Clarkey87
Member
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2014
- Messages
- 497
- Reaction score
- 655
The entire club appears to be rotten from top to bottom at the moment, stagnation has set in and unless things change, it will only fester and become worse.
Starting with the owner, who very clearly no longer gives a flying fuck about us. He has ridden his luck over the years, something which has now finally ran out.
In truth, I suspect he has never really had the money or resources to be involved in an English football team at any level higher than League One (and I guess these days he doesn’t have the resources for even that!).
I bet he couldn’t believe his luck when he became involved with us and even more so when a few seasons later, under the stewardship of Chris Wilder and his team, the League One club became a Premier League club (and all the kudos, trappings and glory that goes with owning one of those!).
Al-Saud continued riding his luck when he finally managed to obtain full ownership of a Premier League club on the cheap via the back door after some legal wrangling with the previous owner.
People can say what they want about him bringing club assets back under club control, but this was done with club money and under direction of the court….not his own money.
Loans taken out and guaranteed against future TV income.
The same goes for spending on players in our last PL stint. We know that payments are rarely made (if ever these days) as a lump sum, and so our “big money” signings were paid for in installments (one of which put us into an embargo for failure to pay last season).
It appears to me that any spending is paid for by club money not his. Loans taken out and guaranteed against future TV income (and parachute payments) to finance the here and now.
What has been allowed to happen under his current watch is gross negligence. If he doesn’t have the finances to be involved in owning a football club, he should never have got involved to begin with, but I suppose the lure of being able to tell people you own a Premier League team is too much for some. Even if they are the worst team in PL history as a result of your stewardship and lack of any sort of resources.
We know of the publicised financial difficulties behind the scenes last season and it’s clear these continue to persist this season.
We are all aware of the consequences had we failed to gain promotion and the persistent rumours of unpaid bills behind the scenes that circulated.
Then we go to the takeover sagas. Unnecessary off field distractions and he held separate discussions with two very questionable characters (which to me shows there was very little early stage due diligence when it comes to finding a buyer and doesn’t bode well).
At the end of last season he said he would be selling in 4 weeks……this was about 6 months ago and lo and behold he is still here and it’s clear from the silence that there is no active/hard sell taking place to get rid of us.
We are a genuinely good business prospect in comparison to many football clubs.
I suspect, rather than pricing prospective buyers out with supposedly unrealistic asking prices, it’s more to do with the owner apparently still wanting a role/some control in some capacity that is putting off any prospective buyers who’d want full control.
Let’s not also forget the infamous interview pre season where he came out and said words to the effect that ‘players play better’ in the final season of their contract in some effort to explain why we have allowed a situation whereby the majority of players are out of contract at the end of the season.
The cynic in me believes it has all been designed as a way of clearing decks or forcing current players onto lower salaries when it comes to renew. (Either accept pennies on the pound if you want to stay here or fuck off…..I think most players are choosing the latter).
I do believe this comment has backfired as most players will know they won’t be here next season, so couldn’t give a toss what is currently happening and this is visible in the piss poor performances being put in by the majority.
Bettis….well the less said about him the better. What does he even bring to this club?
Moving on Hecky. Yes he got us promoted last season and stabilised us following a poor start under Slav.
However, given the squad we had, it was not a hard job to come into as he reverted the players back into the system they were familiar with.
The writing was on the wall a few times last season and the heavily reliance on Iliman turning in a performance was evident. If he was off form, so were we.
There was no Plan B and this has continued this season. No Plan B and a blind hope that a player can turn in a special performance and offer a flash of brilliance to try and nick us a game.
He can also bemoan injuries (something that seems to be getting worse…..I mean why would any player sign for us when they know for sure they will end up being out for months at a time through injury), but Hecky has form for this at every club he has been to.
As for team identity and togetherness, the manager has a responsibility to develop this. Put his own stamp on it and create a team that is capable of fighting when the chips are down. Unfortunately he has continually failed to do this as we drift aimlessly towards the championship. It is evident through the body language of the players and the piss poor ‘performances’ every week. There is no fight, no team spirit and the buck stops with the manager for failing to foster this.
I mean the club got rid of the actual leader who wouldn’t put up with this shit in the dressing room (even if he didn’t play any games this season).
Recruitment has been wank for years and this season, despite the owners mouthpiece on twitter/X stating it has been a good transfer window, we can clearly see all we have done is lose our two best players (whether they wanted to leave or not, they were under contract….I’d have personally taken the punt on losing them for free next season and bank on staying up than cashing in this season very much to our detriment) and replace them with the unknown shite we have brought in, pretending we will suddenly unearth the next Kante.
I don’t know where we go from here as the club drifts rudderless and without any power in this calamity of a season.
Most of us accept it was going to be a struggle, there is no denying that, just as there is no denying we would most likely have lost a fair chunk of games this season. What we do not accept though is to do this without a single fight, to just meekly pass back through the trapdoor into the championship like we should never have come to this party in the first place.
I hope I am wrong, but unless things change from the top down, I suspect we will struggle in the Championship, especially as we will have to recruit smartly (due to having no money to spend) to replace a large section of the current squad who will be out of contract come the summer.
