CONFIRMED Clarke Official

[bulmer]

I think everyone knows this so with how tufty has performed so far I think he knows it too every position is being addressed slowly but surely , I don't think all the pieces of the jigsaw will be in place come the Bolton game but as long as we get them that's all that matters. Barnsley gave everyone a 4 month start last yr and still got promoted Bournemouth did similar a few yrs back the team and squad is taking shape

Keep the faith

 

[wizadry]

I think everyone knows this so with how tufty has performed so far I think he knows it too every position is being addressed slowly but surely , I don't think all the pieces of the jigsaw will be in place come the Bolton game but as long as we get them that's all that matters. Barnsley gave everyone a 4 month start last yr and still got promoted Bournemouth did similar a few yrs back the team and squad is taking shape

Keep the faith

Very true and don't worry, I am doing.

I'll be at Bolton because I can't do the Geoffrey on the first away game when my lad so desperately wants to go.

Has anyone made any of those banners for us day trippers anyway?

 

[Balham]

I was merely playing devils advocate with the people saying we only got him because we could offer him a 3 year deal.

Now he has a 3 year deal he will be relaxed and in a comfort zone as opposed to a 2 year one, all this meaning he'd try harder for us to earn the third year. Again only playing devils advocate but we shouldn't really be paying anyone for 3 years in this league anyway around that age, and what sort of fee would a 33 year old command? Probably not get one and end up having to pay him off. Does that remind you of anyone, BB?

There's something at the back of my mind that I can't quite put my finger on.

"....all the unseen work"

 

[1danewhitehouse]

I think this season we absolutely have to play safe and give ourselves the best chance of promotion.

Once we're up we can start to take the odd gamble on up and coming players (and hope our youth team throws out one or two as well). It will be an important part of our progression and I hope our new head scout is looking at those types of players with a view to the future.

Personally, I think a good L1 player is more likely to step up to the championship (lower half, which is where we'll be initially) than a L2 player is to step up to the top of L1. And we've already got a big 'un and a little 'un who did well in L2 last season and who we need to give opportunities to.

Can’t really argue with any of that. Like I say, I’m happy with the Clarke signing. I just like, as a general rule for us to catch players on their way up and the way I like to see the game played, I look for certain attributes in players and Akinde fits those. But as we both agree, Clarke is infinitely proven at this level and should represent a very useful signing.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

where are all those who rapidly quote how little the board will invest to get us up
this season we have a manager who seems to have a plan
compared to Adkins its night and day , in terms of team building
and the boards stomped up the money BEFORE any out goings , against perceived wisdom
how come they arent jumping on the forum with just a little bit of acknowledgement
just to break the habits of the the past few years, where they are on in a nano second if its anything remotely negative
can we hear a bit of enthusiasm for the cause

Loads of people who think it’s a good signing have said so, myself included.

Again, you are factually inaccurate though. There have been 14 outgoings (10 released, 2 loans expired and 2 cancelled contracts) and 7 incomings.


Most of us haven’t said we won’t spend anything. Most have said we won’t spend a net sum of £2million on transfer fees. Where are we up to now?


Hussey £100k
O Connell £100k

Clarke £100k


Based on the agreement that “undisclosed” where there was no reported figure should be classed as £100k.


Still £1.7million to spend according to you. Happy days.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Investment can lead to losses. Huge losses. It's not a magic bullet. Our chairman has taken plenty of SUFC losses

The club is a separate legal entity to it's major shareholders (often called owners which is almost accurate in practice if not in law)

Kevin McCabe has spent tens of millions of his private income on our football club. He will never ever recoup that spending, or anywhere near it. On the contrary, he continues to fund our club. Despite the many errors he has made, he deserves our gratitude, not abuse.

If you make poor decisions that cost the club say £100million to fix and then pay £80million back out of your own pocket whilst also selling club assets for £20million thus leaving the club in a worse position than when you started, should the supporters be grateful to you? I’d say it’s more a case of be critical but bear in mind it could be even worse. The figures are just examples to illustrate a point before anyone starts quoting the accounts at me.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

do we need Adams or is it not good business in league one to sell at a good profit
was he magnificent last season , or just ok

have you ever run a business

why did you expect it to get worse
why is there no hope
why automatically think wilder would fail
looking at relegation

can you hear yourself
not one piece of positivity
we got rid of Adkins who was a complete failure
surely it must get better if wed signed gary megson as manager

but no
you only see the worst possible outcome

again so far brought in 7
got rid of the crap
not took low fees for raw , very raw talent
things look better
well for those prepared to look

Yes, things look better than they did 3 months ago but that was always going to be the case. We shifted loads of dross off the books as most was out of contract. We were at one of the lowest points in our history with the biggest mish-mash mess of a squad imaginable. It could barely get any worse.


