If we'd got a decent striker to partner Billy...

[GrayBlade]

We'd pee this league, in fact if we'd already got him onboard with the class we've got in midfield, we'd be out of sight and almost uncatchable by now.

That's been sort been my view of late, but I'm far too conservative to say it But listening to Wilder tonight I think that's probably what he thinks as well.

So the question is fellow Blades, why haven't we signed a genuine goal-scoring partner for Billy? We don't have to look far. Scunny, Bristol...., Chessy

Do they want it eh, do they? Do they want to go up? What do ya reckon? It seems so easy on paper.

 

[ChipButtyBlade]

I think thats whats behind Wilder's rant at the inneffective attackers we have,its a veiled plea to the board to back him somemore,they would be daft to ignore him.

 

[cahill]

Certainly hope so is my profound comment

 

[Barney]

It seems that easy on paper because it is that easy.

It's so frustrating not being able to knock some heads together in the board room.

A couple of top class signings with a bit of investment and we're promoted ffs.

 

[Jesus_was_a_Blade]

Still think this can be Lavery, been impressed with what I've seen from him. Not been today but a few have posted on here that he played well again. His hold up play is okay, he's got a decent turn of pace and looks to be fairly skillful. I'd like to see him given another 4-5 games along side Sharp as partnerships rarely form instantly, and it's difficult to produce your best form if you're only playing a 5-10 minutes a week.

At the end of the day though, we're still the joint top scorers in the division, so I wouldn't worry too much about who's playing along side Billy. However we need to tighten up at the back ASAP. All good teams are built on a solid defence, and as it stands Oldham (2nd from bottom) have conceded less goals than us this season. Shouldn't be too difficult to see where we can improve.

 

[Slim Man]

It seems that easy on paper because it is that easy.

It's so frustrating not being able to knock some heads together in the board room.

A couple of top class signings with a bit of investment and we're promoted ffs.

They invested in that chump Clough with a VERY outside chance of promotion. Wilder has got us top of the league with a massive wage reduction and money saving exercise and he's going to be blessed with James Hanson ffs.

 

[Caseh]

If we signed a top class striker, we'd still be leaking goals like there's no tomorrow.

 

[Sheffsteel]

We'd pee this league, in fact if we'd already got him onboard with the class we've got in midfield, we'd be out of sight and almost uncatchable by now.

That's been sort been my view of late, but I'm far too conservative to say it But listening to Wilder tonight I think that's probably what he thinks as well.

So the question is fellow Blades, why haven't we signed a genuine goal-scoring partner for Billy? We don't have to look far. Scunny, Bristol...., Chessy

Do they want it eh, do they? Do they want to go up? What do ya reckon? It seems so easy on paper.

I'll ask you a question.

How much would you personally donate towards a striker?
And if we get promoted you get your money plus an extra 10%.
If we fail to get promoted then you lose it?

Seems many of our posters are great at spending other people's money
But won't put their own money where there mouth is.

It seems Somme of our fans want us to massively overspend and gamble on promotion this season.
BUT what if we gamble and show ambition but fail to gain promotion?
That overspending would need to be passed over to next seasons budget
Meaning we would be forced to sell our best players and hardly have any money to bring in new blood.
We'd be forced to downsize next season and have a mid table budget, meaning we should finish mid table.
Crowds would drop, our fans would have short memories and forget about the ambtiion shown.

What we should do is a small gamble, go a little over the limit but don't overstretch
Becuase a good business man prepares for all eventualities.
It's still possible we might NOT be promoted this season and we need to ensure Wilder has a top end budget next year for another promotion push.

 

[Barney]

I'll ask you a question.

How much would you personally donate towards a striker?
And if we get promoted you get your money plus an extra 10%.
If we fail to get promoted then you lose it?

Seems many of our posters are great at spending other people's money
But won't put their own money where there mouth is.

It seems Somme of our fans want us to massively overspend and gamble on promotion this season.
BUT what if we gamble and show ambition but fail to gain promotion?
That overspending would need to be passed over to next seasons budget
Meaning we would be forced to sell our best players and hardly have any money to bring in new blood.
We'd be forced to downsize next season and have a mid table budget, meaning we should finish mid table.
Crowds would drop, our fans would have short memories and forget about the ambtiion shown.

What we should do is a small gamble, go a little over the limit but don't overstretch
Becuase a good business man prepares for all eventualities.
It's still possible we might NOT be promoted this season and we need to ensure Wilder has a top end budget next year for another promotion push.

