Nathan Hemmingham

[Champagneblade]

I don't mind this chap and his writing to be fair.

I would ask the question:
1. Is Nathan Hemmingham Chris Wilder's mom de plume?!
2. Are the coaching staff feeding a few under the table snippets to make sure the Board are engaged.

Take the latest article and there have been others of this nature.

United must back Wilder in January for Jack O'Connell replacement

The Blades failed to bring in cover for their star defender and manager Chris Wilder is having to look for a solution 'from within'

www.examinerlive.co.uk

If that didn't resonate with Chris, then I don't know what would. I'd be interested to see what articles come out as the next window approaches.

 

[knowsnowt]

It's fucking crazy.to say Chris hasn't been backed, I think we did the budget on the young striker he wanted? No one can say we didn't have a good window.
We arent in the position most other PL clubs are to dip into the pot again. The Prince isn't a billionaire!
I get we'll always be open to be fucked over by an injury but I'd rather see us go down and go with what we've got than put our future at risk blowing another overinflated transfer fee.

Ask your missus if she minds upgrading to a better model. of the car you have even though the one you have will get you to work perfectly well, but it'll put you in a potentially uncontrollable position, for heated seats.

Wank attention seeking journalism intended to stir.
Ffs.

 

[Champagneblade]

Love Chris and it would take a hell of a lot beyond relegation to contemplate him not being our manager.

We do need to see some return on investment in his PL buys.

Berge looking decent if he can maintain and build on current form.

Ramsdale looking better by the week.

But then the forward players on which we have lavished over 50m, there needs to be more from them now.

We will have 17.5m McBurnie alongside 20m Brewster. So let's hope we are not hearing much of 'they need more up front'. 40m is a lot to spend on a strike pair for any none top 6 team, Villa probably excluded. Plus 10m on Mousset and retaining 3 other senior forwards in McGoldrick, Sharp and Burke.

Time these lads start to repay the faith and finances shown in them. Too early to comment on Brewster but if we are talking about strikers still by Jan, then there has been a major failing in the recruitment process.

With Freeman, Lundstram, Fleck being injured, Osborn between positions now and doubts on Norwood's defensive capacity, I think midfield is the next thing to revisit after we've had a good look at how the LCB position has progressed. At the moment Enda is the obvious choice to keep the attacking play of the system but that does rely on him being defensively competent and there have been a few instances where he has let himself down this season. He needs to lift his game again.

 

[Kev Gee]

Is Wilders and the recruitment teams (mainly) buy British policy getting us value for money?
Could we have got more quality and more evenly distributed fees from buying abroad?

 

[bongleblade]

what i cant fathom, is our change in transfer policy, yes we are PL but it doesnt mean we cannot buy L1/L2 players and bring them through to 1st team, although the method of doing this mightve changed, for example via loans to championship clubs.

At the End of the day our budget is still small relatively, it always has been since getting out of L1, so why are we not going for these kind of players, as well as players who can push the 1st team slots more immediately.

this is the big thing I would change with our recruitment, end of the day if we sign someone like Woolfenden this window, or Toney last year for example, and then loan them back out to championship for the season, we might have a decent first teamer coming through the next year, hell we might even make a profit on a player!

Bogle/Lowe were a step in the right direction, but we could buy 3-4 L1 players for the money paid for those lads

i.e. Lets spread our bets a bit... seems our transfer policy has changed to buying £££ players at a premium to immediately plug gaps, but the big problem is that they have been high roller gambles (£20m+) with a smaller chance of profit in future

 

[LondonBlade89]

Love Chris and it would take a hell of a lot beyond relegation to contemplate him not being our manager.

We do need to see some return on investment in his PL buys.

Berge looking decent if he can maintain and build on current form.

Ramsdale looking better by the week.

But then the forward players on which we have lavished over 50m, there needs to be more from them now.

