Incoming? Callum Doyle

[Frank the tank]

Most depressing aspect is that we are never going to get rid of Robinson who doesn't want to be here either

Plus we've missed out on a signing that would have gone up in value so I don't see how our business model is going to work

 

[YES Blade]

I drive from South Manchester to Sheffield for every home game - it's a horrible journey especially in the winter when you're always concerned about the conditions in the dark after the match.
There are also traffic jams if you go through Glossop , so Winnats or Peak Forest are the less than perfect alternatives.

On the other hand , I often drive from South Manchester to either Chester or North Wales and I can tell you first-hand that cruising along the M56 is an far far easier journey with almost no driving stress compared to crossing the Pennines.

I’m not denying it’s an easier journey to Wrexham, but players from the North West have signed for us before and not moved house, so it’s easily commutable.

 

[designedbyross]

You'd assume the location remark was why he'd prefer Wrexham to Rangers. Then with us vs Wrexham, they're probably offering more money and as it stands are putting together a better squad than ours

 

[YES Blade]

You'd assume the location remark was why he'd prefer Wrexham to Rangers. Then with us vs Wrexham, they're probably offering more money and as it stands are putting together a better squad than ours

I might agree with that last sentence if we hadn’t managed to offload Moore to them

 

[gaffablade]

Maybe we have to accept that the likes of Wrexham (and Brum) have more pull that SU. Its a tough one to accept but that's the current state of this club.

 

[OLDBLADE43]

Not sure it's him that needs to brush up on his geography. Most Manchester based footballers live in Cheshire out past the airport.

The commute from there to Wrexham is significantly easier than the commute from there to Sheffield.

Have you ever been in the traffic in that area on a regular basis? I have and it can be horrendous.

 

[Swannyblade]

Most depressing aspect is that we are never going to get rid of Robinson who doesn't want to be here either

Plus we've missed out on a signing that would have gone up in value so I don't see how our business model is going to work

Can you imagine how disruptive a pissed off Robinson is going to be lurking around the squad all season. Awful scenario for Selles to deal with and one that the board could easily have avoided.

 

[BigBed]

I might agree with that last sentence if we hadn’t managed to offload Moore to them

He had a good game for them at weekend.

 

[Youngand70]

Admittedly they have cash behind them, it is one of them where like a few clubs previously if they do start to struggle and go down or a few injuries, the wages that start to rock up they struggle and go bust, they both are taking a big gamble and although jealously of owners does play a part, another part of me thinks would I want to be in their position of such a big gamble? If we can bring in players that can do a job and progress but keep the club stable, I think our yo-yoing might stop for a bit now so it is time to look at infrastructure and off-field assets. New toilet refits etc and concentrate on the Championship.

I think in Birminghams case you have to look further than just splashing the cash. The infrastructure plans being put in place are a 20 year plan in conjunction with Birmingham City Council and the Government that not only involves the football club but the city as a whole. The planned Sports Quarter is part of that plan including a 62,000 stadium, entertainment and commercial opportunities. Many savvy run clubs are now concentrating on commercial revenue and increasing club value, Birmingham City are one of those clubs. Villa are another club. They have set a target to increase commercial revenue to £400M a year by 2027 and deveope Villa Park to 50,000. Presently we are not one of those "savvy" clubs and are far from it.

 

[Rudders]

I think in Birminghams case you have to look further than just splashing the cabrsh. The infrastructure plans being put in place are a 20 year plan in conjunction with Birmingham City Council and the Government that not only involves the football club but the city as a whole. The planned Sports Quarter is part of that plan including a 62,000 stadium, entertainment and commercial opportunities. Many savvy run clubs are now concentrating on commercial revenue and increasing club value, Birmingham City are one of those clubs. Villa are another club. They have set a target to increase commercial revenue to £400M a year by 2027 and deveope Villa Park to 50,000. Presently we are not one of those "savvy" clubs and are far from it.

I agree totally. Most of these rely on council backing for property deals etc eg Spurs, Brentford and Everton. Look at Man Utd with the begging bowl out all over the place to Salford Council, Andy Burnham etc. Tricky in a 2 club city like Sheffield with a Council that is staunchly against Utd.

 

[LBA_Blade]

I agree totally. Most of these rely on council backing for property deals etc eg Spurs, Brentford and Everton. Look at Man Utd with the begging bowl out all over the place to Salford Council, Andy Burnham etc. Tricky in a 2 club city like Sheffield with a Council that is staunchly against Utd.