Your mindset is all wrong. You're a defeatist.

Staying in this league for another year would be more costly than the investment required now to be promoted.

Oh and I think that you are McCabe, genuinely.

I read your entire post in his voice and it suited perfectly. Just the sort of stuff he'd say.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Still think this can be Lavery, been impressed with what I've seen from him. Not been today but a few have posted on here that he played well again. His hold up play is okay, he's got a decent turn of pace and looks to be fairly skillful. I'd like to see him given another 4-5 games along side Sharp as partnerships rarely form instantly, and it's difficult to produce your best form if you're only playing a 5-10 minutes a week.

At the end of the day though, we're still the joint top scorers in the division, so I wouldn't worry too much about who's playing along side Billy. However we need to tighten up at the back ASAP. All good teams are built on a solid defence, and as it stands Oldham (2nd from bottom) have conceded less goals than us this season. Shouldn't be too difficult to see where we can improve.

Agree Lavery looked good today. He took on their defenders, had more pace and more tricky then Sharp.
We played some lovely football one touch football and can't convert the chances.
Just because we've score more goals than anyone else doesn't mean we have a great forward line.
We create probably 10 goalscoring chances most matches but only tend to convert 2 chances.
Also it's the defenders wading in with goals, the forward line have a real poor chance to goal ratio.

Also you point about good teams being built on a solid defence is generally true.
Wilder knows what Blades want. We'd rather see a 4-3 win than watch a 1-0 win (Bolton style)
I believe that Wilder is confident we can simply outfire teams in this division by playing with 3 central defenders
And 2 wingback she who are encouraged to get forward and almost play as wingers.

The problem with playing an attacking style is that you will always be vulnerable to occasional counter attacks.
Our weakness in defence seems to be the loss of form of EEL, maybe he does need Wright to suport him.
Also I think over confidence has set in. After 10 minutes everyone in the ground could see we were far superior to Gillingham and it was just a matter of time before we scored. The 1st half was so one sided that I think the players assumed they would win but Gillingham risked it and had a go at us for the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half.

Our defence and goalie hardly had anything to do all match but still managed to concede 2 goals.
Could have been worse though when in the last minute we half cleared a cross and it luckily fell perfectly for Bradley Dack just outside the box and he tried a volley that seems to have our keeper beaten but just scraped past the post. Fleetwood on Tuesday is a BIG match now and a test of character for our players.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Your mindset is all wrong. You're a defeatist.

Staying in this league for another year would be more costly than the investment required now to be promoted.

Oh and I think that you are McCabe, genuinely.

I read your entire post in his voice and it suited perfectly. Just the sort of stuff he'd say.

Barney
With respect its like you're living in cloud cuckoo land using Monopoly money.
You don't seem to understand the concept of "gamble".
If we bought a top class player and spent part of next years budget it doesn't gaurantee promotion.
If only it was that simple then loads of clubs would do it.

Again my question to you Barney
How ambitious are you?
How much would you contribute to the cause of buying a player wanting £15K a week?
If we get promoted you get your money back plus 5%
But if we don't get promoted then you lose it.

Maybe this proposal should be put to the club where fans can help fund the extra costs of signing a top rated loanee. Personally I would offer £500 but that's mainly because I'm confident we'll finish top 2 anyway.

 

[Barney]

Barney
With respect its like you're living in cloud cuckoo land using Monopoly money.
You don't seem to understand the concept of "gamble".
If we bought a top class player and spent part of next years budget it doesn't gaurantee promotion.
If only it was that simple then loads of clubs would do it.

Again my question to you Barney
How ambitious are you?
How much would you contribute to the cause of buying a player wanting £15K a week?
If we get promoted you get your money back plus 5%
But if we don't get promoted then you lose it.

Maybe this proposal should be put to the club where fans can help fund the extra costs of signing a top rated loanee. Personally I would offer £500 but that's mainly because I'm confident we'll finish top 2 anyway.

Mr McCabe,

It's relative to your wealth isn't it surely. If I was as wealthy as you are then yes I would invest in this very important window. Especially given that we are already top of the league.

My mindset says "we are top of the league, currently having a struggle, let's invest on a top class player or two to ensure we stay top and get promoted"

Your mindset says "we are top of the league, currently having a struggle, let's spend as little as possible and just hope we can still be promoted"

In other words you're trying to have the best of both worlds.

 

[BigBed]

On his way from bratfud isn't he??

