PATRICK CRYNE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

It's been a while, hasn't it? 

What a season of contrasting halves we've watched as Barnsley supporters over the last nine months, eh? From those dark and desperate depths to the most perfect of peaks. A slide like no other, followed by a rise to remember. It hasn't been - as journalistic types suggest - a rollercoaster ride. Because rollercoaster rides end by coming down from a great height. And no matter what happens when our beloved Reds battle for Play-Off glory over the next seven days or so, there should be no come-down, no hangover, no headaches. Only feelings of pride, of satisfaction (with a side order of relief). Because at the beginning of December and, even as we entered this glorious year of 2016, the threat of another relegation was very real. 

Welcome back to the blog. You Beautiful Reds, indeed. 




As Conor Hourihane rifled home 'that' equalizer in front of the Ponty End against Sheffield United in added time, I stood on the gangway steps and gave a very half-hearted cheer. I was on that gangway as I was about to leave early. Roy was still at his seat, bless him. But I had no faith in the players getting anything from that game, such had been the standard of our play (again). It wasn't just on that day, it had been like that for the weeks preceding it, as we stumbled from one defeat to another. 

What a ridiculous season. 

I've seen Jordan Clark score the winner in injury time for bloody Shrewsbury. I've winced as Milan Lalkovic danced through our defence, then gave 'eyes' to the dugout. Hell, I cringed as I heard over the radio that Miles Addison had scored against us at Peterborough. I'd suffered enough by that point. But when Conor's bullet flew into the net to give us a late point, I didn't share the euphoria shown by Conor and his teammates, nor the passionate cheers from fellow supporters amongst what was by then a sparse Ponty End. That's how low I was at that stage. Here we were, scoring at the death to deny the one club I hate, I should have been in raptures. 

In the end, I clapped a little. Then muttered to Roy "we're still bottom of the league". 

I came home, quite drunk. It'd been an early kick off thanks to the delightful SYP. I didn't get my usual train straight home. I sat in the Old Number Seven.... "another pint of Blonde, pal". Nobody had died. But it felt like that. I looked at the league table on my phone. Just kept staring at it. I returned home a couple of hours later and got my head down for an hour. It was the night of the Tyson Fury fight. 

In my infinite wisdom, I broke with tradition and decided to do an episode of Not a Podcast, drunk and directly after a match. It's one of the best episodes I did to be fair. You could hear the despair mixed with my shit humour. I went through every player on the pitch and none came out with much credit. I gave Lloyd Isgrove a "one out of ten, for at least putting his boots on and standing on the grass". I referred to Hourihane's tweet that evening where he called that result a 'turning point'. I laughed on the Podcast. Because I know best. I scoffed at the idea. 

The only thing I got right in that episode was my prediction that Fury would be crowned World Champion later in Dusseldorf. I should perhaps stick to boxing. 





There have been 26 games since then, in two competitions. We went on to win 17 of them with just four defeats. One of those victories came about at Wembley, our first cup triumph since 1912 and Arthur Fairclough's history boys. It was a special weekend, that. Spent with the same lads who sat/stood with me at Doncaster as Lee Johnson threw away a point with his game-changing subs. The lads who like me watched on in horror as the likes of Crawley, MK Dons and Fleetwood took the spoils at Oakwell last season. It's what football's all about isn't it? That feeling of togetherness. Through thick, thin, thinner and thinnest. As Conor led the lads up the Wembley steps to lift that trophy I moved along our row to stand alongside Roy, to put my arm around him. I had to share that moment with him. I did an episode of Not a Podcast in the aftermath of that joyous occasion too, adding pieces of footage I'd captured in the famous stadium. The unbridled joy in my voice in that video gives me goosebumps now just thinking of it. 





I remember looking around the 'home of football' as the celebrations were in full swing, I had to take it all in. I thought about my old man taking me into the old Brewery Stand in the 1980's. I thought about everyone I know, friends who were there but who I couldn't see. I bet they're loving this, I thought. I thought about the posters on the BBS forum, the ones I don't know, even the knobs. Lads and lasses on Twitter, who I've never met. Again, even the knobs. I thought about Mr Cryne. 

I thought about everything in those moments. When we were promoted in 1997 to the promised land of the Premier League, I was about to turn 15-years-old that summer. I didn't take it all in back then. In 2006 I made sure to. As you get older, the more you realise just how small a club we are supporting in the grand scheme of things and just how rare and fleeting these moments really are. Just over a month ago, I milked everything at Wembley. If I was at rock bottom in November, I was higher than a kite on April 3rd. 