Starting with the owner, who very clearly no longer gives a flying fuck about us. He has ridden his luck over the years, something which has now finally ran out.
In truth, I suspect he has never really had the money or resources to be involved in an English football team at any level higher than League One (and I guess these days he doesn’t have the resources for even that!).
I bet he couldn’t believe his luck when he became involved with us and even more so when a few seasons later, under the stewardship of Chris Wilder and his team, the League One club became a Premier League club (and all the kudos, trappings and glory that goes with owning one of those!).
Al-Saud continued riding his luck when he finally managed to obtain full ownership of a Premier League club on the cheap via the back door after some legal wrangling with the previous owner.
People can say what they want about him bringing club assets back under club control, but this was done with club money and under direction of the court….not his own money.
Loans taken out and guaranteed against future TV income.
The same goes for spending on players in our last PL stint. We know that payments are rarely made (if ever these days) as a lump sum, and so our “big money” signings were paid for in installments (one of which put us into an embargo for failure to pay last season).
It appears to me that any spending is paid for by club money not his. Loans taken out and guaranteed against future TV income (and parachute payments) to finance the here and now.
What has been allowed to happen under his current watch is gross negligence. If he doesn’t have the finances to be involved in owning a football club, he should never have got involved to begin with, but I suppose the lure of being able to tell people you own a Premier League team is too much for some. Even if they are the worst team in PL history as a result of your stewardship and lack of any sort of resources.
We know of the publicised financial difficulties behind the scenes last season and it’s clear these continue to persist this season.
We are all aware of the consequences had we failed to gain promotion and the persistent rumours of unpaid bills behind the scenes that circulated.
Then we go to the takeover sagas. Unnecessary off field distractions and he held separate discussions with two very questionable characters (which to me shows there was very little early stage due diligence when it comes to finding a buyer and doesn’t bode well).
At the end of last season he said he would be selling in 4 weeks……this was about 6 months ago and lo and behold he is still here and it’s clear from the silence that there is no active/hard sell taking place to get rid of us.
We are a genuinely good business prospect in comparison to many football clubs.
I suspect, rather than pricing prospective buyers out with supposedly unrealistic asking prices, it’s more to do with the owner apparently still wanting a role/some control in some capacity that is putting off any prospective buyers who’d want full control.
Let’s not also forget the infamous interview pre season where he came out and said words to the effect that ‘players play better’ in the final season of their contract in some effort to explain why we have allowed a situation whereby the majority of players are out of contract at the end of the season.
The cynic in me believes it has all been designed as a way of clearing decks or forcing current players onto lower salaries when it comes to renew. (Either accept pennies on the pound if you want to stay here or fuck off…..I think most players are choosing the latter).
I do believe this comment has backfired as most players will know they won’t be here next season, so couldn’t give a toss what is currently happening and this is visible in the piss poor performances being put in by the majority.
Bettis….well the less said about him the better. What does he even bring to this club?
Moving on Hecky. Yes he got us promoted last season and stabilised us following a poor start under Slav.
However, given the squad we had, it was not a hard job to come into as he reverted the players back into the system they were familiar with.
The writing was on the wall a few times last season and the heavily reliance on Iliman turning in a performance was evident. If he was off form, so were we.
There was no Plan B and this has continued this season. No Plan B and a blind hope that a player can turn in a special performance and offer a flash of brilliance to try and nick us a game.
He can also bemoan injuries (something that seems to be getting worse…..I mean why would any player sign for us when they know for sure they will end up being out for months at a time through injury), but Hecky has form for this at every club he has been to.
As for team identity and togetherness, the manager has a responsibility to develop this. Put his own stamp on it and create a team that is capable of fighting when the chips are down. Unfortunately he has continually failed to do this as we drift aimlessly towards the championship. It is evident through the body language of the players and the piss poor ‘performances’ every week. There is no fight, no team spirit and the buck stops with the manager for failing to foster this.
I mean the club got rid of the actual leader who wouldn’t put up with this shit in the dressing room (even if he didn’t play any games this season).
Recruitment has been wank for years and this season, despite the owners mouthpiece on twitter/X stating it has been a good transfer window, we can clearly see all we have done is lose our two best players (whether they wanted to leave or not, they were under contract….I’d have personally taken the punt on losing them for free next season and bank on staying up than cashing in this season very much to our detriment) and replace them with the unknown shite we have brought in, pretending we will suddenly unearth the next Kante.
I don’t know where we go from here as the club drifts rudderless and without any power in this calamity of a season.
Most of us accept it was going to be a struggle, there is no denying that, just as there is no denying we would most likely have lost a fair chunk of games this season. What we do not accept though is to do this without a single fight, to just meekly pass back through the trapdoor into the championship like we should never have come to this party in the first place.
I hope I am wrong, but unless things change from the top down, I suspect we will struggle in the Championship, especially as we will have to recruit smartly (due to having no money to spend) to replace a large section of the current squad who will be out of contract come the summer.
