Hecky Pre Match Press Conference – Millwall Away (FAC3) - 07.01.23

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Cappy

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This is the one everyone has been waiting for, to see if Hecky tells us we are about to go into administration, confirms that he hates the FA Cup, thinks anyone who likes it is a prick, and he will be fielding mainly kitchen staff in the starting 11, but with the cleaner as a CB obviously…..because he is a good sweeper (get in!)

Notes in a few mins…



 



Not anything I wanted to hear really. So in essence in terms of the highlights that I noticed but there was more:

McBurnie not coming back this weekend or Lowe, although the latter isn't serious and not far off. McBurnie no further questions asked by Adam Oxley so there's no further news there which is frustrating as he has been missing for a month now, aside of cameo performances when we first came back from international duty.

Reda seems likely to go back to Brighton but no sign of anyone coming in, money seems and issue - SURPRISE!

There was a lot of dialogue on Jack O'Connell yada, yada, yada, boring, boring. Sorry for my negative attitude but I do wish they'd just come and say it as it is rather than continuing vagueness like next week or even next year there's gonna be any difference. I wish JOC all the best but he's been missing for three seasons at the beginning of next season.

Finally no signs of new contracts offered to players out of contract, seems that's not a priority for the club which is fair enough as we don't know what division we'll be in next season. Taking a risk though by not offering new contracts although I seem to recall there was talks of new contracts a few weeks ago?
 
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Re Lowe and McBurnie’s availability, “I’d say no. Day by day with Lowe as it can soon clear up, with the ribs’

Re Clarke, who has had a scan today, “I’m expecting him to be out”, though the gaffer hasn't seen the results yet. “Flecky is working hard and we can get him out soon. He’s making steps”

Jack O’Connell, with him out of contract in the summer, will he play again for United? “We all want him to, fans, Jack, me. But we are also well aware of how complicated the injury was. The amount of surgeries he has had, there is no pressure on him from us. It’s no fault of Jacks. Nothing we can do about it. We just want him to work hard, get something out of every day. He’s a tough lad and has the mental strength to make it and has our support”

Interestingly, Hecky said that when he was the gaffer in the Premier League, Jack was back in training and was “close”, but then had to have further surgeries. He has been back on the grass at times, but is not at the momement

So reading between the lines, no, we won’t see the brick-header again for the Blades :(

It’s early in the transfer window, but when asked if there has been any intertest in any of the players, Hecky said ”no”.

Re Fleck and Rangers, he hasn’t heard anything

Re Fleck, Stevens, Norwood, Robinson, whose contracts end in the summer, Hecky understands that they are playing for the club, but playing for themselves as well. “You are always playing for yourself. I’m sure their agents are talking to other clubs.” He said once everything is sorted with the club ownership, he will be looking to lock in contracts.

Re Khadra, when asked if he expects him to leave by the end of the month, he said “yes”, then went on to say “Reda would like to go and we have had a conversation with Brighton”. He also said he wants to bring someone in and “that’s the difficulty I’ve got” in terms of he would like to not reduce the attacking squad size. He did confirm that William Osula may be the person to fill the gap in the squad to ease any pain of Khadra going. Hecky wants Will to get more game time and see where he is. He also said he’s not necessarily going to go back out on loan. "He’s trained well today".

Re Jebbo and QPR being as good as we’ve seen him play this season, “He’s still a baby and he will get better, but we will openly say to him, it’s up to you now. He’s back from his ankle injury and trained really well every day. We are pleased with him. When you work that hard your teammates will be pleased with you”.

When asked, are you close to any incomings, “No”

Re Millwall and whether you go with a kindergarten 11, how do you approach it. “No, we go as strong as we can. Picked up a couple of injuries the other night and have a few carrying things, but apart from that we go as strong as we can.” We will rotate as we have done on other games in this busy period.

Millwall is a massive test. “They’re strong, they’re up there and I expect them to stay up there”.

A couple of minutes of Millwall wankfest followed.

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Body language said to me that he quite likes the FA Cup. Had a “let’s fucking have it” twinkle in his eye. “I always want to win the games. Other people’s focus is on different things. My focus is on Millwall. Pick a team to win the game”

UTB!!
 
Re Lowe and McBurnie’s availability, “I’d say no. Day by day with Lowe as it can soon clear up, with the ribs’

Re Clarke, who has had a scan today, “I’m expecting him to be out”, though the gaffer hasn't seen the results yet. “Flecky is working hard and we can get him out soon. He’s making steps”

Jack O’Connell, with him out of contract in the summer, will he play again for United? “We all want him to, fans, Jack, me. But we are also well aware of how complicated the injury was. The amount of surgeries he has had, there is no pressure on him from us. It’s no fault of Jacks. Nothing we can do about it. We just want him to work hard, get something out of every day. He’s a tough lad and has the mental strength to make it and has our support”

Interestingly, Hecky said that when he was the gaffer in the Premier League, Jack was back in training and was “close”, but then had to have further surgeries. He has been back on the grass at times, but is not at the momement

So reading between the lines, no, we won’t see the brick-header again for the Blades :(

It’s early in the transfer window, but when asked if there has been any intertest in any of the players, Hecky said ”no”.

