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Doom And Gloom
End of the world is nigh? By: Eric Hitchmo 22/02/2012




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"So after exiting the Johnstone's Paint Trophy when just minutes away from Wembley, a draw and two defeats in the league have bought us firmly back to reality and put paid to any thoughts that the playoffs were a possibility. Of course, noone actually believed it was a realistic outcome, it was only being sounded out as a pipe dream after four consecutive wins, but now any such glimmer of hope has been well and truly dashed, like it always is at Barnet.

I suppose that sometimes, this website follows suit. I look around at other such fansites and they always seem to be running interesting little features away from the football. Us? We seem to always be complaining about what it's like to support our team. If time would allow it, we'd really try and get some of these features going, but unfortunately we just don't have that. Currently, I can't really be enthused by Barnet FC, so I can only apologise for this site's continual repetition of material. You will have read these sentiments many times before, but I assure you that it's not a copy and paste job, more a summary of just how much this club is standing still.

Just look at those chavs from up the road. Two consecutive promotions and looking good for a possible third. They're in the 5th round of The FA Cup and have a replay against Tottenham Hotspur to look forward to, let alone potentially being in the Quarter Finals of the finest cup competition in the world. Many of you cannot bring yourselves to dislike them, and I understand that, but from my perspective, sitting here and watching them do well makes my blood boil slightly with more than a hint of jealousy. Maybe this is a one-off, extroadinary occasion which will be over soon before they drop back down to play with the rest of us. It makes you wonder though, are we ever going to enjoy such times again? The law of averages suggests so, but waiting for it whilst enduring season after season of turgid shit while everyone else seems to be having a great time is not half tiresome. I believe that many are in the same boat as me with regards their apathy to all the current goings on, why else would we only be able to muster 139 people to Oxford, just over an hour away?

What's it going to take to sort this all out? For me, the ground issue appears to be holding everything up. We appear to be coming very close to a crucial junction with this matter, though noone is any the wiser as to what on earth is going on. As far as anything official is concerned, we are still not going to be playing at Underhill next season. That's just over two months away. Call me impatient if you will, be logical and tell me that there may not be anything to say at this stage, but you'd have thought that with such a crucial decision in our clubs' future just weeks away, that there would be something for the fanbase to know about?

It seems clear to me that the ongoing saga of getting ourselves a new ground has held back investment in the team. On one hand, I think it's wise to show such financial prudence as going into administration would most likely tip this little club over the edge. There's no doubt that we are run well financially and that administration is a long way away, but could we afford to loosen the purse strings a little? I'm not even sure that we have to sell our best players as we have done, it just seems that most of them have left not because we've needed the money, it's because they see themselves as better than the lowest rungs of the Football League. Who can blame them?

You could reel off name after name of quality individuals we have had within our roster in the last seven seasons. Nicky Bailey, Simon King, Jason Puncheon, Tresor Kandol, Albert Adomah, the list goes on. They have more or less all gone on to bigger and better things having been sold for decent cash. I genuinely believe that we weren't forced to sell any of them, they just wanted away because they didn't see themselves being successful at Underhill. You can probably add Izale McLeod to that list as well, but as his contract runs out at the end of the season, will we even get any money for him? Something tells me we're in for another summer of restructure and rebuilding a squad from scratch. The Chavs have shown that continuity will get you far.

As for us now, we now have the more realistic task of making sure we don't get relegated. We are six points off the drop zone after Northampton's success last night. Remember after all, the stated aim from our manager earlier this season was ""to make sure that we don't go into the last day of the season requiring points to stay up"", or words to that effect. I don't know about you, but that fills me with excitement for the remaining games of the season.

Something's got to change, but noone seems to have any ideas how to do it. Answers on a postcard..."




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