Stephen Bettis speaks to local Media

[john Mathison]

Thought he explained Illy/ Berge situation well. remember , when the prince took over, we owned sweet fa!!!!!!! Yes, the club made mistakes, we do not have a billionaire running the club. We complain, moan, the prince pocketing the cash etc. Well , look across at S6, and see what could have happened to us.

 

[Ainsley Harriott]

Did anyone ask him where the god damn pigeons are?

Devvo dealt with em.

 

[Moan? Nope-I saw Longhorn]

Did anyone ask him where the god damn pigeons are?

Gone to Port Vale

 

[Trigger Blade]

Genuine question (for once)
Why is Bettis so (universally?) disparaged, denigrated & despised?

This is S2, what do you expect?

 

[Keen Blade]

Did anyone ask him where the god damn pigeons are?

Gone to Villa

 

[Stretch]

I thought it was a good interview overall.

We were absolutely under-prepared for the start of the season, but I do accept that there were 'events' so to speak.

It seems like we did the Hamer deal as quickly as anyone else could have done once the Berge fee was agreed, but it's a shame he missed out on the Palace game where he could have made a massive difference, even from the bench.

Archer and McAtee took an age, but what could we have done if the owning clubs are undecided, and especially when the manager has his heart set on those players?

As for Ndiaye, christ almighty I loved watching the kid but he didn't half fuck us over with his 11th hour change of heart, and I don't blame the club for standing down on a replacement when he had essentially agreed to a new deal. We are stronger overall now, but can you imagine if he had stayed, with the signings we have made..?

 

[Champagneblade]

I'll listen later. The one thing I am struggling to understand with Iliman is at a point in time, when all parties had agreed to sign, why he wasn't held to signing there and then to remove any doubt, especially with Marseilles being so dogmatic.

The video stuff should have only been green lighted after this was already wrapped up.

Most salesman will tell you to get the contract signed before celebrating.

Not sure if this makes us naive (if being unkind) or too trusting (if being sympathetic). Seems to be a lesson learned in not counting your chickens.

 

[Pollingtonblade]

Deals are tricky to get through except when we sell players they are done quickly, other clubs also can get a prepared team for the start of the season but I'm just a thick twat who doesn't understand the intricacies of dealing with 4 parties.

 

[Melbourne Blade]

Was a good interview. Some good probing questions and not manufactured by any means.

Just demonstrates the football world is complete chaos, unpredictable and unmanageable compared to being CEO in other more stable industries.

Intrigued by his comments on our injury history and hope they'll address it by conducting an independent "no blame" enquiry.

 

[ShockingBadBuy]

Genuine question (for once)
Why is Bettis so (universally?) disparaged, denigrated & despised?

Forum's are funny places aren't they, you can't always nail the sarcasm you intend, it means you end up with half the crowd taking the piss out of something () and the other half taking it at face value and boarding the scapegoat wagon without truly knowing anything about anything...

Yeah, I’m fairly sure the ”Bettis is a snake’ thing actually began on here, in a post by a subsequently banned but now returned member, whose comment was then satirised with the emoji by other posters. It grew from there, then spread across other social media.

So, in its very early usage, it actually began as a sarcastic response to one of our S24SU own, rather than a disparagement of Bettis (who is a , obvs).

 

[Blade56]

Prince banks parachute payments if we do go down or prem money if we stay up (no lose).

I don’t know how the finances of a football club work but I’m pretty sure the Prince doesn’t “bank“ the incentive payments the club earns either by relegation or staying up.

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

I bet if you won £10 million on the lottery you’d moan like fuck that you hadn’t won £20 million. Lighten up Mr negative and look beyond your very biased nose

So are the actions of the club beyond question, scrutiny or doubt? Or should we now be unreservedly happy again, because we have Hamer and Archer? Do we have to pick one? Just checking...

You're allowed to do and think both things, and who's to say I'm not? This is my take on this issue alone.

 

[More Bladier than thou]

Bettis has actually done a remarkable job recently. He has got the maximum fee for outgoing players, he has landed both number 1 & 2 of our transfers in Mcatee and Archer, kept the players whose contracts nearly ran out and they are still here and balanced the books. So to sum that up, what more could he have done? Iam glad he is at our club.

