Outgoing? SANDER BERGE ON WAY OUT ?

[Tarqs]

Berge is rated as a better player than O'Brien and if we manage to go up we go up potentially weaker.
Still makes no sense how the club has got itself into the position of a transfer embargo when in such a strong position if we needed to borrow a few quid.

Rated by who though? Certainly berge has a higher ceiling but O'Brien is far more consistent and I'd argue is more beneficial to our Midfield then Berge is.

 

[Blade56]

Wouldn't that depend on the takeover? I believe assets are frozen when the deposit changes hands. If the takeover if off it will go to the same bank account we use for everything else player wise, you'd assume? I suspect the club owes the Prince money in the form of loans

Is PA flogging silver because buyers money has gone away with buyer? Is he in need of cash to stop administration? Again bugger me if I understand wtf is happening.

 

[Balti Pie]

Is PA flogging silver because buyers money has gone away with buyer? Is he in need of cash to stop administration? Again bugger me if I understand wtf is happening.

This is just my take on the situation, but I believe.....
We have huge cashflow problems.
We missed a transfer payment, and hence are under a soft transfer embargo.
If we do not pay for it to be lifted within a certain time frame we will be placed under a much more severe embargo which will stop us signing players for the next few windows - which would screw us up completely and probably lead to any prospective buyer re-negotiating the sale price or simply walking away.
PA doesn't have the means to pay what is owed right now, as he's exhausted all avenues aside from player sales.
He cannot borrow any more as we already have loans secured against assets and future income.
The prospective new owner is unwilling to pay for the embargo to be lifted, understandably, as he/she/they may not pass the EFL checks necessary to ensure they can take over the club.
The only avenue left open to PA is to sell an asset: Mr Berge.
He must surely have come to this conclusion by consulting with the prospective new owner.

 

[LS16Blade]

More concern is how our financial situations always tend to be worse than anyone else's.

A financial crisis is never far away no matter what.

Premier League money, parachute payments, sale of Ramsdale for big money, players shifted off the wage bill, and still cannot compete financially with any average club that has spent years bumming around in the Championship

…And, of course, whenever an inspirational manager comes along and gets us to the top flight, we back them with far and away the smallest wages in the division and require them to keep unearthing unpolished diamonds, rather than having a proper go at ‘big boys football‘ like other clubs who are a fraction of the size of us, manage to do.

Caught ‘The Big Match Revisited’ from 1973 the other day and one of the featured games was Watford v Blackburn in Division 3. Ken Furphy was in the Blackburn dugout, Tony Field was in the Blackburn side and Colin Franks was in Watford’s side. Even in the highlights, the standard of this Division 3 fayre was absolutely dire. Within a year or so, Furphy, Field and Franks would all be at Bramall Lane. Such was the level of ambition to build around two stars like Woodward and Currie.

Any Blades that lived through the late 70’s, all of the 80’s and even into the early 90’s will recall that for 20 years we could seemingly never rid ourselves of the millstone of the ‘New South Stand’ - which cost £750,000. Come what may, we always had that “£3 million debt” that prevented us competing with clubs half our size.

 

[Rodley]

I said if a big enough bid comes in he’d sell regardless of our position.

Straight from the Book of Revelations that Andy lad

 

[Bell4]

Is PA flogging silver because buyers money has gone away with buyer? Is he in need of cash to stop administration? Again bugger me if I understand wtf is happening.

Me neither but I'm convinced it will all turn out badly - i wonder why?

We got the only T ` Harab Prince who is potless.

 

[Pedro's Winger]

Rated by who though? Certainly berge has a higher ceiling but O'Brien is far more consistent and I'd argue is more beneficial to our Midfield then Berge is.

The clubs who have been interested in acquiring his services and accordingly his transfer fee.

 

[Tarqs]

The clubs who have been interested in acquiring his services and accordingly his transfer fee.

Great, i hope the clubs in question view him as a 35m+ player.

