Prince - give us some direction

[Rodley]

The reality is that every club needs to be heavily subsidised by their owner, to compete at most levels in the football pyramid. And when the owner isn’t willing or able to support a club any longer, you need a new owner pretty damn quick to achieve anything as a club.

When McCabe lost interest towards the end of his stewardship we had similar noises of “being sustainable”, “resetting the finances” etc, that we are hearing now. PA’s tenure as owner has run its course and IMHO even in the good times he was fortuitous in that he dropped on Wilderball and latterly the emergence of Ndiaye.

We need new ownership. Until then it’s an unfortunately going to be directionless malaise at best and steady decline at worst. Re: the new owners, the more personal wealth they have or the more wealth they are willing to squander, the better. That’s the game.

Anyone who thinks we’ve got a good squad for next year feels a little fanciful to me. We’re cooked, the squad is all over the place and half of the talent will be off this summer for free. We need someone to take the reins of the club again and drive us forward.

 

[247Blade]

Yeah his direction is down relegation tight arse git wants out ASAP! Bye

 

[wak1889]

I reckon he should auction us off on one of those daytime TV shows on satellite TV, where someone blind bids on a big container and when it's opened they get 2 old chairs, a vintage record player , some books, a couple of brass pans and horseshoes like u see in an old country pub , some water damaged billows a bedpan and Sheffield United as a job lot

 

[jt64]

This might be the worst thread I've read on this forum, and I've read some started by Fallowfield

 

[Bell4]

The reality is that every club needs to be heavily subsidised by their owner, to compete at most levels in the football pyramid. And when the owner isn’t willing or able to support a club any longer, you need a new owner pretty damn quick to achieve anything as a club.

When McCabe lost interest towards the end of his stewardship we had similar noises of “being sustainable”, “resetting the finances” etc, that we are hearing now. PA’s tenure as owner has run its course and IMHO even in the good times he was fortuitous in that he dropped on Wilderball and latterly the emergence of Ndiaye.

We need new ownership. Until then it’s an unfortunately going to be directionless malaise at best and steady decline at worst. Re: the new owners, the more personal wealth they have or the more wealth they are willing to squander, the better. That’s the game.

Anyone who thinks we’ve got a good squad for next year feels a little fanciful to me. We’re cooked, the squad is all over the place and half of the talent will be off this summer for free. We need someone to take the reins of the club again and drive us forward.

Yup

 

[Nagima]

The reality is that every club needs to be heavily subsidised by their owner, to compete at most levels in the football pyramid. And when the owner isn’t willing or able to support a club any longer, you need a new owner pretty damn quick to achieve anything as a club.

When McCabe lost interest towards the end of his stewardship we had similar noises of “being sustainable”, “resetting the finances” etc, that we are hearing now. PA’s tenure as owner has run its course and IMHO even in the good times he was fortuitous in that he dropped on Wilderball and latterly the emergence of Ndiaye.

We need new ownership. Until then it’s an unfortunately going to be directionless malaise at best and steady decline at worst. Re: the new owners, the more personal wealth they have or the more wealth they are willing to squander, the better. That’s the game.

Anyone who thinks we’ve got a good squad for next year feels a little fanciful to me. We’re cooked, the squad is all over the place and half of the talent will be off this summer for free. We need someone to take the reins of the club again and drive us forward.

A lot of clubs do need to be subsidised to stay afloat. But that isn't really the issue here. The issue is that the board haven't a clue. The owner and his cronies playing reality FIFA with us and the United World experiment. The recruitment has been shocking with the exception of a few players. The manager is out of his depth and the team are losing morale.

PA worked out alright when purchasing the vlub and the ground. There are 3 seasons of PL money. The first being squandered except for what was used to buy back the ground. The out lay on transfers has not been much in the last 3 seasons. The club get 31k attendance in PL with 27K in the chpionship. Compared to most other clubs we would a lot closer to sustainability.

PA invested 70M but how much of that was borrowed by the club itself. The discussions regarding selling were estimating 150M valuation. If he gets his way he will be clear 80M.
The fact he wants to sell means he wants to maximise what he personally can take out. Plus you have the nonsense of consulting fees being paid to United World.

The squad isn't as bad as we make out. The problems are morale, organisation and failing to buy wing backs. Hamer is decent. Archer is a finisher we just don't have wing backs that can create anything.

Overall a glorious opportunity has been lost to solidify the financial foundations of the club

 

[Revolution]

No and no. Still waiting for the brainwave answer on how to improve our recruitment, youth development when operating on a low budget. You have an idea?

You are aware that this is exactly what we did between 2016 and 2019?

Luton have done even better.

 

[Revolution]

The reality is that every club needs to be heavily subsidised by their owner, to compete at most levels in the football pyramid. And when the owner isn’t willing or able to support a club any longer, you need a new owner pretty damn quick to achieve anything as a club.