I don't regret feeling so blue six months ago. I'm a human being and my emotions are affected by events. Other than humorous quips on podcasts, I wasn't giving players stick. I remained as positive as possible. I went on twitter and the BBS the day after that draw against Sheffield United, hungover, back to business and predicted we'd make the playoffs. Slightly tongue in cheek, but I still backed the players. I rated them all. I just felt certain things needed tweaking. I wanted us to get at teams. It was all so ponderous, and repetitive. 

I also wanted Lee Johnson out by that point. Not just because of the results, but because of a message he sent me prior to the Altrincham game: "I guarantee we win the next three games," he said. I sat through the next game, Altrincham in the FA Cup, and I have to say that's the worst Reds match I've ever seen. All context in consideration. It has to be. 

But as I've pointed out, we soon turned things around and you have to give Lee credit for that. I liked the bloke as it goes. But I don't believe it was his idea to play 4-4-2. I don't believe Adam Hammill was his idea either. And we all know he didn't fancy Hourihane in a two. But he was in charge at the very start of the turnaround. He was at the helm for an eight game losing run, and then a seven game winning sequence. He's not middle of the road, is he? Bi-polar management, that. 

But yes, I thank Lee for playing a part in the season. But most of the credit from me goes to Paul Heckingbottom and his staff, his players and the supporters who've backed this group to the hilt this year. And of course, to all the board members who have overseen all this and to our custodian, Patrick Cryne. Which brings me nicely onto the main point of this update, an exclusive Q&A with the man himself.  

1. I appreciate your time at this stage of an extended season. How is Patrick today, how are you feeling about the Play-Offs? 

Exhilarated, Fearful, Anticipatory, the full range of fan emotions.  I thought I would be happy just to be in this position with the JPT under our arm and in the Play-Offs.  But now I am desperate for us to win.  

2. We've not really spoken much since Wembley, so how was that weekend for you, can you give us your take on it?

I loved it.  I mixed with a lot with our fans and players.  There was a lot of joy about.  The Oxford people were very gracious.  I thought the game was typically Barnsley.  It was not dissimilar to the Wigan game.  We start off like a team that is going to get a thrashing and then click into the better version of ourselves. 

Our team seems to know how to celebrate on the  field and off.  I made an early appearance at the after-game party, but it was already beyond boisterous even then, so I left. 

Oh yes, Alfie Mawson saved my life in a KFC.  I went in to get something sugary to avoid a diabetic collapse.  Alfie was in there at the front of the queue and bought me a full-fat Coca Cola just as the room was spinning to darkness.  Yes, Alfie Mawson saved my life.

3. Did you enjoy the pre-match entertainment at Wembley? I particularly enjoyed the cheerleaders. Can we have them at Oakwell?

I didn’t see the entertainment, I stayed in the hospitality area hoovering up all the free stuff.  I did this when someone showed me how little is made by the clubs after Wembley takes out all its staging cost.  The FA know nothing about the good socialist principle of the redistribution of wealth.  Greg Dyke Out!

4. Conor Wilkinson, Deon Burton, Leon Knight or Richard Naylor?

That list could be much longer.  I would have to say Conor Wilkinson.  I assume you are talking about the best looking....?

5. On the subject of loans and appreciating that you're talking to someone who has made it known over the years that he hates filling the squad with loanees, anything to add/gloat about regards loans?

You are comprehensively wrong on most matters, Andy.  However, you have other fine qualities.  Your “Rock bottom to Heckingbottom” line is genius.  I will have it put on my headstone.  In my view, loanees are a bridging step to arriving at the team you want to have.  If you cannot recruit the players to play the way you think will bring success, then the loan market is the right place to get players who can.  Of course, we get some wrong, but they are not as damaging in the long term as getting a 2/3 year contract wrong.  Some of our loanee picks have been inspired, for example Fletcher, Isgrove and Brownhill.  We would have seen more of Chapman too had Hammill not been so brilliant.  Of course, there have been some failures, but we sent them back without any lasting damage to the cause or our finances.  And we are where we are, JPT holders and promotion candidates.      

6. George Moncur? Tell me about him. 

John’s son.  He is the type of player we want.  He would be right at the top of the spreadsheet if we had one.  Did you see his body language when Colchester scored the equaliser?  He was more upset than our players (just joking).

7. I really liked your crowd theory on Facebook recently. It matched my own thoughts, that we are indeed a better supported club than folk realise. How important are the fans to the future of Barnsley FC?