 

[ThatJa]

This talk from Andy67 about Prince wanting to sell sell sell has come out of nothing. Prince has had sole owner ship now for nearly 3 years and has not sold anyone significant , he's on record with Sheff United Way saying he's not wanting to sell.

To me it seems like he's been funding us as much as he can, but hasn't managed to see it out and we are now desperate for cash and have no option to sell to get us out of the Embargo.

 

[Andy67]

Wants the cash from transfers? How will he get that out of the club?

Straight from the Book of Revelations that Andy lad

Yes but some on here will be shocked if he sold at 20/25 m I wouldn’t

 

[Le Cynique]

…And, of course, whenever an inspirational manager comes along and gets us to the top flight, we back them with far and away the smallest wages in the division and require them to keep unearthing unpolished diamonds, rather than having a proper go at ‘big boys football‘ like other clubs who are a fraction of the size of us, manage to do.

Caught ‘The Big Match Revisited’ from 1973 the other day and one of the featured games was Watford v Blackburn in Division 3. Ken Furphy was in the Blackburn dugout, Tony Field was in the Blackburn side and Colin Franks was in Watford’s side. Even in the highlights, the standard of this Division 3 fayre was absolutely dire. Within a year or so, Furphy, Field and Franks would all be at Bramall Lane. Such was the level of ambition to build around two stars like Woodward and Currie.

Any Blades that lived through the late 70’s, all of the 80’s and even into the early 90’s will recall that for 20 years we could seemingly never rid ourselves of the millstone of the ‘New South Stand’ - which cost £750,000. Come what may, we always had that “£3 million debt” that prevented us competing with clubs half our size.

To add to the list of other 'say it enough and it will become fact' tropes that get bandied around on this forum: Wilder wasn't allowed to spend more on wages. Didn't he himself actually talk about the necessity for 'not spunking money' on wages and causing an imbalance in the squad? Given his well-noted adversarial nature, do you not think that if he was told he wasn't allowed to offer decent wages that he would have fucked off sooner?

Like so many of the other myths passed around here like toffees*, I don't see any evidence that the wage structure was forced upon Wilder.


* Including such hits as: that we had two days after the EFL posted the embargo on the site to rectify the issue, or they were going to publicise ours, the parent club's and the player's financial dealings in their entirety; that Emmanuel Dennis is a viable target; that the Prince is somehow able to take money directly from the club into his own coffers; that not sorting the embargo by the end of the month will definitely mean that we'll be put into an embargo for the next two full seasons

 

[cooperblade]

he's on record with Sheff United Way saying he's not wanting to sell.

Ah well then, must be true

 

[Carlton Blade]

Yes but some on here will be shocked if he sold at 20/25 m I wouldn’t

Biggest Championship sale ever is £30m for Watkins and that was Villa being mugs. How is £20-25m not fair value?

 

[Andy67]

Biggest Championship sale ever is £30m for Watkins and that was Villa being mugs. How is £20-25m not fair value?

Didn’t say not fair I meant they’d be shocked if he sold him

 

[Carlton Blade]

Didn’t say not fair I meant they’d be shocked if he sold him

Why? It’s how football works

 

[Andy67]

Revelation- Sydie Peck returns. Before I get slated good luck to the lad. Players returning are filling the voids.

 

[biggiesablade]

Revelation- Sydie Peck returns. Before I get slated good luck to the lad. Players returning are filling the voids.

How did you know that

 

[Sean Thornton]

How did you know that

Danny Hall stringer reported it in the Star around 45 minutes ago?

 

[RWE]

Not being funny but why wouldn’t we sell for 20m+ with his contract running down and potentially losing him for free later down the line? It’s literally how football works. With his injury record I’d gladly sell at 20m. Look at when we kept Fleck after Arsenal bid 15m (I think it was that) and now look at him, probably worth a million at most. Really hope it works for Sander but like people have said I’d rather have someone consistent over a course of a season than one or two good games out of 5.

