Expectation management (vs the easy way out).

[Jan Age]

Don't say things like "Europe in 5 years" then? Totally disagree with the ownership thing. They hide behind firing other people and are more responsible for twisting the truth than anyone.

McCabe and the Prince have hidden behind others for too long. Come and face the fans and face the music with some gun barrel straight honesty. Then they will get all the respect in the world.

Agreed... We are in a worse position now then 3/4 weeks ago when it seems fans frustration peaked.

The only thing that's happened is that McCabe has released a non-statement. Which told us nothing. Most fans seem to have been appeased by this and so we will carry on along the same lines of apathy as we have all season.

Nothing changes everything remains the same.

 

[pommpey]

Don't say things like "Europe in 5 years" then? Totally disagree with the ownership thing. They hide behind firing other people and are more responsible for twisting the truth than anyone.

McCabe and the Prince have hidden behind others for too long. Come and face the fans and face the music with some gun barrel straight honesty. Then they will get all the respect in the world.

McCabe did do just that. But instead of issuing a mea culpa and doing one of two things - resigning and putting the club up for sale or pledging proper investement into the playing staff he predicatbly levelled the blame on the football managers.

Incredible hubris in my book.

One thing McCabe isn't is niave. He is clearly upping his stake in the club and couldn't give a fat fuck about what is happening out on the park, whilst finding the likes of Phipps and the team managers to blame.

pommpey

 

[Esablade]

Like most fans, I'm sure the board thought along the lines of " we just missed out last year, with a 'better' manager, we'll just make it this year"

Unlike most fans the board knew this season would be one of offloading Clough's 'failures' and, it appears that at least half the board knew they weren't going to stump up for players unless the other half matched it...

It's only a rumour but it appears to fit how the season panned out re: we'll boost squad in Jan and then nobody coming in.


Let battle commence.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Let me preface what I'm going to say by making clear that I, and I guess most Blades fans don't, and should never, see consolidation in League One as acceptable. It can only be explained as a symptom of failure at one or more levels and a knot that must be untied as a matter of urgency.
.
When Jamie Murphy was sold in the summer transfer window, I told my younger brother (12 years old) with whom I go to matches, that it'd be extremely unlikely that we'd go up unless we invested heavily in three or four top class players at this level - with the fee. That squad had only just scraped in to the play offs and major weaknesses throughout the team were apparent. It was also known that our other talisman and galvanising figure, John Brayford, was set to be injured for a considerable amount of time. My point, - which I'm getting to, - is should the club have set the bar lower in order to help the club, manager, fanbase and ultimately themselves in the long run?
If the club statement was: "the wage bill is too high, and the squad too big and not of adequate quality, we shouldn't be considered among the favourites for promotion", the consequences for Adkins would be myriad:
He could have invested in younger development players, making his aim automatic promotion by the end of next season - or even the final year of his contract. He could've fast tracked young players development and put up with the expected inconsistencies of Adams, Kieron Wallace, DCL etc knowing that game time now may reap benefits next season - despite potentially costing us points this. Phipps has already started making moves in this direction by shifting blame to Clough. In the summer they were telling us that the sun was shining when in reality there were big black clouds over the club. I always check the weather before a long journey so I can take my coat( if the weatherman gets it wrong I curse them)..They have lost a lot of goodwill, time and possibly support with this approach. Should the club give us realistic, achievable timeframes for our ambitions and give our manager a reasonable chance, or should they carry on with the bs and spin?

Btw: "the easy way out" is we're going for promotion blah, blah, blah, when our hopes are slim at best.

On one hand, had they taken that approach, they probably wouldn’t be getting the backlash they are now for misleading us. On the other hand, this league is so piss poor that had our players just shown a bit of gumption and bottle, top six was achievable. If we’d managed to harbour some sort of team spirit within the group, I’m sure we’d have ground out the few more results needed to have a push at it. We have Billy Sharp and John Brayford who would get in pretty much any League 1 team. Adams had shown a lot of potential and we all expected a lot from him this season. Then there was the possibility of Coutts becoming the player he is supposed to be. Add Hammond, Edgar, Woolford, Sammon etc. with their reputations at the time of signing rather than how they’ve turned out and there was cause to think that we had a decent chance. After all, the teams in the top six are extremely ordinary. Imagine any of them against our 2011/2012 team. Unfortunately, it hasn’t happened. We don’t appear to have any team spirit and the new recruits have failed to live up to expectation. Adams has had good patches but hasn’t stamped his authority on the season. So we’ve fallen short.