As a city we could definitely utilise our space better, we are well linked to the North and South via Motorways and to some extent trains although not the greatest on that front. However looking at the space of Bramall Lane in particular the huge car park and surrounding areas, could easily be a good asset. My dad lives near the Finnish city of Oulu, the population of that city is around 216,000 with an airport for a flight to Helsinki roughly 5 flights a day. Sheffield's population is approximately double that however the one thing that Oulu did as a city is this amazing underground carpark it's called Kivisydän which translates as StoneHeart cost wise was around £65million and was delivered in 3 years. The result is 900 parking spaces, you drive down through several entrance points dotted around the city and park nearest to where you need to be and then walk and get the lift up to street level, each shopping centre and major centre street has a point of contact to the carpark. With them they have also added underfloor heating to the pavements in the winter, naturally due to the cold.

https://www.yit.fi/en/projects/kivi...ximately,900 cars utilising modern technology.

Since first going there in 2016, I always thought Sheffield could easily have adapted a similar approach especially linking the Moor, Bramall Lane and the train station and Uni. Bringing a small shopping centre to front car park of Bramall Lane for "out of hours" income. Almost like the "A61 corridor". Potentially mixing an underground tram/train system with the underground carparks. With a link to Supertram to get to Meadowhall, the cost of a project would be £100s of millions now but its ambitious, if you linked the right places a Sheffield festival similar to Edinburgh Fringe could easily be done using several venues around the city, you would have shoppers using it, match day goers, students and generic commuters.

 

[JD88]

I don’t a lot about him but if he is as good as social media etc make out if it strange no premier league club are being linked , especially when clubs such as Brentford, Bournemouth need a centre half

 

[Davalon]

No doubt he's decent but he's another one where I've never been overly impressed when I've seen him.

No authority on the lad and only my opinion based on less than 10 games.

I guess what I'm saying is, if we weren't so in need of strengthening at CH, I wouldn't bat an eyelid at him going to another Champ club.

 

[Colombia Blade]

Not sure it's him that needs to brush up on his geography. Most Manchester based footballers live in Cheshire out past the airport.

The commute from there to Wrexham is significantly easier than the commute from there to Sheffield.

What makes the drive even easier is when they offer you more money

 

[Kenilworth]

Except Sheffield is closer to Manchester than Wrexham so it wouldn't have ruled us out

Maybe we weren't in for him but our location wouldn't be a problem

Maybe he likes sheep

 

[Addison]

Sounds like we enquired but not much more than that.

Seems we enquire about a lot yet we get no further. The recruitment side is proving to be a disaster. Doyle would have been perfect at LCB. Championship quality and a better prospect than Thomas who looks like hes not coming. What sticks in the throat is hes chosen Parkinsons umper lumpers so one presumes they've just thrown shed loads of cash at him.

Dont buy the location. I used to travel regularly from Sheffield to Cheadle. There comes a point where you have to question the competence of those doing the recruitment. We seem to have got past that point.

 

[Champagneblade]

No doubt he's decent but he's another one where I've never been overly impressed when I've seen him.

No authority on the lad and only my opinion based on less than 10 games.

I guess what I'm saying is, if we weren't so in need of strengthening at CH, I wouldn't bat an eyelid at him going to another Champ club.

I don’t remotely believe we were ever ‘in’ for him. Yeah, he might have been on the list of players to keep an eye on.

But the links to the Swedish lad have been far stronger. I’ve certainly never thought we would be going after the Swedish lad and Doyle. They seem far too similar in profile I.e. young up and coming with some good raw skills. When we easily beat Norwich last year I didn’t think “God, he’s a must have!”

 

[YES Blade]

I don’t remotely believe we were ever ‘in’ for him. Yeah, he might have been on the list of players to keep an eye on.

But the links to the Swedish lad have been far stronger. I’ve certainly never thought we would be going after the Swedish lad and Doyle. They seem far too similar in profile I.e. young up and coming with some good raw skills. When we easily beat Norwich last year I didn’t think “God, he’s a must have!”

As you’d expect Bindon to be first choice, I can’t see us signing a 21 year old to play alongside him.

So Zatterstrom as back up/development and a more experienced centre back (such as Mee or Godfrey) seems more likely.

 

[Youngand70]

I agree totally. Most of these rely on council backing for property deals etc eg Spurs, Brentford and Everton. Look at Man Utd with the begging bowl out all over the place to Salford Council, Andy Burnham etc. Tricky in a 2 club city like Sheffield with a Council that is staunchly against Utd.

The thing is, it is also about getting the right experienced people into the club to take it forward. That's where the problem lies, we don't have that situation. For example Villla have a guy as a President of Business Operations taking their commercial department forward who previously worked for Barcelona, Juventus and Roma. Their principal sponsorship deal with Betano, including front of shirt is worth £40M.