 

[BiggerBladeThanThou]

Bettis has actually done a remarkable job recently. He has got the maximum fee for outgoing players, he has landed both number 1 & 2 of our transfers in Mcatee and Archer, kept the players whose contracts nearly ran out and they are still here and balanced the books. So to sum that up, what more could he have done? Iam glad he is at our club.

I just think there’s a few Blades who don’t like Cockneys….

 

[bertieblade]

Few blades do not like common sense business and have the foresight to understand that it takes four people to facilitate a transfer and we are only responsible for one. Player, his agent and other club also have a say

 

[Wapping Blade]

People on here seem to blame everyone at the club, but in reality why not blame the FA/PL they are the ones that allow the window to close nearly 4 weeks after the season starts.

That's the real issue, imo.

Yes but they tried that before. The other windows were still open so players could be poached abroad but we had no way of replacing them. Needs a global approach (which probably won’t happen). Even now, the Saudis could get Salah for instance and Liverpool could not replace him.

 

[Nick Jansky]

Even now, the Saudis could get Salah for instance and Liverpool could not replace him.

I don’t know how you can say this when Alfredo Morelos is still available as a free agent.

 

[CrookesBlade]

I'll listen later. The one thing I am struggling to understand with Iliman is at a point in time, when all parties had agreed to sign, why he wasn't held to signing there and then to remove any doubt, especially with Marseilles being so dogmatic.

The video stuff should have only been green lighted after this was already wrapped up.

Most salesman will tell you to get the contract signed before celebrating.

Not sure if this makes us naive (if being unkind) or too trusting (if being sympathetic). Seems to be a lesson learned in not counting your chickens.

Personally I think they were taking the position of “give him what he wants”, “no pressure etc”.

When he’d got to the point of agreeing the new deal in principle (which nobody thought would happen given he’d rejected offers at the end of 21/22 and mid way through last season) they probably didn’t want to scare him off with a fixed deadline.

In hindsight that’s cost us and I doubt the club will take the same approach again (maybe won’t have such a talent on our hands for a long time) but the player held all the cards.

It’s pretty standard in football that players like him clubs will bend over backwards for - Adel Tarrabt at QPR for example.

 

[BalticBlade]

Staton asking the difficult questions that less established mediums have been unable to ask. Quality stuff. Should have happened weeks ago.

Edit - SB gets more cockney the more anxious he gets

The 'less established mediums' have been able to ask them. But they've chosen not to.

 

[MagnifiqueShorehamStreet]

I think Bettis does a reasonable job of explaining the complexities of the situation. You seem to believe it's straightforward. Yet you're not the CEO so....

Not the CEO, so not privy to some of the detail, you’re right.but spent all my working life in recruitment and retention.Rule 1, when a good un says yes, get the contract under their nose, and don’t rest till they sign it.6 days is an eternity in these situations.If they haven’t signed it by then, don’t be surprised, if they go elsewhere, they generally do.
As for the Arblaster situation, note to Bettis,don’t let one of your better prospects and future of the club, go on secondment, outside the organisation,and in the shop window, until you’ve got em signed up, and commited to your own organisation.That’s not complex, it’s just plain common sense.
The man’s got a very difficult job, no question, and fair point,I’ll cut him some slack.At least he came out of his bunker, and spoke to the press,but I’m afraid I was left unconvinced by what he said.
At the end of the day, we’ll never know, but, the reason we were so unready for the start of the season, and we were, in spite of what he says, was probably a mixture of shit happens, naivety which let Iliman’s agent play us like a fiddle, and circumstances we aren’t aware of.
We’ve got through it now, and with some good signing, at decent fees, some credit must go to him, we are competitive on the field now, except perhaps for one or two positions.But please Mr Bettis, get those contracts sorted now, especially Arblaster’s, so we’re not in the same position start of next season.

 

[CrookesBlade]

Few blades do not like common sense business and have the foresight to understand that it takes four people to facilitate a transfer and we are only responsible for one. Player, his agent and other club also have a say

Seen a lot of people complaining that our deals were “complicated”. “Only United could make a simple loan complicated etc”

They are complicated because we are skint. I’m sure if we were after Brian Shite who plays for the Swan and Tomato it would be a piece of piss. Signing players like Cameron Archer when you don’t really have Cameron Archer money means you have to be a bit creative.

