'It’s going to take more than nine weeks to turn it around': Barnsley FC boss Darrell Clarke highlights need for patience
DARRELL Clarke’s considerable experiences in football management have taught him that the fortunes of clubs cannot be transformed in nine weeks.
Roughly a quarter of the way into the 2024-25 season, it’s fair to say that his Barnsley side have had a few bumps in the road, with ‘Clarkeball’ currently struggling to resonate with Reds supporters.
There are mitigating factors, of course.
Managers need time, especially new ones. So do new players with Clarke’s two main forward additions in Davis Keillor-Dunn and Stephen Humphrys only joining on deadline day while midfielder Kelechi Nwakali was a fair distance away from first-team contention on a fitness level when he signed in August.
Some late concessions haven’t aided Clarke’s cause either.
His Barnsley side head to Blackpool on the back of a return of just one win in their last seven matches in all competitions.
It is prompting some disquiet among sections of the club’s fanbase and while Clarke understands certain frustrations, he is keen for a touch of context to be applied.
He said: "There is always going to be a high expectation and frustration when things aren’t going as well as they possibly should be.
"But let’s not get too carried away with that as well. There’s a couple of draws at home that we should have turned into wins and (then) we’re right up there.
"I’m not getting carried away. I understand where we are as a club and the board do as well.
"We keep focusing on positivity. There’s always a lot of negativity around in football and trust me, in any of my jobs, I haven’t turned anything around in nine weeks.
"There’s a lot of changes that have been happening over a period of time now and it’s going to take more than nine weeks to turn it around. We’d love that to be happening straightaway, but it doesn’t work like that.
"There’s been a lot of changes in the football club over the last 12 months and lots of changes with personnel as well.
"It was never going to be ‘easy wins’ and us hitting the ground flying. And it is an inexperienced group in terms of promotions.
"It’s up to me and my staff to get the best out of those players, that’s what I will say. I put a lot of pressure on myself and the players and staff to make sure we maximise them." In terms of the negative mood music which has been prevalent among some supporters on social media and on message boards of late, experience has taught Clarke to be philosophical and focus on only what he can control.
He continued: "The work on the training ground has been very, very good. I don’t focus on negativity.
"I don’t read papers or do social media and I am not really interested in any of that. It doesn’t really faze me.
"I’ve been booed off in the Conference when we’ve been winning at half time and I know about expectation. Are expectations in football realistic now? No, they are not.
"But that’s not me complaining, that’s factual and the way of the world. My focus is that I am pretty confident we will be challenging in the top six come the end of the season. I’ve no doubts about that."