Video on sky sports football app - our owner talking about Wilder's departure

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

Bladezz said:
They have made him sign an agreement to not speak and then come out and slaughtered him!

This is meant to be a PL football club
Click to expand...
They all sign those agreements; players and management. You'll have to wait for his book to come out;" A walk on the Wilder sides". Even got his title for him.
 

I’m glad the prince has come out and and spoken, he comes across very well and one things for sure he knows the game and is extremely positive, I’ve got a lot of confidence and trust in the guy, as for Chris I’m sure we’ll get to hear his side, he definitely needed time out it sounds like he forced the boards hand, very disappointed at it ended like this but I’m more positive and confident about next season.
 
Bashamed said:
Because in my opinion he's resigned because he's not happy with the way the club is going. I think we should have tried virtually everything to keep him. That's how. Dont really care if you disagree I'm saying that's why I think he's chucked it away.
Click to expand...
So the prince should give wilder the keys , a company credit card and have no input ?

get real
 
Cassius Kray said:
If anyone can't watch the full interview here's a rough transcript:

General intro
Believes that replacing a manager is the most expensive thing a club can do. Even if the manager is only average you should avoid replacing them.
Generally believes that recruitment should be owned by the club, not the manager because the club has a longer term view. However, made an exception for Wilder.

Recognised Wilder's success at the club and did three things:
  • Offered him a new contract last year on very good terms (substantially more than £2.5m a year)(later on it's suggested it was almost £4m a year)
  • Contract had a £50m breakout clause if Wilder wanted to go to another club
  • Offered Wilder 1% ownership of 'United World' if he kept us in the PL for five years

Southampton
In December 'Steven' (presumably Bettis) told the Prince Wilder was thinking about resigning
Met Wilder in person before Soton game. Told him:
He wouldn't be fired regardless of results for the rest of the season, thought he was the best man to get us back up.
He wanted to speak at the end of the season about recruitment because it could have been done better.
Raised concern with some of Wilder's comments to the media ("I can't make cake out of sand" and "I only have Championship players to work with"). Concerned that these comments hurt the club's image with sponsors.
"I'm ok with Chris taking all the credit when we win, but please take some responsibility when we lose".
Also talked about January transfer window (detail about this later).
Felt the conversation with Wilder had gone well.

Palace
After Palace match 'Steven' calls Prince, says Wilder wants to leave again.
Felt disappointed about this.
Says he felt conflicted about having backed Wilder's transfer policy with its significant net outlays. "We recruited the way Chris wanted to recruit"
Didn't want to speak to Wilder at this time, the Vice-Chairman spoke to him instead on the phone.
Wilder explained why he wanted to resign - "There was no talk about a Director of Football, or a leaking roof at the training ground" - Wilder just felt the team needed change and a new voice (adds a bit later this was the sole reason - he hadn't been tapped up etc, just thought he'd done everything he could).
There was a conversation about compensation and it was made clear to Wilder the club didn't want to fire him and he wouldn't get the same compensation if he resigned.
Wilder's representatives then e-mailed asking for a £4m payoff.
Club made it clear they wouldn't pay £4m. Prince also wanted to delay on making a decision hoping results may improve/Wilder may change his mind. Also suggests that the club didn't have a plan for if Wilder were to resign because it was a shock.
Some other people on the board felt strongly that Wilder was abandoning the club.
Prince still hoped Wilder would stay. However he felt there had been a breach of trust, and was reflecting on whether if he could risk backing Wilder significantly in the summer if he might just turn around and threaten to quit again.
"I don't blame him from resigning.. I'm sure the pressure is not easy"

Wages
"I would never accuse Chris of leaking things to the media. He is a person of integrity. Maybe some of the people around him..."
Wages: "We have players above £40k, around £50k"
Besic, Ampadu, Brewster, Ramsdale, Mousset all got either the same wage or an increase from their previous PL salary. None of them are the highest paid player.

