Call me small minded and petty....

...by all means.

But every Saturday I check Barnsley's result. And when they lose I have a little fist pump moment in my head.

Conor Hourihane thinking Barnsley were a bigger club, and pining to leave us for them. How could he think they were a considerably bigger and better club than Argyle? Really?

It is great to see Barnsley struggling in League One. I loved having Hourihane as an Argyle player but I dearly hope he is playing League Two football next season with his apparently big club. I hope Argyle break Sturrock's points record in winning this year's division, and take to next year's League One like Burton Albion on roids.

Am I petty? Absolutely. But I genuinely have this thought every time Argyle win and Barnsley lose.

I will love it, LOVE IT, the moment we overtake them in the football pyramid (if it ever happens soon) and hope we really make Hourihane regret leaving us.

Derek Adams, please fix it for me to have my dream come true.

The fact is Barnsley are a bigger club, having won the FA cup and been in the Premier/First division. Achievements we are unlikely to emulate.

Surprised me greatly that Barnsley have spent more time in the second tier than Argyle as well, so their would seem to be some misperception as far as the relative "bigness" is concerned. As for Hourihane, he didn't play yesterday, no idea if his absence is long term or not. If you go back through history, then there would be an awful lot of Argyle players who would get the fist pump for daring to go to clubs which offer them better prospects in all manner of ways, right through from Halmosi and Norris in recent times to Ray Bowden and David Jack in the 1920's and 1930's.Never considered Ipswich to be an intrinsically bigger club than Argyle but that didn't stop Mariner and Norris from joining them and it can't be denied that both Ipswich and the players concerned, Mariner in particular,achieved more than Argyle ever have. Anyway, the ball was in Argyle's court-Hourihane was a contracted player and the club could have said no to any move, as many others have done-maybe it would be better to take stock of the way the club has always operated in these matters rather than wish ill on the player and his club. Rather a Keeganesque post if you don't mind me saying so.

No point in keeping a player like Hourihane....if they are dead set to leave....pointless holding on to a player whose heart is somewhere else.

Never took to him personally....maybe he felt the same about me.

I was never impressed with Hourihane either. Well overrated. I guess Barnsley's ill fortune may be indicative of his input to the team. I don't blame him for leaving, and I don't feel the years since admin have particularly been conducive to player loyalty. Hopefully, Adams will change that, but he's got his work cut out with Brent's shadow over him.
I do admit I took great pleasure from seeing Holloway's Leicester lose game after game, after his defection, with the 1 0 win up there for us a particular delight. It gave a sort of balance, which I hoped would help stop a downward Argyle tumble. Unfortunately, there were other even bigger factors at play.
Once he had paid his dues and shown some contrition, I was happy for him again as he went on to great success and do what he knew he wasn't allowed to effect down here.
I think the Leicester thing is just about the only time I've been stirred by another team's failures/results

Portsmouth, Cardiff, Burnley. Any defeat for those always brings a smile.

Sean McCarthy to Bradford ("to better myself") was the one that rankled for me.

I still believe if we had kept Hourihane we would've been promoted last season. His sale was a huge blow to Shezza's plans, captain and key player who scored goals. Selling him for a paltry £200k was very much 'same ol' Argo' and he was right to leave (at that time). Let's just hope Brent has learnt a lesson and we don't sell out too cheaply (preferably not at all) in January.

Interesting reading ...............

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Like for like Argyle have been attendance wise , bigger than Barnsley, particularly the first 70 years of the last century when our peers were Southampton and Norwich before they grabbed top fight lift off and now enjoy fanbases of 20k plus even in the 3rd tier.
Swansea and Hull City are now showing us how to step up too, in modern times.Barnsley's one season at the top table was not enough to make much of a difference.

Until someone with some wealth spots the potential at Argyle, pays brent off, gets rid of his bucket rattling jamboys, works with PCC to finish the stadium with room for expansion later and can retain Derek Adams, adding to the squad as necessary, the club is a castle built on sand and the wider public will not buy in. Of course, a promotion season will produce a few bumper crowds but the bigger picture needs to inspire confidence and belief if a repeat of the last disaster is to be avoided.
Lessons have not been learned and those who talk of us becoming an established championship club have set their sight fatally low.
Only top flight exposure cements a fanbase.

Coxside_Green wrote:

I still believe if we had kept Hourihane we would've been promoted last season.  His sale was a huge blow to Shezza's plans, captain and key player who scored goals.  Selling him for a paltry £200k was very much 'same ol' Argo' and he was right to leave (at that time).  Let's just hope Brent has learnt a lesson and we don't sell out too cheaply (preferably not at all) in January.

Agree with that. Hourihanes goals and set pieces would have made a massive difference. We made the play-offs despite having no midfield. No mean feat really.

Hourihane will leave barnsley soon enough hes a good player that would have left us anyway for eanuts whether it was barnsley or another

Tringreen wrote:

those who talk of us becoming an established championship club have set their sight fatally low.

It grinds my gears every time I read about "where we belong" "championship" etc.  It reminds me of 40 years ago when I was 10 years old, over-excited about the great team we had and my grandfather putting a real dampener on it "it wont last, they don't want top flight football".  He stopped supporting in 1962 and how right he was.  40 years on and the message is as uninspiring as ever.

Coxside_Green wrote:

Tringreen wrote:

those who talk of us becoming an established championship club have set their sight fatally low.

