Phipps and 'The Prince'

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

judge said:
Wasnt the academy supposed to be self funding
I specifically remeber mccabe boasting about this
Click to expand...
I remember it too Judge. Have you heard it for a few years, because I haven't? Anyway, Pete's about to explain the cost breakdown for us....

UTB
 

alcoblade said:
So Pete, you've stated that we've raised more from it than we've paid out. You clearly want to carry this on, so explain how much it has raised and how much it has cost. You've derided me for using estimations, so I'll hand over to you for the facts. The floor is yours.....


UTB
Click to expand...

As per my original post really, even if we take your too high guesstimate at face value, the players we've produced and sold on have covered this cost.

To suggest getting rid of the academy or that it's a waste of money is such short termism and wouldn't benefit us in the long run.

Once we're promoted (Be it this season or 2057) having a quality academy that produces either first team players or those we sell on for millions of quid, will benefit us in the long run.
 
PeteBlade said:
As per my original post really, even if we take your too high guesstimate at face value, the players we've produced and sold on have covered this cost.

To suggest getting rid of the academy or that it's a waste of money is such short termism and wouldn't benefit us in the long run.

Once we're promoted (Be it this season or 2057) having a quality academy that produces either first team players or those we sell on for millions of quid, will benefit us in the long run.
Click to expand...
So, you don't know how much it costs to run then.

UTB
 
Serious question Pete, but how do you know that? Is it because you can't identify what those costs might be? Whilst I appreciate that the cost sounds high, don't you think the same when you consider the overall running costs of the club, and why we lose so much money?

Another factor is that the odds have shifted towards the big boys who can now pinch young players much cheaper. We'd get far less for a Jacob Mellis now.

And as I've said before, you can't just sum up the value of player sales in isolation, without considering the return we'd have made by concentrating on finding more Nick Blackmans, more Che Adams, more Jamie Murphys.

UTB
 
Last edited:
brownie said:
Where are these pair of bullshit merchants when we are getting outclassed at the hands of a primitive, agricultural Port Vale side.

The last 6 weeks we haven't been able to sign a Leicester or Fulham reserve teamer, despite us crying out for reinforcements for the worst team we have had for at least 30 years, and arguably in history. All this despite having £1.5m transfer money from the sale of Jamie Murphy in the bank, and still having untold riches of the game changing investment that was in the words of McCabe "think Liverpool".

I think they have had their period of grace, have been proved to be fucking lairs and bullshitters. I think it is now abundantly clear that now Scarborough Group own Bramall Lane and all Sheffield United assets that McCabe doesn't want anything to do with us now he has effectively gained control of our assets off of the club and its fans.

Dont blame Adkins, he has been lied to and came in to this job on a load of broken promises and been sold down the river. I personally think the best thing that could happen is that he resigns with his integrity intact and shows that shower of cunts Phipps, The Bogroll Prince, McCabe, Branigan, Baki and the rest of the lairs, thieves and bullshit merchants for what they really are.
Click to expand...

Sorry to say brownie but you are spot on. The reason I say sorry is because it's so tragic, we are lied to every week, every month and each year by these clowns (not cunts not a huge fan of the word). Until fans start voicing there concerns with there feet on a Saturday afternoon, they won't change.

Phipps comes on Twitter, Facebook and just talks bollocks he is nowhere to be seen if we lose, the prince has no interest really in the team it's just someone to watch in the posh seats when he comes over. All the fans do week in week out is line there pockets and I for one won't carry on until they show they genuinely want out.
 
brownie said:
Dont blame Adkins, he has been lied to and came in to this job on a load of broken promises and been sold down the river. I personally think the best thing that could happen is that he resigns with his integrity intact and .
Click to expand...

How do you know he has been lied to? How do you know there isn't money in the pot for him to spend but he hasn't spent it. ? You may well be right but I would have thought that a manager of Adkins' reputation would resign on principle if he had been lied to.
 