We haven’t signed Renato Sanches and Paul Pogba. We’ve taken some modest steps forward releasing awfulplayers and brining in new players, some of which look decent on paper. Some less so. Surely that’s the minimum to be expected from any club with even the slightest hope of improving on a disastrous season?

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Excellent signing. Who could we have got for the same money.He has a very good goal ratio at this level and fits the profile we were after, his age has fuck all to do with our aim of promotion. Same people moaning about the signing who were crying about missing out on Alex bastard Revell ffs.

Can you name one poster who is moaning about this signing and also moaned that we didn’t get Revell?

 

[blade too long]

Loads of people who think it’s a good signing have said so, myself included.

Again, you are factually inaccurate though. There have been 14 outgoings (10 released, 2 loans expired and 2 cancelled contracts) and 7 incomings.


Most of us haven’t said we won’t spend anything. Most have said we won’t spend a net sum of £2million on transfer fees. Where are we up to now?


Hussey £100k
O Connell £100k

Clarke £100k


Based on the agreement that “undisclosed” where there was no reported figure should be classed as £100k.


Still £1.7million to spend according to you. Happy days.

we havent sold any just released
subtle but significant different difference

plus we had a BLOATED squad didnt we
something else that needs applauding

 

[blade too long]

Yes, things look better than they did 3 months ago but that was always going to be the case. We shifted loads of dross off the books as most was out of contract. We were at one of the lowest points in our history with the biggest mish-mash mess of a squad imaginable. It could barely get any worse.


We haven’t signed Renato Sanches and Paul Pogba. We’ve taken some modest steps forward releasing awfulplayers and brining in new players, some of which look decent on paper. Some less so. Surely that’s the minimum to be expected from any club with even the slightest hope of improving on a disastrous season?

as you say the squad had to betrimmed
nd we had to get in fresh players ,which we have achieved
surely

that deserves a modicum of praise

which is all I asked for

 

[1danewhitehouse]

we havent sold any just released
subtle but significant different difference

plus we had a BLOATED squad didnt we
something else that needs applauding

Most of us aware of the difference. It seems you are not as you said there had been no outgoings. There have. We've been able to reduce the wage bill because the dross players' contracts expired. 14 out. 7 in.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

as you say the squad had to betrimmed
nd we had to get in fresh players ,which we have achieved
surely

that deserves a modicum of praise

which is all I asked for

There has been much more than a modicum. In fact, there has been a whole range of opinions expressed on just about every signing and departure.

You don't need to spend so much time telling everyone else what to think and say on a football forum.

 

[blade too long]

Most of us aware of the difference. It seems you are not as you said there had been no outgoings. There have. We've been able to reduce the wage bill because the dross players' contracts expired. 14 out. 7 in.

but
no money from fees in

just paying out for the new ones

 

[blade too long]

There has been much more than a modicum. In fact, there has been a whole range of opinions expressed on just about every signing and departure.

You don't need to spend so much time telling everyone else what to think and say on a football forum.

I dont tell people what to think
just say be nice to see a bit more appreciation of the effort put in rather than waiting for something negative ´
which you and others look for

 

[judge]

There has been much more than a modicum. In fact, there has been a whole range of opinions expressed on just about every signing and departure.

You don't need to spend so much time telling everyone else what to think and say on a football forum.

Hear hear

 

[1danewhitehouse]

but
no money from fees in

just paying out for the new ones

Yes I'm aware of that. I never said we'd had fees in. You made an incorrect statement. I corrected it. I'm not sure why you keep saying what I've already told you.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

I dont tell people what to think
just say be nice to see a bit more appreciation of the effort put in rather than waiting for something negative ´
which you and others look for

We know you think it would be nice if everyone was a blind, clapping illiterate seal making up "facts" that are not true to convince anyone who will listen just how marvellous our board of directors are. You don't need to keep telling us that on every thread. But what I will say is that sort of behaviour is more the done thing 4 miles up the road going towards Barnsley.

