Video on sky sports football app - our owner talking about Wilder's departure

[Houston_Blade]

Legally he hasn’t, but the idea for him to leave seemed to have been instigated by Wilder. The reasons for him doing so, we still don’t really know. Looks to have become a mutual consent job to benefit both parties.

Whether people believe the Prince or not, I think it’s clear that he felt like Wilder was still the man to take us forward.

That's what he says in the interview numerous times, but then you look at the timeline and the actions of the board and that's not how they've acted.

He's basically said "I want you to stay and manage the club (because I don't want to pay you off)" and then gone on to criticise and make the relationship impossible with comments and pulling the plug on the JTW signings.

Whilst Wilder shouldn't be exempt from criticism, if I hammer my staff to the point where they don't want to work for me anymore, all the while telling them I do want them to work for me, I'm shouldering some of the blame.

 

[FallowfieldBlade]

What's your view on Jim Phipps then?

He also has a bias to the prince/club

He doesn't spout off nonsense to try and turn the fans against the board though because he cant get any more free tickets

 

[AdamSufc1997]

Anyone know who the player from germany was

 

[RWE]

Can’t say I disagree with PA, actually think he’s a very clever businessman and knows his football too. If we have missed out on players because CW wanted full control then I back PA to make the correct decision on the next manager. Also don’t like (if true) CW threatening to resign each time, if I was in charge and knew someone wasn’t fully committed I’d have got rid earlier. Obviously 2 sides of the story and it will be interesting to hear what CW has to say in the future. But for now I like that transparency that PA has taken and believe he’ll appoint someone willing to work with the whole board and hopefully get back to successful times. I think everyone who supports any club only asks for honesty and knowing a few ins and outs of what is happening behind the scenes, I’d rather have that than a chairman unwilling to make any comment and let people speculate. After all, CW repeatedly slagged him off in interviews and Wit sticking his ore in on Twitter.

 

[Old Programme seller]

This reminds me so much of the Kevin Keegan stepping down at NUFC ie took the club as far he could go, wasn’t getting his own way https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www....-kevin-keegan-dramatically-walked-8362716.amp

 

[Maidenhead]

He was on a fixed term contract. If he’d been poached at the end of last season, the club would have been entitled to compensation. So, it works both ways. If you signed a contract with a builder to do works for you, changed your mind later, then there is a potential claim against you for loss of profit. It’s a similar principle. It’s well established in football that managers get paid off if they leave before the end of the contract, the fact that it’s different to us is neither here nor there. Plenty of chief execs get paid off, even where there’s an argument that they underperformed. I’ve never been paid off because I’m too low down the food chain. Similarly, had I left to go to another company, my former employers wouldn’t receive compensation because I was on a “standard” employment contract, not tied in for a set period (apart from my notice).
I bet Clough and Adkins also got paid off.

Clough and Adkins got sacked.

Wilder appears to have walked. Surely if that's the case he should have been paying the club to buy himself out of his contract?

 

[The Vicar]

It looks to me like CW had come to the limit of his managerial competence, was clearly under pressure & wanted out. No shame in that.

Then it comes down to money. He has been well paid for years, new house, Aston Martin & walked away with a golden goodbye. No tears from me, just a sad acceptance that it ended badly, but its life, no one has died. We will get another manager who has bones of a decent Championship team, & CW/AK will walk into another job paying thousands a week!

It is what it is.

 

[S40BLADE]

Anyone know who the player from germany was

Seen multiple people on different platforms mention Weghorst fuck knows though.

 

[FallowfieldBlade]

There's been a long-standing propensity among this fanbase to turn like rattlesnakes on those who have served the club well. They turned on Dave Bassett when his hands were tied due to the club being a trainwreck at the time.

Then Warnock - who I actually can't stand - had a valid point when he said they'd be chanting his name one week and wanting him out the next during his tenure. He also said that being from Sheffield actually made his job harder, due to the attitude of the support. Again, I don't like Warnock one bit, but he was right.

Even down to Billy Sharp, who for some reason unbeknown to me gets a lukewarm reception at best and always has done from the fans (particularly on the forums) whereas anywhere else he'd be idolised.

And now to Wilder, who many were lining up to take a kick at virtually minutes after his departure.

There's something at the heart of the culture of Sheffield United that is dark, ugly and resentful, and even as both a lifelong native of this city and lifelong supporter of the club, I do not understand it. All I know is that I've come to hate it.

I love the club with every fibre of my being, but there's a significant number of those attached to it that throw that "We're all Blades" notion right out the window for me.

EH?

