CONFIRMED Oliver Arblaster signs a new contract

[Rodley]

There are some who will look for any stick, real or imaginary, to beat the club with. They will also refuse to give the club any credit if it gets something right. I would hate to be like them, it must be a pretty bleak way to be.

The people about moaning this season is shit are largely doing so because this season is shit and the summer was a shambles. If you can’t accept criticism of the club now, it does rather beg the question of whether you can accept it altogether.

 

[Valley Blade]

Evidence suggest we’ve got a problem getting people to sign contracts, getting players over the line and our business is slow. We know this because no fucker is signing a contract and our business in transfer windows is slower than a week in jail. And it’s caught us out this summer - just look at the shambles of the first few games.

Holgate, Curtis, Diaz, Souza, Traoure, McAtee, Trusty, Hamer, Thomas, Laroucci, Grbic, Archer, Davies and Slimane. That's 14 off top of my head who signed this season. Probably more than most.
If say, half of these were a big success, would it still be a shambles?
Your gripe is really, that they aren't good enough. I totally agree, but that's a different argument.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Holgate, Curtis, Diaz, Souza, Traoure, McAtee, Trusty, Hamer, Thomas, Laroucci, Grbic, Archer, Davies and Slimane. That's 14 off top of my head who signed this season. Probably more than most.
If say, half of these were a big success, would it still be a shambles?
Your gripe is really, that they aren't good enough. I totally agree, but that's a different argument.

Do you think the actions of the board and recruitment team allowed Hecky to put a competitive team out for the first few weeks of the season?

Do you think that the mentality of the board in pretty much sacking off the first few weeks of the season might have permeated through the squad and led to the abject failure of a season we’ve had so far?

Are you happy that the actions of the board in buying and selling players gave us a decent chance of staying up this season, both in terms of quality and timeliness of the signings?

I would answer ‘no’ to all 3 above. That is where my issue lies this season.

To Nick Jansky point, I’ll happily praise the club for a great season last season and frequently did throughout the season. Keeping Berge and Ndiaye was a risk taken and it paid off.

The contract renewals for Osula and Brooks are seemingly good bits of business. If we keep Arblaster and Jebbison as well as a few key experienced players then we’ll have done well renewing. We need to get rid of the deadwood and find good replacements for next season, then I’ll be happy with the overall business since the clusterfuck of last summer.

I don’t think that everything to do with the club is sunshine and unicorns though, that would be stupid and historical actions would back up my view on this.

 

[Pedro's Winger]

And what would have happened if Ndiaye would have performed for us like he has for his new employers.
life in retrospect is a doddle

A degree of retrospect but equally was it that difficult to see what damage that sale was going to do?
We effectively chucked the season and the costs of that will be seen next year. If we turn into the next Stoke or worse that £15m or so will look like chicken feed.

 

[bertieblade]

Ok how do you get someone to sign who does not want to? This subject has been discussed time and again yet people still don’t get it !

 

[bertieblade]

Houston and Pedro, kindly explain how you get someone to sign who does not want to?

 

[Carlton Blade]

There are some who will look for any stick, real or imaginary, to beat the club with. They will also refuse to give the club any credit if it gets something right. I would hate to be like them, it must be a pretty bleak way to be.

You're confusing the club with the ownership. Everyone is here because they are Sheffield United fans regardless of circumstances. How the ownership conducts the business of the club is a perfectly reasonable thing to discuss.

Your stance is to mostly be supportive of how the club is run, mine is to think it's poorly run. But I'd say when the games kick off, we both want the team on the pitch to win

 

[Houston_Blade]

Houston and Pedro, kindly explain how you get someone to sign who does not want to?

My view on the Ndiaye situation is that we waited until he looked like a superstar and then thought “oh shit, we need to tie this lad down”.

We also refused to play him initially until he signed a new deal.

I’d argue that these things might have gone against us when it came to him making his mind up on a new deal.

We treated him like a kid who owed us big time because we’d signed him from Boreham Wood, we didn’t put him on a pedestal early enough and as a result we lost a generational talent who is completely irreplaceable to a club like us.

You can’t ’make him’ sign a new deal, but behaviours towards players eventually come back and bite you.

With Berge, we touted him round for 3 transfer windows, the lad admitted he was staying in hotels because he didn’t know what was happening.

Again, this isn’t the sign of a club wanting to keep you and I can understand why he was keen to leave in the end.

