SUFC Accounts

[Sean Thornton]

Indeed thank fuck there was no money wasted on the rich inheritance of Higdon, McGahey, McNulty, J Wallace, JCR,, ,McEverly, Howard,, K Wallace, Alcock, and Brayford playing for free, with such a clean slate to work from amazed Adkins couldn't get us playing Barcelona

Thank fuck Wilder get a much better starter position to work from,apart the legacy pay offs of Hammond and Wallace.

True but Wilder also inherited some Clough signings. And has turned a couple of no marks under Adkins into regulars.....

 

[metalblade]

You would have thought McCabe would be very wary of giving managers a free reign after getting his fingers badly burnt with Robson but no he allows Clough and Adkins to have a huge squad on huge wages, at the end of the day he signs the cheques. I suppose we must praise him for sticking with it even if the accounts say we are in a right mess, like McCabe himself inferred he may have taken his eye off the ball with regards to Clough and Adkins.

 

[BushBlade]

True but Wilder also inherited some Clough signings. And has turned a couple of no marks under Adkins into regulars.....

Worse than that, Clough inherited Adams, Wilson and Weir signings and made less of an issue of it than Adkins.

Adkins got very little out of those he inherited and even less out of most of his signings. He took over at a bad time but, with the benefit of hindsight (and a little foresight from a few on here that pointed to his record at Reading, and that doesn't include me) he's a fair weather manager. Good when the going's good but without the necessary talents to deal with difficult situations.

 

[Bladesman]

You're correct. He played him though...

True but getting rid of him early and sending him back would have still cost money.

Cheers for that one Mr Clough.

 

[Sean Thornton]

True but getting rid of him early and sending him back would have still cost money.

Cheers for that one Mr Clough.

Okay Nigel, but you still played him. Or rather put a kit on him and shoved him out of the tunnel. Still cost the same as keeping him in a skip.

 

[zablade]

I think this would indicate we really Have to get promotion this season if we want to keep the best players of the current squad, otherwise another fire sale looms in the summer.

No pressure.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Blades Leisure Ltd accounts filed today......

 

[LoughboroBlade]

True but Wilder also inherited some Clough signings. And has turned a couple of no marks under Adkins into regulars.....

Yes, though I suspect it's less challenging to turn a couple of no marks around in a completely reshaped team, than 10 in a team where there was little scope to bring in new blood. In that respect it may have been a good thing that we didn't appoint Wilder when we appointed Adkins, as he's not had to wait a year before he could really get the flexibility on recruitment. The expiry of so many contracts presented probably the best opportunity to reshape a squad than any manager in the time I've followed United. That's not to underplay Wilder's own ability here – to get so many new players to gel as quickly as he has done is an achievement in itself.

 

[Bladesman]

Okay Nigel, but you still played him. Or rather put a kit on him and shoved him out of the tunnel. Still cost the same as keeping him in a skip.

Clearly missing the point that either option of playing him or sending him back would cost us money. That is money that could have gone elsewhere had he not been signed.

We may have had the money to actually get Morsy.

 

[Grappler]

I referred to Cuvelier because he played a few games in the 352 in the latter part of the season. But you could substitute the name for Hammond, Reed or Coutts.

Cuvelier played ok at the weekend for Walsall, by the way, much stronger on the ball than our midfield 3 (i.e. never got knocked off, etc.)

 

[Sean Thornton]

Clearly missing the point that either option of playing him or sending him back would cost us money. That is money that could have gone elsewhere had he not been signed.

We may have had the money to actually get Morsy.

Not missed any point, as I said, playing him or not playing him cost the same, he continued to get game time despite being poor. Sadly, Adkins took on a look of Weir towards the end, despite his motivational crap throughout the season. Who thought it could be worse than Clough? Yet it was.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Yes, though I suspect it's less challenging to turn a couple of no marks around in a completely reshaped team, than 10 in a team where there was little scope to bring in new blood. In that respect it may have been a good thing that we didn't appoint Wilder when we appointed Adkins, as he's not had to wait a year before he could really get the flexibility on recruitment. The expiry of so many contracts presented probably the best opportunity to reshape a squad than any manager in the time I've followed United. That's not to underplay Wilder's own ability here – to get so many new players to gel as quickly as he has done is an achievement in itself.

Good points but NA couldn't even get his own signings firing. You'd have thought he could have had some effect on one or two.

 

[Bladesman]

Good points but NA couldn't even get his own signings firing. You'd have thought he could have had some effect on one or two.

Yeah that Billy Sharp is a bag of shite.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Yeah that Billy Sharp is a bag of shite.

