An absolute clusterf***

[Badger Blade]

---------------------Cooper-------------------

Shackleton - Tanganga - McGuinness - McCallum

------------Riedeweld -- Rothwell -----------

---Donovan --------OHare -----------BBD

--------------------Bamford------------------


Welcome to SUFC 26/27

It's the bench I'd be even more worried about...

 

[Korean Blade]

Been the ale, but hoping Prince comes back and brings his mate Turki on board.

 

[Broomhall Blade]

This.

I honestly don’t see this having much of an impact (if any) on our preparations for the coming season. People need to chill out.

The problem is though we aren't being linked with any players.
Dobbin we seem out of that race for what ever reason.
Coleman a 38 year old still deciding if to even carry on playing.
Sykes gone somewhere else.
Those rumours have been around a few weeks, and while I accept we might have not been actually interested in any off them, there dosent seem to be any fresh rumours. Add in the fact of the non payment of the agreed sale price you can see why people are worried especially when you factor in the sale of Brooks and the pending sale of Peck and possibly Hamer at the very least.

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

---------------------Cooper-------------------

Shackleton - Tanganga - McGuinness - McCallum

------------Riedeweld -- Rothwell -----------

---Donovan --------OHare -----------BBD

--------------------Bamford------------------


Welcome to SUFC 26/27

With a fair wind, some decent coaching and no injury crisis, that's a top 8 championship side..

What's all the negativity about?!?!?!

 

[ckpe147]

---------------------Cooper-------------------

Shackleton - Tanganga - McGuinness - McCallum

------------Riedeweld -- Rothwell -----------

---Donovan --------OHare -----------BBD

--------------------Bamford------------------


Welcome to SUFC 26/27

BBD on loan for a 3rd time. Embarrassing

 

[HeCanDoMagic]

With a fair wind, some decent coaching and no injury crisis, that's a top 8 championship side..

What's all the negativity about?!?!?!

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

Seriously, look at Hulls starting XI last season and tell me it's any better than that...

 

[JOEYDEE]

I am here young eccentric but just short of a billion quid Sorry!!!

What about the heart of gold ...?

 

[PaddysMad]

Millwall were battling top 2 aswell

 

[Snowflake]

Correct me if im wrong but here's the story of COH Sports since taking over..

Agreed £105m with PA.
Expected promotion that season, understandable considering the position we were in, and the backing received in January - although Wilder's fault for not adequately replacing Souttar. Understandable from their point of view sacking Wilder. Clearly duped in by James Bord and his excel spreadsheet, unwilling at first to spend in the summer of 2025, as the new manager brought in briefed the media on multiple occasions that it was frees and loans only...

Season starts disastrously, owners shit the bed, throws 19.1m at transfers that clearly aren't up to the task (except Tanganga maybe). Wilder's phoned back up as Bettis has him on speed dial, still have parachute payments so they back Wilder somewhat in January to try and get into the play offs. That backfires. Wilder delivers lip service up until the end of the season about how there's going to be so many changes in the summer. He probably knows thats bollocks, but will not argue against the owners as he's been brought back in.
Brooks sold to balance books, classic summer where we approach targets as loanees only.
COH renage on payments to PA as they don't believe the asset is worth the £105m now.. well it isn't, but you agreed that price so pay up.
Again, this summer is shaping up as a complete and utter clusterfuck in terms of transfers, as we've signed a 19yo on loan from Brentford, and that's the sum of it currently.

Im seriously concerned about the direction of the club. Its clear to see that the owners put their eggs in one basket of getting promoted in 24/25, in the aim of probably marketing a premier league club to sell. Thats a classic venture capitalist move.

Now, they feel lumbered with a club, where the realisation of owning a 2nd tier club means sticking your hands in your pockets. I really worry that we'll not end up like them down the road, but more like Barnsley. Where the owner does enough to keep the lights on, and thats it... Dark times ahead i think.

