Reds Chief Executive Gauthier Ganaye spoke passionately this morning about the life of Patrick Cryne, who sadly passed away this week.
Meeting with local and national media at Oakwell on Thursday morning, Ganaye wanted to thank the former owner of 14 years for everything he has done during his time with the Club, most notably working right up until the end to ensure the Club was passed over into the correct hands going forward.
“At the moment, everybody involved with the football and all the way around the football club is thinking deeply about Patrick Cryne and his family. We all owe something to Patrick, the football world in general and Barnsley fans in particular after he saved the Club a few years ago. The Barnsley people, even if they aren’t football fans will know the link between the Club and the community is very strong.
“By bringing success to Barnsley Football Club, Patrick helped the town as well. All the employees at the Club owe something to Patrick, especially myself and Paul [Heckingbottom] as neither of us would be here today if he didn’t give us our chance.”
The recent approach that the Reds have adopted is widely attributed to Patrick, in terms of recruiting a younger type of player that can flourish under the coaching staff and setup at Oakwell.
“Patrick had a very young spirit, he always wanted to give a chance to youth. Some people only see the disadvantages in youth whereas Patrick was always seeing the opportunity of youthful people. He was really optimistic about the future so that’s why he believed in young people.
“This is a very sad moment, but now it is up to us to continue and help his son [James] and wife [Jean] in this difficult moment. Patrick would now like us to carry on and there is nothing he loved more than three points on a Saturday, so the players know how to pay tribute to him.”
The Reds take on Fulham at Oakwell this weekend and a view shared amongst the Club and the fans is that we would all like to see a capacity crowd to remember the life of Patrick Cryne, together as one. Gauthier discussed further plans that would be happening over the weekend as well as the upcoming weeks.
“We have plan in place for Saturday although we are still discussing with his family the finer details. We will have a minutes silence before kick-off and there will be black armbands for the players to wear as well as some special tributes in the programme. We will then do a further extended programme for the Sheffield Wednesday game which will be 100 pages and dedicated to Patrick and everything he has done with the Club.”
In December, it was announced that a change of ownership had taken place which Patrick and the wider Cryne family had worked exceedingly hard to complete over a number of months.
“We all have to admire his dedication to the Club. Even in his last weeks, the last thing he wanted to achieve was to pass on the Club to the right people, so honestly for everyone who was close to him, we all have lots of admiration as he was putting 100% of his energy into getting this deal done as it was very important for him to pass it on to the right people and ensure the future was bright for Barnsley Football Club and he has done that.
“I’m really happy to know that he has done what he wanted to do before leaving us, I know how important that was to him.”
Fans can watch the FULL interview from this morning on iFollow Barnsley which has been posted as a free to view.