Transfers
Feels that Brewster and Ramsdale will turn out to be very good signings, but worried that we needed more plays with an immediate impact.
Says the board suggested some 'reasonably valued' players who are having great seasons in the PL/Germany, that were not signed.
Felt the transfer strategy was limited in terms of target market.
Wanted Wilder in the future to suggest options rather than demand a single player - justifies this saying this puts you in a weaker negotiating position.
Wasn't happy Wilder talked about Brewster before we signed him.
"When it comes to recruitment it can't be my way or the highway every time"
"Chris did wonderful things for the club, but when it comes to recruitment we have to be more flexible".

January Transfer Window
"How could I sign players when I didn't know if the coach would be there in a few weeks?"
Felt we had a very poor January window last year (for those not keeping track we signed Rodwell, Robinson and Berge)
Felt there was very little chance we would stay up, so buying players wasn't necessarily wise.
Wilder was asking for a defensive midfielder, Prince felt what was needed was someone who could create chances.

Wilder leaving
Shortly before he left Wilder requested a meeting with the board.
Three zoom video calls were scheduled.
"We told him we wanted him to be the coach next year. But we told him some of the things we did not like". "I thought the call went very well".
After that Wilder's agent said he didn't want to participate in the subsequent meetings. "I was shocked".
Wilder turned up to the second meeting, said he didn't want to talk and would send a letter outlining the things he was unhappy about.
(There's a bit here where it seems the Prince is going to go into detail about what he felt were unreasonable demands, but he pulls back and instead says he has great respect and gratitude for Wilder).
This letter included things like the complaint about the leaking roof.
Price says it's ridiculous to suggest these were things that weren't going to be resolved, suggests Covid and short pre-season were behind some delays.
Seems clear Prince felt the letter & Wilder's approach at this time was very disrespectful.
After this communication broke down.
"We replied to Chris' letter with a letter. I think Chris didn't like the tone of the letter"
Wilder then insisted on resigning again and the board felt it was in the best interests of the club due to the breakdown in the relationship.

What happens next?
Priority to get back to the PL.
All options are open
"Will look at how we end the season"
Expect to sign someone who will be involved in recruitment "but we have to learn from our mistakes"
Some players have minimum fee release clauses in their contracts
"If we sell a player we'll bring in a replacement" but looking to keep the core team
Click to expand...
£15 Million buy out mate. Unless I massively misheard.
 
Working Class Hero said:
That interview doesn't address the issue of why Wilder wanted to walk away in the first place. Are we supposed to believe he just changed his mind about being Sheffield United manager one night?

Prince Abdullah also states that he wants the board to make the signings, based on a shortlist of players provided by the manager. Maybe this is one of the reasons? Even if it's not, is that the type of situation that any manager would be OK with?

I doubt we'll ever get Wilder's side of the story, but I don't think anyone can blame either party unless we do.
Click to expand...

Since writing this I've now watched the full interview. Although I still think we need to hear Wilder's side of the story, the Prince does actually go in to great detail (far more than you'd expect a Premier League chairman to do), and a lot is cleared up. It makes sense and does paint a picture, without ever slagging Wilder off.
 
I'm not impressed with either the interview or the way it's been done. If the Prince/board wanted to set a few things straight they could have released well worded statements through their own outlet. This seems to be a reply to social media, it could be a rant from Facebook Karen.

I don't know whether there is just enough truth in it to be believable, or a lot of truth in it just from a certain perspective, but it will obviously be lapped up by those who already support the Prince in this.
A lot of it simply doesn't ring true though. First of all, let's be clear, this is a seasoned and wealthy businessman who's been in the game a long time - and successful with it. There's nothing naive coming from him and I'd be cautious about believing he's being honest and open. I always keep in mind the ownership wrangle and the court case. He was devious and manipulative and was judged to have been wrong in the trial - where a lot of dodgy carry on was exposed. He was fortunate in that McCabe was more stupid than he was devious and that won him the club, but let's not imagine he's some straight-talking up front guy.

The £4 has been eagerly jumped on. Firstly, it appears it was Wilder's agent who started that one rolling and was probably only an opening position. I didn't know he had one and detest their presence in the game, but at the end of the day it's their job to try for these things. Then the Prince says he wasn't going to pay him it if he resigns, yet we are all still of the opinion that he's been paid off - and with a NDA. So if he did pay him off, how does that sit with the Prince saying you don't get a pay off if you resign? Did he not resign - well then how does that sit with the Prince saying he did?