A complete change in personnel at board level would be one of the best things to happen to this club in a very long time. The problem is, as Blackpool are finding out, you obviously can't just get rid of the board. It's a sad state to be in, but until the fools running this club sell up, it's quite evident the club will not be moving forwards.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
barnyblade said:
A complete change in personnel at board level would be one of the best things to happen to this club in a very long time. The problem is, as Blackpool are finding out, you obviously can't just get rid of the board. It's a sad state to be in, but until the fools resign their own positions (more than unlikely) it's quite evident the club will not be moving forwards.
Click to expand...

Whilst I don't agree with your view barnyblade, i'd just like to say that the first problem is as you say, removing the board. The second and most probably the biggest problem is finding a board to replace them

Almost impossible this day and age to just find a group of like minded, better than what we have board members with loads of cash eager to throw away and of course there's no guarantee that the replacement board would perform any better, or possibly even worse than the the current incumbents.

Sometimes it's better the devil you know. Whilst we are shit on the pitch, we are financially stable off it. The board did the right thing in appointing Adkins, something I would guess 95% of the fan base were happy with at the time. We have the largest squad in the division. The board sanctioned the Brayford deal which was substantial for a 3rd division club. I don't see how it is all the current board's fault for everything that is currently wrong, bearing in mind the Prince has been here for what is relatively a short period of time. For me personally, I blame Clough's signings for a lot of what is wrong this season and as others have already said, it will take some time to clear out the players that aren't up to a battle for promotion and for Adkins to mould his own team.

As much as I am gutted about our current plight, I am prepared to back Adkins, because long term I believe he's the right man for the job.
 
Blade58 said:
Whilst I don't agree with your view barnyblade, i'd just like to say that the first problem is as you say, removing the board. The second and most probably the biggest problem is finding a board to replace them

Almost impossible this day and age to just find a group of like minded, better than what we have board members with loads of cash eager to throw away and of course there's no guarantee that the replacement board would perform any better, or possibly even worse than the the current incumbents.

Sometimes it's better the devil you know. Whilst we are shit on the pitch, we are financially stable off it. The board did the right thing in appointing Adkins, something I would guess 95% of the fan base were happy with at the time. We have the largest squad in the division. The board sanctioned the Brayford deal which was substantial for a 3rd division club. I don't see how it is all the current board's fault for everything that is currently wrong, bearing in mind the Prince has been here for what is relatively a short period of time. For me personally, I blame Clough's signings for a lot of what is wrong this season and as others have already said, it will take some time to clear out the players that aren't up to a battle for promotion and for Adkins to mould his own team.

As much as I am gutted about our current plight, I am prepared to back Adkins, because long term I believe he's the right man for the job.
Click to expand...
I share your blame on Clough. I think it's a mixture of blame:

Clough - for spending far too much on many mid table league one standard at best players. Of which are financially costly to get rid of now, if we had the balls to do actually invest enough to get rid of them.

Board - As well as a failure to re-invest the Murphy money, it's quite clear they haven't made available to Adkins the necessary funds to sort out the squad from the day they appointed him.

Adkins - Although he might not have got the full amount he needed to properly clear out and rebuild the squad, he got given enough for the 4 players he has signed. All of which won't have come cheap. If he had prioritised 2 CB's, 1 CM and a striker in that order, instead of the signings he made, I believe there would have been the slightest glimmer we might have scraped through the automatics despite not being given sufficient funds by the board and an over bloated, vastly mid-table league one standard squad. The standard of the division this year might have helped a tad too. He didn't choose that path, and instead opted to waste time assessing players when the problems have been clear for 10 months, followed by a prioritisation of the wrong positions. He has to take some accountability for that.
 
Maybe some of the £5m per season is still bleeding out of the club in interest charges we have around three different spin off's of Sheffield United FC Ltd each one paying off interest on loans to the other one on the next step up the ladder one pays interest at 10% to one that pays interest at a rate above Libor etc no prizes for guessing the company at the top of the ladder, talk about smoke and mirrors .................... anyone think this club will be debt free or free of interest charges anytime soon ?
 
It really is a conundrum .... Why buy 50% of a football club and then do very little to turn it around?