I think there are several guesses at what the owners think and/or are doing, which makes the generality of your thread a little weak.
By the end of this calendar year several areas may have become clearer.

 

[Snowflake]

Other worry is what's it going to look like if/when we don't get promoted this season? If they can't afford to pay/run the club now

What evidence is there that they cannot afford to run the club at present ? Confusion over contractual payments to a previous owner do not equate to not having finance to run the club.

 

[Snowflake]

The problem is though we aren't being linked with any players.
Dobbin we seem out of that race for what ever reason.
Coleman a 38 year old still deciding if to even carry on playing.
Sykes gone somewhere else.
Those rumours have been around a few weeks, and while I accept we might have not been actually interested in any off them, there dosent seem to be any fresh rumours. Add in the fact of the non payment of the agreed sale price you can see why people are worried especially when you factor in the sale of Brooks and the pending sale of Peck and possibly Hamer at the very least.

For years we have complained that the club doesn’t keep its transfer dealings secret, so worrying about the lack of rumours is a little non productive.

 

[Zeblades34]

What evidence is there that they cannot afford to run the club at present ? Confusion over contractual payments to a previous owner do not equate to not having finance to run the club.

Can't be confused in a huge financial agreement of £105m surely especially 3 months on the spin?

 

[bartman]

BBD on loan for a 3rd time. Embarrassing

Why would it be embarrassing ?

 

[ckpe147]

Why would it be embarrassing ?

If you want a player for at least 18-24 months, purchase him. Its small club mentality

 

[Jan Age]

Wot the long for the fans to turn if we get bad start … expect boos by 5th game in aimed at the owners not the players.

Essentially with no communication comes a lack of trust … they would be better off at least giving us an idea of where we are as a club than nothing.

If we are skint just say so and be transparent about it

 

[54yrblade]

Hang on a minute

Shacks is on the grass

Are you not excited?

I cant contain myself .....

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

Hang on a minute

Shacks is on the grass

Are you not excited?

I cant contain myself .....

Is that to help with the pain?

 

[Kenworthy’s Tash]

This.

I honestly don’t see this having much of an impact (if any) on our preparations for the coming season. People need to chill out.

I dont see how it wouldn’t? Surely if you owe £35m to a football creditor (and that should be straight forward to prove), how could the EFL and football regulator allow us to continue buying players?

 

[Kenworthy’s Tash]

What evidence is there that they cannot afford to run the club at present ? Confusion over contractual payments to a previous owner do not equate to not having finance to run the club.

Well that in itself raises serious questions if they have the funds but chose not to settle contractual payments totalling £35m???

 

[Pintor75]

The problem is though we aren't being linked with any players.
Dobbin we seem out of that race for what ever reason.
Coleman a 38 year old still deciding if to even carry on playing.
Sykes gone somewhere else.
Those rumours have been around a few weeks, and while I accept we might have not been actually interested in any off them, there dosent seem to be any fresh rumours. Add in the fact of the non payment of the agreed sale price you can see why people are worried especially when you factor in the sale of Brooks and the pending sale of Peck and possibly Hamer at the very least.

Agree, we were waiting for the end of season to trim the squad and bring new players in, yet nothing ,bar a kid on loan. Wilder should have a book full of players that he would be interested in, this is his forte wheeling and dealing, it's not like the world is holding him back, come on get someone in and not just journeyman and oldies

 

[brownblade]

The Prince said he'll always be a Blades fan. So it'd be quite surprising to do the complete opposite and get us liquidated

 

[brownblade]

Even if we've all considered it at least once.

 

[FriethBlade]

What evidence is there that they cannot afford to run the club at present ? Confusion over contractual payments to a previous owner do not equate to not having finance to run the club.

Confusion you say? It doesnt seem that confusing in that they have missed 2 contractually agreed payments amounting to £35m.