Food for thought.

 

[Maidenhead]

I don't get this perennial preoccupation with transfer fees.

In the overall scheme of things they're pretty irrelevant these days, especially at our level where players usually only have 2 or 3 year contracts at the longest and generally speaking they are all paid pretty much the same, unless an ambitious chairman supports his manager by loosening the purse strings.

I wonder how much we've paid in signing on fees to players, agents fees, and additional wages as they're the real costs of signing players, not the fee paid to their previous employer.

 

[bulmer]

Someone from bury tweeted we couldn't match Clarkes wages at bury apparently had massive bonuses that's why the deal has an extra yr to match it dunno if he is connected to the club or not

 

[blade too long]

We know you think it would be nice if everyone was a blind, clapping illiterate seal making up "facts" that are not true to convince anyone who will listen just how marvellous our board of directors are. You don't need to keep telling us that on every thread. But what I will say is that sort of behaviour is more the done thing 4 miles up the road going towards Barnsley.

Food for thought.

perish the thought

BUT

surely if the club actually does what you insisted needed doing

slim the squad
strengthen the back four
bring in forward thinking midfielders
actually sign a striker
why argue the shit out of giving a bit of praise, even begrudgingly

break the habit of the past 6 years

I dont see me act as a clapper
just appreciate the effort the new regimes putting in for what it is

a new horizon

might pay dividends , might not
but the efforts there
and its only right to acknowledge it

 

[Sheffsteel]

Blade too long

I appreciate the effort and relative ambition by the board.
The board has consistently supported the manager and given biggest budget in the league.

However for many of our fans effort counts for nothing, it's all about results.

It's might seem simplistic but the equation seems to be
Get promoted = a fantastic board with ambition
Fail to get promoted = poor board with no ambition

So if we appointed a manager from the non league with no record of success on the cheap and we filled our squad with free transfers paying them £2,000 a week. Then if we gained promotion many would be singing the praises of the board but I wouldn't . I'd say we fell lucky because it's not the model for success.

Conversely if we appointed Klopp as manager and spent millions on Ronaldo and Messi, if we still failed to get promoted from league 1 then many of our fans would say "it was so obvious Messi and Ronaldo would not be motivated in league 1. Our board are stupid and lack ambition, let's sack em all "

Usually the clubs with ambition, appointing managers with a proven track record and giving them a big budget tend to gain promotion. Whist ever United are in this situation I'll always give them my support.

Our fans should take a look at the Skybluestalk forum especially the Leon Clarke thread.
The Coventry fans dream about having a board as ambitious as ours.
Apparently we easily outbid them regards Fleck and Clarke.
Many of their fans are totally depressed and some are boycotting their club because their board has no ambition.
One Cov fan actually referred to us as "the Man City of League 1 as we're just trying to buy the league title" Made me chuckle that one, so according to our rivals they think we have Man City investment not Liverpool, one also said we're being bankrolled by a billionaire Arab.

 

[Bladesway]

Yes I'm aware of that. I never said we'd had fees in. You made an incorrect statement. I corrected it. I'm not sure why you keep saying what I've already told you.

Don't panic if it's anything like last season he'll do a 180 around Christmas and the previous opinions expressed are null and void.

 

[Bladesway]

Blade too long

I appreciate the effort and relative ambition by the board.
The board has consistently supported the manager and given biggest budget in the league.

However for many of our fans effort counts for nothing, it's all about results.

It's might seem simplistic but the equation seems to be
Get promoted = a fantastic board with ambition
Fail to get promoted = poor board with no ambition

So if we appointed a manager from the non league with no record of success on the cheap and we filled our squad with free transfers paying them £2,000 a week. Then if we gained promotion many would be singing the praises of the board but I wouldn't . I'd say we fell lucky because it's not the model for success.

Conversely if we appointed Klopp as manager and spent millions on Ronaldo and Messi, if we still failed to get promoted from league 1 then many of our fans would say "it was so obvious Messi and Ronaldo would not be motivated in league 1. Our board are stupid and lack ambition, let's sack em all "

Usually the clubs with ambition, appointing managers with a proven track record and giving them a big budget tend to gain promotion. Whist ever United are in this situation I'll always give them my support.