When McCabe lost interest towards the end of his stewardship we had similar noises of “being sustainable”, “resetting the finances” etc, that we are hearing now. PA’s tenure as owner has run its course and IMHO even in the good times he was fortuitous in that he dropped on Wilderball and latterly the emergence of Ndiaye.

We need new ownership. Until then it’s an unfortunately going to be directionless malaise at best and steady decline at worst. Re: the new owners, the more personal wealth they have or the more wealth they are willing to squander, the better. That’s the game.

Anyone who thinks we’ve got a good squad for next year feels a little fanciful to me. We’re cooked, the squad is all over the place and half of the talent will be off this summer for free. We need someone to take the reins of the club again and drive us forward.

You may remember that after losing to Yeovil in the playoffs the plan for the following season was "be self sustaining. Yeovil got promoted being self sustaining".

This resulted in the appointment of Weir, who had no idea what he was doing and brought in a number of players, most of whom were awful.

Then we had to get better players in and a competent manager to stop a further relegation. That was very much not self sustaining.

We did make a profit in 2019-20 - the biggest profit made by any team in Europe - as a result of exceptional on field performance and not spending too much compared to other PL teams (what we did spend that year, ironically, was spent poorly. We could have done even better). But you cannot do that every year and stay up.

We will essentially be self sustaining this year but the result will be relegation for the reasons you and others suggest.

 

[Charlieblade]

All these demands for the Prince to speak up about the club, the direction and the manager, reminds me of the last time he made contributions.

He authorized a friend to post views on twitter intstead of putting himself in the firing line.

The interview shown on SUW was diluted, to the extent that the questions were framed to avoid losing that cachet of being favoured by the man himself. I don’t blame Hal and co for that. They risked losing a great asset if they probed too deeply.

If he doesn’t put himself forward for a no holds barred interview, let Asaba loose on him and get Asaba to report back.

I said the last time, that the correct vehicle for public announcements was through the clubs website, and I stand by that, but it risks the Prince will only give his version of events, and not what the fans actually want to hear!

 

[Silent Blade]

You are aware that this is exactly what we did between 2016 and 2019?

Luton have done even better.

They will have done better if they stay up and we go down.

Still waiting for the answer to my question "How do we improve our recruitment to compete against the big spenders?"

 

[Carlton Blade]

No you haven't

Why are you arguing if you didn't read what I said?

 

[Silent Blade]

Why are you arguing if you didn't read what I said?

You haven't suggested anything

 

[Revolution]

They will have done better if they stay up and we go down.

Still waiting for the answer to my question "How do we improve our recruitment to compete against the big spenders?"

Luton have come from the 5th tier to the PL without ever spending the most in their division. That's outstanding.

I have just answered you. Look at what we were doing under Wilder and try to replicate it.

Wilder signed a number of 3rd and 4th tier players who became decent PL players. What was he looking for? Is that knowledge still within the club? Check that out.

One other thing of note is that the current side is on average smaller and punier that the 2019-20 team. That is perhaps telling.

And by asking for this answer are we to take it that your position is that the club can't do any better than it is doing now? That Traore and Larouci and Thomas was the best we could do?

 

[Carlton Blade]

You haven't suggested anything

I think it's best that I stop this here. I'm not wasting my time discussing the club with someone who doesn't read what the other person wrote

 

[Silent Blade]

Luton have come from the 5th tier to the PL without ever spending the most in their division. That's outstanding.

I have just answered you. Look at what we were doing under Wilder and try to replicate it.

Wilder signed a number of 3rd and 4th tier players who became decent PL players. What was he looking for? Is that knowledge still within the club? Check that out.

One other thing of note is that the current side is on average smaller and punier that the 2019-20 team. That is perhaps telling.

And by asking for this answer are we to take it that your position is that the club can't do any better than it is doing now? That Traore and Larouci and Thomas was the best we could do?

Bring Wilder back is your answer?

 

[Silent Blade]

I think it's best that I stop this here. I'm not wasting my time discussing the club with someone who doesn't read what the other person wrote

I did read it, you didnt say that UW should be replaced by which recruitment company or anything like that.

 

[Revolution]

Bring Wilder back is your answer?

No.

You're being deliberately obtuse - presumably because people have had the temerity to suggest that the club could be doing a better job - so I won't waste more time on you in this thread.

 

[Silent Blade]

No.

You're being deliberately obtuse - presumably because people have had the temerity to suggest that the club could be doing a better job - so I won't waste more time on you in this thread.

No one has come up with the answer then.

 

[Carlton Blade]

I did read it, you didnt say that UW should be replaced by which recruitment company or anything like that.

I get it. You just want to sit in your little misery chamber and say "It's money. The only reason everything is wrong is money. There is nothing anyone can do to improve the situation".

