Press Conference Summary - Lincoln City (H)

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https://www.sufc.co.uk/news/2026/october/09/press-conference/

Brief summary again for anyone interested. Heavily paraphrased. Got as far as Danny Hall's questions but they seemed a bit rambly and hard to follow/summarise, and I gave up so just the first half I'm afraid.

Rob Staton

how was international break and what u prioritised during it?

- long (laughs). Too long but have to bow down to our leaders. 7 players away - Hamza,BBD,Sydie,Kitch, Tom cannon,Chongy - potentially 4 or 5 of those start v Lincoln and not been working with those players. Other managers agree too many games at start of season. Hopefully have full quartet of players that's been injured back, def 3 of the 4. Meetings reviewing individual and team performances. Working on creating more, being better around final third. Been a valuable time but probably a week to long.

What's the key to gaining a result in this game to enable you to go on a run?

- Not kidding ourselves - teams at top of division playing well. Swansea probably all A's and B's , we are B'c and C's poss some D's. My responsbilty but on the players as well. Looked at tactics/formation. 3-4-3 worked v Wolves and only two wonder goals stopped us v Stoke.

You mentioned for a lot of the last 10 yrs u carried the weight of the club on your shoulders - whats that like?

- become used to it. When you see teams spending £180 to 200 million - Sunlderland,Coventry,ipswich,hull , Leeds going straight back up etc there's been a couple of disappointing periods but tough period now, it hurts, but not been many of those bad periods. Steve's interview was good and I'm happy to deal with stuff as well. We're resetting as a club. Owners had a lot of stick, for me it's consequence of what happened last year - they were ambitious but backed the wrong horse and the wrong jockey. They put £20m in for players plus wages. Clawing that back now inc off the wage bill.


If you are honest how much attention do you pay to what people say about job u doing?

- I understand, live in the city, don't go on social media. its how football is have understood that since was 16. Do I enjoy it? no I don't. Would like it to be positive things being said , don't enjoy our club or me getting bashed about. Been a lot of good spells. This is a disappointing start but only 1/5 into season. Working to find solutions. Been a slow start but don't expect slow middle and end, more to come from this team. Brought in battle hardened players over youth. Have looked abroad before, cost us a lot of money and we're resetting off the back of that. Our model is academy(pricesless), seasoned players that I trust. We do use a data company, have looked abroad - Panos ,Sander Berge. Culture of Bristish,Scandi players suits us (mentioned Moyes again). Hoyland and Mike Allen out there 24/7. Loan mkt is as poor as it's been, and how late they come. Got Ayew but lost O'Hare at end of window. Ayew a good acquisition.

What u made of Lincoln's start?

- positive, like we were coming up. Play a certain way (no criticism)and got results. They've has 2-3 years building their team. Be a tough nut to crack and prob sellout away fans.
I thought we were holding out to the international break ? Now it's a problem cos players are away??? Really?
 
I just find it weird the way we put restrictions on ourselves and then complain about the restrictions.

On one hand there’s a comment that the loan market has been tough as has the free market.

On the other hand we seem happy to restrict ourselves to UK and apparently Scandinavia.

Yet we make no link between those two statements. For one, a number of the Scandinavian seasons run differently so the amount of frees directly from there at the time our season ends, will be minimal.

It is an antiquated view to be honest. The world is smaller nowadays. Look at Brighton. They plan ahead. They get players, send them on loan for a season or two then pick them. Don’t tell me you can only plan for the future when you’re in the top flight.

It’s not like when Sabella came over and he’d probably only seen England on a map. People are far more well travelled. It’s not 1980 anymore and it’s not as if football hasn't evolved here. It’s not muck or nettles, jumpers for goalposts. There are plenty of other foreign players in the Championship.

These just feel like the limitations of the management, what they are comfortable with. There’s actually no need to paint our club this way. Our culture is one of a club that is nearly so many times but ultimately won nothing in over a century. It’s not necessarily something worth holding that dear.
 
I just find it weird the way we put restrictions on ourselves and then complain about the restrictions.

On one hand there’s a comment that the loan market has been tough as has the free market.

On the other hand we seem happy to restrict ourselves to UK and apparently Scandinavia.

Yet we make no link between those two statements. For one, a number of the Scandinavian seasons run differently so the amount of frees directly from there at the time our season ends, will be minimal.