I think the thing they got wrong was talking up what we would do in January, our “attempts” to sign players, “reinvestment”, etc. Phipps has deliberately led the fans up the garden path this season and to claim he has been misinterpreted after stinks. He’s proven he’s no more trustworthy than McCabe when it comes to managing fans expectations. They’ve now lost any goodwill they had since the prince came on board. But one thing that does do (at least where some fans are concerned) is take some of the pressure of Adkins. Fans are beginning to realise that the board are making it difficult for any manager to succeed and that the only chance a manager has is to be given time and the chance to rid the squad of deadwood in the hope of bringing in players who can generate a team spirit to get us where we need to be.

 

[We'reAllBladesAren'tWe]

I wonder how the board's 5 year plan to get to the Premier League is going.

 

[super_pig]

I wonder how the board's 5 year plan to get to the Premier League is going.

could do with re evaluation i'd say

 

[nopigfansintown]

bump for poker blade

 

[PokerBlade]

Public relations, or "spin", matters. There was a sense in which the Jamie Murphy sale could've been viewed as one of the most positive pieces of businesses in Blades history. And that would've been in saying that Murphy was looking for a move up, and so we went right out and made sure a quality player came in in his stead. It's the only time I can think of that one of our top players has gone out and an expensive replacement (different position aside) has already been found. Usually it's McDonald out for nobody in. In this case it was top scorer out, top scorer in.

Instead we were told there were no plans to move Murphy, we expect him to stay, Woolford and Sharp were additions not replacements, and yet we all sat and had to watch him as he inevitably waved goodbye and no further incomings occurred.

There wouldn't have been anything wrong with saying that a squad that obviously needed reducing, needed reducing. There wouldn't have been much objection in saying there were deficiencies in the squad (we played a play-off semi without a recognised centre back ffs) and it would take a while to re-balance the side. It would even have been admirable to say, where quality is available we're happy to pay money out like with Sharp and Brayford, but the side needs wholesale changes and that can't happen overnight.

But no, Phipps prefers to ramble about how no signings in January was a great window for us, and McCabe prefers to rage on RS about how he's pissed tens of millions up the wall and we should be happy to have a Desso pitch and a shit team to show for it.

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

Public relations, or "spin", matters. There was a sense in which the Jamie Murphy sale could've been viewed as one of the most positive pieces of businesses in Blades history. And that would've been in saying that Murphy was looking for a move up, and so we went right out and made sure a quality player came in in his stead. It's the only time I can think of that one of our top players has gone out and an expensive replacement (different position aside) has already been found. Usually it's McDonald out for nobody in. In this case it was top scorer out, top scorer in.

Instead we were told there were no plans to move Murphy, we expect him to stay, Woolford and Sharp were additions not replacements, and yet we all sat and had to watch him as he inevitably waved goodbye and no further incomings occurred.

There wouldn't have been anything wrong with saying that a squad that obviously needed reducing, needed reducing. There wouldn't have been much objection in saying there were deficiencies in the squad (we played a play-off semi without a recognised centre back ffs) and it would take a while to re-balance the side. It would even have been admirable to say, where quality is available we're happy to pay money out like with Sharp and Brayford, but the side needs wholesale changes and that can't happen overnight.

Great post - and I do sometimes wonder if there is anyone doing PR at the club.

You don't want everyone putting out the same bland platitudes but communications are missing a touch of professionalism I think.

McCabe's latest video on the official YouTube channel (on 10% off STs) is again well intentioned and I think he thinks he's doing the right thing but it comes across as amateurish. 10% of STs should really be pushed as a great offer. They really don't make enough of this.

Also I think it was really poorly advised of Jim to say the Murphy money will go straight into the first team (or whatever the exact phrase was).

The obvious interpretation is that we'll be signing a £1.5m player (fantastic!), whereas he probably meant it would be invested in wages or loans (oh). That really should have been made much clearer.

For all its faults and shortcomings the club has plenty to be proud of - and they could be doing a much better job of communicating it.

But no, Phipps prefers to ramble about how no signings in January was a great window for us, and McCabe prefers to rage on RS about how he's pissed tens of millions up the wall and we should be happy to have a Desso pitch and a shit team to show for it.

For me this bit is way too negative for me. Phipps wasn't rambling and McCabe wasn't raging.

