.
Barnsley have to be thankful for Patrick Cryne, the saviour of the beloved football club – there’s no doubt about that. Adhering to the fans’ best interests, he kept the club afloat and, within three years, got Barnsley back into the league in which they historically belong. 12 years later, however, there still seems to be a mentality that Barnsley Football Club wouldn’t exist without Mr Cryne and his family.
In 2002, the club was far from a sellable asset. No businessman in the right mind would have taken the club on unless they were a fan themselves. The fan who did take them on, though, has found himself still at the club, and so Barnsley are back to where they began – far from a sellable asset, on the edge of the bottommost tier of the English Football League.
Administration was the reason 12 years ago; Barnsley pushed too hard for success without a stable foundation. With no real financial difficulties, the only reason today is mismanagement from above… dating all the way back to 2006.
Beating Swansea at the Millennium Stadium was one of my most memorable days as a Barnsley fan; Andy Ritchie formed a team from almost nothing and miraculously crafted a promotion season out of nowhere. Barnsley’s first season back in the Championship was always going to be a struggle, but then began the alarm bells…
“It is with regret that the board of Barnsley Football Club has announced its decision to terminate the contract of manager Andy Ritchie with immediate effect.
The decision by the board follows the failure to resolve differences with the manager concerning the need to strengthen the first-team squad to ensure survival in the Championship.
In the close season, following the club’s promotion, the board was of the opinion that the first-team squad required strengthening in terms of additional, proven-quality players, and proper cover for key positions.
The board had earmarked funding specifically for squad strengthening and set as a key objective for the manager the delivery of this objective.
It will be clear to fans that the desired strengthening of the squad has not been achieved and that the football club is operating largely with the same first-team squad as last season except that Sam Togwell and Michael McIndoe have replaced Stephen McPhail and Chris Shuker.”
At the time, I didn’t think any more of it; Ritchie hadn’t strengthened and, therefore, lost his job as they found themselves second bottom of the table. Looking back, though, surely it should have been the manager’s decision whether or not the team needed strengthening – he was the footballing professional, after all? Instead, the men at the top found themselves disagreeing with Ritchie and showed him the door.
Next on the list was Simon Davey – more of my favourite memories as a Barnsley supporter came under his reign, beating Liverpool at Anfield in the FA Cup to take the reds to Wembley. Barnsley didn’t exactly have the most ‘English’ team, with loans and free transfers coming from all over the world – Brian Howard and Kayode Odejayi go down as heroes of mine, though.
One point from the opening five games of the season wasn’t good enough, but Davey’s departure of “mutual consent” was the red flag here. Without some sort of disagreement or another job lined up, there’s no valid reason for a manager to leave without being pushed. Again, though, questions weren’t raised as supporters assumed Davey had decided to bite the bullet before getting the sack.
Mark Robins came next, and while he didn’t bring the most entertaining football to Oakwell – he brought one of the team’s highest league finishes in a while, finishing 17th in the 2010/11 season. This should have been a pivotal time for the club and the start of it heading in the right direction. With a suitable, clinical manager under contract, all they needed was reasonable investment to help push forward.
Of course, though, it became a pivotal moment for all the wrong reasons, with Robins resigning after a dispute over the budget;
“I am disappointed that I will no longer have the opportunity to continue the club’s progress next season.
Since taking charge of the club, I am proud to have guided Barnsley from the foot of the Championship to safety last season, and improve on the league position as well as points total this campaign, all on a limited budget.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here and I would like to offer my sincere thanks to all the players, my staff who worked so hard to try and bring success on the field and especially the supporters.
I wish them and the club every success for the future.”
Had Cryne further backed Mark Robins, Barnsley could have found themselves in a completely different position, however, the purse strings tightened and thus began the project with Keith Hill from Rochdale.
The plan was to recruit lower league players and expect them to perform in the Championship; again, Hill didn’t bring the most attractive football fans have seen at Oakwell, or even the most entertaining press conferences, but it seemed to work, there or thereabouts. Through injury to Jacob Butterfield, the loss of Ricardo Vaz Tê to West Ham and the recall of Danny Drinkwater, however, Barnsley had its midfield totally gutted. With no budget and no midfield, Keith Hill was only going in one direction – out of the door.
“Due to the string of results we’ve had recently, we have dispensed with Keith’s services.
This is a results-based business and we find ourselves at the bottom of the league and unfortunately it has not quite worked for Keith. He hasn’t really got out of it all the hard work he has put in so it’s a sad day.
The last home win was 1st September against Bristol City so it’s a long time in coming – of course the supporters do get restless and they are looking to us to make a positive move.”
Rather than backing Mark Robins and trying to sell the club as an ambitious mid-table Championship team, Mr Cryne kept a tight grip on his saviour status of then-nine years ago and decided to try to run the club off its own income. Yet again, no questions were asked and the side accepted being a small club who couldn’t afford to compete with the likes of Millwall, Burnley and ironically, Swansea.
Up stepped David Flitcroft for our second attempt at the cheaper option. Probably one of the most likeable Barnsley managers, ‘Flicker’ “galvanised” the squad of “special human beings” and motivated the team into another one of my most memorable days as a Barnsley fan, away at Huddersfield. Titled ‘The Great Escape’, somehow Barnsley managed to avoid relegation – but, unfortunately, Flicker lost his head tactically the following season and found himself too attached to his players. Probably a justifiable sacking, in that case.
With such a ridiculous turnover of managers, Barnsley weren’t exactly the most attractive prospect at the time – however, they managed to bring back club legend, Danny Wilson. With almost 1,000 matches under his belt at the time, fans were confident that Barnsley had the right man for a long-term plan. Many deemed the squad to be ruined by ‘Hillcroft’, claiming Wilson would need at least two seasons to reform the squad and put Barnsley back in the Championship. Just seven points away from the play-offs, Wilson found his contract terminated.
“Recent performances and results have been concerning, considering the Club currently boasts the fifth highest wage bill in League One in addition to a fourth highest equity donation by our owner.
Meanwhile, our current League position of 17th is in stark contrast to an average home gate of sixth-best in the division. Whilst the Club acknowledges there has been a large turnover of players, the league position is still unacceptable considering all of the above.”
On the surface, things seemed pretty ordinary. However, at the helm were Chairman, Maurice Watkins, and CEO, Ben Mansford, full of business talk and corporate promises. Rather than seven points away from a play-off place, Barnsley were 17th in the table with the sixth best home attendances in the league. Statistically, this was deemed unacceptable and yet another manager was sacked for arguably, non-footballing reasons.
Since Wilson’s dismissal, noise has unofficially come out of Oakwell that there were disagreements between himself and the board relating to recruitment and player selection. Interestingly, the most recent ‘managerial’ appointment was instead a ‘Head Coach’, suggesting Lee Johnson isn’t in charge of recruitment at the football club. Barnsley have potentially found themselves in a position where an ex-agent, Ben Mansford, with limited footballing knowledge is in charge of a Head Coach, who is simply a ‘yes man’.
Barnsley Football Club is no doubt in crisis, again. The whole structure is questionable, all the way to owner, Patrick Cryne. Fans can give thanks for his support in 2003, but the downward spiral is unquestionably down to him hanging onto the club for too long. With no prospective buyers, there are only two ways forward; to employ a board of directors to manage the business and LEAVE footballing matters to the footballing professionals, or for the fans to take over and run the club.
All quotes sourced via barnsleyfc.co.uk
Main Photo
