We all know it's a mess, but what makes it better?

[SwissBlade]

Suppose it’s how you define proactive. Waiting till your best young player in a generation is in the last year of his contract isn’t my definition. If this isn’t the case and he was offered terms and rejected them previously, I’ll stand corrected.

Berge, I just don’t get. He’s gone to Burnley! How does that make sense for Sheffield United? What does it say about our club and his inside view of our prospects? Plus my daughter is heartbroken!

I depends on what you believe or understand to have happened.

All parties appear to accept that a contract was offered to Berge and Ndiaye, in Ndiaye's case he was apparently deemed so close to signing that the go ahead was given to produce the PR material. This appeared to have followed a number of negotiations over the course of the last 12 months or so, from what i have seen.

Berge, similar, offered contracts, which were not signed.

I believe that the proactivity to offer a contract was not in question. That was done. The issue appears to be more financial in the case of Berge in that he saw that his value was higher than we were offering.

In the case of Ndiaye, that if he was "close" then the financial side wasn't so much an issue, but the boyhood dream move.

As for Burnley, they clearly met our asking price and the financial requirements of Berge. So be it.

 

[The Bohemian]

I depends on what you believe or understand to have happened.

All parties appear to accept that a contract was offered to Berge and Ndiaye, in Ndiaye's case he was apparently deemed so close to signing that the go ahead was given to produce the PR material. This appeared to have followed a number of negotiations over the course of the last 12 months or so, from what i have seen.

Berge, similar, offered contracts, which were not signed.

I believe that the proactivity to offer a contract was not in question. That was done. The issue appears to be more financial in the case of Berge in that he saw that his value was higher than we were offering.

In the case of Ndiaye, that if he was "close" then the financial side wasn't so much an issue, but the boyhood dream move.

As for Burnley, they clearly met our asking price and the financial requirements of Berge. So be it.

That’s the problem, I can’t do “so be it” if something looks avoidable and wrong. And I definitely can’t accept that we aren’t better than Burnley.

 

[SwissBlade]

That’s the problem, I can’t do “so be it” if something looks avoidable and wrong. And I definitely can’t accept that we aren’t better than Burnley.

They've spent longer in the Premier League than us.
They went back up after one season.
They have an owner with money to pay better deals than us.

 

[The Bohemian]

They've spent longer in the Premier League than us.
They went back up after one season.
They have an owner with money to pay better deals than us.

You make many fair points though Burnley was a leveraged buyout similar to PA’s. Owner’s wealth seems opaque? And I’m not convinced you can accept Burnley being a better prospect than Blades any more than I can.

 

[1973Blade]

Just Stop Oil delaying the start of the season perhaps?

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Win, lose or draw, this whole media shit storm won’t seem so bad…once we’re all inside BDTBL.

 

[Snowflake]

"Mess" is extremely subjective.

There is no argument that the squad is weaker than the promotion squad, we've lost some significant players, but its absolutely not weaker then the League One promotion side.

The reason for our success are in huge part down to, as you say our outstanding manager and his team and this is part of why i don't believe that we're in a mess.

We can spin the Ndiaye sale as a sale at a fraction of his market value, but you can spin the other way that we've made a huge profit on him in a few years. But as i've mentioned elsewhere, the sale represents a perfect execution of the model we've tried to build. Buy young with potential, develop to sell for more.
Berge was not in line with this model. So he's a better example for your spin.

We start the season with several new players, who the manager admits, aren't all up to speed. It's not ideal and worrying.
We have a smaller squad than we really need given our injury concerns from last season and this preseason.

I agree. Any success this season will depend first on what Hecky can buy and loan in this window, second on what progress the youngsters make and third who may come in during the JTW.
I remain positive, but the next two weeks may change that either way.