In both cases it may be that neither of them ever intended to sign a new deal and I may be wrong and the club was tickling their balls from day 1 and they just point blank wanted out.

At risk of being accused of “using any stick to beat the club with” I’ll stick my neck out and say that I don’t think we did enough, early enough.

The same will happen with Anel, but if his performances don’t improve then that won’t be the worst thing.

 

[Houston_Blade]

You're confusing the club with the ownership. Everyone is here because they are Sheffield United fans regardless of circumstances. How the ownership conducts the business of the club is a perfectly reasonable thing to discuss.

Your stance is to mostly be supportive of how the club is run, mine is to think it's poorly run. But I'd say when the games kick off, we both want the team on the pitch to win

I don’t, because I question how things are run by our board I’m obviously a miserable cunt, my wife and kids have awful lives because I permanently have a black cloud following me around and I’m only happy if they’re miserable as well.

What I think about the running of the football club is the same as I think about absolutely everything else in life.

If I saw a unicorn shitting a rainbow I’d go and shoot it and then burn the rainbow shit.

Such is my view on life according to the judgment of certain posters who obviously have a much happier life than myself. I am jealous and bitter about these people and the amazing world in which they live and wish I could be more like them.

 

[Pedro's Winger]

Houston and Pedro, kindly explain how you get someone to sign who does not want to?

Sign what? He was under contract.
That's the whole point being made - whether agreeing the sale ultimately will end up costing the club more.

 

[Bladesman]

 

[Pedro Verde]

Could we have just tried to keep Ndiaye and Berge until January and then tried to sell if we were done and dusted still?

Cant players sign pre contract agreements in January ?

 

[Snowflake]

Do you think the actions of the board and recruitment team allowed Hecky to put a competitive team out for the first few weeks of the season?

Do you think that the mentality of the board in pretty much sacking off the first few weeks of the season might have permeated through the squad and led to the abject failure of a season we’ve had so far?

Are you happy that the actions of the board in buying and selling players gave us a decent chance of staying up this season, both in terms of quality and timeliness of the signings?

I would answer ‘no’ to all 3 above. That is where my issue lies this season.

To Nick Jansky point, I’ll happily praise the club for a great season last season and frequently did throughout the season. Keeping Berge and Ndiaye was a risk taken and it paid off.

The contract renewals for Osula and Brooks are seemingly good bits of business. If we keep Arblaster and Jebbison as well as a few key experienced players then we’ll have done well renewing. We need to get rid of the deadwood and find good replacements for next season, then I’ll be happy with the overall business since the clusterfuck of last summer.

I don’t think that everything to do with the club is sunshine and unicorns though, that would be stupid and historical actions would back up my view on this.

Do we know it was the board’s fault that the squad was weak in August ?
Perhaps we tried to recruit the wrong players and failed to have the squad ready.
Selling players very late on may be down to the board.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Do we know it was the board’s fault that the squad was weak in August ?
Perhaps we tried to recruit the wrong players and failed to have the squad ready.
Selling players very late on may be down to the board.

I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Hecky’s choice to sell Ndiaye and Berge a week or so before his first league game.

I’d also guess at him wanting to get players in to play all season rather than from the 4th week of the season onwards.

 

[chesblade]

There seems to have been a bit about him these past few days, anyone think he might be playing tomorrow

 

[jono_t2000]

Anyway.. back to Arblaster.. featured in pre match preview, seems to be getting a bit of attention this week.

All healed up from his superficial injury? Ready to make a surprise substitute appearance this weekend?

 

[Snowflake]

I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Hecky’s choice to sell Ndiaye and Berge a week or so before his first league game.

I’d also guess at him wanting to get players in to play all season rather than from the 4th week of the season onwards.

..but he didn’t, so is the blame with him selecting the wrong targets or the board ?

 

[Houston_Blade]

..but he didn’t, so is the blame with him selecting the wrong targets or the board ?

Depends who selected the targets.

He also doesn’t sell players or buy them, that’s the responsibility of others. He stated on numerous occasions that it was in other people’s hands.

 

[JohnDenver]

..but he didn’t, so is the blame with him selecting the wrong targets or the board ?

I honestly don’t think we necessarily signed the “wrong” players. On our budget the right players don’t exist for this level.

If we’d kept Doyle, Berger and Ndiaye, and supplemented them with Barclay and Townsend, we’d probably be in Luton’s position or better. But we’d also be sat on a time bomb.

The only chance we had this season was if the owner found a buyer willing to invest before it started. Everything else feels like minor details in the story of the season.