We will have 17.5m McBurnie alongside 20m Brewster. So let's hope we are not hearing much of 'they need more up front'. 40m is a lot to spend on a strike pair for any none top 6 team, Villa probably excluded. Plus 10m on Mousset and retaining 3 other senior forwards in McGoldrick, Sharp and Burke.

Time these lads start to repay the faith and finances shown in them. Too early to comment on Brewster but if we are talking about strikers still by Jan, then there has been a major failing in the recruitment process.

With Freeman, Lundstram, Fleck being injured, Osborn between positions now and doubts on Norwood's defensive capacity, I think midfield is the next thing to revisit after we've had a good look at how the LCB position has progressed. At the moment Enda is the obvious choice to keep the attacking play of the system but that does rely on him being defensively competent and there have been a few instances where he has let himself down this season. He needs to lift his game again.

I generally agree with your overall comment but disagree with this part in bold.

A selection of forward signings by non big six clubs:
Leeds signed Rodrigo for £29 million (+ a further decent chunk on attacking midfielders / wingers).
Brighton signed Maupay for £20 million and Jahanbakhsh for £17 million.
Newcastle signed Callum Wilson for £20 million and Joelinton for £39 million.
West Ham signed Haller for £45 million.
Everton signed Richarlison for £35 million.
Leicester signed Iheanacho for £25 million and Ayoze Perez for £30 million.
Palace signed Christian Benteke for £28 million (!!).

Our spending might by high by Sheff Utd standards, and I think it's fair to say that Wilder has indeed received decent backing, but by Premier League standards our spending is pretty bang average. And that's not getting into wages, where we're still easily among the lower payers. I know spending £20m + on Brewster and McBurnie each seems pretty rich, but it's the going rate for a starting Premier League striker.

Yours truly,

Nathan Hemmingham

(OK the last part was a joke)

 

[Davalon]

The board have backed Wilder more than I expected tbh. The Prince's wealth is small fry compared to pretty much every other PL ownership.

We had to improve squad depth which we've done but injuries have still hampered us.

The bottom line, however, is that we're still short in the two key areas of football, scoring goals and stopping goals.

Unless that improves notably we're certainties for relegation. You can get away with one if the other is good, like last season, but no chance with both.

Like everyone I thought our performance at Anfield was better and I enjoyed it but the same problems remained. Conceded two disappointing goals and couldn't score from open play. Couldn't even hit the target on most occasions when creating something.

Losing JOC is obviously a huge blow. Brewster deserves time. Hopefully Fleck and Moose can come back and a similar influence to last season.

The one positive is that we're not getting turned over and with the rub of the green could have a few more points. Norwich often said the same last season though.

Unless we stop soft goals from crosses and start scoring more goals, staying up is a pipe dream.

 

[Yogi]

what i cant fathom, is our change in transfer policy, yes we are PL but it doesnt mean we cannot buy L1/L2 players and bring them through to 1st team, although the method of doing this mightve changed, for example via loans to championship clubs.

At the End of the day our budget is still small relatively, it always has been since getting out of L1, so why are we not going for these kind of players, as well as players who can push the 1st team slots more immediately.

this is the big thing I would change with our recruitment, end of the day if we sign someone like Woolfenden this window, or Toney last year for example, and then loan them back out to championship for the season, we might have a decent first teamer coming through the next year, hell we might even make a profit on a player!

Bogle/Lowe were a step in the right direction, but we could buy 3-4 L1 players for the money paid for those lads

i.e. Lets spread our bets a bit... seems our transfer policy has changed to buying £££ players at a premium to immediately plug gaps, but the big problem is that they have been high roller gambles (£20m+) with a smaller chance of profit in future

Agreed there are bargains out there but probably not as many as you think league 1 teams are starting to charge top top dollar now just look at Toney and what we were quoted for woolfenden last year by Ipswich. We’d do well to get better players for better value than Bogle and Lowe anywhere in the English game that was probably our most cost effective bit of business this summer.

