Faith should be a two- way thing as Reds fans let down again
As GerhardStruberprepares to join New YorkRed Bullsas coach, Leon Wobschall examines whathas gone wrongatOakwell.
AS Barnsley prepare to look for their fifth permanent head coach in the last 32 months, the questions are surely:
Do the club possess ambition other than to develop emerging players in the short- term and sell them on for profit at a future date?
Is rising up the league ladder a secondary concern?
Coaches clearly also fall into the bracket of expendable commodities.
When coaches – good ones anyway – have get- out clauses, it is only a matter of time. Certainly in the case of Gerhard Struber, who is New York bound.
What are fans who paid their hard- earned money in financially- challenging times to purchase season- tickets supposed to make of it all?
Some eight thousand showed faith ahead of the new season at Barnsley, with that outstanding backing being something that the club thought ‘ was never imaginable’, according to chief executive officer Dane Murphy. Faithshouldbe atwo- waystreet. That optimism was built around the feats of Struber in last season’s stunning ‘ Great Escape’ which tantalisingly hinted at progression up the table for Barnsley if the Austrian was supported in the market.
When the consortium led by Chinese- American billionaire Chien Lee and Paul Conway
came in, talk was of Barnsley ‘ living within their means’ with no ‘ crazy’ spending. Fair enough, especially in these current times.
Tellingly, Conway spoke of expanding the business plan. He commented: ‘ We will grow it bit
by bit and then aspirations will grow with that.’
Aspirations have grown fast under Struber’s watch, but there is no dynamism from above. Where is the incremental growth that was referenced to?
Instead, Struber – like Daniel Stendel and Paul Heckingbottom before – has grown disenchanted with the approach of the club’s hierarchy to transfers.
Given that three coaches have experienced such frustration, it is more than just coincidence. It is depressingly familiar.
You cannot turn the equivalent of straw into gold all the time. Barnsley have lost two key offensive players in the past 14 months in Kieffer Moore and Jacob Brown and they simply have not been replaced.
Almost exactly a year on from Stendel’s departure, Struber – his hugely capable successor – has had enough.
As it stands, he believes it is difficult to see Barnsley breaking the cycle of going around in circles near the foot of the Championship and then back to League One before returning again. Many Reds supporters would concur with his thoughts.
A warm figure who was serious about his work but also possessed with a human side, Struber was engaging company.
Playful jesting with yours truly in ‘ pressers’ was commonplace.
This reporter stated in an article last season that Barnsley – based on results under Struber – would be mid- table, only to receive a gentle reprimand that they would have been higher.
There were no traces of humour in his last few press calls sadly. This was someone who had other things on his mind.
Then there was an incendiary parting shot in his last radio press conference at the weekend, when he openly questioned the ambition of his bosses.
A bold move, but this was someone who had already decided that he was heading elsewhere and had little to lose.
Just like last October, Barnsley are getting ready to start again.
Faith – and more worryingly interest – among many weary followers is starting to ebb.