 

[PokerBlade]

I stand by those descriptions. McCabe's RS interview where he snapped back at Paul Walker (I think?) for being asked "And have you spent that money?" with "Have I!?" with righteous indignation made me cringe. It wasn't an unfair question nor an accusation about McCabe having his hand in club funds. There were other problems I had with the answers in that interview not related to his attitude.

And Phipps' post-JTW spiel was embarrassing. If we didn't find any targets worth the money that was one thing, but trying to spin not signing anyone as a major positive - that's definitely rambling.

 

[PokerBlade]

Either way, the long and short of it is that this season is only a major failure when compared to statements about promotion as the sole ambition. It wouldn't have been unreasonable to say Adkins needs time to decimate and rebuild an oversized squad.

 

[PeteBlade]

Great post - and I do sometimes wonder if there is anyone doing PR at the club.

I thought that's what you were employed to do?

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

I stand by those descriptions. McCabe's RS interview where he snapped back at Paul Walker (I think?) for being asked "And have you spent that money?" with "Have I!?" with righteous indignation made me cringe. It wasn't an unfair question nor an accusation about McCabe having his hand in club funds.

I think we have wildly differing interpretations of rage then.

 

[Bartleby]

Good post. I think they misjudged it big time by setting an expectation of promotion this season. I do also feel a bit patronised when I hear Adkins interviews and see Jim Phipps naive posts on twitter and facebook. If they were running a company that I was employed in I would be seriously thinking of getting out.

On another tack your profile says you are 73 and yet you have a 12 yr old brother??

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

Either way, the long and short of it is that this season is only a major failure when compared to statements about promotion as the sole ambition. It wouldn't have been unreasonable to say Adkins needs time to decimate and rebuild an oversized squad.

This is where I think the point fails totally - and the club got their PR and their aims right.

Publicly there's no way on earth Adkins could, or should, have come in and said anything other than our aim is promotion. In fact I still think he's right to say that is our aim this season. (Especially as he has experience of gaining promotion from a similar position.)

He believed he could get this squad promoted. Turns out they are too injury prone, self-destructive, inconsistent, unfit, unhealthy, or otherwise not up to the job, the squad needed purging before recruitment internal and external could advance, and we can't get loans/transfers in we're after. He can't do the job the way he wants to*.

His job is not dispassionate analysis. That's for pundits and the media. His job is to rally the troops to the cause - and an admission of defeat before the outset is just dreadful.

Phil Brown went down the route of we haven't got a chance. Some do. It works for them.

Adkins is saying we keep going till we're out of it. I think that's the right way.

Personally I do think it's out of sight, but there's no way I would be saying that to the players if I was in his position. We made Walsall look very ordinary on Saturday. Six more games like that and we will be very close. And that should be the message instilling belief in the players.

Realistically I'd expect more inconsistency - and consequently dropped points.

*Maybe Warnock could have got this lot up. I really don't know.

 

[Esablade]

This is where I think the point fails totally - and the club got their PR and their aims right.

Publicly there's no way on earth Adkins could, or should, have come in and said anything other than our aim is promotion. In fact I still think he's right to say that is our aim this season. (Especially as he has experience of gaining promotion from a similar position.)

He believed he could get this squad promoted. Turns out they are too injury prone, self-destructive, inconsistent, unfit, unhealthy, or otherwise not up to the job, the squad needed purging before recruitment internal and external could advance, and we can't get loans/transfers in we're after. He can't do the job the way he wants to*.

His job is not dispassionate analysis. That's for pundits and the media. His job is to rally the troops to the cause - and an admission of defeat before the outset is just dreadful.

Phil Brown went down the route of we haven't got a chance. Some do. It works for them.

Adkins is saying we keep going till we're out of it. I think that's the right way.

Personally I do think it's out of sight, but there's no way I would be saying that to the players if I was in his position. We made Walsall look very ordinary on Saturday. Six more games like that and we will be very close. And that should be the message instilling belief in the players.

Realistically I'd expect more inconsistency - and consequently dropped points.

*Maybe Warnock could have got this lot up. I really don't know.

Warnock would have got most of this lot 'out'..not up...it would have been 'fisticuff's a dawn' with tantrums and tiara's..

 

[PokerBlade]

I think we have wildly differing interpretations of rage then.

Semantics. Call it angry, belligerent, hostile, or whatever.

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

Semantics. Call it angry, belligerent, hostile, or whatever.