It grinds my gears every time I read about "where we belong" "championship" etc.  It reminds me of 40 years ago when I was 10 years old, over-excited about the great team we had and my grandfather putting a real dampener on it "it wont last, they don't want top flight football".  He stopped supporting in 1962 and how right he was.  40 years on and the message is as uninspiring as ever.

I seem to have been that post, or variants of it, for years now and i don't buy into it at all.

There may once have been a grain of truth in it when sterwardship of a local club was essentially an ego trip for the owner. People like Robert Daniel and Peter Bloom were, like so many others of their ilk, reasonably successful local businessmen who took a club on for local kudos. Back then the distribution of money in the game was so much more even than it is now but once a club found itself competing against those who could demand bigger attendances, and hence more finance, they started to struggle. For Argyle to compete against, say, Man Utd the chairman would have to make up a shortfall of, say, 10,000 pairs of feet on the terraces so getting promoted was likely to be expensive for the owner.

That is no longer the case. The financial rewards of promotion are now huge thanks (!) to the uneven distribution of TV money which quite simply swamps the attendance income. A club's value goes through the roof immediately and for the modern owner, such as James Brent, a football club is an investment vehicle and buy-low-sell-high stands as true today as it ever did.

Quite simply it makes no sense for a club not to want to be successful. The bigger question here is whether or not a club owner is able and willing to push the boat out a little to secure that success not that they simply never will because they don't want it.

Businessmen don't come much harder-nosed than Dan McCauley and even he wanted and enjoyed success as all that prancing about at Wembley in a Pilgrim Pete hat showed us - it was failure that gripped his shit - and Brent'll be just the same should the opportunity ever arise.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Quite simply it makes no sense for a club not to want to be successful.

Oh, I think it does. Not everyone wants to reach for the stars, that's just not how humans are, including mill owners and modern day CEOs with very little talent apart from siphoning. Human activity is an emotional thing, not a logical journey.
Dear old Dan on his 70 odd birthday said it was about time he did something with Drakes Island. Two years on ? diddly.
Some people seem to think that "successful businessmen" are superhuman powerhouses, vested with special powers. They're not. They just aren't all psychotic media loons like that wrinkly Australian that has caused this country no end of harm, including a once loved football industry.
Now it's just a gambling portal and dating agency for the mega rich at the top. I don't think Brent is into either of those two things, so small property uplifts is the game in town.

ejh - you are small minded and petty ....  but I'm with you. Not that my endorsement of your thoughts are worth much. I mean I endorse Motors garage in Luanches Lawnsto not far from the Cornwall / Devon border so my level is pretty shocking. I too chuckle when certain teams lose like Pompey (we've been in Europe y'know!) or Leeds (bunch of thugs) or Excretia (obvious) and I positively wet myself when a Sherwood team lose (arrogant git) so today I've had 5 changes of clothes  
As for Barnsley being bigger due to an FA Cup win? Well Bury and Oxford University have won the FA Cup! Are they bigger than us?
Argyle are the biggest and best club on this earth - oh christ just thought of Sherwood - change number 6

Many of us love the status-quo....sit in the same seat,...holiday in the same place.......eat in the same restuarant.....a security of knowing your boundaries and feeling in charge and comfortable....instead of the unknown which can rock your boat and bring uncertainty.

I'm sure that club owners can feel the same and prefer to be in control of their own little pond.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Sean McCarthy to Bradford ("to better myself") was the one that rankled for me.

How interesting his parting shot.......bradford will be in the first division before plymouth will

Elias wrote:

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Sean McCarthy to Bradford ("to better myself") was the one that rankled for me.

How interesting his parting shot.......bradford will be in the first division before plymouth will

Remember it well, explains why he wasn't greeted with open arms when he came back that and he slower, fatter and shitter. 

He was right though

Barnsley down to 23rd after 8th straight league defeat.

Wonder if Hourihane wants to come back?

ejh wrote:

Barnsley down to 23rd after 8th straight defeat.

Wonder if Hourihane wants to come back?

Only if he could bring his Barnsley salary with him, I recks.

Let's not kid ourselves. He went there to trouser a hefty signing on fee and probably double his salary. It's understandable.

Also a bit worrying when you think of what Carey could probably command salary-wise at an ambitious League 1 club.

zyph wrote:

No point in keeping a player like Hourihane....if they are dead set to leave....pointless holding on to a player whose heart is somewhere else.

Never took to him personally....maybe he felt the same about me.

Totally disagree strongly. Too much of "if he's unhappy let them leave"
Make them see out their contract whatever the subsequent financial loss. That Contract ensures they play to their best of their ability. Sulk and play deliberately badly and that Contract allows for zero wages

harvetheslayer wrote:

zyph wrote:

No point in keeping a player like Hourihane....if they are dead set to leave....pointless holding on to a player whose heart is somewhere else.

Never took to him personally....maybe he felt the same about me.

Totally disagree strongly. Too much of "if he's unhappy let them leave"
Make them see out their contract whatever the subsequent financial loss. That Contract ensures they play to their best of their ability. Sulk and play deliberately badly and that Contract allows for zero wages

at the time there was no rumours that he was unhappy here at the club it was only when barnsley turned his head with a double your money contract that all of a sudden he was unhappy at the club

Ejh must be devastated tonight........

Well the positive view is that with the recent run of form and results no one will be interested in signing any of our players or Adams himself come January.

Ejh on suicide watch again ?