Barnsley

[Bezza]

As much as we don`t like them ,you have to admire their groundwork in finding John Stones ,Mason Holgate ,and now Alfie Mawson  if they move him on will have netted them in the region of 13 million or probably more

[bobjimwilly]

they have an excellent academy; something Rovers could (and probably does) aspire to have.

[German Rover]

A couple of years ago we could have, but the elite players plan has put an end to any club like ours building an academy because it's just not worth it. You can spend a lot of money now developing players and if a premier league club fancies them, they can take them for minimal compensation. It's just not worth the outlay for a club like ours

[Bentley Bullet]

That's why I could never understand the reason why the club had a sudden desire to place emphasis on youth following our latest relegation from the Championship, other than it being just a way to appease us fans in a cost cutting exercise.

[DonnyOsmond]

Mawson moved there from Brentford after a couple of loan spells in League Two. Shows what Joe Wright could possibly become for us.

[steve@dcfd]

they have an excellent academy; something Rovers could (and probably does) aspire to have.

But you can only achieve cat 2 status with the in flux of money, to hire more staff an giving more time to all in the academy. Let's hope that will happen.

[Sammy Chung was King]

Mason Holgate another from barnsley that everton could end up selling on. A different player to stones but there is potential there.

[RobTheRover]

Mason is a donny lad. Glad he's getting his chance. Remember,  he made his debut for Barnsley against us only just over a year ago.  He's come a long way in a short space of of time to be getting MOTM in a Premiership game.

[mushRTID]

Mawson fee agreed....5m

If only we could find just one player like this.

[The Red Baron]

Off to Swansea.

[selby]

They have to spend well now.The players coming in will see them as a money tree,and if they do not stay up,they will still expect championship wages.
      On top of this,relegation was supposed to cost us £6million,I hope they stay up but if they don't it could be a disaster,the same for Leeds and the Wednesday.

[foxbat]

Unfortunately all these teams are doing a lot better than Doncaster. Rovers are well down the league of Yorkshire teams. Local rivalry or not , Barnsley is a similar size to Doncaster and seem able to draw a sufficient crowd to bring in enough income , unlike Rovers , to sustainable them in the championship.
All the quips about 6 finger education Dingles are a good laugh ; but the fact is they are going to be in a better position  than Doncaster for the foreseeable future.

[Bentley Bullet]

Like I've said umpteen times, there are far fewer alternatives to watching football in Barnsley than there are in Doncaster.

Watching Barnsley is like friggin in the riggin on the good ship Venus........There's f**k all else to do.

[moses]

£5 million quid?

[silent majority]

Unfortunately all these teams are doing a lot better than Doncaster. Rovers are well down the league of Yorkshire teams. Local rivalry or not , Barnsley is a similar size to Doncaster and seem able to draw a sufficient crowd to bring in enough income , unlike Rovers , to sustainable them in the championship.
All the quips about 6 finger education Dingles are a good laugh ; but the fact is they are going to be in a better position  than Doncaster for the foreseeable future.

There's a little bit more to that though. Barnsley run a level 2 academy which affords them the luxury of attracting seriously talented individuals like Mason. Running a level 2 academy costs serious money and needs infrastructure that we currently don't have. We need to be able to compete in this area before we can mine the talent that is out there.

[Bentley Bullet]

Surely though if Mason and the likes had been spotted by a Rovers scout on his own doorstep instead of a visiting Barnsley scout on the poach, the chances are he would have chosen us?

I've followed Sunday morning local junior football for 10 years and most games have the odd Sheff wed/Sheff utd/ Barnsley/ even Huddersfield scout on the lookout for OUR talent, and virtually NO Donny scouts. That of course isn't including the half a dozen L**ds scouts that seem to be at every game.

Why aren't there (m)any Rovers scouts?

[foxbat]

As DF said when he was appointed - there's a lot needs sorting at the club. Donny got to the championship- brilliant  that it was - but kept a lot of middle of League 2 methods and. attitudes . As well as success on the pitch , marketing and the whole match day experience  needs looking at.
More to Do in Donny than Barnsley maybe, but we need to get bums on seats and keep them com8ng back.

[Bentley Bullet]

THe only thing that will get bums on seats is success on the pitch. The ultimate match day experience is winning. It's essential in fact. People will stand contented in the pouring rain as long as their team wins. Nice marketing won't be compensation for losing, especially constantly.

The ultimate aim for a club should be to provide its supporters with a competative team, then the match day experience will look after itself.

[Sammy Chung was King]

Mason Holgate and a fair few others have proven doncaster produces good young players. The club now needs to be looking at why they didn't have scouts looking at these players before 'out of towners' came along, and snatched another good young player!.
You can't force anybody to join the club and against some sides we can't compete on the glamour front. But you would like to think our scouts should at least be one in the queue to sign players.
It doesn't help that the youth team has been abandoned, a neccessity probably dropping to this league. I think it's fair to say the club got a lot of things right getting to the championship, but very little thought went into maintaining and even improving the whole club.

The things we did wrong can't be helped, but we can learn from the mistakes. We have numerous non league sides surrounding us, many kids teams, why isn't the club creating links with them?.
What does it cost to send a coach out to do some training with all the sides?. Links can be created with friendlies, also the younger teams playing on local sides facilities again can create links. These links get you to the front of the queue when good young players come along. Look after these local sides give them bits of help here and there, create a relationship that is mutually beneficial.