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Barky's Head

Euxtonboy

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It has been posted many times on here that Tom Barkhuizen's decision making at crucial times leaves a lot to be desired. In fact Alex Neil has intimated as much himself. Whilst it is possible to work on tactics, ball skills, physical fitness etc. off the field, with regards to matters of the mind those are a different kettle of fish. At the age of 25 it could be that we have to accept that Tom might not have the mental aptitude necessary to progress on that front. A lot of decisions on the field are instantaneous depending on the differing circumstances and with top players they seem to be instinctive rather being something they have been taught. Perhaps we should cut him some slack and accept him as the decent player that he is and realise that he might never be able to step up to become the great player we would all wish him to be.
 
I'd disagree. Decision making is about processing information. You just need to know what information to look for, and that can be taught.
 
I think that he was in the lower leagues for a reason, and the reason is that he is not a fantastic footballer. We got him at a cheap price because we believed he had a good chance of playing championship football at a decent level.
He has achieved all that. Great player but probably at his very best now. For a lad who very nearly gave up football due to the lack of belief from others, he has done very well and long may that continue. The lad always gives his best and for what he achieves, that’ll do for me. At least we don’t need to worry about him being poached just yet ???
 
I think that he was in the lower leagues for a reason, and the reason is that he is not a fantastic footballer. We got him at a cheap price because we believed he had a good chance of playing championship football at a decent level.
He has achieved all that. Great player but probably at his very best now. For a lad who very nearly gave up football due to the lack of belief from others, he has done very well and long may that continue. The lad always gives his best and for what he achieves, that’ll do for me. At least we don’t need to worry about him being poached just yet ???

He’s refusing to sign a new contract. That’s a worry for me. He’d be difficult to replace on our budget
 
I think that he was in the lower leagues for a reason, and the reason is that he is not a fantastic footballer. We got him at a cheap price because we believed he had a good chance of playing championship football at a decent level.
He has achieved all that. Great player but probably at his very best now. For a lad who very nearly gave up football due to the lack of belief from others, he has done very well and long may that continue. The lad always gives his best and for what he achieves, that’ll do for me. At least we don’t need to worry about him being poached just yet ???
Excellent post.
 
He’s refusing to sign a new contract. That’s a worry for me. He’d be difficult to replace on our budget

Well, I didn’t know that. Quite surprised to be fair. Unless they are taking the piss and offering him peanuts.

By the way, why does he always have his hand in a bandage? Must have been like that for near on 12 months now
 
The chance he missed first half summed up his decision making to a tee for me, when he received the ball and the space opened up for him, it was like there was a split second of hesitation b4 he set off towards goal and fired wide, if he was the finished article there wouldn’t of been any hesitation and he would of hit the target at the least.
If that scenario happened in the prem league the ball would of been taken off him while he was thinking about what to do.
 
Plenty of clubs in this league would happily take him, especially on a free. Definitely a player who could have a freak goal scoring season one year, his pace and movement shits teams up.
 
Decent player certainly, but His decision making and control not the greatest. If he’s refusing to sign a contract ( and how anyone but him and his agent would know that is beyond me) then he’s an idiot.
 
I think if we look at our transfer dealings over the last few years, it's fair to say that we haven't really paid a great deal in monies for players.
There's really only three outcomes with this.

  1. You hope to get lucky and unearth one or two gems. We've been lucky on that side with the likes of Pearson, Browne, Hugill, Robinson etc.
  2. Another side to it is that you may just be paying low fees for a player that might turn out to be less value than the peanuts paid for him.
  3. The final outcome might be that we pay a small fee and turn out getting a player that isn't going to set the football world on fire but turns out to be a half decent player for us.

I think we've got a number 3 in Barky.
 
I like him. I think it's strange that he won't sign a new deal, as our level is his ceiling imo, but I guess that'll be upon advice from his agent.

Confidence player for sure. He probably reads this forum.
 
He's a big game player, always seems to score in derby games in particular, and a player who the managers obviously fully trusts.

End product and decision making must improve but his movement and pace alone causes huge problems for teams, and he can always be relied upon to put in the hard yards up and down the pitch for the team.

Important player, hope he signs a new deal.
 