 

[jono_t2000]

I honestly don’t think we necessarily signed the “wrong” players. On our budget the right players don’t exist for this level.

If we’d kept Doyle, Berger and Ndiaye, and supplemented them with Barclay and Townsend, we’d probably be in Luton’s position or better. But we’d also be sat on a time bomb.

The only chance we had this season was if the owner found a buyer willing to invest before it started. Everything else feels like minor details in the story of the season.

Exactly this.

Townsend 32, Barkley 30, Ndiaye and Berge last year of contracts.

We would literally have just been kicking the can down the road.

Our oldest signing was Hamer at 26, at least you can see some longevity in the signings we made.

 

[Charlieblade]

To be honest, not everyone who is leaving needs to be replaced.

For example if we let six players leave and then signed six new ones the squad would still be too big which has been a problem of ours for a few years now. Maybe it would be more practical to let six go (if they are squad players) and then sign just three players as their replacements.

I would argue that you could let these four players go (A Davies, Lowe, Osborn and Couilibaly) and not need to replace them as they won't be in and around the first team next season.

You may want to consider retaining Osborn for his utility value? Injuries and discipline will be greater in a championship season!

A lot depends on our financial status next season, and what money we have, (if any) to spend.

 

[finlaytheblade]

You may want to consider retaining Osborn for his utility value? Injuries and discipline will be greater in a championship season!

A lot depends on our financial status next season, and what money we have, (if any) to spend.

Think your right about Osborne that's if he's happy being a utility player. Just not good enough to hold down a spot in the team.

 

[finlaytheblade]

Anyway.. back to Arblaster.. featured in pre match preview, seems to be getting a bit of attention this week.

All healed up from his superficial injury? Ready to make a surprise substitute appearance this weekend?

It wasn't a superficial injury.A seriouse laceration on the knee with
Muscles and ligaments in close proximity, it seems no seriouse damage was done to them which was fortunate .

 

[GrunkyPeep]

My view on the Ndiaye situation is that we waited until he looked like a superstar and then thought “oh shit, we need to tie this lad down”.

We also refused to play him initially until he signed a new deal.

I’d argue that these things might have gone against us when it came to him making his mind up on a new deal.

We treated him like a kid who owed us big time because we’d signed him from Boreham Wood, we didn’t put him on a pedestal early enough and as a result we lost a generational talent who is completely irreplaceable to a club like us.

You can’t ’make him’ sign a new deal, but behaviours towards players eventually come back and bite you.

With Berge, we touted him round for 3 transfer windows, the lad admitted he was staying in hotels because he didn’t know what was happening.

Again, this isn’t the sign of a club wanting to keep you and I can understand why he was keen to leave in the end.

In both cases it may be that neither of them ever intended to sign a new deal and I may be wrong and the club was tickling their balls from day 1 and they just point blank wanted out.

At risk of being accused of “using any stick to beat the club with” I’ll stick my neck out and say that I don’t think we did enough, early enough.

The same will happen with Anel, but if his performances don’t improve then that won’t be the worst thing.

From the interview with PA that people are quoting, we tried to get Illi to sign a new contract at the end of his debut season.

Unless you are suggesting we get an unproven talent to sign a new contract within the first few months of his initial contract, I'm not sure what else the club could have done.

 

[mattbianco1]

Played for U21s apparently last night.
He played 60mins before being replaced. Expect he'll be in the PL Matchday squad soon

Anybody watch it, or know how he played?

 

[sitwell]

Is he posh, Arblaster seems a bit of a posh name, is his Dad Jonathon the positive Blade ?

 

[bertieblade]

Played for U21s apparently last night.
He played 60mins before being replaced. Expect he'll be in the PL Matchday squad soon

Anybody watch it, or know how he played?

Stands out in that company
Always available and aware of options before he receives the ball, not frightened to put a foot in either

 

[mattbianco1]

Is he posh, Arblaster seems a bit of a posh name, is his Dad Jonathon the positive Blade ?

Not sure of his dad, but his paternal grandfather, Brian was a GK on United's books in the 1960s

 

[Silent Blade]

Not sure of his dad, but his paternal grandfather, Brian was a GK on United's books in the 1960s

Later played for Chesterfield and Barnsley

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Is he posh, Arblaster seems a bit of a posh name, is his Dad Jonathon the positive Blade ?

His grandad, ex-Utd, Barnsley, Chesterfield goalkeeper, was a miner, so doubt he would be regarded as posh.