Is the Prince's luck running out?

[Champagneblade]

I've always been open to Prince Abdullah. He comes over as a nice guy and I've been supportive of a number of his decisions.

I do think the spectre of McCabe's latter period has somewhat tainted our view at times though.

Had we gone down under KM, you do feel McCabe's immediate approach would be to cut our cloth. We would have attempted to offload assets and reinvested a small portion.

It seems PA's default is to do nothing. Nothing rash at least. But he's turned kicking the can down the road into an art form!

Every window we look back on, we can provide some justification to actions or there in lack of and often keeping hold of what you have is then seen as the height of ambition. But in fact it's also been an inability to retain much long term focus beyond the next 12 months.

In this regard it does feel he's been playing Russian roulette with the club's future and I'd also suggest his own personal limited wealth.

We didn't do anything in the winter window of January 2021. That made sense it would have been good money after bad.

Summer 2021, relegation confirmed and we prepared for a mass exodus. Only Ramsdale left , we kept Berge, or did we simply not receive a reasonable offer? We then signed last minute, all a bit short for what Slav wanted. Everything was borrowed and nothing was bought.

Winter 2022 came and went with Davis for a nominal fee and Uremovic and Goode arriving on loan, offset by Burke, Mousset, Freeman, Verrips and Olsen heading out. Apart from Davis, nothing permanent again.

The gamble failed on penalties but contracts went a year further on and few players got new extensions.

Summer 2022 and much to everyone's surprised we paid around 4m to bring in Ahmedhodžić. Outside of this, it was zero perms, all loans, offset by permanent departures of Mousset, Freeman et al. Still no Berge takers.

Winter 2023 and we lost Khadra and gave no support to the management other than not selling Berge or Ndiaye.

Despite debilitating injuries at times we went up. God knows what a mess it would have looked had we not. Lower parachute payments, players on high wages we couldn't shift.

Fortunately, that can got kicked down the road thanks to Hecky.

But it's never kicked far. He's probably on the precipice between being declared a good owner, who kept talent and then sold to someone to kick is on and an owner who built very little only to let a huge swathe of the squad leave for nothing leaving us with a complete rebuild on our hands.

I look at Chateauroux and our situation could have been mirroring their own had we not gone up, or if we don't get taken over and/or adopt a strategy that looks beyond 12 months. They just let 17 players walk and need to show around €4.5m is there to settle the season just gone and guarantee the coming season and remain pro. How can an owner allow such dereliction and lack of governance?

I know footballers are money motivated and it is a short career, but a club now at the top table shouldn't be looking at talent like Jebbo, Osula, Ndiaye etc and seeing all of them out of contract in 12 months. It's simply awful planning.

It wouldn't have killed us to get a small uptick to the first two to add years onto their deals. Likewise, I know Ndiaye's reps have been hard to deal with, but when he was clicking with Gibbs-White was the time to tie him down for longer. We seemed.tl be happy to keep him on low money and now we are looking at a talent leaving for nothing when he could have been worth 30m or so. I'd far rather not have Fleck and/or Ozzy for 12 months and tie up the younger players if that is the choice.

Genuinely concerned that the Prince has gambled for a season or two and has been saved by Hecky, but that without someone else stepping in and prioritising the contracts, even the self-sufficient model fails when your assets walk for zero.

 

[Jimmy Fleck]

Dunno

 

[CaptainMorgans]

When the owners are doing nothing but planning their own exit strategy, what reason do the players have to do anything different?

Until the ownership situation is resolved and the club's future made somewhat clearer, why would the agents of these players advise them to sign on beyond next Summer?
Why not wait, run your deal down and see what offers come in?

I understand Heckingbottom wanting to keep the squad together but, given the contractual situation of the squad, everybody has to be for sale and we have to be looking beyond this season with some future proofing.

It feels like everybody will have their own individual objectives and they're not all aligned.
Totally different to the wave we rode in on under Wilder.