Our fans should take a look at the Skybluestalk forum especially the Leon Clarke thread.
The Coventry fans dream about having a board as ambitious as ours.
Apparently we easily outbid them regards Fleck and Clarke.
Many of their fans are totally depressed and some are boycotting their club because their board has no ambition.
One Cov fan actually referred to us as "the Man City of League 1 as we're just trying to buy the league title" Made me chuckle that one, so according to our rivals they think we have Man City investment not Liverpool, one also said we're being bankrolled by a billionaire Arab.

Think you miss a whole chunk of history that is what most fans base their opinions on. The last ten years we have been fed shit sandwich after shit sandwich so many including myself, while currently happy with proceedings are waiting for the sale of prized assets that usually happens. If this doesn't happen this season then it may show we are learning lessons of the past failures. I'm sure everyone has fingers crossed it turns out different this time out.

 

[Rodders]

Blade too long

I appreciate the effort and relative ambition by the board.
The board has consistently supported the manager and given biggest budget in the league.

However for many of our fans effort counts for nothing, it's all about results.

It's might seem simplistic but the equation seems to be
Get promoted = a fantastic board with ambition
Fail to get promoted = poor board with no ambition

So if we appointed a manager from the non league with no record of success on the cheap and we filled our squad with free transfers paying them £2,000 a week. Then if we gained promotion many would be singing the praises of the board but I wouldn't . I'd say we fell lucky because it's not the model for success.

Conversely if we appointed Klopp as manager and spent millions on Ronaldo and Messi, if we still failed to get promoted from league 1 then many of our fans would say "it was so obvious Messi and Ronaldo would not be motivated in league 1. Our board are stupid and lack ambition, let's sack em all "

Usually the clubs with ambition, appointing managers with a proven track record and giving them a big budget tend to gain promotion. Whist ever United are in this situation I'll always give them my support.

Our fans should take a look at the Skybluestalk forum especially the Leon Clarke thread.
The Coventry fans dream about having a board as ambitious as ours.
Apparently we easily outbid them regards Fleck and Clarke.
Many of their fans are totally depressed and some are boycotting their club because their board has no ambition.
One Cov fan actually referred to us as "the Man City of League 1 as we're just trying to buy the league title" Made me chuckle that one, so according to our rivals they think we have Man City investment not Liverpool, one also said we're being bankrolled by a billionaire Arab.

The irony is that on the Che Adams thread, you believe that £2m is the most we could hold out for.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

perish the thought

BUT

surely if the club actually does what you insisted needed doing

slim the squad
strengthen the back four
bring in forward thinking midfielders
actually sign a striker
why argue the shit out of giving a bit of praise, even begrudgingly

break the habit of the past 6 years

I dont see me act as a clapper
just appreciate the effort the new regimes putting in for what it is

a new horizon

might pay dividends , might not
but the efforts there
and its only right to acknowledge it

I’m not arguing about begrudging credit to the club. As I say, I’ve given credit for signing Clarke, Fleck, O Connell and Duffy. So have plenty of others. I also gave credit for releasing as much dross as we could. So have plenty of others. Similarly I’ve questioned the quality of the other signings and talked about areas where I think we still need to strengthen. It’s called balance and people having their own opinions as opposed to the North Korean Utopia you envisage.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Blade too long

I appreciate the effort and relative ambition by the board.
The board has consistently supported the manager and given biggest budget in the league.

However for many of our fans effort counts for nothing, it's all about results.

It's might seem simplistic but the equation seems to be
Get promoted = a fantastic board with ambition
Fail to get promoted = poor board with no ambition

So if we appointed a manager from the non league with no record of success on the cheap and we filled our squad with free transfers paying them £2,000 a week. Then if we gained promotion many would be singing the praises of the board but I wouldn't . I'd say we fell lucky because it's not the model for success.

Conversely if we appointed Klopp as manager and spent millions on Ronaldo and Messi, if we still failed to get promoted from league 1 then many of our fans would say "it was so obvious Messi and Ronaldo would not be motivated in league 1. Our board are stupid and lack ambition, let's sack em all "

Usually the clubs with ambition, appointing managers with a proven track record and giving them a big budget tend to gain promotion. Whist ever United are in this situation I'll always give them my support.