Our support is amazing.  In terms of support from the urban area of Barnsley no club is better than ours in the English Football League.  There are 90,000 people in the urban area of Barnsley and 9,000 attend Oakwell.  That’s 1in 10.  It is not our fault that we are a small historic town rather than a City.  The Metropolitan Borough is one of the largest in the country comprising 14 historic towns, but it has a small population by city standards and stretches geographically from rural Penistone to Goldthorpe.  If you look at it properly, we are one of the best supported clubs in the country per capita of population. 

Our fans are the best, without doubt.  Look at the situation at Wigan last Sunday, we out-sang the League Champions even after they opened the scoring.

8. Great idea to give free tickets out to the school kids for the Colchester game a couple of weeks ago, and reducing prices for the Play-Off first leg is commendable too. Oh, and extending the early bird. In other words, what's going on? Why are the club finally, seemingly in tune with the fanbase?

I have been custodian of the club for little more than a dozen years.  For 10 of those years, I was beset by ill-health and embroiled in legal matters.  Those managing the club in those years were acting in my best interests, so they didn’t have the freedom to act other than as business managers.  For the last couple of years I have been able to get more involved.  We have put together a talented team of people led by Maurice Watkins.  The much criticised and then much praised Ben Mansford is an outstanding CEO.  Robert Zuk is a top accountant and Linton Brown is an excellent marketeer.  We have never been better managed or responsive to our customers – the fans.  We now try to look at things from the  fans’ perspective and we are more dynamic and adventurous in our decision making.  However, everyone in a football club is subordinate to the results.  Everyone gets praise when we are winning, but the blame goes everywhere when we are losing.

9. It does feel tight right now, doesn't it? The club I mean. Everyone united together. I know, results are paramount. They're key. But so much seems to be right, so much feels positive. You feel it as well I'm sure?

I know that we have a fully articulated plan in place rather than ad hoc decision making.  We know how we want to play in terms of playing philosophy, systems and tactics.  We know the attributes required by players in different positions.  The Head Coach has the recruitment systems in place to help him find the right players.  I think we can get better as a team and be more competitive.  We will have our off periods as we have had this season, but the approach will mean that we are developing players to get better over time.  

10. It was like this in many ways after the Houdini act at Huddersfield. That soon soured, it went pear. Why? Really, what the chuff happened to Flicker?

The prospects for a small club in the Championship are daunting.  12 clubs are receiving parachute payments from £64m down to £10m.  Several Clubs are owned by English billionaires e.g. Bristol City and Ipswich.  Others are owned by foreign billionaires e.g. Nottingham Forest and Blackburn.  If Barnsley get promoted back to the Championship we will get an additional £5m of TV revenues, but that is a fraction of what other clubs have.  To counter this, you have to get the right players by recruiting under the radar.  I believe we can do this.  We did it with Mawson, Roberts, Winnall, Hourihane etc.  In Flicker’s time we were in that era where a manager recruits people he knows or he’s been told of by mates or a trusted scout.  There was no science.  We have the science now and it is what LJ and Heckingbottom wanted.

11. What's your favourite type of music, have you a band or act you'd listen to above all others?

Fleetwood Mac is as middle of the road as my tastes get.  I like the stuff of my youth, for example Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd.  More latterly, I like Avenged Sevenfold and Papa Roach.  James and I went on a road trip a few years ago to see Avenged Sevenfold.  We went all the way to Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Unfortunately, they didn’t turn up through an alleged overindulgence in certain substances. 

I once dropped James and his mates off at an Arctic Monkeys concert at Old Trafford cricket ground.  I then parked up and bought tickets from a street tout and went in.  I didn’t want to miss out.  I do not understand Mansford and his attendance at a Little Mix concert or his liking of Westlife.... 

12. Danny Wilson, Mark Robins and Keith Hill walk into a bar. No, but if you had to appoint one of them as manager again, who'd be the one? And why?

I am sure none of them would accept if I did.  LJ once told me that I have a reputation for eccentricity on the manager’s circuit.  I am perceived as too intelligent and esoteric.  I liked Danny and Keith and I should probably leave it at that

13. So why didn't it work out with them?

The fans decide when the manager has to go.  It has happened now with Nigel Adkins.  I am sure the Blades ownership wanted to keep Adkins but the economic and vocal power of the fans forced their hand.  If you try to resist the fans you will get a shower of grief.  In the opinion of many fans we fired Danny too soon. You were one of them.

In the case of LJ, we kept him when the fans wanted him gone. Again, you.  Those situations were both very difficult for me personally.  I got a lot of grief.

14. Are you a drinker, smoker and have you ever participated in other recreational activities? Did Garry O'Connor ever 'sort you out'?