 

[Stanthemanfan]

Our contract situation after next season is very worrying

 

[bonobo]

It's an interesting post. The prince did an interview at the start of last season. He felt that had invested heavily in the squad and that squad was our best route to promotion, he talked about giving them a season and if promotion failed there would need to be a change in strategy. But the turnaround in form by Heckingbottom, although coming too late for promotion, I guess convinced them it was worth another push. You could say there were some good calls in this, recognising Heckys potential as a manager and a belief they had a game changing player coming through in Ndiaye. How much of this is genuine foresight or a bit of luck, I don't know. What I would be critical of is the expensive loan strategy, MGW a hungry young player paid off, but add Davies, Olsen, Hourihane and Goode, that was probably north of 10 mill in fees and salaries and could have been better invested in younger permanent talent, with that now popular phrase 're-sale value'. It does all suggest there was no financial plan bar promotion or bottoming out.
I would just add on McCabe, when we went down, he did actually spend a lot, rather than cut the cloth and it was spent very poorly, but he was also willing and able to fill the holes in the finance when things went wrong.

 

[Berkshire Blade]

There's flashing warning lights everywhere around the club other than our league placing. We might defy the odds and stay up and his luck continues but I think this might be the year his and therefore our luck runs out as we have so many good players out of contract

 

[CPB]

Yeah I agree with you.

Prince on one hand can be commended for not selling players on the cheap.
But he's then been looking to do as little as possible and v.little future planning.

Hotels still shut. Which considering we are now back in the prem is ridiculous. Id imagine bookings were higher whilst in prem around our matchdays.
Whilst it's not open it's not earning any money in rent either....

This summer I hope we get a few of our players who's contracts are up next summer on new deals.

N'Diaye and Berge obvious ones but transfer rumours have been they want to leave for free next summer.

But Egan and Baldock certainly would like to see extensions offered if of course no extension clause is there already.

Bogle if he picks his form back up too and RND if he recovers from his injury properly.

I suppose we have time still to assess but even so I hope this is part of the plan.

 

[finlaytheblade]

I've always been open to Prince Abdullah. He comes over as a nice guy and I've been supportive of a number of his decisions.

I do think the spectre of McCabe's latter period has somewhat tainted our view at times though.

Had we gone down under KM, you do feel McCabe's immediate approach would be to cut our cloth. We would have attempted to offload assets and reinvested a small portion.

It seems PA's default is to do nothing. Nothing rash at least. But he's turned kicking the can down the road into an art form!

Every window we look back on, we can provide some justification to actions or there in lack of and often keeping hold of what you have is then seen as the height of ambition. But in fact it's also been an inability to retain much long term focus beyond the next 12 months.

In this regard it does feel he's been playing Russian roulette with the club's future and I'd also suggest his own personal limited wealth.

We didn't do anything in the winter window of January 2021. That made sense it would have been good money after bad.

Summer 2021, relegation confirmed and we prepared for a mass exodus. Only Ramsdale left , we kept Berge, or did we simply not receive a reasonable offer? We then signed last minute, all a bit short for what Slav wanted. Everything was borrowed and nothing was bought.

Winter 2022 came and went with Davis for a nominal fee and Uremovic and Goode arriving on loan, offset by Burke, Mousset, Freeman, Verrips and Olsen heading out. Apart from Davis, nothing permanent again.

The gamble failed on penalties but contracts went a year further on and few players got new extensions.

Summer 2022 and much to everyone's surprised we paid around 4m to bring in Ahmedhodžić. Outside of this, it was zero perms, all loans, offset by permanent departures of Mousset, Freeman et al. Still no Berge takers.

Winter 2023 and we lost Khadra and gave no support to the management other than not selling Berge or Ndiaye.

Despite debilitating injuries at times we went up. God knows what a mess it would have looked had we not. Lower parachute payments, players on high wages we couldn't shift.

Fortunately, that can got kicked down the road thanks to Hecky.