 

[Cerberus Blade]

Still think this can be Lavery, been impressed with what I've seen from him. Not been today but a few have posted on here that he played well again. His hold up play is okay, he's got a decent turn of pace and looks to be fairly skillful. I'd like to see him given another 4-5 games along side Sharp as partnerships rarely form instantly, and it's difficult to produce your best form if you're only playing a 5-10 minutes a week.

At the end of the day though, we're still the joint top scorers in the division, so I wouldn't worry too much about who's playing along side Billy. However we need to tighten up at the back ASAP. All good teams are built on a solid defence, and as it stands Oldham (2nd from bottom) have conceded less goals than us this season. Shouldn't be too difficult to see where we can improve.

Yes well...Lavery, I think, is a good player, but he's...how can I say? a bit like a slimline tonic, or a low fat yoghurt. Close to the real thing, but not quite the same. If you've ever had the real thing then you'll know that when you step down to one of these "light" versions, it isn't quite the same. And that's what we have with Lavery. Now...that's not to say that one day, he'll get his "Bullworker" out of its box and start beefing up a bit and becoming a bit more of a handful. But, for now, he's a young slip of a lad. A Will O The Wisp. And what we really need instead, pardon my French, is a great big fuckin' hard bastard up front who can win the fuckin ball in the air and make defenders shit themselves with fear.

Do you see my point?

 

[YES Blade]

Wilder has already signed Clarke and Lavery as potential strike partners for Sharp with no success (Clarke) and little success (Lavery).

What worries me is that Wilder doesn't seem to know what type of striker that is needed to partner Sharp, the bid for James Hanson confirms it in my opinion.

We need a Matt Done type who can score goals, not a tall, slow, technically poor target man who can't score.

 

[Jordo63]

Dont panic big james on his way bradford fans payin for his taxi as we speak

 

[Esablade]

Mr McCabe,

It's relative to your wealth isn't it surely. If I was as wealthy as you are then yes I would invest in this very important window. Especially given that we are already top of the league.

My mindset says "we are top of the league, currently having a struggle, let's invest on a top class player or two to ensure we stay top and get promoted"

Your mindset says "we are top of the league, currently having a struggle, let's spend as little as possible and just hope we can still be promoted"

In other words you're trying to have the best of both worlds.

It's not relative to McCabe's personal wealth, the money invested in the Blades comes through his web of companies, bank loans, off-setting profits/losses and general jiggers pokery...nowt wrong with that btw, it's 'business' and if it helps keeps the club afloat etc...

Still, bad management decisions at board level previously are affecting management decisions in the present.

A well run business would take advantage of a great opportunity presented, we're not a well run business...and so are hampered.

The 'how much would you chuck in/other people's money' line is a bit of a straw man tbh....a weak one at that...

History will be the judge, hopefully Wilder will do it on the budget set, or McCabe will think , 'fuck it, Wilder's the real deal, we'll go for it'

I just hope Wilder hasn't been shafted/let down on something by the board...

 

[Ricky]

Not only is now blatantly the time to spend a bit. Not only have we blatantly got a manager we can trust completely. Not only will we almost certainly be promoted with a couple of quality signings.... But even if we did fail to get promoted, it's not like the money has automatically been wasted.

We have a manager and a scouting team who know what they're doing and indeed have something like an 85% success rate with signings, which is superb.

If we were to spend £1m+ on somebody do you think it'd be a dud who won't be worth anything in the future? No chance. With the additional pressure of that sort of fee they'd leave no stone unturned when making the decision.

So we'd still have an asset, we'd still have a good player. Worst case scenario we could sell them in the summer. Or move other players on to accommodate them within a lower budget.

Spend fees on a number of well scouted, decent players and in the long run you will more than make your money back. United have to be willing to take this approach. Especially now.

 

[tedster]

We'd pee this league, in fact if we'd already got him onboard with the class we've got in midfield, we'd be out of sight and almost uncatchable by now.

That's been sort been my view of late, but I'm far too conservative to say it But listening to Wilder tonight I think that's probably what he thinks as well.

So the question is fellow Blades, why haven't we signed a genuine goal-scoring partner for Billy? We don't have to look far. Scunny, Bristol...., Chessy

Do they want it eh, do they? Do they want to go up? What do ya reckon? It seems so easy on paper.

Well taylor from bristol rovers is a good option but he turned down leeds in the summer.Ellis harrison at bristol rovers is very unpredictable but a better bet than hanson imo and clarke

 

[derryblade]

CW has said from day one he wouldn't pay stupid money for any player, and January is the time clubs get drawn into such deals. The players names some are putting forward on here are way above what CW or KM will pay.