It is an antiquated view to be honest. The world is smaller nowadays. Look at Brighton. They plan ahead. They get players, send them on loan for a season or two then pick them. Don’t tell me you can only plan for the future when you’re in the top flight.

It’s not like when Sabella came over and he’d probably only seen England on a map. People are far more well travelled. It’s not 1980 anymore and it’s not as if football hasn't evolved here. It’s not muck or nettles, jumpers for goalposts. There are plenty of other foreign players in the Championship.

These just feel like the limitations of the management, what they are comfortable with. There’s actually no need to paint our club this way. Our culture is one of a club that is nearly so many times but ultimately won nothing in over a century. It’s not necessarily something worth holding that dear.
It also weakens our hand with other clubs who will push prices up knowing our recruitment pool is smaller.

Even if Wilder thinks it privately, to say it in public is madness from a business perspective.
 



It's hard to say what he means, honestly. I think the charitable interpretation is that he's most comfortable working with players that are familiar with British football culture. But even that is basically acknowledging his own limitations as a manager.

I'd actually enjoyed the presser up to that point and then my heart sank.
It doesn't make sense even in terms of British football culture.
If all our opponents were old school British style and the foreign players couldn't adapt then maybe.
But, firstly if they have attributes we want, they would adapt enough. And second, our opponents aren't 1970's or 80s teams, they are teams who have evolved , so we need to as well.
 
Because of this stupid culture thing.

Remind me where that has got us without going back five years
Didn't we break our record points tally in this division 2 years ago?
So while you guys count negatively. You could say.. record points tally. Kept us up last season. 8 games into this one.
 
First paragraph, fair point actually.

Look we’re not going to agree but it’s also not worth falling out over right?

Have a good weekend
 
Didn't we break our record points tally in this division 2 years ago?
So while you guys count negatively. You could say.. record points tally. Kept us up last season. 8 games into this one.
I think we just had better players didn't we? I'm really not sure this culture thing is quite the marginal gain Wilder makes it out to be
 
I just find it weird the way we put restrictions on ourselves and then complain about the restrictions.

On one hand there’s a comment that the loan market has been tough as has the free market.

On the other hand we seem happy to restrict ourselves to UK and apparently Scandinavia.

Yet we make no link between those two statements. For one, a number of the Scandinavian seasons run differently so the amount of frees directly from there at the time our season ends, will be minimal.

It is an antiquated view to be honest. The world is smaller nowadays. Look at Brighton. They plan ahead. They get players, send them on loan for a season or two then pick them. Don’t tell me you can only plan for the future when you’re in the top flight.

It’s not like when Sabella came over and he’d probably only seen England on a map. People are far more well travelled. It’s not 1980 anymore and it’s not as if football hasn't evolved here. It’s not muck or nettles, jumpers for goalposts. There are plenty of other foreign players in the Championship.

These just feel like the limitations of the management, what they are comfortable with. There’s actually no need to paint our club this way. Our culture is one of a club that is nearly so many times but ultimately won nothing in over a century. It’s not necessarily something worth holding that dear.
He also mentioned culture in the context of the city itself and I think that’s something else that has left him behind. Maybe that old culture still exists in his personal bubble of retired footballers and ex BBC mates, but that doesn’t represent my experience of Sheffield in 2026.
 
I can't believe he mentioned Panos as an example of looking abroad. The same Panos that made the bench three times and played 15 minutes against reading in the cup? That Panos?

Screenshot_20261010-091306.webp

Does he not realised that it's 2026 and signing two forrun players 6 years ago is not a good example to back up some point he's desperately trying to make?

He's absolutely lost the plot.
 
I can't believe he mentioned Panos as an example of looking abroad. The same Panos that made the bench three times and played 15 minutes against reading in the cup? That Panos?

View attachment 245404

Does he not realised that it's 2026 and signing two forrun players 6 years ago is not a good example to back up some point he's desperately trying to make?

He's absolutely lost the plot.