 

[ChipButtyBlade]

I do hope we sign a combative switched on JOC replacement in Jan,the two players we have tried as his replacement are not the answer,sadly.

If Stevens plays there in further games,he will definately be targeted,Chris Wood will love to be matched up against him,as would Andy Carrol for (15mins),Nathan Ake will be a big danger against Man City at corners and set pieces.

We had better start scoring goals asap to take the big pressure off the defence.

 

[CoatesyBlade]

what i cant fathom, is our change in transfer policy, yes we are PL but it doesnt mean we cannot buy L1/L2 players and bring them through to 1st team, although the method of doing this mightve changed, for example via loans to championship clubs.

At the End of the day our budget is still small relatively, it always has been since getting out of L1, so why are we not going for these kind of players, as well as players who can push the 1st team slots more immediately.

this is the big thing I would change with our recruitment, end of the day if we sign someone like Woolfenden this window, or Toney last year for example, and then loan them back out to championship for the season, we might have a decent first teamer coming through the next year, hell we might even make a profit on a player!

Bogle/Lowe were a step in the right direction, but we could buy 3-4 L1 players for the money paid for those lads

i.e. Lets spread our bets a bit... seems our transfer policy has changed to buying £££ players at a premium to immediately plug gaps, but the big problem is that they have been high roller gambles (£20m+) with a smaller chance of profit in future

We don’t fish in that pond anymore... that’s not to say if there’s a wonder kid out there we shouldn’t snap him up... what I mean is the goal is PL survival!
What difference does it make if we turn a small profit by selling some lad we’ve developed when you earn 100+ mil for being in the division.
Our recruitment team look for players that can both do the job in the ‘here and now’ and for many years to come.

I do think we need to look abroad though for this type of player. I’m convinced if Berge was English he’d have been snapped up by the likes of Chelsea at an early age and would’ve been on a ridiculous wage by now... and therefore well out of our reach!

 

[Addison]

Its hard to tell whether NH is speculating or has picked up on vibes from CW that he was not happy that we didn't get a replacement for JOC. What is clear is that it was a significant error in not getting someone in based on results so far.

There is no doubting CW has been backed well by the Board in the transfer window but as others have said it is still on a small scale compared to the majority of the league and we are bottom of the table when it comes to financial clout.

CW's previous comments that there was an expectation that spending would be affected by the pandemic illustrates a naivety on the part of the Board. They are competing with billionaires who are determined that their team will prosper in the league and in some cases will do everything to avoid relegation so money is spent whatever the cost.

The Prince has done well up to now to and ridden on the back of CW's success. He now has to deal with the first blip and it is essential he takes effective action to support the manager which has to include providing further funds in the JTW. Finding the extra monies should be his number one priority now rather than hoping it will all turnaround over the next few weeks. NH is right that CW needs to know what he has to spend and be looking and actively pursuing targets now so that they come in at the beginning of the window not scratching around at the end. There will be 22 games still to play at the start of the JTW.

We have been told there is a separate JTW budget but there is a fear a lot of that has gone on Brewster already. There has to be contingencies built into the budget to allow for losing key players for the season bearing in mind we are still novices in this league and financial constraints are such that back up players are exactly that not like for like replacements. If we lost Egan for the season in the next few weeks for example are the Board seriously asking CW to make do with what he has got?

There is an counter argument on the Boards part to suggest that recruitment has not been value for money with some players but the over riding target has to be to survive in the EPL this season, that can be considered at the end should we get over the line. One area that requires an urgent review has to be better use of the overseas market as we are currently paying well over the odds in the UK.

 

[CaptainMorgans]

I generally agree with your overall comment but disagree with this part in bold.

A selection of forward signings by non big six clubs:
Leeds signed Rodrigo for £29 million (+ a further decent chunk on attacking midfielders / wingers).
Brighton signed Maupay for £20 million and Jahanbakhsh for £17 million.
Newcastle signed Callum Wilson for £20 million and Joelinton for £39 million.
West Ham signed Haller for £45 million.
Everton signed Richarlison for £35 million.
Leicester signed Iheanacho for £25 million and Ayoze Perez for £30 million.
Palace signed Christian Benteke for £28 million (!!).