Decent player certainly, but His decision making and control not the greatest. If he’s refusing to sign a contract ( and how anyone but him and his agent would know that is beyond me) then he’s an idiot.
And someone who refers to another as an idiot without by his own admission knowing any of the facts is a genius I take it?
Chip Barm is THE ITK poster who revealed both Barky and Robbo have refused to sign new deals.He may be privy to the facts so if he calls them idiots at least he has a reason to do so.
You however do not.
 
Back to the original post if Barkys decision making was better be may have played at a higher level but it isn't so he wont.
He could however,like many of our players probably earn more at most clubs in the Championship as we are at the bottom end wage wise so maybe that is a factor if there has been interest but it's guesswork and no more.
 
I was out for a walk in the hills yesterday and funnily enough was contemplating that whilst it might be hard to hold onto Browne and Pearson this summer.... every other player should think long and hard before considering a move, even if a better wage was dangled in front of them.. And Barky was exactly the player who, in my head, I singled out as a great example.

We've seen quite a lot of players (and maybe Jordan Hugill is the latest in a long line) who have left PNE - and their new managers have been unable to extract quite the same from them. I reckon Barky is DEFINITELY in that category.

If he's refusing to sign a new contract and looking to move on (rather than perhaps just believing he's not been offered a fair deal)... then good luck to him, but I just think he's at the right club and has worked with a couple of managers who do well with him. From a footballing viewpoint, my guess is that

  • Pearson would do the biz an almost any club he walked into.
  • Browne... probably (but not quite so sure).
  • Davies... likewise... although probably not right away.
  • Barky... maybe... but leaving PNE would, from a footballing viewpoint, be a big risk IMO.
The grass is not always greener.
 
I was out for a walk in the hills yesterday and funnily enough was contemplating that whilst it might be hard to hold onto Browne and Pearson this summer.... every other player should think long and hard before considering a move, even if a better wage was dangled in front of them.. And Barky was exactly the player who, in my head, I singled out as a great example.

We've seen quite a lot of players (and maybe Jordan Hugill is the latest in a long line) who have left PNE - and their new managers have been unable to extract quite the same from them. I reckon Barky is DEFINITELY in that category.

If he's refusing to sign a new contract and looking to move on (rather than perhaps just believing he's not been offered a fair deal)... then good luck to him, but I just think he's at the right club and has worked with a couple of managers who do well with him. From a footballing viewpoint, my guess is that

  • Pearson would do the biz an almost any club he walked into.
  • Browne... probably (but not quite so sure).
  • Davies... likewise... although probably not right away.
  • Barky... maybe... but leaving PNE would, from a footballing viewpoint, be a big risk IMO.
The grass is not always greener.

Bang on.However it's a short career and a player surely at some point has to consider a move if available to earn more to try and get financial security ( not talking about those who already earn a fortune like in the prem)
 
Bang on.However it's a short career and a player surely at some point has to consider a move if available to earn more to try and get financial security ( not talking about those who already earn a fortune like in the prem)

I think we agree on this.

You say "at some point"... and that point is a really tough one to identify. For Hugill... that point was definitely when Moysie made him a millionaire.
But Barky's not going to get that, I imagine. If someone offers to double his money on a 3 or 4 year deal, then financially fine. Got to seriously consider it. But I suspect that if anyone was doubling his wages, it would be for a relatively short contract. Maybe 2 years. And what about the complications of missing out on win bonuses and appearance money if he's not in the team?

If he stays at PNE, he's got to consider that he's settled. Doing well. Likely to get a renewed contract(s) for several years (admittedly injury-permitting). He's always in the team. It's got great value IMO.
 
And for all we say 'it's a short career'.... it is also, for most, the very best years of your life... halcyon days... like a shooting star. Yes, securing your future is a really important factor... but I'd advise any youngster to seriously take account of the value of playing football every week in front of thousands of people - building life memories... and not spending them in the reserves. Carlo Nash made 243 league appearances... of which only ten were in the last 7 years of his career after he left PNE.

Money is important... but it's too easy to focus MUCH to much on it.
 
Pearson’s decision making is much better.

Pass the buck in the centre circle and let someone else get slagged off for missing the chances.
 
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