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

Rage - Danny Boyle style

Rage - Kevin McCabe style

 

[PokerBlade]

This is where I think the point fails totally - and the club got their PR and their aims right.

Publicly there's no way on earth Adkins could, or should, have come in and said anything other than our aim is promotion. In fact I still think he's right to say that is our aim this season. (Especially as he has experience of gaining promotion from a similar position.)

This is where good PR becomes shameless spin though. Promotion as a realistic target is something that top clubs in a division have. Promotion as a vague ambition for the future is something that everyone has. Promotion this season as an aim is akin to my aim of bedding Natalie Portman. It's not impossible, but I don't have the basic requirements in place.

If the club really thought that Murphy out, Sharp in, plus a few loans, was going to reach automatic promotion then they were utterly deluded.

He believed he could get this squad promoted. Turns out they are too injury prone, self-destructive, inconsistent, unfit, unhealthy, or otherwise not up to the job, the squad needed purging before recruitment internal and external could advance, and we can't get loans/transfers in we're after. He can't do the job the way he wants to*.

His job is not dispassionate analysis. That's for pundits and the media. His job is to rally the troops to the cause - and an admission of defeat before the outset is just dreadful.

Phil Brown went down the route of we haven't got a chance. Some do. It works for them.

Adkins is saying we keep going till we're out of it. I think that's the right way.

Personally I do think it's out of sight, but there's no way I would be saying that to the players if I was in his position. We made Walsall look very ordinary on Saturday. Six more games like that and we will be very close. And that should be the message instilling belief in the players.

Realistically I'd expect more inconsistency - and consequently dropped points.

*Maybe Warnock could have got this lot up. I really don't know.

Certainly, as you say, he has to be positive about his squad and his chances if only for team morale. But he also said that it would take at least two transfer windows to do the business he needed, and that he wanted to be in the pack in January where he'd make the additions needed. Summer was fairly empty for us, and January brought nothing, so in that regard Adkins didn't do, for whatever reasons, what he said was required to get this squad up. Business he said needed doing wasn't done, and he never said he had a squad that was ready.

And anyway, I'm not saying the board or manager should have admitted that the squad was awful and promotion out of sight before the season began. I'm saying that the only line from the club was that promotion was the sole aim and everything would be provided to make that happen.

That's the lens through which the board can be considered dishonest, incompetent, or both.

 

[PokerBlade]

I think we have wildly differing interpretations of rage then.

verb

1. 1.
   feel or express violent uncontrollable anger.
   "he raged at the futility of it all"
   synonyms: be angry, be furious, be enraged, be incensed, be infuriated, seethe,be beside oneself, have a fit, boil, be boiling over, rant, rave, rant and rave, storm, fume, spit, breathe fire, burn;

Go with this one. And then stop being so dreadfully literal in defence of an awful interview.

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

verb

1. 1.
   feel or express violent uncontrollable anger.
   "he raged at the futility of it all"
   synonyms: be angry, be furious, be enraged, be incensed, be infuriated, seethe,be beside oneself, have a fit, boil, be boiling over, rant, rave, rant and rave, storm, fume, spit, breathe fire, burn;

Go with this one. And then stop being so dreadfully literal in defence of an awful interview.

I thought the interview could've been better - but he got the main points across.

The bit where he became violent and uncontrollably angry was a poor show.

Rage!

 

[nopigfansintown]

Good post. I think they misjudged it big time by setting an expectation of promotion this season. I do also feel a bit patronised when I hear Adkins interviews and see Jim Phipps naive posts on twitter and facebook. If they were running a company that I was employed in I would be seriously thinking of getting out.

On another tack your profile says you are 73 and yet you have a 12 yr old brother??

Poetic license. I'm 28 fyi. He's my youngest brother who I've indoctrinated in all things blades.

 

[Bartleby]

Poetic license. I'm 28 fyi. He's my youngest brother who I've indoctrinated in all things blades.

Fair enough

 

[micksterblade]

If the board came out and said this season is one of consolidation, how many season tickets, pay on the day fans would we have managed to entice to home games.

It just wont be said, just Adkins hinting that the squad wasn't strong enough for promotion at the 125 do.

 

[Champagneblade]

In the Championship if we were having financial difficulties then I'd concur on managing expectations.

In League One though, when you're a club our size, anything other than targeting automatic promotion is unacceptable, surely?