But it's never kicked far. He's probably on the precipice between being declared a good owner, who kept talent and then sold to someone to kick is on and an owner who built very little only to let a huge swathe of the squad leave for nothing leaving us with a complete rebuild on our hands.

I look at Chateauroux and our situation could have been mirroring their own had we not gone up, or if we don't get taken over and/or adopt a strategy that looks beyond 12 months. They just let 17 players walk and need to show around €4.5m is there to settle the season just gone and guarantee the coming season and remain pro. How can an owner allow such dereliction and lack of governance?

I know footballers are money motivated and it is a short career, but a club now at the top table shouldn't be looking at talent like Jebbo, Osula, Ndiaye etc and seeing all of them out of contract in 12 months. It's simply awful planning.

It wouldn't have killed us to get a small uptick to the first two to add years onto their deals. Likewise, I know Ndiaye's reps have been hard to deal with, but when he was clicking with Gibbs-White was the time to tie him down for longer. We seemed.tl be happy to keep him on low money and now we are looking at a talent leaving for nothing when he could have been worth 30m or so. I'd far rather not have Fleck and/or Ozzy for 12 months and tie up the younger players if that is the choice.

Genuinely concerned that the Prince has gambled for a season or two and has been saved by Hecky, but that without someone else stepping in and prioritising the contracts, even the self-sufficient model fails when your assets walk for zero.

Can't disputewhat you say and facts are facts.
No surprise at the end of the WBA match the prince gave Hecki a bear hug a real bear hug.
Body language tells the story he was out on a limb !
It's obviouse why the contracts are short! relegation if it happens means a big cut in wages.
Considering his lack of personal wealth he has brought us back to the promised land ! Can he get a buyer who can take us to the next level or stabilise us in the premiership.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

I've always been open to Prince Abdullah. He comes over as a nice guy and I've been supportive of a number of his decisions.

I do think the spectre of McCabe's latter period has somewhat tainted our view at times though.

Had we gone down under KM, you do feel McCabe's immediate approach would be to cut our cloth. We would have attempted to offload assets and reinvested a small portion.

It seems PA's default is to do nothing. Nothing rash at least. But he's turned kicking the can down the road into an art form!

Every window we look back on, we can provide some justification to actions or there in lack of and often keeping hold of what you have is then seen as the height of ambition. But in fact it's also been an inability to retain much long term focus beyond the next 12 months.

In this regard it does feel he's been playing Russian roulette with the club's future and I'd also suggest his own personal limited wealth.

We didn't do anything in the winter window of January 2021. That made sense it would have been good money after bad.

Summer 2021, relegation confirmed and we prepared for a mass exodus. Only Ramsdale left , we kept Berge, or did we simply not receive a reasonable offer? We then signed last minute, all a bit short for what Slav wanted. Everything was borrowed and nothing was bought.

Winter 2022 came and went with Davis for a nominal fee and Uremovic and Goode arriving on loan, offset by Burke, Mousset, Freeman, Verrips and Olsen heading out. Apart from Davis, nothing permanent again.

The gamble failed on penalties but contracts went a year further on and few players got new extensions.

Summer 2022 and much to everyone's surprised we paid around 4m to bring in Ahmedhodžić. Outside of this, it was zero perms, all loans, offset by permanent departures of Mousset, Freeman et al. Still no Berge takers.

Winter 2023 and we lost Khadra and gave no support to the management other than not selling Berge or Ndiaye.

Despite debilitating injuries at times we went up. God knows what a mess it would have looked had we not. Lower parachute payments, players on high wages we couldn't shift.

Fortunately, that can got kicked down the road thanks to Hecky.

But it's never kicked far. He's probably on the precipice between being declared a good owner, who kept talent and then sold to someone to kick is on and an owner who built very little only to let a huge swathe of the squad leave for nothing leaving us with a complete rebuild on our hands.

