Not often I agree with you,
B.I.G, but I think you're right here. Appreciate the board are up to their necks with stadium stuff, but what on earth was the justification for keeping GR on over the summer, when there were clearly enough doubts for us to sack him 10 games in?
Today feels like a kick in the clangers, as I'm sure it does for all of us. In fact, it feels to me like confirmation that we are in a relegation dogfight rather than a gentle amble to a mid table finish and a very, very busy pre season.
For me, the big thing is the budget: Barnes has clearly had to cut it, and by a substantial amount. Splatt, Hill, Deadfield, and Akanbi have all gone with no direct replacements. All (bar Splatt) are experienced at this level and must have been on reasonable whack. But if we could afford that wage bill under GR, why have we not given the same resources to Barnes? Surely, we didn't give GR a budget that was unsustainable, so why have we cut back mid season?
I assume it's because the budget was for a league position higher than we thought we would get after the crap start, but Barnes's job was always going to be a tough one - it wasn't his squad and the profile of the player he clearly likes (i.e. Powell, Eweka, Thompson etc.) is patently different to players like Ming, Comley, Vint, Mills, Holland, Blackman etc. who are all longer in the tooth. By ensuring he couldn't replace people like Deadfield with players he preferred, we made a tough job even tougher.
If the board allocatdd a decent budget to GR after several seasons of poor football, then that is their fault, but by making Barnes cut it, when the side he inherited was already on the ropes and contracted up to the hilt, they've made it even worse, IMO. Unless the budget was financially unsustainable for the whole season, then I think it was a mistake
they had to take the responsibility and the consequences for, not Barnes - they should have just left it as it was to give him the best chance of avoiding what we now find ourselves in.
I'd genuinely like to hear someone from the top brass explain the thinking, but we've got fuck all chance of that happening. They'll just leave
liamdhfc to take the flack for the umpteenth time.