Lol. APART from him. Obviously. Hammond was useless and Woolford hardly played a major part. Any real success stories with the rest of the squad?

I thought he was a good appointment. Turns out I was wrong.

 

[pommpey]

Lol. APART from him. Obviously. Hammond was useless and Woolford hardly played a major part. Any real success stories with the rest of the squad?

I thought he was a good appointment. Turns out I was wrong.

Thing is, Sean, everyone gets all chubby about 'the new manager'. It all goes the same way:

1. Please make it happen McCabe
2. Yay! Fucking quality! The Blades are going up!
3. Why are we not signing any fucker?
4. Shit start to season. Stay positive.
5. Fuck me. 0-3 to Fleetwood at home in front of 19k
6. Clueless. Fuck's sake. Playoffs, maybe
7. JTW, maybe?
8. Fuck's sake 0-1 to Shrewsbury.
9. Hurray! JTW!
10. What? We've sold our only two good players?
11. "There was nothing we could do. We tore up their contracts and packed their bags. How much? Oh, erm ... look at that plane!"
12. Fuck's sake 1-4 to some other shit team and fourteenth
13. Playoffs - no way
14. Two late signings. One 36 year old midfielder OOC and a full back from Boston Utd. On loan.
15. Late burst. Might make playoffs with snookers.
16. Fail to make playoffs. Finish eigth.
17. Sacked
18. See 1.

There's nothing about McCabe's appointments which has had me enthused since ... possibly Blackwell. Wilson? Series of failures and sackings. Weir? Unproven. Adkins? Too weak for this club. Clough? Needs loads of money or self destructs. Speed? Unproven. Adams? Not a fucking chance. Ever. Even Wilder, I had my reservations. Glad to be proven wrong, but to me its little more than serendipity. Good manager brings available players in for right price and the only non luck bit is that they seem to be playing the way he wants them to. I don't think Wilder would have had the same outcome with last season's team, or the year before for that matter. They'd have been all over the shop.

pommpey

 

[Bartyblade]

Bloody Hell - ANOTHER font of all knowledge within our midst!
Are you Pinchy's long lost brother?

 

[South Bucks]

Hmmm, accounts showing a 10 million loss and 9 million worth of new shares (presumably bought by the owners) told me all I needed to know and that the owners are kindly baling us out even more than previous years. They've probably saved us from a worse fate at the hands of asset strippers or chicken farmers etc. That huge wage bill and huge numbers on the payroll continue to amaze me. Quantity not quality ?

Just in respect of Madkins, at the time of his appointment I was mildly in favour, he seemed to have a decent record, but I knew a Reading season ticket holder so asked him for a view. This was a bloke I'd known for a decade and trusted and he said Madkins was useless and they were glad to get rid of him, totally clueless. I asked if there were other circumstances which might excuse him and the answer was no.

Hence it does make me wonder sometimes if our lack of success might not be directly due to our owners but more down to the suits they employ beneath them to do due diligence and to check up on stuff. True, the owners appoint these suits in the first place but we can't expect busy owners to do all the checking themselves and maybe this is where the real problem lies in the suitability of some of these suits. Just hypothesising like.

 

[Woodwardfan]

Let’s not forget that the year before, we will only have been paying the wages of Brayford, Done, Coutts, Freeman etc. for the last 5 months or so. The most recent year includes their wages for a full year. Sharp will be a big earner too. I agree we will have paid far too much for Sammon and Hammond for what they produced though. Then there’s people like Baxter who we will have paid whilst they were not contributing. Higdon, Collins etc. were only moved on during the 2nd half of the season so we won’t have seen the full benefit of that yet either. I suspect the wages for the next year will be lower after the mass contract expiry in the summer.

Agree wage bill will be lower and that will be so unless we 'go mad' this JTW ( 2 excellent signings already). Backs up the point that Wilder is performing on a reduced budget as compared to Clough and Adkins and so far producing far better results. Fingers crossed for the future.

Congratulations to those who calculated the £6m wage bill months and months ago and also thanks to our 'resident expert' Sean who has kept us informed over the years on the details and facts.

Reading many of the posts on this thread shows just how little so many posters actually know about the financials and believe me, if it wasn't for Sean and a few others so many would listen to the Pommpeys of this world and actually believe them. A lot of young fans didn't live through the history often referred to and they just hear the rhetoric. That rhetoric sounds hollow this season thank goodness but in the bad times there were 5 or 6 very loud voices on here and it was damaging morale big time.