I look at Chateauroux and our situation could have been mirroring their own had we not gone up, or if we don't get taken over and/or adopt a strategy that looks beyond 12 months. They just let 17 players walk and need to show around €4.5m is there to settle the season just gone and guarantee the coming season and remain pro. How can an owner allow such dereliction and lack of governance?

I know footballers are money motivated and it is a short career, but a club now at the top table shouldn't be looking at talent like Jebbo, Osula, Ndiaye etc and seeing all of them out of contract in 12 months. It's simply awful planning.

It wouldn't have killed us to get a small uptick to the first two to add years onto their deals. Likewise, I know Ndiaye's reps have been hard to deal with, but when he was clicking with Gibbs-White was the time to tie him down for longer. We seemed.tl be happy to keep him on low money and now we are looking at a talent leaving for nothing when he could have been worth 30m or so. I'd far rather not have Fleck and/or Ozzy for 12 months and tie up the younger players if that is the choice.

Genuinely concerned that the Prince has gambled for a season or two and has been saved by Hecky, but that without someone else stepping in and prioritising the contracts, even the self-sufficient model fails when your assets walk for zero.

I don’t know how and when the Premier league money is actually handed over to the newly promoted teams. But I’m very concerned the Prince is going to trouser this money before he leaves. But I’m sure this isn’t possible, as the this money is probably ring fenced for making the teams competitive…But

 

[brownblade]

Prince is just waiting for the best moment to surprise everyone. New contracts all round and an array of nerd-friendly talents from overseas.

All fears cast aside with one tweet from the big man, saying "#AnnounceTop10Finish"

 

[Gin&Juice]

If we didn’t go up last season, we’d have been like Leeds under fucking Ridsdale.

 

[CPB]

If we didn’t go up last season, we’d have been like Leeds under fucking Ridsdale.

Well it would have been a firesale.

N'Diaye, Berge, Anel, Baldock, Egan all sold. Raise about 30-40m in sales and then next to no money still to essentially start from scratch.

We would have been relegation fodder but in champ.

 

[Gin&Juice]

Well it would have been a firesale.

N'Diaye, Berge, Anel, Baldock, Egan all sold. Raise about 30-40m in sales and then next to no money still to essentially start from scratch.

We would have been relegation fodder but in champ.

Both gambled. Prince sort of won. But it was down to Hecky doing some brothers in arms shit, rather than our owner.

 

[St Annington]

You also have to give the Prince credit for season ticket prices as well, we all point and laugh at our neighbours across the city, but the reality is that at £380 for my season ticket and £80 for my daughter the club are basically subsidising us when I could afford to pay more. Feeling smug about how cheap it is to watch the Blades is actually hampering the club in terms of revenue.

 

[OLDBLADE43]

It's an interesting post. The prince did an interview at the start of last season. He felt that had invested heavily in the squad and that squad was our best route to promotion, he talked about giving them a season and if promotion failed there would need to be a change in strategy. But the turnaround in form by Heckingbottom, although coming too late for promotion, I guess convinced them it was worth another push. You could say there were some good calls in this, recognising Heckys potential as a manager and a belief they had a game changing player coming through in Ndiaye. How much of this is genuine foresight or a bit of luck, I don't know. What I would be critical of is the expensive loan strategy, MGW a hungry young player paid off, but add Davies, Olsen, Hourihane and Goode, that was probably north of 10 mill in fees and salaries and could have been better invested in younger permanent talent, with that now popular phrase 're-sale value'. It does all suggest there was no financial plan bar promotion or bottoming out.
I would just add on McCabe, when we went down, he did actually spend a lot, rather than cut the cloth and it was spent very poorly, but he was also willing and able to fill the holes in the finance when things went wrong.

It makes a refreshing change to hear someone defending Kevin McCabe for spending money AND filling the holes in finance.

 

[FriethBlade]

His biggest problem will be if he hasn't got some form of agreement to sell tied down before the start of the season and we make a bad start. We will then start to be valued as a championship club again and any hope he has of getting 140m will be long since gone.He needs to get out ASAP both for our sake and his pockets sake.