Re Fleck and Rangers, he hasn’t heard anything

Re Fleck, Stevens, Norwood, Robinson, whose contracts end in the summer, Hecky understands that they are playing for the club, but playing for themselves as well. “You are always playing for yourself. I’m sure their agents are talking to other clubs.” He said once everything is sorted with the club ownership, he will be looking to lock in contracts.

Re Khadra, when asked if he expects him to leave by the end of the month, he said “yes”, then went on to say “Reda would like to go and we have had a conversation with Brighton”. He also said he wants to bring someone in and “that’s the difficulty I’ve got” in terms of he would like to not reduce the attacking squad size. He did confirm that William Osula may be the person to fill the gap in the squad to ease any pain of Khadra going. Hecky wants Will to get more game time and see where he is. He also said he’s not necessarily going to go back out on loan. "He’s trained well today".

Re Jebbo and QPR being as good as we’ve seen him play this season, “He’s still a baby and he will get better, but we will openly say to him, it’s up to you now. He’s back from his ankle injury and trained really well every day. We are pleased with him. When you work that hard your teammates will be pleased with you”.

When asked, are you close to any incomings, “No”

Re Millwall and whether you go with a kindergarten 11, how do you approach it. “No, we go as strong as we can. Picked up a couple of injuries the other night and have a few carrying things, but apart from that we go as strong as we can.” We will rotate as we have done on other games in this busy period.

Millwall is a massive test. “They’re strong, they’re up there and I expect them to stay up there”.

A couple of minutes of Millwall wankfest followed.

View attachment 150478

Body language said to me that he quite likes the FA Cup. Had a “let’s fucking have it” twinkle in his eye. “I always want to win the games. Other people’s focus is on different things. My focus is on Millwall. Pick a team to win the game”

UTB!!
So we've got more injuries then that we're not currently aware of by the looks of it! We lost Clark, can't remember if anyone else seemed to be carrying knocks but not sounding good again in the injuries, at least in the short term.
 
Well, we know nothing, but, it seems that Hecky is a little frustrated with the current situation?
He never says much, but, the talk of not knowing whats happening with the club, isn't exactly a confidence boost, unless he does know, and that could be a cause for frustration??, who knows, anyway, were playing a game of football at the weekend, and some players will play, and some won't.

Next.
 
He never says much, but, the talk of not knowing whats happening with the club, isn't exactly a confidence boost, unless he does know, and that could be a cause for frustration??,
If he does know something( which I assume he does) he wouldn't be allowed to say anything I would suspect
 
Well, we know nothing, but, it seems that Hecky is a little frustrated with the current situation?
He never says much, but, the talk of not knowing whats happening with the club, isn't exactly a confidence boost, unless he does know, and that could be a cause for frustration??, who knows, anyway, were playing a game of football at the weekend, and some players will play, and some won't.

Next.
I know I'm frustrated as a fan, but that's not unusual as we can't know what we want to know and that's the nature of being a fan. But the injuries are a real frustration in combination to struggling to bring players in because we're skint/the owners don't want to put any more in/the new owners are doing it....who knows! From that interview I'm not at all confident that a new player will be coming in, it's not like we're midtable and not likely to go up is it?! In my view, and many others, we need an extra forward, we're seeing Middlesbrough bring in Archer on loan and Preston matching the offer, we on the other hand are not close to bringing anyone in and we're overplaying Billy as a result.
 
This is the quote that worries me if honest:

"The thing is with the deal, we haven't got money available. So that's the difficulty; weighing up someone wanting to go and having a gap in the squad.

When you consider that Reda has missed two games already because "He hasn't made the squad" which implies that Hecky doesn't think he's good enough or there's another issue such as Khadra doesn't want to play.

Either way, this has been going on for over a week, possibly longer and there's no sign of anyone coming in and we're faced with keeping a:
keeping Khadra solely because we can't afford to do another deal or b: not even Khadra and going with a bench of Jebbo and/or Oslua and relying on McBurnie to be fit which seems very difficult right now.

Very disappointing given the difference between us and Forest and Bournemouth last January who strengthened and we're struggling to bring in anyone despite another going. I appreciate that any loan deal is not straight forward, it could cost the club a lot to bring in a decent loan but not doing so could cost us promotion which is a lot more than the cost of a loan for sure!

This is all very reminiscent to 1990 and the SUFC video on the Board (Brealey and co) where we're unable to fund a new signing and the takeover looming in the background too! Nothing changes even 33 years on!
 
This is the quote that worries me if honest:

"The thing is with the deal, we haven't got money available. So that's the difficulty; weighing up someone wanting to go and having a gap in the squad.

When you consider that Reda has missed two games already because "He hasn't made the squad" which implies that Hecky doesn't think he's good enough or there's another issue such as Khadra doesn't want to play. Either way, this has been going on for over a week, possibly longer and there's no sign of anyone coming in. Very disappointing given the difference between us and Forest and Bournemouth last January who strengthened and we're struggling to bring in anyone despite another going. I appreciate that any loan deal is not straight forward, it could cost the club a lot to bring in a decent loan but not doing so could cost us promotion which is a lot more than the cost of a loan for sure!