 

[Woodwardfan]

Yes, though I suspect it's less challenging to turn a couple of no marks around in a completely reshaped team, than 10 in a team where there was little scope to bring in new blood. In that respect it may have been a good thing that we didn't appoint Wilder when we appointed Adkins, as he's not had to wait a year before he could really get the flexibility on recruitment. The expiry of so many contracts presented probably the best opportunity to reshape a squad than any manager in the time I've followed United. That's not to underplay Wilder's own ability here – to get so many new players to gel as quickly as he has done is an achievement in itself.

Good point but he did spend a lot of money on poor signings and left key positions weak. No excuse for that.

 

[I should coco]

There's nothing about McCabe's appointments which has had me enthused since ... possibly Blackwell. Wilson? Series of failures and sackings. Weir? Unproven. Adkins? Too weak for this club. Clough? Needs loads of money or self destructs. Speed? Unproven. Adams? Not a fucking chance. Ever. Even Wilder, I had my reservations

So presumably you'd have only wanted SAF or Wenger to fill any of our recent vacancies?

Get real man! We were never a top draw pull and some of those managers were the best we could expect or even hope for (Adkins/Clough).

Speed/Weir were brave and forward thinking appointments that sadly failed. Would you have wanted the usual out of work names of Megson/Jones/Royle etc etc?

McCabe's single BIGGEST mistake was Mogadon Man and allowing him to give £1m per year deals to shite like Naysmith, Hendire and over the hill 'greats' like Speed & Ehiogu. He cost us multi millions and is a very major reason why we are where we are now. He then allowed Blackwell to wast a few more million (Henderson FFS) and that has left us in the shit.

 

[Kenilworth]

In Adkins’ defence, he was extremely hamstrung by what he inherited. He had no control of the retained list as Clough did this before he left. He had no means of dumping 12 players on arrival the way Wilder was able to. We can’t really know how he would have done if he’d had the freedom to operate in the circumstances Wilder has had nor can we know how Wilder would have coped with the circumstances Adkins inherited. What we do know is that Adkins failed in his objective with the hand he was dealt. He was also a very eccentric character who seemed to constantly get under the skins of a large section of our support. If you chuck JOC, Fleck and Duffy into Adkins’ 352 team in place of McEveley, Cuvelier and Flynn I reckon it would have done pretty well. Who knows whether Adkins would have made that calibre of signings though?

Yet he made McEveley captain FFS!
I knew then that he was a busted flush - Ken Jnr and I discussed it at the time.
Then came the corporate motivational bollox
There was no surprise that Hammond turned out to be a complete waste of space if the man's judgement was based on thinking that McEv was leadership material

 

[Douglas Jardine]

Thing is, Sean, everyone gets all chubby about 'the new manager'. It all goes the same way:

1. Please make it happen McCabe
2. Yay! Fucking quality! The Blades are going up!
3. Why are we not signing any fucker?
4. Shit start to season. Stay positive.
5. Fuck me. 0-3 to Fleetwood at home in front of 19k
6. Clueless. Fuck's sake. Playoffs, maybe
7. JTW, maybe?
8. Fuck's sake 0-1 to Shrewsbury.
9. Hurray! JTW!
10. What? We've sold our only two good players?
11. "There was nothing we could do. We tore up their contracts and packed their bags. How much? Oh, erm ... look at that plane!"
12. Fuck's sake 1-4 to some other shit team and fourteenth
13. Playoffs - no way
14. Two late signings. One 36 year old midfielder OOC and a full back from Boston Utd. On loan.
15. Late burst. Might make playoffs with snookers.
16. Fail to make playoffs. Finish eigth.
17. Sacked
18. See 1.

There's nothing about McCabe's appointments which has had me enthused since ... possibly Blackwell. Wilson? Series of failures and sackings. Weir? Unproven. Adkins? Too weak for this club. Clough? Needs loads of money or self destructs. Speed? Unproven. Adams? Not a fucking chance. Ever. Even Wilder, I had my reservations. Glad to be proven wrong, but to me its little more than serendipity. Good manager brings available players in for right price and the only non luck bit is that they seem to be playing the way he wants them to. I don't think Wilder would have had the same outcome with last season's team, or the year before for that matter. They'd have been all over the shop.

pommpey

Well said Captain,I'm sure this lot are all unaware of the points you make,,not me though,fuck this club whilst ever McCabe is in charge

ps. you forgot to mention you left Sheffield in 1979,that always ensures you win any internet argument

Right hand down a bit

Douglas Iron Duke Jardine

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Good point but he did spend a lot of money on poor signings and left key positions weak. No excuse for that.