 

[Bladesman]

Not being funny but why wouldn’t we sell for 20m+ with his contract running down and potentially losing him for free later down the line? It’s literally how football works. With his injury record I’d gladly sell at 20m. Look at when we kept Fleck after Arsenal bid 15m (I think it was that) and now look at him, probably worth a million at most. Really hope it works for Sander but like people have said I’d rather have someone consistent over a course of a season than one or two good games out of 5.

Not even sure we could give Fleck away these days.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Berge is rated as a better player than O'Brien and if we manage to go up we go up potentially weaker.
Still makes no sense how the club has got itself into the position of a transfer embargo when in such a strong position if we needed to borrow a few quid.

Already charges on the assets and over parachute income.

 

[RWE]

Not even sure we could give Fleck away these days.

Exactly, it all comes down to timing for any club out of the top 6, you’ve got to sell at the right time and reinvest (that’s probably the part most Blades fans worry about) but if you don’t you’ve just lost out on really good profit

 

[bertieblade]

Already charges on the assets and over parachute income.

Have we taken a charge out for the £40m full purchase value of the property?
If so we are more up to our neck in it than I thought

 

[brownblade]

Revelation- Sydie Peck returns. Before I get slated good luck to the lad. Players returning are filling the voids.

If your source thinks Peck is going to play for us this season, I've lost confidence in the African intel!

 

[EddieColquhoun]

Revelation- Sydie Peck returns. Before I get slated good luck to the lad. Players returning are filling the voids.

I started a thread an hour and a half ago with that news via Twitter. Which other returning players are going to fill the voids?

 

[JJBlade]

Sander comes across as a good kid and has handled himself pretty admirably since our relegation when he could very easily have forced a move, so props to him for that.

It would be a real shame to lose a player that shows so much quality on his day, but 'his day' is a rare occasion and a full 90 at his best is something I can't remember ever even seeing. He's also extremely soft which is so frustrating when he's so big. If he could add physicality and consistency to his game then he could be unstoppable.

I don't think anyone can deny he'll be a loss but if we manage to re-coup the fee we paid for him, when he's been mostly injured and out of form in his time here, it would be very hard not to see it as a good deal for us - and that's before you factor in the embargo and his contract expiring next summer.

Ultimately, I'd like to keep him as he's one of the players that wouldn't need to be replaced if we get promoted and there's still lots of room for growth in his game. But given the shit we're in, and the fact there's a hatful of clubs willing to pay over the odds for him, I won't lose too much sleep if he goes. Stick a sell on clause in there too, just in case he does kick on and ends up going to one of Europe's big boys in the future.

Sadly, he's a large part of a "what could have been" chapter in United's history, and it's a real shame it all ended how it did. Palace away, especially after the final whistle, was one of my favourite ever moments as a Blade. I'm sure he'll look back on that with the same bittersweet feelings that we do.

He is a good lad, never created a single problem.

Just makes you wonder what shit for brains thinking Wilder and the club had when they signed him

It was quite obvious from Wilder what we wanted and that we were going to start making ourselves tough to beat rather than build on more attacking and creative firepower in our fantastic first three quarters of the season back in the Prem, and so they went with a tick box exercise something like:

6 foot 5 = obviously good in the air, tick

6 foot 5 = obviously strong tackler, tick

6 foot 5 = obviously a big, horrible nasty bastard, tick

He's just what we need Kev and Your Majesty, it'll cost a bit, but just what we need to give us our fair quota of boring 1-0 wins, no point trying to play our way through games when we can just stop everyone else playing instead.

Any 10 minute study on YouTube would have shown that Berge is none of those things, so trying to make him one of those things was two years of his football career down the shitter

 

[Yellarbellyblade]

20% apparently

20% of fee or of profit? Big difference

 

[Sean Thornton]

Have we taken a charge out for the £40m full purchase value of the property?
If so we are more up to our neck in it than I thought

All charges are listed at Companies House.

 

[Old Programme seller]

Where’s Sunjihi when you need him/her

 

[Andy67]

Danny Hall stringer reported it in the Star around 45 minutes ago?

I know that is where I read it. Im making a point about how the Prince is going to deal with a crisis of his making.