Thank you! And a few others who also posted on this page of the thread. You have restored my faith that there is an element of sanity among us.Tuesds wrote:As owner and Chairman, Kleanthous is ultimately responsible for the club's fortunes. We're 7 points adrift from safety at the bottom of the league, so he's going to get criticised. Personally, I think he made a critical mistake when he brought McGhee in over Eames's head, without consulting him or, if he did, without winning his agreement first. Bringing in a an experienced, high profile figure to help guide an inexperienced manager at a time of crisis was a logical thing to do... but not without that manager's approval, and as we know it precipitated Eames's resignation and gave us two months with a manager who didn't want to be doing the job - and it showed.
Lots of other things have been said here, with reasonable views on all sides... BUT, three things get my proverbial goat:
1. Why do people see conspiracies or malign motives everywhere? I mean, Kleanthous tying the division's best striker (and the club) to a very expensive 3 year deal when most clubs would have cashed in long ago was a definite misstep in his plot to return the team to the Conference so he can run the team more cheaply and concentrate on oh my god it's so ridiculous I can't even finish this bit.
We are clearly spending vastly more on the playing staff than ever before in our history, in real terms. That's a fact. It's been badly spent in many instances, without question, but there are cheaper and more effective ways of purposefully neglecting the footballing side of a football club!
2. This notion that 'TK promised us we'd be challenging/we'd never struggle again..." Good grief. At the start of the season, there are 23 clubs who are confident they won't struggle. Our last three seasons have seen us win the Conference title and then twice finish comfortably in mid table in League 2. These have been followed by a season of severe struggle, and we all hate that. But if your response to it is 'TK promised me this couldn't happen' (he didn't), you might want to reassess things.
3. All this 'I've finally had enough' stuff... If people don't want to spend their own time and money on something other than following Barnet FC, that is their choice. But this idea that we have somehow had it particularly bad over the last 20 years often goes unchallenged here, and it's peculiar to me.
The four straight years of relegation battles are often trotted out, so as a modicum of counter-balance, once in a while perhaps it's worth recalling just a few of the other features of this period of supposed misery such as winning two Conference league titles, making the play-offs, two club-record FA Cup runs, going to Old Trafford (and the AMEX and St Andrews and Molinuex and the Madejski and the Liberty Stadium and more...), and enjoying thrillingly talented players turning out for our club, such as Currie, Bailey, Puncheon, Adomah, Bolasie, Davids (!), Villa and Akinde, alongside modern-day club heroes such as Harrison, Yakubu, Yiadom and more.
In other words, I'm proud of my club, and I'll still be proud of it if we go down to non league. Where, of course, this club has spent over 80% of its history.
Throughout this period, how much time have we spent at the same level as clubs with smaller support bases than us? Even in the Conference, supposedly medium-sized clubs such as Chester, Aldershot and Woking always get bigger home crowds than us when we're playing at the same level. If we should all be 'embarrassed' by our 'disgraceful' club, how should they feel about the fact that we are always or nearly always sat above them in the football pyramid?
Unless you support a club financed by Emirati oil wealth, you aren't going to win everything every year. And even then you might lose occasionally to club funded by the Russian Oligarch. Every other club wins some and, more often, fails to win some.
I know people are frustrated and p*ssed off and have every right to be, but it good to have some perspective too. So thank you!