Why can't he have a shave and smarten himself up for these press conferences he looks a mess and as he is the boss he should set an example to the players by being smart and tidy
 
Didn't we break our record points tally in this division 2 years ago?
So while you guys count negatively. You could say.. record points tally. Kept us up last season. 8 games into this one.
We did with the third biggest budget in the league and still managed only three points against all the teams who went up
A massive failure
 
Didn't we break our record points tally in this division 2 years ago?
So while you guys count negatively. You could say.. record points tally. Kept us up last season. 8 games into this one.
Get it on the honours board
 
I can't believe he mentioned Panos as an example of looking abroad. The same Panos that made the bench three times and played 15 minutes against reading in the cup? That Panos?

View attachment 245404

Does he not realised that it's 2026 and signing two forrun players 6 years ago is not a good example to back up some point he's desperately trying to make?

He's absolutely lost the plot.
I thought I’d explore that little gem.

We signed the following for cash under Wilder domestically and they left for nothing:

Egan - 4m
Norwood - 2m
McBurnie - 17.5m
Mousset - 10m
Freeman - 5m
Osborn - 3.5m
Brewster - 23m
Burke - 5m
Lowe - 3.5m
Grbic - 2m
LOSS - 76.5M.

We signed the following domestically under Wilder and they left for a fee:

Robinson - 7m, sold for 2m + Burke (Who left for free)
Ramsdale - 18.5m, sold 25m
Bogle - 3.5m, sold 5.5m
Moore - 1.5m, sold 2m
GAIN - 4M.

We signed the following from overseas under Wilder:

Berge - 22m, sold 15m
Coulibaly - 1.8m, sold 40k
LOSS - 8.76M.

We signed the below for cash under Wilder and still here:

Burrows - 3.2m
Cooper - 2m
Cannon - 7m initially.

I’d envisage we make gains on the first one, loss on the third and may keep the second long term or make a decent gain.

Under Hecky we signed the following domestic based players:

Archer - 18m, sold 16.5m
Hamer - 15m, sold 6m
Trusty - 5m, sold 6.5m
LOSS - 9M

Under Hecky we signed the following from overseas:

Ahmedhodzic - 4m, sold 6.5m
Souza - 11m, sold 13m
Slimane - 2.2m, sold 1.2m
Traore - 4m, sold 4m
GAIN - 3.3M

Under Sellés we signed the following domestic based players for fees, but all still here:

McGuinness - 5m
Tanganaga- 7m
Matos - 1m
TOTAL - 13m

The following foreign players were signed with Sellés as manager but primarily Bord:

Zatterstrom - 3m
Nwanchukwu- 1m
Caceres - 0.8m
Ukaki - 0.5m
Polendakov - 0.5m

Probably a good 5m net to be lost there as most will be given away.

These lists discount those players who we signed for free or through the youth and sold for decent fees like Ndiaye, Osula, O’Hare.

This is purely about spending money and the outcome. You also can’t discount the usage value of some of these players. For example Egan and Norwood paid off their fees and so you could argue did Hamer.

But do you really conclude that we tried foreign and it failed?

You’d massively argue we tried domestic under Wilder and it failed if you’re pointing losses on fees.

You’d also argue that foreign or not, we’ve lost considerable money on transfers under Chris and he’s failed to buy a player, add value and move them on other than Ramsdale of any note.

You’d argue financially we did well with foreign transfers under Hecky.

For domestic moves under Hecky the main loss was Hamer and we know he justified his investment.

You could conclude simply that you should put all your trust in random poker players and likewise someone might want to remind Chris that Mikey Allen and Jamie Hoyland were on the McGuinness and Chong deals as well as Tanganga.

Either way we’ve hardly done any foreign deals to make such a bold conclusion and the main loss was on Berge who Wilder signed. The rest happened to be AI nonsense and fine to use against Bord but it’s wild to apply this to all foreign deals.

His point just isn’t justified, most of the money last season went on Chong, McGuinness and Tanganga, who would all fit his foreign but domestic sweet spot.

Though I haven’t listed them you’d conclude Wilder builds better with little to no money, is lost when it comes to spending big but either way don’t expect a financial return on investment, hope it is on the field return.
 
But do you really conclude that we tried foreign and it failed?
I appreciate you putting in the hard yards to figure this out but I think the stuff about losing money on overseas players is mostly noise and nonsense.

The real issue is the kind of players Wilder feels comfortable working with. He doesn't back himself to build a successful team with anything other than guys like Joe Rothwell and Matt Doherty.
 



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