Our spending might by high by Sheff Utd standards, and I think it's fair to say that Wilder has indeed received decent backing, but by Premier League standards our spending is pretty bang average. And that's not getting into wages, where we're still easily among the lower payers. I know spending £20m + on Brewster and McBurnie each seems pretty rich, but it's the going rate for a starting Premier League striker.

Yours truly,

Nathan Hemmingham

(OK the last part was a joke)

I think your argument contradicts slightly. We've spent bang average sums on strikers relative to the league, but we aren't getting bang average results out of our strikeforce.
The output is way below par.

So I think Champagneblade 's point stands really. Wilder does need to getting far more of a tune out of those players he's brought in at the top of the field.

 

[Deaneandagana]

Its hard to tell whether NH is speculating or has picked up on vibes from CW that he was not happy that we didn't get a replacement for JOC. What is clear is that it was a significant error in not getting someone in based on results so far.

There is no doubting CW has been backed well by the Board in the transfer window but as others have said it is still on a small scale compared to the majority of the league and we are bottom of the table when it comes to financial clout.

CW's previous comments that there was an expectation that spending would be affected by the pandemic illustrates a naivety on the part of the Board. They are competing with billionaires who are determined that their team will prosper in the league and in some cases will do everything to avoid relegation so money is spent whatever the cost.

The Prince has done well up to now to and ridden on the back of CW's success. He now has to deal with the first blip and it is essential he takes effective action to support the manager which has to include providing further funds in the JTW. Finding the extra monies should be his number one priority now rather than hoping it will all turnaround over the next few weeks. NH is right that CW needs to know what he has to spend and be looking and actively pursuing targets now so that they come in at the beginning of the window not scratching around at the end. There will be 22 games still to play at the start of the JTW.

We have been told there is a separate JTW budget but there is a fear a lot of that has gone on Brewster already. There has to be contingencies built into the budget to allow for losing key players for the season bearing in mind we are still novices in this league and financial constraints are such that back up players are exactly that not like for like replacements. If we lost Egan for the season in the next few weeks for example are the Board seriously asking CW to make do with what he has got?

There is an counter argument on the Boards part to suggest that recruitment has not been value for money with some players but the over riding target has to be to survive in the EPL this season, that can be considered at the end should we get over the line. One area that requires an urgent review has to be better use of the overseas market as we are currently paying well over the odds in the UK.

Some valid points raised here, particularly the last paragraph - asking a question here that I don’t know the answer, but what is the makeup of our scouting team & scouting network?

Think it fair to say that our recruitment policy & its results have been mixed, as many hits as misses, is this a result of a lack of geographic penetration of our scouting network driven by the desire to recruit a generic profile of player?

Does our scouting team have a European contact network, I guess we do have something in place - Berger, but how extensive is this network, probably not as developed as it should be given we still have the option of an overseas loan.

 

[LondonBlade89]

I think your argument contradicts slightly. We've spent bang average sums on strikers relative to the league, but we aren't getting bang average results out of our strikeforce.
The output is way below par.

So I think Champagneblade 's point stands really. Wilder does need to getting far more of a tune out of those players he's brought in at the top of the field.

I said I generally agreed with Champagneblade's overall point but objected to the line that £40m is a lot to spend on a strike pair for a non top six team. My point is it's not. It's actually pretty average.

 

[Athens Blade]

Is Wilders and the recruitment teams (mainly) buy British policy getting us value for money?
Could we have got more quality and more evenly distributed fees from buying abroad?

After Brexit happens we may well be seen to have made the right decisions. Thinking about work permit issues etc.

 

[blademark]

Whatever CW is given in January or next summer, I'm confident that the Prince will have done his best. He's that type of guy and he wants the best for us, just like Chris and the fans. Slightly more worrying, and with my tin hat firmly on, is CW's transfer record, and for me, the jury is still out on that one.