I don't think you'll find one blade who doesn't love CW and wouldn't have wanted it to work out in guiding us back up next year


But if you think CW doesn't deserve any blame or critisicm this past year then you are very deluded

 

[BlairBlade]

They have made him sign an agreement to not speak and then come out and slaughtered him!

This is meant to be a PL football club

I think this is unlikely to be the case.

There is no evidence that he has signed an NDA or, more importantly, that he "was made to sign "one".

CW has not been slaughtered in this interview.

If there is anything in what the Prince has said about CW that is untrue or a lie then CW has a legal right to an action against him in slander (assuming this is not in print - if it is he will then have an action in libel) - with or without an NDA.

 

[Scarebus]

Anyone know who the player from germany was

Lewandowski. Board have a great eye for up and coming talent.

 

[RecordBreakers]

 

[Dellas Cowboys]

Looks to me like he resigned for nothing or agreed a settlement that didnt come close to the previously proposed £4m

Has to be a form of settlement or there'd be no need for him to agree an NDA. It's not going to have been £4m though as was the opening gambit according to PA.

Yep, so he's not resigned. He's been paid off.

No one in the world is putting a clause in a contract that says 'if you walk we pay you something'. So if we've paid him something he's not walked.

Probably to avoid a constructive dismissal case.

 

[bartman]

So the owner didn’t want a DOF but wanted input on signings, effectively making him the DOF?

Another one not listened to the interview properly. It is clear that Wilder had full control of signings. He rejected any players suggestions from the Board and insisting on his own signings which the Board agreed to

 

[BlairBlade]

Difficult not to be impressed by PA's delivery of his side of the story.
I'd love to hear CW's though for the sake of balance.

I think the Prince did this for the sake of balance.

 

[knowsnowt]

Well from that, and all the "itk" crap posted over the last few weeks I'd say we're better off with him gone and we're in good hands with old Princey boy!

 

[Houston_Blade]

Probably to avoid a constructive dismissal case.

If I say that then it will look like I've got an agenda, but you said it so I'll agree with you instead.

 

[MalmoBlade]

He said we don’t get involved with Transfers.... then said he wanted players from Germany. It’s unbelievable

I thought the quote was that he was surprised that CW didn't want to consider any of their player suggestions, several of whom are now successful in the PL and 1 who is now doing well in Germany. That's a long way from saying "we want players from Germany" but hey, if a twist of the words makes it more palatable.....

 

[Nine Inch Nalis]

EH?

I don't think you'll find one blade who doesn't love CW and wouldn't have wanted it to work out in guiding us back up next year


But if you think CW doesn't deserve any blame or critisicm this past year then you are very deluded

Firstly, you only have to look at the multitude of threads this week to see that what many feel for Wilder is far from what can be described as 'love'.
A few older ones had people saying he should've gone after 8 games or been sacked in November.

Secondly, I've not said at any point he doesn't deserve criticism

Quote from my post on this very thread, post number #231

It goes without saying that Chris Wilder isn't infallible, we've all seen the errors that have been made

 

[nopigfansintown]

Burnley have had ownership issues for the past few years, even their new owners sound dodgy. I've never heard Dyche moan.

Also when they came up and defined the odds by staying up and becoming established I never heard him refer to his players as Championship players lucky to get any result at all

Dyche has been moaning about transfer funds for years.

 

[BlairBlade]

Fair. I'll not try it with my boss!

I'd only do it if he is "rich", if he's not - why bother?

 

[Yellarbellyblade]

I'm glad the club have finally broken cover on the situation, Abdullah refers to a lot of points of criticism that have been aimed at him on this board and I'm assuming on other social media (DoF, Head Coach, financial backing etc), proves he does listen and wanted to put his side across. Also disappointing that there is still no "Thanks Chris for dragging us out of league 1 and into the PL".

All those banging on about the lack of a European scouting network might pipe down now. As a few people have said, we have one, Wilder just chose not to use it. It's disappointing if this is the case as it does show a lack of willingness to change on Wilder's part and perhaps will hold him back in future roles if he can't accept this is the way forward. That said, these names might have been pie in the sky and there might have been other factors stopping them being viable options.

It does seem a bit of a character assassination of Wilder, particularly the points about him wanting a payoff and his 'my way or the highway' approach to transfers.

Interesting again that he only speaks to national news and not the locals. I suspect he thinks that the locals are Wilder's pals.

The point about him not trusting that Wilder wouldn't spend his cash and walk away in future is a valid one though and the underlying reasoning is that the trust between Wilder and the board has gone. There are obviously other issues and we've only heard one side of the story, it's a shame really as Wilder seems to be keeping schtum and he's the one being painted as the bad guy. Many of the Wilder haters will lap this up and say "see, he left".