Assuming the prince was aware of how much was needed to keep the club running and let's not forget he bought his share for £1 so that funds would be directed towards the first team.

Since then I can't see any real evidence of investment in the first team. We've sold Maguire for a substantial fee and Murphy for a substantial fee, generated quite a bit of cash from cup runs, bought in Brayford for a substantial fee, had a new pitch, paid clough and his team off, bought in Billy Sharp for a fee. I would imagine that would just about balance us out at evens.(yes wages, yes signing on fees blah blah blah)

Admittedly what LITTLE was given was wasted by Mr Clough.

So basically in terms of real investment from their own pockets it's not been a great deal which makes it even more unforgivable we haven't secured the players needed.

I get the feeling we are reaching the end game with this board. They will either put up or leave. I think we are being lied to albeit clever little lies.

Too many of our fans fall Jim 'The Mouth' Phipps one liners as they are all so happy to be in contact with someone high up at the club. I get the impression knowing Jim Phipps is about as useful as standing next to the highest ranking officer on a battle field only to find out this is his first active duty.

Think they have this season at best before it all turns sour.
 
The Prince has definitely invested off the pitch (the £1 was given to offset the fact he paid off the debts).

It's on the pitch where it becomes more clouded. I said somewhere earlier that I'm sure the Prince has to put a guaranteed investment in every year, but it's unclear whether that's running costs or not. I do remember that he also has to match any player investment by Kev.

Kev seems more interested in his own business interests(as seen with his trip to China with Georgie) and appears to be disinclined to put his hand in his pocket to fund anything in terms of acquisitions on the pitch.
 
brownie said:
Where are these pair of bullshit merchants when we are getting outclassed at the hands of a primitive, agricultural Port Vale side.

The last 6 weeks we haven't been able to sign a Leicester or Fulham reserve teamer, despite us crying out for reinforcements for the worst team we have had for at least 30 years, and arguably in history. All this despite having £1.5m transfer money from the sale of Jamie Murphy in the bank, and still having untold riches of the game changing investment that was in the words of McCabe "think Liverpool".

I think they have had their period of grace, have been proved to be fucking lairs and bullshitters. I think it is now abundantly clear that now Scarborough Group own Bramall Lane and all Sheffield United assets that McCabe doesn't want anything to do with us now he has effectively gained control of our assets off of the club and its fans.

Dont blame Adkins, he has been lied to and came in to this job on a load of broken promises and been sold down the river. I personally think the best thing that could happen is that he resigns with his integrity intact and shows that shower of cunts Phipps, The Bogroll Prince, McCabe, Branigan, Baki and the rest of the lairs, thieves and bullshit merchants for what they really are.
Click to expand...

That is the most disgusting and obnoxious post it has been my displeasure to read on here from someone who purports to be a fellow Blade. Frankly I'm ashamed to think we support the same club. Suffice it to say I disagree with every word of your post.
 

Gibbo89 said:
That is the most disgusting and obnoxious post it has been my displeasure to read on here from someone who purports to be a fellow Blade. Frankly I'm ashamed to think we support the same club. Suffice it to say I disagree with every word of your post.
Click to expand...

Glad you think so too. And have said so. I made a similar point earlier in this thread. And I'll repeat it here.

I looked in the gutter and turned over a stone. Under the stone was a sewer. In the sewer was a barrel. I scraped the bottom of the barrel.

And there was the foul, disgusting, wretched pile of bile, excrement, and vomit that was the OP.

UTMB
 
Why not ask him? Why not message Phipps and set up a meeting and speak to him face to face, look him in the eyes and call him a bullshit merchant and a cunt? He has said numerous times that he is happy to meet up and speak to any fan who has a problem with him or wants to question his motives so why not do it rather than trying to start a revolution of the slashers and try to create a massive argument between factions.... no? you won't, thought as much.....

It really is common sense, why would someone invest in a business and then happily let it plod along, lie to its employees and invest no money so it is destined to fail which is basically the top and bottom of what you seem to think Phipps and the prince is doing.