 

[Jacobsenthecrab]

verb

1. 1.
   feel or express violent uncontrollable anger.
   "he raged at the futility of it all"
   synonyms: be angry, be furious, be enraged, be incensed, be infuriated, seethe,be beside oneself, have a fit, boil, be boiling over, rant, rave, rant and rave, storm, fume, spit, breathe fire, burn;

Go with this one. And then stop being so dreadfully literal in defence of an awful interview.

To be fair to McCabe if someone questioned my integrity and honesty after spending millions on this shower of sh*t I'd rip them a new one as well. I thought his comment about 'if there are proper people interested' was a good one, basically if you haven't got the cash to do it then shut up.

 

[Harry's Game]

I have managed my expectations for next season, I don't expect us to be anywhere near top two.

Play offs is the best we can hope for next season and hope we can break the jinx.

 

[PeteBlade]

To be fair to McCabe if someone questioned my integrity and honesty after spending millions on this shower of sh*t I'd rip them a new one as well. I thought his comment about 'if there are proper people interested' was a good one, basically if you haven't got the cash to do it then shut up.

If you haven't got hundreds of millions of pounds then shut up?

Just him in his dictatorship then, eh?

And let's not pretend he, like the barely visible Prince, invested in Sheffield United out of the goodness of his heart.

We're in a MUCH worse position than when McCabe got involved with us, so yes, he can bloody well answer some difficult questions.

 

[PokerBlade]

To be fair to McCabe if someone questioned my integrity and honesty after spending millions on this shower of sh*t I'd rip them a new one as well. I thought his comment about 'if there are proper people interested' was a good one, basically if you haven't got the cash to do it then shut up.

Who questioned his integrity? The question was if the Murphy money had been spent. McCabe had requested the interview to set a few things straight and then got annoyed by a mundane question.

I think in many ways we're lucky to have someone like McCabe who has continued to bankroll the club without taking anything back. Potential property market profits he's made aside (I don't know if anyone's sure if he personally profited out of the whole Chengdu/Ferencvaros thing), he's right that we've got a good ground, great facilities for the youth set up, a quality pitch and so on. Very few clubs have someone who has the financial security of the club at heart and isn't interested in simply selling out to the highest bidder. Several years in the third division and, while things are restricted, we've never felt the pressure of a financial crisis like the Leeds' saga or Wednesday and the Co-Op bank, or Rotherham and Chesterfield that have been on the brink of survival.

Unfortunately, he's been at the helm as we've suffered a string of awful footballing decisions. Managerial sackings and appointments that have made little sense, transfer policies that have done little to improve the team. In that context it's completely fair for an interviewer to come along during another failed season and say "Yes, you've put £60m into the club over your time, but how the hell do you keep wasting all of it?". And, let's be right, he didn't get a question anywhere near as harshly phrased as that.

Neither me nor RS question his integrity and that he wants a successful club. Everyone questions his footballing decisions.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Who questioned his integrity? The question was if the Murphy money had been spent. McCabe had requested the interview to set a few things straight and then got annoyed by a mundane question.

I think in many ways we're lucky to have someone like McCabe who has continued to bankroll the club without taking anything back. Potential property market profits he's made aside (I don't know if anyone's sure if he personally profited out of the whole Chengdu/Ferencvaros thing), he's right that we've got a good ground, great facilities for the youth set up, a quality pitch and so on. Very few clubs have someone who has the financial security of the club at heart and isn't interested in simply selling out to the highest bidder. Several years in the third division and, while things are restricted, we've never felt the pressure of a financial crisis like the Leeds' saga or Wednesday and the Co-Op bank, or Rotherham and Chesterfield that have been on the brink of survival.

Unfortunately, he's been at the helm as we've suffered a string of awful footballing decisions. Managerial sackings and appointments that have made little sense, transfer policies that have done little to improve the team. In that context it's completely fair for an interviewer to come along during another failed season and say "Yes, you've put £60m into the club over your time, but how the hell do you keep wasting all of it?". And, let's be right, he didn't get a question anywhere near as harshly phrased as that.

Neither me nor RS question his integrity and that he wants a successful club. Everyone questions his footballing decisions.

The question should have been "has the club spent it" rather than "have you spent it". Smartarse second rate journo's looking for a reaction. Much to question McCabe on rather than what seemed to me a cheap shot. They've dealt with him enough to know how he may react but from their point of view I suppose it makes good radio/viewing.

Not surprising when the regulars are Bruno, Pitsmoor Twat, Rawmarsh Mick and Blackpool now Ekington Bore.