To me, if Wilder is walking away from this job then there is something fundamentally wrong behind the scenes, I might be an idiot for believing his "I'll do what's best for the club" but he's done enough to earn that trust.

From a personal point of view and having done a lot of business with Arab nationals, he sounds very much like an Arab national with the "it's not my fault" mentality. They are very willing to put the blame on everyone but themselves when things don't go right.

If this is at all accurate there’s plenty would argue that Chris has been very “Arab” this season in his responses

 

[BettingBlade]

That's what he says in the interview numerous times, but then you look at the timeline and the actions of the board and that's not how they've acted.

He's basically said "I want you to stay and manage the club (because I don't want to pay you off)" and then gone on to criticise and make the relationship impossible with comments and pulling the plug on the JTW signings.

Whilst Wilder shouldn't be exempt from criticism, if I hammer my staff to the point where they don't want to work for me anymore, all the while telling them I do want them to work for me, I'm shouldering some of the blame.

It’s a pretty complex situation, for sure. I’ve seen a lot of people compare this situation to the real world of work and I think it’s so difficult to compare football to any other industry in the world.

I get the feeling he felt like Wilder was the right man in terms of on the field but maybe wanted him to adapt off it. I’m sure CW thinks he might have felt pushed in to doing it and therefore wasn’t comfortable with that. That seems to be the main reason for Wilder offering his resignation, in an almost ‘if you want me to be someone else, then get someone else’ kind of way. To him he probably feels like he couldn’t manage under those circumstances.

From the Prince’s point of view, I think he was looking for compromise but had let Wilder manage largely on his terms for the last 4 years.

If Wilder had previously offered his resignation, I can understand why the Prince was reluctant to do any business in January. I think that’s a but like the chicken and the egg though, did Wilder resign because he knew the plug had been pulled, or was it pulled because CW had already put in his resignation?

I think you could use that last analogy for Wilder and his relationship with the playing staff too. We all look back to that Leicester interview as the moment something changed. A lot of Wilder’s change in mentality does seem to make a lot more sense now.

 

[ISZA ⚔️]

Another one not listened to the interview properly. It is clear that Wilder had full control of signings. He rejected any players suggestions from the Board and insisting on his own signings which the Board agreed to

They agreed but weren’t happy to agree with it moving forward. Having your owner recommend players is either stupid or comes via a third party who works in football. Brand it however you want but it’s the same role as a DOF.

 

[Yellarbellyblade]

Such a Sheffield United ending to a great story

Most annoying thing is that if CW stayed with this team next year I would back we would storm the league

However I would be interested in seeing what role CW has at his next club if he demands who is hired right down to the canteen staff he will never get a job again above league one level FACT

Also sours his reputation massively that he has his minions on twitter/Facebook making out as if he was sacked trying to create civil war between fans

Fixed that for you

 

[Luke1993]

All this talk of NDA, the Prince has put things in public now, CW can, if he wants to respond to the specific things that have been said without going any further into it. For example, 'the Prince said you offered to resign 3 times and wanted £4m pay off is this true?' He can answer those types of questions without breaking any sort of NDA. Also if he believes anything that the Prince has said is untrue, defamatory or slanderous he has legal grounds to sue. He may wish to move on completely and not respond entirely, but people saying he can't say anything because of a NDA is untrue.

 

[bartman]

They agreed but weren’t happy to agree with it moving forward. Having your owner recommend players is either stupid or comes via a third party who works in football. Brand it however you want but it’s the same role as a DOF.

The point is Wilder had the final decision therefore had full control on who was signed. Many scouts make recommendations of players who arent signed.

 

[Chingo]

For himself and his future employers to see he’s not a quitter ?

 

[Scarebus]

All this talk of NDA, the Prince has put things in public now, CW can, if he wants to respond to the specific things that have been said without going any further into it. For example, 'the Prince said you offered to resign 3 times and wanted £4m pay off is this true?' He can answer those types of questions without breaking any sort of NDA. Also if he believes anything that the Prince has said is untrue, defamatory or slanderous he has legal grounds to sue. He may wish to move on completely and not respond entirely, but people saying he can't say anything because of a NDA is untrue.

Id imagine any legal team could pick apart anything slanderous or untruthful in this interview if they wanted to. Its on record now.

I don't think we'll hear any more.

 

[Nosworthys Throw]

Wow great interview, wasn't expecting that. Theres something deep in me that has always wanted to hate the prince but i just cant, seems a decent bloke. Thats closed the door on this now for me, im left feeling a tad disappointed Wilder didnt just get on with it but he did look like he was going to have a mental breakdown towards the end so fair do's. Its onwards and upwards now you set of miserable bastards! UTB