Honest to god, we have been shit recently (Donny aside) but the mass over reactions on this forum are embarrassing, I know Linz and Fox have said that they knows phipps has been known to look on here in the past and frankly the attitude of some of our "fans" is embarrassing, yes we can complain and get mardy when we lose but resorting to calling people cunts etc on an internet forum is laughable and childish.

The money is obviously there, look at how many players we let Clough sign, imagine how much we are paying a week for Sharp and his transfer fee etc but none of that counts cos we sell an asset a season and allow the manager to reinvest, hardly the boards fault that Clough bought enough shit hoping enough of it would stick and that Nige Mk2 is playing the safer game, identifying actual targets he wants and is willing to wait until they are available rather than just going out and buying any old shit for the sake of it. I know which approach I prefer.

Call me a clapper / brown noser or whatever but as a whole, I think we are much better off for having the prince involved than just McCabe who publicly stated he wasnt investing a single penny more into the club until he found investment. I make it roughly 36 transfers incoming to the club since the prince has been involved but the website isnt the clearest:

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/sheffield-united/alletransfers/verein/350

Hardly a lack of investment is it, oh yes, but they were frees, or loans and they don't cost anything do they and were doing it "on the cheap" - Looking at some of the names / reputations they came with (O'Grady now at forest and McCarthy now at leeds - both now on loan at higher division clubs, shows they obviously had talent and also wont be cheap), we will have been paying an absolute fortune for them compared to most players in this division, the fact the manager couldn't get them playing together is a whole different problem which needed addressing in the summer and was addressed (again, at significant cost to the club)

Were on a bad run, no one can deny that but the fallacy that the board are cheap skates or dont invest in the playing side of the squad is frankly bordering on crazy. Sure we have sold a few players for some decent wedges of cash but we were losing millions before the prince got involved and now have more than likely a more expensive squad so losing even more so player sales will help try to balance the books but I imagine are still a long way off breaking even close to even.

Genuine question - does anyone know when the accounts are published?
 
S5Blade said:
Why not ask him? Why not message Phipps and set up a meeting and speak to him face to face, look him in the eyes and call him a bullshit merchant and a cunt? He has said numerous times that he is happy to meet up and speak to any fan who has a problem with him or wants to question his motives so why not do it rather than trying to start a revolution of the slashers and try to create a massive argument between factions.... no? you won't, thought as much.....

It really is common sense, why would someone invest in a business and then happily let it plod along, lie to its employees and invest no money so it is destined to fail which is basically the top and bottom of what you seem to think Phipps and the prince is doing.

Honest to god, we have been shit recently (Donny aside) but the mass over reactions on this forum are embarrassing, I know Linz and Fox have said that they knows phipps has been known to look on here in the past and frankly the attitude of some of our "fans" is embarrassing, yes we can complain and get mardy when we lose but resorting to calling people cunts etc on an internet forum is laughable and childish.

The money is obviously there, look at how many players we let Clough sign, imagine how much we are paying a week for Sharp and his transfer fee etc but none of that counts cos we sell an asset a season and allow the manager to reinvest, hardly the boards fault that Clough bought enough shit hoping enough of it would stick and that Nige Mk2 is playing the safer game, identifying actual targets he wants and is willing to wait until they are available rather than just going out and buying any old shit for the sake of it. I know which approach I prefer.

Call me a clapper / brown noser or whatever but as a whole, I think we are much better off for having the prince involved than just McCabe who publicly stated he wasnt investing a single penny more into the club until he found investment. I make it roughly 36 transfers incoming to the club since the prince has been involved but the website isnt the clearest:

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/sheffield-united/alletransfers/verein/350

Hardly a lack of investment is it, oh yes, but they were frees, or loans and they don't cost anything do they and were doing it "on the cheap" - Looking at some of the names / reputations they came with (O'Grady now at forest and McCarthy now at leeds - both now on loan at higher division clubs, shows they obviously had talent and also wont be cheap), we will have been paying an absolute fortune for them compared to most players in this division, the fact the manager couldn't get them playing together is a whole different problem which needed addressing in the summer and was addressed (again, at significant cost to the club)

Were on a bad run, no one can deny that but the fallacy that the board are cheap skates or dont invest in the playing side of the squad is frankly bordering on crazy. Sure we have sold a few players for some decent wedges of cash but we were losing millions before the prince got involved and now have more than likely a more expensive squad so losing even more so player sales will help try to balance the books but I imagine are still a long way off breaking even close to even.