Adkins in retrospect completely underestimated the situation in my opinion. He probably thought that given the difficulty to move a lot of the squad on, the squad just needed a little fine-tuning (quality striker, better central defender, adjustment in playing style for the existing team, including one or two players from the academy) when what was needed was wholescale change – tough as that was to implement given:
– little interest in our unwanted garbage
– the wages that potentially sellable players were on
– the imbalance of the squad based on previously questionable recruitment

There's no doubt that Sharp aside his recruitment was a disappointment. But realistically, if you swapped Morsy in for Hammond, and added a proper central defender, you'd have still been left with the overall systemic problems that really couldn't have been properly remedied till the following summer.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Yet he made McEveley captain FFS!
I knew then that he was a busted flush - Ken Jnr and I discussed it at the time.
Then came the corporate motivational bollox
There was no surprise that Hammond turned out to be a complete waste of space if the man's judgement was based on thinking that McEv was leadership material

I think we all despaired somewhat at that decision. But managers make decisions for all sorts of reasons that we fans often don't see. Warnock at QPR for example made his most petulant, irresponsible player (Taarabt) captain, then spoke to his "real captains" (Derry, Kenny, Hill) to explain the decision and get them on board. It was because he felt it would bring out the best in Taarabt. I'd assumed Adkins had some sort of similar process with McEveley (his confidence was shattered at the time, perhaps trying to build him back up).

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Yes, though I suspect it's less challenging to turn a couple of no marks around in a completely reshaped team, than 10 in a team where there was little scope to bring in new blood. In that respect it may have been a good thing that we didn't appoint Wilder when we appointed Adkins, as he's not had to wait a year before he could really get the flexibility on recruitment. The expiry of so many contracts presented probably the best opportunity to reshape a squad than any manager in the time I've followed United. That's not to underplay Wilder's own ability here – to get so many new players to gel as quickly as he has done is an achievement in itself.

I agree with this. Those that refer to Adkins as our worst ever manager show a clear lack of appreciation for the difficulty of the circumstances he inherited and focus too much on his ridiculous interview manner.


Last season was going to be very difficult whoever we appointed given how much of the budget was already committed to a pretty poor squad where the only real quality were Murphy (sold) and Brayford (injured). In the circumstances, the best person for the job last season was Clough as even though the squad were shit, they were his shit, brought in to play the way he wanted.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Not missed any point, as I said, playing him or not playing him cost the same, he continued to get game time despite being poor. Sadly, Adkins took on a look of Weir towards the end, despite his motivational crap throughout the season. Who thought it could be worse than Clough? Yet it was.

But with the benefit of hindsight, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it was worse than Clough. Clough had a whole summer to build his own squad. He had the inherited quality of Jamie Murphy. He was able to spend £1.5million plus on a player mid season as well as bringing in another 3 permanent signings in that window.


Adkins lost Murphy and Brayford, was only able to bring in 2 permanent signings plus a few loans (which Clough also had in O Grady, McCarthy, Holt, Davies). He had a dressing room that didn’t seem to buy into his methods and little room to change the personnel. I think it was just a bad fit for the time (like Bassett at Watford). Let’s not forget, we hammer Adkins over Hammond but Bassett brought Downes, Warnock brought D’Jaffo & Bullock, Clough brought McEveley and tried for Barker. Plenty of managers bring players in where the fans see little value in the player. It is presumably for their personalities in the dressing room, to try to foster a certain culture.


Adkins didn’t make the best of what he had but his circumstances were infinitely more trying than Cloughs.


To paraphrase Woodwardfan, Clough had a full year and got “things as he likes them”, Adkins didn’t and as such, can’t really judge him fairly. I agree though that towards the end, he seemed to have a Weiresque defeatedness about him. Whether he could have overcome that with a summer clear-out, who knows?


Thankfully, Wilder has done and absolutely fantastic job this season so it’s not too much of a concern for us.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Good points but NA couldn't even get his own signings firing. You'd have thought he could have had some effect on one or two.

Sharp?
Baptiste?


Edgar was so-so.

Hammond was poor but we still tended to do better when he played than when he didn’t


Woolford was crap.


I don’t think anyone will argue that Adkins did a particularly good job last season. I would argue that he did a similarly poor job to what most other managers would have done in the difficult circumstances inherited. If he spoke to the press like Chris Wilder does, the fans might have been more patient with him and allowed him a fair crack at getting us up but hey ho, at least we’ve “dropped on” following his sacking.