If there had been any kind of earn out clauses in the purchase related to performance based metrics( promotion, league position, profitability) surely these would have been mentioned by now. But given they pulled the same trick on the first deferred payment it seems they are doing the same again and that this time they have also altered the structure of the takeover vehicle in the hope of avoiding some or all of the remaining payments.

 

[Broomhall Blade]

For years we have complained that the club doesn’t keep its transfer dealings secret, so worrying about the lack of rumours is a little non productive.

True and good if that's the case, but do you truly believe that or is the real reason we are not looking to sign any players.
Knowing United i know which one my last penny is on.

 

[Snowflake]

Confusion you say? It doesnt seem that confusing in that they have missed 2 contractually agreed payments amounting to £35m.

If there had been any kind of earn out clauses in the purchase related to performance based metrics( promotion, league position, profitability) surely these would have been mentioned by now. But given they pulled the same trick on the first deferred payment it seems they are doing the same again and that this time they have also altered the structure of the takeover vehicle in the hope of avoiding some or all of the remaining payments.

The confusion is of those that comment as if part of the deal, when the mindset of the owners and previous owner is unknown other than to them.

 

[pedro]

Says your 79 Pedro.

ok eccentric!!

 

[bartman]

If you want a player for at least 18-24 months, purchase him. Its small club mentality

But we might not want a player for 18-24 months who may be on a salary more that what we can afford to pay. We may not want to committ to a 3/4 year contract with a transfer fee which may place us in financial difficulties ( or even into more financial difficulties depending on what or wbo you believe)

 

[Tony_Kaufman]

My biggest worry with this club is the reluctance to sell to accumulate. We hold onto players for too long and either sell them at a loss or they end up leaving for free because we screwed up contract negotiations and left it too late. We don't sell them when they're at a peak. We should've sold Hamer last summer when we had a chance as O'Hare thrived in his absence then wasn't as effective and binned to the bench when he returned. O'Hare would have been his natural replacement and we could've signed two permanent players in other positions with the money received from the sale of Hamer.

Coventry bankrolled their promotion with the sales of the likes of Hamer and Gyokeres and reinvested it into a promotion winning team over the course of three seasons. This was largely down to smart recruitment due to having a Director of Football leaving Lampard to be a coach.

Bristol City now have a Director of Football and a smart young coach in Michael Skubala. They will no doubt push on and leave us in their wake both on and off the pitch. Even Plymouth Argyle and Lincoln City have a Director of Football and have acquired great young players that they will move on for great profits for League One. Even Macclesfield achieved their back to back promotions through smart recruitment from a Director of Football and they're not even in the football league.

What do we have? A failed attempt at data driven recruitment. A great idea because it has proven to work for so many clubs with Directors of Football, whilst we used AI to review the data and allowed a poker player to con us into buying and the selling players from and to clubs that he'd invested in. Now all we have is Wilder without a pot to piss in backed up by Mike Allen and Jamie Hoyland, the head of recruitment and chief scout who have followed Wilder around like obedient lap dogs at other clubs that he's ultimately failed at, whilst signing largely turgid crap for the club or good old loans in the bigger picture. Wilder in comparison to Lampard and Skubala is an old school manager stuck in his ways which once worked ten years ago but now no longer works. But hey, if you pull on the shirt then don't forget to thump the badge as that's what counts after all.

We shouldn't be scared of selling the likes of Brooks or Peck if the money from each sale is reinvested in 1 or 2 players from each sale, and not on bloody loans, loans, loans.

This club needs a Director of Football and a head coach who can develop and improve the players irrespective of the results. I'm not saying getting rid of Wilder, though he does seem to be as much of the problem as he is a solution to our long term aims, but to compete in the modern game you need to have a modern set up and model. We don't. We're an old school club in a modern game refusing or not knowing how to change.

 

[FriethBlade]

The confusion is of those that comment as if part of the deal, when the mindset of the owners and previous owner is unknown other than to them.

Mindset...yep that stands up well in court