I'm a little less concerned with the contract situation. If we stay up we will have the money to pretty much do what we want. If we go down we won't be saddled with aging players on big contracts but we will have a massive rebuild on our hands.

Only we could get promoted to the promised land and it feel like things have got worse over the summer. However as
many have pointed out it would have been armageddon if we had stayed down

 

[Snowflake]

I've always been open to Prince Abdullah. He comes over as a nice guy and I've been supportive of a number of his decisions.

I do think the spectre of McCabe's latter period has somewhat tainted our view at times though.

Had we gone down under KM, you do feel McCabe's immediate approach would be to cut our cloth. We would have attempted to offload assets and reinvested a small portion.

It seems PA's default is to do nothing. Nothing rash at least. But he's turned kicking the can down the road into an art form!

Every window we look back on, we can provide some justification to actions or there in lack of and often keeping hold of what you have is then seen as the height of ambition. But in fact it's also been an inability to retain much long term focus beyond the next 12 months.

In this regard it does feel he's been playing Russian roulette with the club's future and I'd also suggest his own personal limited wealth.

We didn't do anything in the winter window of January 2021. That made sense it would have been good money after bad.

Summer 2021, relegation confirmed and we prepared for a mass exodus. Only Ramsdale left , we kept Berge, or did we simply not receive a reasonable offer? We then signed last minute, all a bit short for what Slav wanted. Everything was borrowed and nothing was bought.

Winter 2022 came and went with Davis for a nominal fee and Uremovic and Goode arriving on loan, offset by Burke, Mousset, Freeman, Verrips and Olsen heading out. Apart from Davis, nothing permanent again.

The gamble failed on penalties but contracts went a year further on and few players got new extensions.

Summer 2022 and much to everyone's surprised we paid around 4m to bring in Ahmedhodžić. Outside of this, it was zero perms, all loans, offset by permanent departures of Mousset, Freeman et al. Still no Berge takers.

Winter 2023 and we lost Khadra and gave no support to the management other than not selling Berge or Ndiaye.

Despite debilitating injuries at times we went up. God knows what a mess it would have looked had we not. Lower parachute payments, players on high wages we couldn't shift.

Fortunately, that can got kicked down the road thanks to Hecky.

But it's never kicked far. He's probably on the precipice between being declared a good owner, who kept talent and then sold to someone to kick is on and an owner who built very little only to let a huge swathe of the squad leave for nothing leaving us with a complete rebuild on our hands.

I look at Chateauroux and our situation could have been mirroring their own had we not gone up, or if we don't get taken over and/or adopt a strategy that looks beyond 12 months. They just let 17 players walk and need to show around €4.5m is there to settle the season just gone and guarantee the coming season and remain pro. How can an owner allow such dereliction and lack of governance?

I know footballers are money motivated and it is a short career, but a club now at the top table shouldn't be looking at talent like Jebbo, Osula, Ndiaye etc and seeing all of them out of contract in 12 months. It's simply awful planning.

It wouldn't have killed us to get a small uptick to the first two to add years onto their deals. Likewise, I know Ndiaye's reps have been hard to deal with, but when he was clicking with Gibbs-White was the time to tie him down for longer. We seemed.tl be happy to keep him on low money and now we are looking at a talent leaving for nothing when he could have been worth 30m or so. I'd far rather not have Fleck and/or Ozzy for 12 months and tie up the younger players if that is the choice.

Genuinely concerned that the Prince has gambled for a season or two and has been saved by Hecky, but that without someone else stepping in and prioritising the contracts, even the self-sufficient model fails when your assets walk for zero.

Whilst I agree with most of this, the club cannot force players to sign new contracts. If a player thinks he is worth more than a club can afford he is unlikely to sign a new contract, taking the risk that he can do better later. His club can do little about that.

 

[Mouth of the South]

He isn't running out of luck - he just doesn't have enough wealth to fund such an expensive organisation. He has said it himself numerous times and never intended to own the club outright until McCabe tried to rip him off.