He is contradictory about the board's involvolvement in recruitment. There is no DoF, no plans for a DoF, but the board are doing essentially what a DoF are doing, except Wilder wouldn't agree to take the players. They were all great players with reasonable costs who are now doing well, but Wilder wasn't interested. Yeah, that plays into certain accusations on social media but doesn't sound right to me. Wilder was in sole charge, yet Wilder himself says Brewster was agreed by everyone and the Prince thinks he's a foundation player for the future. So just all the others then, Brewster's signing followed a different pattern?

Now it appears there is no wage structure, never was. Wages isn't a problem and we pay high wages. And Wilder had a huge amount of money available to him and was in sole charge of who he brought in. So in fact there is practically no reason we couldn't get whoever Wilder wanted to get. (Unless it was in January, of course). Again, this doesn't ring true. All the players we missed out on were because of completely different reasons? Which we didn't hear about and somehow kept hearing that it was financial? Does anyone really believe that?

And as a general, overall picture, Wilder wasn't leaving because he was unhappy with anything apart from his own performances. Right, because that's the general noises Wilder has been making for the last few months. What do people have to say who've been accusing Wilder of never shouldering blame? If this is really true, I would have expected Wilder to have made completely different comments in the lead up to his departure, including a "I'd like to thank the board" moment. But no, nothing, even though he had everything his own way, money to spend aplenty and wasn't unhappy with any of the things currently going around social media.

In fact it was the board who were unhappy with him. They said so in the video conference that was supposed to keep him at the club, which "went well" and then they couldn't understand why Wilder didn't want another conference. Yeah, that all adds up.

That's all just my first impressions on a first listen off the top of my head. As I've said before, I don't think Wilder is completely blameless in his own departure and could have stayed if he'd really wanted to, but to take this video interview at face value and believe everything is itself naive. I don't necessarily think the Prince is deliberately lying, but at best it is a very one sided way of looking at things and at worst it's manipulative and full of half-truths.
 
JayGreen17 said:
Also his comments about needing attacking midfielders..very telling.
Click to expand...

That stood out for me. It seems pretty much everyone could see that apart from the manager, who inexplicably wanted defensive midfielders in January, which is part of the reason we didn't sign anyone.
 
He could be telling 100% the truth, but still my estimations of this bloke has plummeted. The professional thing to do is to pay tribute to the manager that brought millions upon millions into the football club through performance alone. There is absolutely no reason to come out and throw allegations when it’s abundantly clear Wilder can’t respond at risk of breaching any agreement. It’s the slimy thing to do. Couldn’t care less whether it’s true or not, both parties have left us in the mud. I have absolutely zero confidence we’ll be pushing for promotion next season.
 

Bashamed said:
Because in my opinion he's resigned because he's not happy with the way the club is going. I think we should have tried virtually everything to keep him. That's how. Dont really care if you disagree I'm saying that's why I think he's chucked it away.
Click to expand...
So what you're saying is that the Prince should have done "whatever it takes" to keep Wilder?

Wilder is was an employee of the business, nothing more, nothing less.

In all my years of banking experience I never saw a business where one employee was so important that the whole business had to be tailored to his/her specific requirements.

Talk about the tail wagging the dog.
 
Bashamed said:
Are we really outraged he wanted a pay off? He got us £200m plus in Premier league tv money. Not sure why people begrudge him that.
Click to expand...
Well considering thousands of people are loosing their jobs and businesses closing down due to the virus I'm sure a great number of people would begrudge another over paid football manager getting an obscene pay out. Not surprising though Wilder has backed the greedy, inconsiderate and disloyal "I think I'm a superstar" Lundstrum all season looks like 2 from the same mould. Typical football play shite manage shite get a big pay off move on to the next money pit.
 
Bashamed said:
Because in my opinion he's resigned because he's not happy with the way the club is going. I think we should have tried virtually everything to keep him. That's how. Dont really care if you disagree I'm saying that's why I think he's chucked it away.
Click to expand...
It took him three efforts to resign. Do you not think that suggests the club made significant efforts to persuade him to stay?
 