Yeah we know we don't have any money especially if the takeover isn't signed off before the window closes.

The questions Hecky gets asked are pretty poor. Surely it is a case of can we send Reda back and if so can his wage but put to another player on loan. What we do forget is you do have to pay a loan fee if we go and get someone new in. Is there money for a loan fee?
 
Yeah we know we don't have any money especially if the takeover isn't signed off before the window closes.

The questions Hecky gets asked are pretty poor. Surely it is a case of can we send Reda back and if so can his wage but put to another player on loan. What we do forget is you do have to pay a loan fee if we go and get someone new in. Is there money for a loan fee?
The loan fee will be the issue in part and the other bit will be that Khadra's wages are likely to not be that high whereas we may be going for someone with much higher wages. We'll end up with someone like Lyle Taylor on loan from Forest who's not kicked a ball all season for their first team at Forest; I'm calling that now since we'll not be able to get anyone else! The likes of Surridge and Adam Armstrong no chance. That's how it seems anyway.
 
I'm more frustrated with the injuries than whats going on in the transfer market. If we can keep our best players fit we go up...simple....but we can't the injured ones who come back seem to break down again, Brewster, McBurnie, Clark and Lowe being cases in point. It seems to be one back, one out on a continuous merry go round!

Re signings there's definitely a case for replacing Khadra when he goes but there's clearly some financial constraint re Khadra...do u think we committed to paying his salary for the season irrespective of whether he stayed all season? Would seem strange but Hecky seems to be indicating something along those lines otherwise why wouldn't we just flip his wages to a new loanee?

We have strength in depth across all other areas so no surprise when there's no additions there.
 
If he does know something( which I assume he does) he wouldn't be allowed to say anything I would suspect
Exactly that, but he still seems frustrated, but he's a bit more professional at the questions than some managers have been.....
 



With all the ownership, injuries, JTW nonsense......oh to be a kid. My 15yo lad just walked in and said, "have we got tickets for Reading away yet? I can't wait" Nice to be reminded that on-the-pitch football is the absolute bollocks
 
Body language said to me that he quite likes the FA Cup. Had a “let’s fucking have it” twinkle in his eye. “I always want to win the games. Other people’s focus is on different things. My focus is on Millwall. Pick a team to win the game”

Stand by for at least 3 injuries on Saturday to players who shouldn't be anywhere near Millwall.
 
Not sure why people are shocked. It's been said for months that we won't be bringing anyone in from the management and the media. It's going to happen unless the takeover is accelerated
It wasn't said for months though that Khadra was going back because obviously no one would know, apart from within the club as January approached I would assume. So to only have Sharp and Ndiaye as our only fit and experienced strikers is not good enough for a team going for promotion in my view. Even if McBurnie is fit we need another and I don't see Osula filling the role or Jebbo yet as they're both "babies" to quote Hecky himself. They may have a good game/cameo here and there but we need more experience off the bench like we had with Hogan and Madine the last time we got promoted.
 
It wasn't said for months though that Khadra was going back because obviously no one would know, apart from within the club as January approached I would assume. So to only have Sharp and Ndiaye as our only fit and experienced strikers is not good enough for a team going for promotion in my view. Even if McBurnie is fit we need another and I don't see Osula filling the role or Jebbo yet as they're both "babies" to quote Hecky himself. They may have a good game/cameo here and there but we need more experience off the bench like we had with Hogan and Madine the last time we got promoted.

The Khadra thing is simply because the player wants out. It doesn't change that we have no money at all to get a replacement in. I agree with you totally but it's not going to happen unless the takeover does. I hope I'm wrong but I don't think there is a chance of us signing anyone. Certainly not anyone worthwhile
 
PH doesn't give much away regarding transfers at the best of times, and I expect he is under strict instructions not to discuss the takeover in any instance.

I expect there will be a nice surprise or two before the month is out as I just can't fathom how any owner (current or prospective) would blow the prospect of 120M and parachute payments, just to save a few hundred grand on loaning another player now. It makes no sense whatsoever.
 
Over the last few press conferences I’m starting to think that Hecky’s involuntary “I’m fibbing“ tell is a brief look down to the left, without moving his head.

If John Fleck ends up at Rangers this window, I’ll know I’m right and we’ll always know when he’s being Heckocchio.
 
PH doesn't give much away regarding transfers at the best of times, and I expect he is under strict instructions not to discuss the takeover in any instance.

I expect there will be a nice surprise or two before the month is out as I just can't fathom how any owner (current or prospective) would blow the prospect of 120M and parachute payments, just to save a few hundred grand on loaning another player now. It makes no sense whatsoever.
You're totally right Stretch but how many times have we seen United define logic for short term gain/keeping a tight ship. Still smarting all these years later at selling Kyle Walker for £4m; he'd only played a handful of games at the end of the day!
 



Why do I feel as though we've seen the last of McBurnie
Blimey . You reckon he's off to Rangers? They couldn't afford him. They paid south of £20m for their record signing and McB would score for fun in that league.
 

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