 

[Bladeloyal]

I just think there’s a few Blades who don’t like Cockneys

 

[alcoblade]

Not the CEO, so not privy to some of the detail, you’re right.but spent all my working life in recruitment and retention.Rule 1, when a good un says yes, get the contract under their nose, and don’t rest till they sign it.6 days is an eternity in these situations.If they haven’t signed it by then, don’t be surprised, if they go elsewhere, they generally do.
As for the Arblaster situation, note to Bettis,don’t let one of your better prospects and future of the club, go on secondment, outside the organisation,and in the shop window, until you’ve got em signed up, and commited to your own organisation.That’s not complex, it’s just plain common sense.
The man’s got a very difficult job, no question, and fair point,I’ll cut him some slack.At least he came out of his bunker, and spoke to the press,but I’m afraid I was left unconvinced by what he said.
At the end of the day, we’ll never know, but, the reason we were so unready for the start of the season, and we were, in spite of what he says, was probably a mixture of shit happens, naivety which let Iliman’s agent play us like a fiddle, and circumstances we aren’t aware of.
We’ve got through it now, and with some good signing, at decent fees, some credit must go to him, we are competitive on the field now, except perhaps for one or two positions.But please Mr Bettis, get those contracts sorted now, especially Arblaster’s, so we’re not in the same position start of next season.

Surely most of the mess (late season preperation, players near the end of contract) was a result of the financial mess we were in. And the financial mess was a direct result of us holding on to our players (when did that ever happen before?) to gamble on promotion - which paid off.

It seems to me that many are happy to bank promotion as a given, to then criticise the effects of that as though the cause didn't happen.

 

[BalticBlade]

There was a few Fannies on here bemoaning our business during the window - “just do the deals”, “just buy someone!!” Etc. Bettis explains the business of football well, he knows it better than anyone on here - there’s no spin in his interview it’s just how football business is.

A few of us basically said what Bettis has said here a few weeks back, I hope those Fannies now understand it a little bit better now.

Didn't Forest manage to sign seven players in one day? Not that complex for them

 

[bertieblade]

Things are always a lot easier if you have loads of money, we have to negotiate to the nth degree.

why do you bother supporting us as you only find criticism even when people take their time to explain the reasoning behind the decisions.
to make you happy we should have accepted Burnley’s first offer for Berge? Speed things up and then have some readies, although a smaller amount to buy players. Instead we accepted their 5th offer which enabled what was in effect a straight swap with Hamer.

 

[Bladeloyal]

Cockneyism no place at the lane

 

[loveWalrusDaveTheBlade]

Didn't Forest manage to sign seven players in one day? Not that complex for them

I don’t think it’s a sensible comparison.
Since promotion, Forest have been able to take a scattergun approach to recruitment, buying a whole range of players and then worrying later about where they might fit in the team ( or not...). Their owners wealth has enabled this approach ( although there must surely still be a major risk of FFP catastrophe down the line).
Our finances have forced us to take a much more targeted approach, identifying specific players, and then convincing them to join us. Some of them will have had various alternative options, complicating and slowing things down. We haven’t been able to use money to fix this, unlike Forest. We’ve had to haggle over price to make things affordable for us, and create imaginative deal structures such as that put in place for Archer. These things add time to the process. Forest haven’t had to do any of that.

 

[alcoblade]

Didn't Forest manage to sign seven players in one day? Not that complex for them

It's amazing what just a half a billion quid can do, isn't it?

 

[JohnDenver]

Surely most of the mess (late season preperation, players near the end of contract) was a result of the financial mess we were in. And the financial mess was a direct result of us holding on to our players (when did that ever happen before?) to gamble on promotion - which paid off.

It seems to me that many are happy to bank promotion as a given, to then criticise the effects of that as though the cause didn't happen.

This is true but the abortive sale of the club to comedians played into it too. And I also worry about how big a gamble we took. I’m only going to applaud a gamble if the owner can cover its failure.

 

[A Storm of Blades]

Surely most of the mess (late season preperation, players near the end of contract) was a result of the financial mess we were in. And the financial mess was a direct result of us holding on to our players (when did that ever happen before?) to gamble on promotion - which paid off.

It seems to me that many are happy to bank promotion as a given, to then criticise the effects of that as though the cause didn't happen.

Absolutely right. If we held a fire sale to avoid financial catastrophe, the same fans would peddle out the “same old blades” trope. Genuinely, some are never happy.