Bashamed said:
Ye thats what I said
Click to expand...
You did say he should be given everything he wants in order to keep him including full control with no additional governance.
You also said you hate the club and the board without understanding what really went off, or even having a view from their side.

I put it down to you being a bit overly emotional about it all, but you don't seem to offer the same allowance to those who feel that Chris let them down.
 
Working Class Hero said:
That interview doesn't address the issue of why Wilder wanted to walk away in the first place. Are we supposed to believe he just changed his mind about being Sheffield United manager one night?

Prince Abdullah also states that he wants the board to make the signings, based on a shortlist of players provided by the manager. Maybe this is one of the reasons? Even if it's not, is that the type of situation that any manager would be OK with?

I doubt we'll ever get Wilder's side of the story, but I don't think anyone can blame either party unless we do.
Click to expand...
I agree with what you say, but at least it’s from the horse’s mouth rather than us all endlessly picking through media speculation. I think it’s got to be about moving away from blaming either party and hurling abuse at falsely created and polarised positions. Strictly based on PAs comments, Chris Wilder was in no way an innocent party in the shitshow we have experienced. In saying that, I am not part of some Machiavellian, Saudi plot to demonise him, I’m just saying he ain’t squeaky clean.

It would appear that he did request £4million for leaving (otherwise there would potentially be a slander allegation). It also seems clear that he was told that even if we did lose every match until the end of the season he would still remain manager. It also appears there was no threat of a DoF, just a lack of confidence in his recruitment policy (not unreasonably I think we would all agree). It does appear that he resigned and threatened to do so on several occasions which had led to a lack of confidence and frustration at his public comments about the lack of investment.That’s quite a lot things cleared up for me

Completely agree that doesn’t make him a pantomime villain but I think even the the most Messianic of Wilder supporters need to assimilate those facts. Definitely there will be another side to the story and I really would like to hear that from Wilder. I’m calm about it because I’m not on a finger pointing mission, just really interested in the politIcs of my club that I have supported for many decades.
 
true99blade said:
He could be telling 100% the truth, but still my estimations of this bloke has plummeted. The professional thing to do is to pay tribute to the manager that brought millions upon millions into the football club through performance alone. There is absolutely no reason to come out and throw allegations when it’s abundantly clear Wilder can’t respond at risk of breaching any agreement. It’s the slimy thing to do. Couldn’t care less whether it’s true or not, both parties have left us in the mud. I have absolutely zero confidence we’ll be pushing for promotion next season.
Click to expand...
Bullshit , wilder has in other ways chucked enough mud over the last few months , it was as about time the prince was heard !
 
Flatulent_Bob said:
After Bigg's published an attack article on our board from a source with a grudge, I would blacklist him too.
He wouldn't be getting a word out of my organisation especially when there are better alternatives in the local area.
Click to expand...
Why would PA speak to local journos when they've all clearly nailed their colours to the Wilder mast recently.

I'll always be grateful to what Wilder has brought us in recent years but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit disappointed in how Wilder has conducted himself in recent months.

Whilst I understand people wanting to remain loyal to their friends I'm finding myself becoming irritated by those seemingly determined to drive wedges and division.

I've been impressed by the Prince so far and see little wrong with his comments. He's under fire from a large section of the support and damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

I find it very hard to believe his comments today are nonsense or disingenuous. Some of those loyal to Wilder have tied themselves in knots.

Demanding a big pay off for resigning is a bit rich imho after being rewarded along the way. It seems the constructive dismissal thing is a misdenoma.

Ultimately I'm sad it's ended in this acrimony but first and foremost I'm a Sheffield United fan. I've seen little about the owner to be annoyed about and I'm only interested now on us trying to be successful next season.
 
true99blade said:
He could be telling 100% the truth, but still my estimations of this bloke has plummeted. The professional thing to do is to pay tribute to the manager that brought millions upon millions into the football club through performance alone. There is absolutely no reason to come out and throw allegations when it’s abundantly clear Wilder can’t respond at risk of breaching any agreement. It’s the slimy thing to do. Couldn’t care less whether it’s true or not, both parties have left us in the mud. I have absolutely zero confidence we’ll be pushing for promotion next season.
Click to expand...

hes taken untold abuse for the last week or so. He had to at least give his side of the story

I’m sure the truth is somewhere in the middle but how you can expect him not to give any sort of statement is beyond me. Fans are/were furious with him and needed to understand some of the background.