There's no point bedwetting about what may or may not happen in 12 months' time. The Boardroom activities are kept tight so people speculating (in some cases coming up with worst case scenarios) are basing them on limited / incorrect information and assumptions.

 

[AWetFlannel]

You also have to give the Prince credit for season ticket prices as well, we all point and laugh at our neighbours across the city, but the reality is that at £380 for my season ticket and £80 for my daughter the club are basically subsidising us when I could afford to pay more. Feeling smug about how cheap it is to watch the Blades is actually hampering the club in terms of revenue.

The revenue gained by charging higher ticket prices is negligible, especially now we are in the Prem. £380 in a cost of living crisis is not cheap, though it is relatively cheap compared to other teams. I couldn't afford to pay much more.

 

[blade67]

I've always been open to Prince Abdullah. He comes over as a nice guy and I've been supportive of a number of his decisions.

I do think the spectre of McCabe's latter period has somewhat tainted our view at times though.

Had we gone down under KM, you do feel McCabe's immediate approach would be to cut our cloth. We would have attempted to offload assets and reinvested a small portion.

It seems PA's default is to do nothing. Nothing rash at least. But he's turned kicking the can down the road into an art form!

Every window we look back on, we can provide some justification to actions or there in lack of and often keeping hold of what you have is then seen as the height of ambition. But in fact it's also been an inability to retain much long term focus beyond the next 12 months.

In this regard it does feel he's been playing Russian roulette with the club's future and I'd also suggest his own personal limited wealth.

We didn't do anything in the winter window of January 2021. That made sense it would have been good money after bad.

Summer 2021, relegation confirmed and we prepared for a mass exodus. Only Ramsdale left , we kept Berge, or did we simply not receive a reasonable offer? We then signed last minute, all a bit short for what Slav wanted. Everything was borrowed and nothing was bought.

Winter 2022 came and went with Davis for a nominal fee and Uremovic and Goode arriving on loan, offset by Burke, Mousset, Freeman, Verrips and Olsen heading out. Apart from Davis, nothing permanent again.

The gamble failed on penalties but contracts went a year further on and few players got new extensions.

Summer 2022 and much to everyone's surprised we paid around 4m to bring in Ahmedhodžić. Outside of this, it was zero perms, all loans, offset by permanent departures of Mousset, Freeman et al. Still no Berge takers.

Winter 2023 and we lost Khadra and gave no support to the management other than not selling Berge or Ndiaye.

Despite debilitating injuries at times we went up. God knows what a mess it would have looked had we not. Lower parachute payments, players on high wages we couldn't shift.

Fortunately, that can got kicked down the road thanks to Hecky.

But it's never kicked far. He's probably on the precipice between being declared a good owner, who kept talent and then sold to someone to kick is on and an owner who built very little only to let a huge swathe of the squad leave for nothing leaving us with a complete rebuild on our hands.

I look at Chateauroux and our situation could have been mirroring their own had we not gone up, or if we don't get taken over and/or adopt a strategy that looks beyond 12 months. They just let 17 players walk and need to show around €4.5m is there to settle the season just gone and guarantee the coming season and remain pro. How can an owner allow such dereliction and lack of governance?

I know footballers are money motivated and it is a short career, but a club now at the top table shouldn't be looking at talent like Jebbo, Osula, Ndiaye etc and seeing all of them out of contract in 12 months. It's simply awful planning.

It wouldn't have killed us to get a small uptick to the first two to add years onto their deals. Likewise, I know Ndiaye's reps have been hard to deal with, but when he was clicking with Gibbs-White was the time to tie him down for longer. We seemed.tl be happy to keep him on low money and now we are looking at a talent leaving for nothing when he could have been worth 30m or so. I'd far rather not have Fleck and/or Ozzy for 12 months and tie up the younger players if that is the choice.