 

[Sean Thornton]

But with the benefit of hindsight, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it was worse than Clough. Clough had a whole summer to build his own squad. He had the inherited quality of Jamie Murphy. He was able to spend £1.5million plus on a player mid season as well as bringing in another 3 permanent signings in that window.


Adkins lost Murphy and Brayford, was only able to bring in 2 permanent signings plus a few loans (which Clough also had in O Grady, McCarthy, Holt, Davies). He had a dressing room that didn’t seem to buy into his methods and little room to change the personnel. I think it was just a bad fit for the time (like Bassett at Watford). Let’s not forget, we hammer Adkins over Hammond but Bassett brought Downes, Warnock brought D’Jaffo & Bullock, Clough brought McEveley and tried for Barker. Plenty of managers bring players in where the fans see little value in the player. It is presumably for their personalities in the dressing room, to try to foster a certain culture.


Adkins didn’t make the best of what he had but his circumstances were infinitely more trying than Cloughs.


To paraphrase Woodwardfan, Clough had a full year and got “things as he likes them”, Adkins didn’t and as such, can’t really judge him fairly. I agree though that towards the end, he seemed to have a Weiresque defeatedness about him. Whether he could have overcome that with a summer clear-out, who knows?


Thankfully, Wilder has done and absolutely fantastic job this season so it’s not too much of a concern for us.

Look what Clough did with what he inherited in his first season.

Despite most of us thinking he was a good choice as manager , he more or less demotivated the side. I hear of cliques in the dressing room when he was here but he didn't sort it. In comparison to the short time Wilder has been here, Adkins was an abject failure.

He defended Hammond week in week out, despite his legs having gone. Unseen work etc. we went from a stubborn man in Clough to some waffle merchant quoting management guru books whilst it seemed some players did what they wanted while he went on about geese. There was virtually no team spirit on the pitch and he never got to grips with it. Now we have Wilder with a much less impressive cv who's shaken things up at all levels.

For me Adkins tenure is up there with the worst. The wrong fit argument doesn't work for me. When the crunch came, he wasn't up to it.

 

[Bayingblade]

Thing is, Sean, everyone gets all chubby about 'the new manager'. It all goes the same way:

1. Please make it happen McCabe
2. Yay! Fucking quality! The Blades are going up!
3. Why are we not signing any fucker?
4. Shit start to season. Stay positive.
5. Fuck me. 0-3 to Fleetwood at home in front of 19k
6. Clueless. Fuck's sake. Playoffs, maybe
7. JTW, maybe?
8. Fuck's sake 0-1 to Shrewsbury.
9. Hurray! JTW!
10. What? We've sold our only two good players?
11. "There was nothing we could do. We tore up their contracts and packed their bags. How much? Oh, erm ... look at that plane!"
12. Fuck's sake 1-4 to some other shit team and fourteenth
13. Playoffs - no way
14. Two late signings. One 36 year old midfielder OOC and a full back from Boston Utd. On loan.
15. Late burst. Might make playoffs with snookers.
16. Fail to make playoffs. Finish eigth.
17. Sacked
18. See 1.

There's nothing about McCabe's appointments which has had me enthused since ... possibly Blackwell. Wilson? Series of failures and sackings. Weir? Unproven. Adkins? Too weak for this club. Clough? Needs loads of money or self destructs. Speed? Unproven. Adams? Not a fucking chance. Ever. Even Wilder, I had my reservations. Glad to be proven wrong, but to me its little more than serendipity. Good manager brings available players in for right price and the only non luck bit is that they seem to be playing the way he wants them to. I don't think Wilder would have had the same outcome with last season's team, or the year before for that matter. They'd have been all over the shop.

pommpey

So who would your choices of manager been at the time we appointed the names you list? Also, who would you have appointed at the start of this season?

PS, isn't hindsight a wonderful thing?

 

[Sean Thornton]

I agree with this. Those that refer to Adkins as our worst ever manager show a clear lack of appreciation for the difficulty of the circumstances he inherited and focus too much on his ridiculous interview manner.


Last season was going to be very difficult whoever we appointed given how much of the budget was already committed to a pretty poor squad where the only real quality were Murphy (sold) and Brayford (injured). In the circumstances, the best person for the job last season was Clough as even though the squad were shit, they were his shit, brought in to play the way he wanted.

I've not said worst ever but he's up there. Look at the pile of shite Adams got. It wasn't so much the manner of his interviews but the utter bollocks he talked. In any event that's a side issue. He failed in getting the team to perform - despite the motivational bluster - because he was out of his depth. If he underestimated the size of the job that's down to him. He clearly failed as far as the dressing room was concerned as can be seen somewhat by Wilders successes there.