And to be honest the difference between sacking and wilder resigning is huge in terms of how this is viewed.

My view is the crap results just got too much to take for Wilder - he looked unwell and thin in the last few weeks. That combined with the friction and some potential broken promises on recruitment meant he wanted out. You could understand when we can’t score and are going to lose 30 or so games in a 38 game season
 
Bashamed said:
Because in my opinion he's resigned because he's not happy with the way the club is going. I think we should have tried virtually everything to keep him. That's how. Dont really care if you disagree I'm saying that's why I think he's chucked it away.
Click to expand...

I’m not sure what more the Prince could have done. He’s rewarded Wilder handsomely with very lucrative contracts on more than one occasion, he’s offered a wider scouting network to look at players when his first choice targets are out of our price range. He’s consistently backed him in the press saying how much he wants to keep him at the club.

There’s only so much the Prince can do, it’s obvious that CW had made his mind up that he wanted to leave. The Prince has even given him a generous pay up which he didn’t have to do.

Only CW himself will know the reasons he wanted to leave but I think the Prince has given Wilder every opportunity to do things on his terms and even when it hasn’t worked out, the Prince has still said Wilder is his man.
 
true99blade said:
He could be telling 100% the truth, but still my estimations of this bloke has plummeted. The professional thing to do is to pay tribute to the manager that brought millions upon millions into the football club through performance alone. There is absolutely no reason to come out and throw allegations when it’s abundantly clear Wilder can’t respond at risk of breaching any agreement. It’s the slimy thing to do. Couldn’t care less whether it’s true or not, both parties have left us in the mud. I have absolutely zero confidence we’ll be pushing for promotion next season.
Click to expand...
So he should allow the club to be attacked from all sides and not set the record straight?
Absolute nonsense. The leaking of rumours to the press before, during and after this mess has to be address to stem the damage it's doing to the club.

All in all the interview is very fair and balanced from the Boards view of the world, which is totally different approach from what some of the press have been writing.
 
He said we don’t get involved with Transfers.... then said he wanted players from Germany. It’s unbelievable
 
true99blade said:
He could be telling 100% the truth, but still my estimations of this bloke has plummeted. The professional thing to do is to pay tribute to the manager that brought millions upon millions into the football club through performance alone. There is absolutely no reason to come out and throw allegations when it’s abundantly clear Wilder can’t respond at risk of breaching any agreement. It’s the slimy thing to do. Couldn’t care less whether it’s true or not, both parties have left us in the mud. I have absolutely zero confidence we’ll be pushing for promotion next season.
Click to expand...
But it's fine for him to put up with a large proportion of the fanbase and friends of CW to throw all sorts of unproven accusations his way?
 

Flatulent_Bob said:
You did say he should be given everything he wants in order to keep him including full control with no additional governance.
You also said you hate the club and the board without understanding what really went off, or even having a view from their side.

I put it down to you being a bit overly emotional about it all, but you don't seem to offer the same allowance to those who feel that Chris let them down.
Click to expand...
No didn't say he should be given everything he wanted. You're entitled to your opinion. Dont really care, most responding now are actually just trolls. Just obvious to me we're gonna be wank for ages now and there was a good chance we wouldn't be if wilder stayed. Gutted he's gone and pissed off at some of the awful comments about him. That's about it
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

B
I hope Sheffield United don't come to regret this
3 4 5
Replies
132
Views
10K
blade too long
blade too long
ThatJa
SkySports+ + EFL
4 5 6
Replies
172
Views
16K
Berkshire Blade
B
HeCanDoMagic
Reflecting on Wembley
2 3 4
Replies
109
Views
10K
Jan Age
Jan Age
Westran
Are our fans a hindrance?
2 3 4
Replies
99
Views
6K
Tony_Kaufman
Tony_Kaufman
GreasyChipBeattie
Imagine this...
Replies
7
Views
544
Jon Bon II
Jon Bon II

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

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

Back
Top Bottom