 

[itsinyerblood]

Quite clearly, not every one of Wilder's buys has been successful. I recall that even Alex Ferguson didn't always get it right in terms of who he bought in to Man Utd.

For a club our size, surely the criteria for what's regarded as successful is, are we progressing and moving forward. Considering what happened over a 4-year period, our progress has been exceptional by any standards. Certain players came and went pretty quickly, others stayed and proved to be top quality, isn't that the standard for all managers? Our loans have been generally good to decent, sometimes, in the case of Henderson, exceptional. A few were disappointing. The fact that we've gone from the bottom of Division 1 to the Premiership suggests that Wilder has got it right more often than he got things wrong.

The biggest issue for the Blades is who we can realistically hope to attract and for how much. We currently have two players that would bring in substantial fees, JOC and Berge. We did well to get the Norwegian lad, but after a period of readjustment he's now looking top draw. We have several good to decent players, but because of age the possibility of receiving a decent fee is slim. By all means ask questions of Wilder, but please bear in mind our size, who we're now competing against, and what our expectations should be in the immediate future.

 

[FriethBlade]

I think our transfer policy may have been hampered by what appears to be a strategy of only spending big on young players who could have an even bigger resale value.

Now I can understand that argument but it means we have 3 forwards who cost 50m but not one player in it who had scored in the top flight when signed (well moose may have but you get the point)

Loads of time for Brewster to come good but we are in the here and now and I wonder whether the likes of Callum Wilson would have made more sense in our predicament, especially knowing we already have one none prolific striker in McBurnie ?

 

[nopigfansintown]

United's spending is always wildly taken out of context. You can't just isolate seasons or fees/wages. Wilder had hardly any backing pre premier league so it's natural that we have holes in our squad over and above the usual promoted teams. So he wasn't backed for the first three years of his tenure, which impacts the current squad. A good example is the goalkeeper and right wing back position, which in truth have needed sorting since the promotion season. Hendo was on loan, and Freeman was never at the level after a bad injury in the first championship season. We've got by on stop gaps and luck with injuries. Any claims that "he's been backed" should take that into account, as well as our wage bill which is believed to be around half of Burnley's. Injuries have started biting this year which we could ill afford.

 

[stringer]

I wonder whether the likes of Callum Wilson would have made more sense in our predicament, especially knowing we already have one none prolific striker in McBurnie ?

Wilson was reportedly on £100k a week at Bournemouth.

 

[nopigfansintown]

I think our transfer policy may have been hampered by what appears to be a strategy of only spending big on young players who could have an even bigger resale value.

Now I can understand that argument but it means we have 3 forwards who cost 50m but not one player in it who had scored in the top flight when signed (well moose may have but you get the point)

Loads of time for Brewster to come good but we are in the here and now and I wonder whether the likes of Callum Wilson would have made more sense in our predicament, especially knowing we already have one none prolific striker in McBurnie ?

I think wages play a big part in that strategy and not signing the likes of Wilson. Our wage bill (according to the Prince) is 53m which is around half of Burnley's. We're simply not in the market for experienced names due to that imo.

 

[8lade]

but how extensive is this network, probably not as developed as it should be given we still have the option of an overseas loan.

Last year on that Alan Nixon show Paul Mitchell spoke of spending time in Argentina, I suspect that might have been a first trip over there whether it was to found a network or to just check the ley of the land but we are expanding.

 

[Yogi]

Last year on that Alan Nixon show Paul Mitchell spoke of spending time in Argentina, I suspect that might have been a first trip over there whether it was to found a network or to just check the ley of the land but we are expanding.

It seems we’ve made in roads in Norway this summer and obviously Belgium with our links but it’s not just as simple as hiring scouts the job is inherently subjective and based upon opinions of players and so any individual has to have the inherent trust of the current recruitment team that’s why it takes longer to establish these networks than just one season.