No. I don’t drink alcohol and I have never smoked.  I have an excessive personality without stimulants.  I have never been sorted out, in any sense. 

15. What's the likelihood of us losing players this summer?

Players have the power.  If they want to go they find their way out.  To date, no-one has expressed a desire to leave.  Quite the contrary, some have expressed that they are happy and want to extend.  Players from other teams are expressing a wish to join us via their agents.

16. Do you watch soaps on TV? If so, what's your favourite?

Not really.  I sometimes watch Emmerdale to see what the Dingles are doing.

17. Would you rather watch Sheffield United reserves vs Sheffield Wednesday reserves, in December, int snow, for scouting reasons, or would you rather listen to Ben Mansford explain what a brand is?

I would rather be cast at sea in a dinghy deflating through each plastic seam with every shark species circling, great white, hammerhead, tiger, football agents, lawyers etc than listen to Ben in full flow.  But watching the Blades and the Owls is going too far.

18. What's been your darkest hour as custodian of BFC?

It is a personal one really.  My son James was asked to join the Board and being a smart lad, he did his due diligence by speaking to everyone.  They all wanted him to join.  But in the end, he felt he did not have mandate from the fans.  This was impressed upon him first hand on a train back from Crawley.  He said he didn’t want to go ahead and the amount of disappointment I felt was oppressive.

19. Your finest hour?

Promotion to the Championship in 2006, beating Liverpool at Anfield and beating Chelsea at Oakwell were special moments.  However, the JPT win at Wembley was very satisfying.

20. Has Barry made more mistakes this season? Did he sign Conor Wilkinson?

Barry is now surrounded by good people.  Conor was down to LJ alone.  Everyone else said, “Noooooo”.

21. What's the strangest place you've visited? I once went in a public toilet in Mablethorpe, I was 9 years old and a man had what looked like a salami sausage in his.... but yeah, that was strange.

I once went to a leper camp in India, only to find that all the sufferers had better skin than me.  Except where extremities had fallen off.  Theirs not mine.

22. What's your username on the BBS?

Young Nudger.  You should have guessed this from the posting that said “Patrick, when you get the John Stones money cut and run”.  I hoped that everyone was going to get behind it...

23. What was all that stuff about a few years ago regards Italian investors? Wasn't somebody from Darlo involved? Have you never received any serious approaches?

No.  No one has ever come forward that could provide proof of funds.

24. The chuffing scoreboard. Not an issue of mine, it tells the score, but it is for others. What's happening with it?

In my mind, the scoreboard is a thing of aesthetic beauty, an art form.  If it had been constructed by Tracey Emin or Damien Hirst it would be celebrated and priceless.  The facts that bulbs fail by the day makes it living art.  Are fans really saying that they don’t know who is playing, or the score, or the time?  OK. OK.  We will replace it for next season.  Philistines! 

25. Have you and Don Rowing spoke since the weekend? What with ours and their result? What's your opinion on the gutter press suggesting Wigan gave us the win and the final day should be investigated?

No.  Wigan wanted to win.  Just as we did when we played Colchester.  Everyone wants to win on the last day at home.

26. Aren't Sheff Utd just the most horrid of clubs, from players to fans? And they smell.

I get on well with Kevin McCabe so I better not comment.

27. What's your favourite film?

“Don’t look now” from the Daphne du Maurier story.

28. Have you got a favourite book, and are you still an author yourself?

I like poetry and classical stuff.  My favourite book in recent times is Cormack McCarthy’s “The Road”. 

And yes.  I write post-apocalyptic books that sell very well indeed, particularly in the USA.  I will not tell you my pen name, or the next time we lose everyone will jump on Amazon/Kindle and give me bad reviews.

29. Recently, there've been discussions on forums about whether or not we're better getting promotion now, or waiting. I find it ludicrous myself. You take promotion every day, surely?

Only three are promoted every season so you have to take it when you can.

30. John Stones. Can we not force Everton to flog him? Before they ruin him. And what about young Holgate? Where's he disappeared to?

It’s funny.  I posted on my Facebook page that Martinez holding on to John was bad for the player.  Someone rounded on me and told me that Martinez was a fantastic manager.  My rationale was that Everton do not play in a way that will develop John.  John is not a head it, kick it player.  This last season has not only been poor for John, what about Ross Barkley and Romelu Lukaku?  I made a personal appeal to Mason and his family to stay at Barnsley.  That was the right thing to do.  But no one listened. 

Thanks to Patrick for giving me his time in what must be a very busy period for him and the club, and I'll say good night and God bless to you all. 

Cheers for reading (don't really give a toss). 

Whitey x