Genuine question - does anyone know when the accounts are published?
Click to expand...

Well said.
 
I think there can be no doubt Jim is an honourable chap. Unfortunately the Internet gives voice to people who are able to share their bile and vitriol whilst hiding behind the anonymity it affords. Things are not going well at the moment, I'm sure a lot of the frustration is genuine and heartfelt, but there is no need to be offensive. It's clearly not his fault, but something that is deep rooted and will take time to address within the rules of the football league, our financial position and contractual obligations to players. ( it's a shame some players don't fulfill their obligation to actually try to play though).
 
Gibbo89 said:
That is the most disgusting and obnoxious post it has been my displeasure to read on here from someone who purports to be a fellow Blade. Frankly I'm ashamed to think we support the same club. Suffice it to say I disagree with every word of your post.
Click to expand...

Sorry if you find it disgusting and obnoxious but I don't like any of the board, have got a deep mistrust of them at the minute.

I spent at least a couple of thousand a year on my season ticket and on going to away games, so if you are ashamed of my views then so be it, but at least I have put my money where my mouth is, and I feel that affords me my opinion.
 
brownie said:
Sorry if you find it disgusting and obnoxious but I don't like any of the board, have got a deep mistrust of them at the minute.

I spent at least a couple of thousand a year on my season ticket and on going to away games, so if you are ashamed of my views then so be it, but at least I have put my money where my mouth is, and I feel that affords me my opinion.
Click to expand...

My other half is a legal secretary. She used to deal solely with family law. She now spends 50% of her working week dealing with internet defamation cases, which have increased tenfold since she was first involved two years ago.

Suffice to say, that anyone that you mentioned in your "angry post" could have you on toast, if they so desired.
 
brownie said:
Sorry if you find it disgusting and obnoxious but I don't like any of the board, have got a deep mistrust of them at the minute.

I spent at least a couple of thousand a year on my season ticket and on going to away games, so if you are ashamed of my views then so be it, but at least I have put my money where my mouth is, and I feel that affords me my opinion.
Click to expand...

Ive put my money where my mouth is for 45 years so Ive probably put more money in than you does that entitle me to an opinion ?
You are part of the problem those that shout loudest are often ones that people take notice of answer me these questions
Is Adkins the best manager we could have got in our situation ?
Do you think to get Adkins we will have to be paying him a very good wage for League One ?
The board have paid off Clough and his staff do you think that comes cheap ?
We all want to get out of this division or do you think our board are happy to stay in League One ?
Why do you think the current board got involved with SUFC ?
Their aim is to make money do you think staying in League One will make them any money ?
 
Top Cat said:
My other half is a legal secretary. She used to deal solely with family law. She now spends 50% of her working week dealing with internet defamation cases, which have increased tenfold since she was first involved two years ago.

Suffice to say, that anyone that you mentioned in your "angry post" could have you on toast, if they so desired.
Click to expand...
Although I understand what you mean, I'd hardly go as far as saying they'd have him on toast. If the site operators recieved a complaint, they would contact the poster of the offensive material and get consent to remove of it. And that would be case over. Usually, only sites that refuse to take down the information can be taken further than that.
 
PeteBlade said:
As per my original post really, even if we take your too high guesstimate at face value, the players we've produced and sold on have covered this cost.

To suggest getting rid of the academy or that it's a waste of money is such short termism and wouldn't benefit us in the long run.

Once we're promoted (Be it this season or 2057) having a quality academy that produces either first team players or those we sell on for millions of quid, will benefit us in the long run.
Click to expand...

If you dispute the value of having an academy,take a look at Southamptons production line over the last few years.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

Back
Top Bottom