 

[ekke287]

 

[mattbianco1]

You reckon welcome to Wrexham season 12 is going to have the same interest?

If they're in the PL. The TV show is just a side thing.

They're already sponsored by Meta and United Airlines.
Imagine what they'll attract as a PL club.

If they get there this season or next, I think they'll stay up and become a sustained PL team.
If it starts to stagnate for 4 or 5 years and they're still in CH. Then yeah, I reckon theyll have missed their chance

 

[YES Blade]

If they're in the PL. The TV show is just a side thing.

They're already sponsored by Meta and United Airlines.
Imagine what they'll attract as a PL club.

If they get there this season or next, I think they'll stay up and become a sustained PL team.
If it starts to stagnate for 4 or 5 years and they're still in CH. Then yeah, I reckon theyll have missed their chance

How much are you expecting them to generate in sponsorship if they’re in the Premier League compared to other clubs? £10m? £20m? £30m?

For a club of their size they’ll no doubt generate more revenue than similar clubs, but when a bog standard Premier League player costs £20m, it’s not going to be much of an advantage.

 

[Balham]

If they're in the PL. The TV show is just a side thing.

They're already sponsored by Meta and United Airlines.
Imagine what they'll attract as a PL club.

If they get there this season or next, I think they'll stay up and become a sustained PL team.
If it starts to stagnate for 4 or 5 years and they're still in CH. Then yeah, I reckon theyll have missed their chance

The big question with Wrexham is how they deal with the inevitable bad season. They've lost 21 games in the last three seasons. They have some proper momentum behind them but as we found out, once the tide turns it can be very difficult to arrest the slide.

Their signings haven't addressed the major difference between L1 and the Championship either: the increase in pace and athleticism. I know the PL is light years ahead of the Championship on that but there's still a huge gulf between the second and third tiers. I don't think there will be many slower Championship sides than Wrexham this season; they'll just have to hope that the wealth of experience they've brought in (they're probably the oldest squad too) will offset that.

 

[Davalon]

The other thing with Wrexham too, is that they're going to be pretty universally hated and everyone is going to be desperate to beat them.

The attitude of the neutral fan is/will be very different to if they had progressed organically.

Be interesting to see how they cope with that. There's no Wimbledon's of yesteryear around, even if Millwall like to think they are.

 

[john Mathison]

We can't match Wrexham financially, which I thought was ridiculous, however, their merchandising revenue stream is incredible.

 

[mattbianco1]

How much are you expecting them to generate in sponsorship if they’re in the Premier League compared to other clubs? £10m? £20m? £30m?

For a club of their size they’ll no doubt generate more revenue than similar clubs, but when a bog standard Premier League player costs £20m, it’s not going to be much of an advantage.

What I meant was that they're heavily sponsored in the lower leagues and it's helped carry them to the Championship where they are now spending £10m on Broadhead and £8m on Doyle.

I feel they need to get to the PL before the interest dies out within 2 seasons.
Otherwise they could end up being just a Preston, or worse, a Barnsley/Rotherham.

If they get there now with the hype and interest they can sustain it up there like Brentford and Bournemouth have done with similar infrastructure

 

[mattbianco1]

The other thing with Wrexham too, is that they're going to be pretty universally hated and everyone is going to be desperate to beat them.

The attitude of the neutral fan is/will be very different to if they had progressed organically.

Be interesting to see how they cope with that. There's no Wimbledon's of yesteryear around, even if Millwall like to think they are.

I watched the Hull highlights on YouTube yesterday to see how McBurnie played.

One of comments was from a Wrexham "fan"... Clearly a yank...
"I loved your attacking play against us so came to watch this vid and wasn't disappointed... I'll be routing for you now as my 2nd team"

 

[FriethBlade]

Seems we enquire about a lot yet we get no further. The recruitment side is proving to be a disaster. Doyle would have been perfect at LCB. Championship quality and a better prospect than Thomas who looks like hes not coming. What sticks in the throat is hes chosen Parkinsons umper lumpers so one presumes they've just thrown shed loads of cash at him.

Dont buy the location. I used to travel regularly from Sheffield to Cheadle. There comes a point where you have to question the competence of those doing the recruitment. We seem to have got past that point.

Yeah it's the work equivalent of looking busy when your boss passes then reading the Racing post after hes gone

 

[Champagneblade]

 

[loyalblade95]

1 hour vs 1 and a half hours. Hardly a big deal, especially for a footballer!

Didn’t O’Connell and Duffy live around Liverpool while they played for us?

Seen a few ex pros talking about how longer commutes (mainly by car) aren't always ideal for training and matches, owing to the longer amounts of time spent sat down in the car.