The fact you actually went back, read what I said and decided it was something to do with a recruitment company???

There is nothing wrong with refusing to consider other's points of view, everyone is entitled to their opinions. I just don't get why you'd even consider talking to someone about them?

 

[Revolution]

No one has come up with the answer then.

I gave you an answer which you ignored. Stop being a child.

 

[Revolution]

I get it. You just want to sit in your little misery chamber and say "It's money. The only reason everything is wrong is money. There is nothing anyone can do to improve the situation".

You missed agents. Money and agents. the club is infallible.

 

[Silent Blade]

I get it. You just want to sit in your little misery chamber and say "It's money. The only reason everything is wrong is money. There is nothing anyone can do to improve the situation".

The fact you actually went back, read what I said and decided it was something to do with a recruitment company???

There is nothing wrong with refusing to consider other's points of view, everyone is entitled to their opinions. I just don't get why you'd even consider talking to someone about them?

Smart recruitment by self sustaining is the club's answer but how?

 

[ZLB]

Indeed.

In the early 70’s, the Board wouldn’t build on a side boasting the likes of Badger, Woodward and Currie because ‘we didn’t have the income that other clubs had due to the small number of seats - which generated more income than terrace tickets - relative to other First Division clubs. We were also told that average gates of 35,000 were needed to enable us to compete. Gates had to come first and then the club might consider showing ambition in the transfer market - not the other way round which is how it typically works at every other club.

For the second half of the 70’s, all of the 80’s and the first half of the 90’s, the fans were told that we couldn’t compete because of the fabled ’South Stand debt’. A stand that was quoted to be a £650,000 project, became a £3m millstone around the club’s neck for 20 years.

Recent years have seen occasional flashes of investment - by McDonald and McCabe - but they have always been extremely short-lived and immediately followed by prolonged periods of ‘buyer’s remorse’ necessitating painful cloth-cutting and inevitable decline on the pitch.

Now, we seem to have arrived at a stage where ’buying back the property assets from McCabe’ has become this generation’s ‘South Stand debt’. It is seemingly something that, however much the club pays out, the liability never goes down.

Literally the only time that the Club has ever punched at or above it’s weight as a football club was from Summer 1981 to Summer 1982, when Reg Brearley poached an up-and-coming manager and backed him with the funds to buy players - Edwards, Morris, Young and Curran - way above the station we were then currently playing at.

That was going really well until the word Curran was used. Curran had nothing to do with the 1981-82 success and is up there with the worst signings ever made.

 

[Silent Blade]

You missed agents. Money and agents. the club is infallible.

Yes, agents are a big problem to those who cant spend big. They have a lot of power

 

[Nagima]

Bring Wilder back is your answer?

Are you deliberately misinterpreting what he has said. It's not bring Wilder back but getting back to smart recruitment. Brentford Brighton Crystal Palace, Luton, can do it and so can we if we get the right scouting and recruitment set up.
We need to be a bit cavalier like the Wimbledon of Sam Hamman and Joe Kinnear. They doesn't mean we compete with the big boys but it gives us a chance at taking on the other 12 or so teams

 

[Carlton Blade]

Smart recruitment by self sustaining is the club's answer but how?

Hire people who know what they are doing. Have them focus solely on Sheffield United and what Sheffield United needs both now and in the future. Have them responsible for renewing contracts etc. It's literally the only thing I said in the first post.

It’s got nothing to do with “recruitment companies” and everything to do with joined up decision making based on the requirements of this specific business, not trying to link it to others where there are no benefits of doing so.

 

[Silent Blade]

Are you deliberately misinterpreting what he has said. It's not bring Wilder back but getting back to smart recruitment. Brentford Brighton Crystal Palace, Luton, can do it and so can we if we get the right scouting and recruitment set up.
We need to be a bit cavalier like the Wimbledon of Sam Hamman and Joe Kinnear. They doesn't mean we compete with the big boys but it gives us a chance at taking on the other 12 or so teams

Brentford started the moneyball system more than a decade ago, scrapped their Academy a few years later. Eventually got into the PL two years ago. Should we do the same by scrapping the Academy?

 

[Silent Blade]

Hire people who know what they are doing.

Such as WHO? Wendy thought they were doing the right thing through Paixao.

 

[Carlton Blade]

Such as WHO? Wendy thought they were doing the right thing through Paixao.

I'm unsure how to answer this. Do you want me to give you a list of qualified DoF's/football administrators?

 

[Nagima]

Brentford started the moneyball system more than a decade ago, scrapped their Academy a few years later. Eventually got into the PL two years ago. Should we do the same by scrapping the Academy?

The acadamy needs to be assessed like everything else. While it's nice to have some home grown talent coming through we haven't had much of a return. To answer your question I would.