Our fans should take a look at the Skybluestalk forum especially the Leon Clarke thread.
The Coventry fans dream about having a board as ambitious as ours.
Apparently we easily outbid them regards Fleck and Clarke.
Many of their fans are totally depressed and some are boycotting their club because their board has no ambition.
One Cov fan actually referred to us as "the Man City of League 1 as we're just trying to buy the league title" Made me chuckle that one, so according to our rivals they think we have Man City investment not Liverpool, one also said we're being bankrolled by a billionaire Arab.

I largely agree with you that our board doesn’t really lack ambition. My issue is the decision making and the short termism and knee jerk reactions that have prevailed over the last decade. I strongly suspect that had we not sacked one of Blackwell, Wilson or Clough that there’s a reasonable chance we’d be playing championship football this season.


I take exception to the sale of top talent every year but I don’t argue that the money is not reinvested, just poorly reinvested. I take exception to the autonomy we give managers given how quick we are to sack them, the lack of recruitment and scouting structure independent of any manager, the constant change in style from season to season etc. Overall, my biggest issue is the all round lack of continuity making it so difficult to build anything to move forward with.

 

[blade too long]

I’m not arguing about begrudging credit to the club. As I say, I’ve given credit for signing Clarke, Fleck, O Connell and Duffy. So have plenty of others. I also gave credit for releasing as much dross as we could. So have plenty of others. Similarly I’ve questioned the quality of the other signings and talked about areas where I think we still need to strengthen. It’s called balance and people having their own opinions as opposed to the North Korean Utopia you envisage.[/QUOT

 

[BushBlade]

View attachment 18782

Really?

 

[Sheffsteel]

1danewhitehouse,

Yeh I agree our wheeling and dealing has been shockingly bad in recent seasons.

When a clubs sells their best player there are a several reasons why this occurs.

Reason A
The player becomes almost too good and outgrows thst club or league and wants progression.
Man United wanted to keep Ronaldo but he was desperate to play in Spain
Liverpool wanted to keep Saurez but his wife was desperate to move to Baecelona.
I think for us Maguire definitely fell in this category and possibly McDonald.
If we'd have kept either they'd have probably spat the dummy out and become demotivated. Whilst we fail to get promoted it's pretty obvious that any of our players with ability and ambition will receive loads of better offers and want to move on to bigger and better things.

Reason B
A manager or club want to wheel and deal by selling a player at an over inflated price because their reputation is better than their ability. Also the manager might think we have excessive players in a particular area, so we can afford to sell one of our best players because the money will be invested to make the team better overall. This is what they did with Jamie Murphy but his replacements that Adkins brought in were all terrible.

Reason C
The club are skint and MUST off load a best player every year just to try and balance the books.
This position we were in during much of the 80's. I went to Roxy nightclub with 2000 other Blades to hear Reg Brearly say we've no money for any transfers so he wants to set up a red ribbon lottery scheme with all profits going towards signings.

McCabe was hinting the other year that we were in situation C but now that the Prince is here we fall in reason B. Think that's what he meant by "game changing". We're no longer paupers, even in league 1.

Every player has its price and we are run like a business.
Adams had an ordinary season last year but he has a big reputation due to putting in great performances on tv. Also Admas is young and you can see that he has potential to be an excellent player. However potential is for the future, not the here and now.

Our board might be thinking if we sell Che Adams
We can then afford to bring in a better goalkeeper, battling midfielder and pay for Clarke.

To me that looks a good business proposition.

The problem is that based on the recent past.
Che Adams is Likely to become a big star at his new club and a PL regular
Leon Clarke will be injured most of the season and have a bad attitude
And the other signings are likely to be duds.

Then our fans will be saying after the event
We should have kept Adams etc etc and never bought Clarke, Morsey etc.

 

[FriethBlade]

I just don't get the vitriol aimed at some of the posters who direct criticism at the board....the proof is in the pudding....and the pudding is showing 6 years in division one.

Now as per usual this time of season we are all getting a little excited about the 'new dawn' but past experience tells us this could easily be misplaced. We've brought a few players in...mostly frees...made some good signings on paper (don't we always ?) but there's the perennial likelihood of selling the good youngsters overhanging us.

The fact we have a Blade in charge is helping and we are all praying it will work but the naysayers have been right for 5 years so I'm amazed they get the stick they do !