Genuinely concerned that the Prince has gambled for a season or two and has been saved by Hecky, but that without someone else stepping in and prioritising the contracts, even the self-sufficient model fails when your assets walk for zero.

When the transfer window shuts, the club is in a position to start offering deals until summer 2026 on deals that will be better than almost any Championship club can offer. That means next summer will not be the shit show everyone is suggesting. That is regardless of ownership and is completely down to EPL TV money.

In the absence of a serious buyer PA could go another 3 years till the cash runs out again

 

[Zeblades34]

I don’t know how and when the Premier league money is actually handed over to the newly promoted teams. But I’m very concerned the Prince is going to trouser this money before he leaves. But I’m sure this isn’t possible, as the this money is probably ring fenced for making the teams competitive…But

Paid over 3 years probably end of season/next season first payment is made i think

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

It's not luck, it's just he thought he was out so he didn't want to commit to any future additional spending.
It's poor management on his behalf, but he thought it wasn't going to be his problem, and it still quite likely that it won't be.

 

[Mouth of the South]

Paid over 3 years probably end of season/next season first payment is made i think

It's paid in installments across the season (the first being paid in July I think), hence why so many clubs (including Utd) borrow from banks such as MaQuarie against guaranteed income to play opex and fund transactions.

 

[Revolution]

The club is in the PL and will soon receive a lot of money over the space of the 12 months.

I do not see how we could be in any better position under the current regime, save perhaps we could have been more proactive re contract renewal for some of the younger players.

If we had sold players, we may not have gone up. That's what happened under McCabe season after season. If we had not gone up, we could be in all sorts of trouble.

All of our other financial problems are due to (a) the Prince not being rich and (b) Covid (which as usual is not acknowledged in the original post). Short of a sale, we are stuck with getting by on 150 million plus of TV money. Poor us.

Will it be too hard this year? Perhaps. But we will still be in business and have parachute money if we go down. that's an enviable position.

 

[cooperblade]

It's become the received wisdom that the Prince gambled in the last January window by deciding not to sell anyone despite increasing financial pressure. Completely understandable - it makes sense given the available evidence (it looked like the players were leaving and then they didn't) and the Prince himself said that was what happened.

Very often though I think everything on here gets reduced to 'it could've only been this or that' when there's probably a thousand possible explanations. I think if you start considering other explanations and don't believe everything the Prince says in his carefully choreographed interviews then you get a whole different perspective and possibly one that's much closer to the truth of what really happened.

I do think the Prince has been incredibly lucky and it's going to get harder and harder for that luck to continue. I don't think he's been lucky with calculated gambles though, I think he's just been lucky (and hugely skilled in terms of PR and choosing his lawyer).

The situation at the club at the moment is unforgivable really (but we are in the Premier League again which is quite incredible). I fear we're going to look back on this whole period (from the first promotion onwards) as a sliding doors moment when we missed out on a huge opportunity to fundamentally change the future of the club.

I have two hopes. One, obviously, is a takeover. We need it or the whole thing, at some point, is going to implode. The second one is less important in the grand scheme of things but would be incredibly satisfying and that is that someone who everyone trusts will be in a position one day to come out and tell the story of the last few years.

 

[djbaldken]

There's flashing warning lights everywhere around the club other than our league placing. We might defy the odds and stay up and his luck continues but I think this might be the year his and therefore our luck runs out as we have so many good players out of contract

THIS!

This time next year , unless we get new AND WEALTHY owners, We could be in deep shit.

 

[Westran]

The contract situation seems almost by design, when the parachute payments end, the contracts end, so we're not tied into anything we can't afford. I'd imagine there will be plenty of contracts renegotiated, and some will let theirs run down and move on for free. It's what happens.

 

[Mouth of the South]

I don’t know how and when the Premier league money is actually handed over to the newly promoted teams. But I’m very concerned the Prince is going to trouser this money before he leaves. But I’m sure this isn’t possible, as the this money is probably ring fenced for making the teams competitive…But

It really doesn't work like that. Any funds PA extracts from the club will impact either the value or the club and therefore the consideration he receives from the sale or will be reflected via a working capital adjustment.

PA's return will be from the increase value of the club since he took sole charge.

 

[cooperblade]

The contract situation seems almost by design, when the parachute payments end, the contracts end, so we're not tied into anything we can't afford. I'd imagine there will be plenty of contracts renegotiated, and some will let theirs run down and move on for free. It's what happens.

I'd say it's quite rare that a club allows almost every single player's contract to all run out at the same time. And instances of that working out well are even more rare.

If it's by design, it certainly isn't designed to put the football club in a better position.

 

[Keen Blade]

I've always been open to Prince Abdullah. He comes over as a nice guy and I've been supportive of a number of his decisions.

I do think the spectre of McCabe's latter period has somewhat tainted our view at times though.

Had we gone down under KM, you do feel McCabe's immediate approach would be to cut our cloth. We would have attempted to offload assets and reinvested a small portion.

It seems PA's default is to do nothing. Nothing rash at least. But he's turned kicking the can down the road into an art form!

Every window we look back on, we can provide some justification to actions or there in lack of and often keeping hold of what you have is then seen as the height of ambition. But in fact it's also been an inability to retain much long term focus beyond the next 12 months.

In this regard it does feel he's been playing Russian roulette with the club's future and I'd also suggest his own personal limited wealth.

We didn't do anything in the winter window of January 2021. That made sense it would have been good money after bad.

Summer 2021, relegation confirmed and we prepared for a mass exodus. Only Ramsdale left , we kept Berge, or did we simply not receive a reasonable offer? We then signed last minute, all a bit short for what Slav wanted. Everything was borrowed and nothing was bought.

Winter 2022 came and went with Davis for a nominal fee and Uremovic and Goode arriving on loan, offset by Burke, Mousset, Freeman, Verrips and Olsen heading out. Apart from Davis, nothing permanent again.

The gamble failed on penalties but contracts went a year further on and few players got new extensions.

Summer 2022 and much to everyone's surprised we paid around 4m to bring in Ahmedhodžić. Outside of this, it was zero perms, all loans, offset by permanent departures of Mousset, Freeman et al. Still no Berge takers.

Winter 2023 and we lost Khadra and gave no support to the management other than not selling Berge or Ndiaye.

Despite debilitating injuries at times we went up. God knows what a mess it would have looked had we not. Lower parachute payments, players on high wages we couldn't shift.

Fortunately, that can got kicked down the road thanks to Hecky.

But it's never kicked far. He's probably on the precipice between being declared a good owner, who kept talent and then sold to someone to kick is on and an owner who built very little only to let a huge swathe of the squad leave for nothing leaving us with a complete rebuild on our hands.

I look at Chateauroux and our situation could have been mirroring their own had we not gone up, or if we don't get taken over and/or adopt a strategy that looks beyond 12 months. They just let 17 players walk and need to show around €4.5m is there to settle the season just gone and guarantee the coming season and remain pro. How can an owner allow such dereliction and lack of governance?

I know footballers are money motivated and it is a short career, but a club now at the top table shouldn't be looking at talent like Jebbo, Osula, Ndiaye etc and seeing all of them out of contract in 12 months. It's simply awful planning.

It wouldn't have killed us to get a small uptick to the first two to add years onto their deals. Likewise, I know Ndiaye's reps have been hard to deal with, but when he was clicking with Gibbs-White was the time to tie him down for longer. We seemed.tl be happy to keep him on low money and now we are looking at a talent leaving for nothing when he could have been worth 30m or so. I'd far rather not have Fleck and/or Ozzy for 12 months and tie up the younger players if that is the choice.

Genuinely concerned that the Prince has gambled for a season or two and has been saved by Hecky, but that without someone else stepping in and prioritising the contracts, even the self-sufficient model fails when your assets walk for zero.

The contracts situation next summer is a problem - Prince must find an investor or club must stay in PL