 

[JohnDenver]

If you look at Leon Clarke's record in this league, he should be the goal scoring partner to Sharp. If he'd been anything near the player that used to smash our centre halves about en route to goal then we'd be fine.

He and Done have lost form, whilst Lavery is only now getting up to speed after not playing for months. Wilder has built his squad very well but a couple of misfiring players puts paid to the best laid plans....

 

[robbiez666]

I think Lavery has a lot more to offer which will come with games.

Wilder was already brought in him and Clarke. Unless he ships out McNulty, I can't see anyone else coming in.

I think looking to the loan market is probably a better idea at this stage.

 

[JordoBlade]

I think Wilder was hoping Clarke would be the perfect strike partner for Billy but it just isn't working out.

 

[GrayBlade]

I'll ask you a question.

How much would you personally donate towards a striker?
And if we get promoted you get your money plus an extra 10%.
If we fail to get promoted then you lose it?

Seems many of our posters are great at spending other people's money
But won't put their own money where there mouth is.

It seems Somme of our fans want us to massively overspend and gamble on promotion this season.
BUT what if we gamble and show ambition but fail to gain promotion?
That overspending would need to be passed over to next seasons budget
Meaning we would be forced to sell our best players and hardly have any money to bring in new blood.
We'd be forced to downsize next season and have a mid table budget, meaning we should finish mid table.
Crowds would drop, our fans would have short memories and forget about the ambtiion shown.

What we should do is a small gamble, go a little over the limit but don't overstretch
Becuase a good business man prepares for all eventualities.
It's still possible we might NOT be promoted this season and we need to ensure Wilder has a top end budget next year for another promotion push.

Surely that's a question that every football club owner must ask themselves based on their own financial situation and ambitions, not a fan, but I'll try using an analogy in my own business life.

I've owned a small IT business for 16 years and I also worked for a large FTSE 100 company at a senior exec level, and at some stage in most financial years I/we had to make a (comparatively) large financial gambles and push the boat out. I/we had to invest in training, IT systems, property, transportation or maybe paying extra for quality staff as we are discussing now, but there was never any guarantee that we'd reap the benefits as you rightly say. Sometimes it doesn't work out, a new multi £million IT system didn't do the job and set us back 2 years, and in my own business, an engineer that I took a gamble on cost me a contact worth £thousands. Fortunately though failures were rare, and doing nothing wasn't ever an option because the competition aren't standing still, and customers want the best service they can get.

In the case of United, we're not talking tens of £millions like we are seeing across the city are we, so what would be a gamble our board and owners? How do you define your what is a 'small gamble' for a pair of muti-millionaires who I assume want to finally see this club back in the Championship and reap the benefits. Would £250k be ok but £1m way too much? How do we know what's right and reasonable for them and the club?

What we do know that Wilder has proved his worth, and on a fraction of the budget of his predecessors. We also know that we are currently in a fantastic position to gain promotion and 'all things being equal', bringing in better quality should result in us getting better results. It comes down to how much we trust in own judgement and our managers in this case Wilder and his team. We can't legislate for players getting injured like Samir or not performing, but just because we've made financial mistakes before as we did with that idiot Adkins, it shouldn't stop us doing what is right NOW. United are fortunate to have a fantastically loyal customer base that most businesses in the real world could only dream about, but try telling we the paying customers that the board didn't give Wilder what he wanted to finish the job just in case he failed again like all the others. I can only imagine the outcry.

So in answer to your question, based on what Wilder has done and shown with less and where we are now, if I was a multi millionaire joint owner of the our club, I'd take everything onboard and IF Chris wanted to push the boat out on a player I'd back him to a £million+ provided he thought that the player was good enough to make the step up, and young enough to be a saleable asset going forward. Sometimes you just got to bite the bullet and trust your instincts. The ghost of Dean Hammond shouldn't haunt us forever. UTB.

 

[Fulwood Blade]

We'd pee this league, in fact if we'd already got him onboard with the class we've got in midfield, we'd be out of sight and almost uncatchable by now.

That's been sort been my view of late, but I'm far too conservative to say it But listening to Wilder tonight I think that's probably what he thinks as well.

So the question is fellow Blades, why haven't we signed a genuine goal-scoring partner for Billy? We don't have to look far. Scunny, Bristol...., Chessy

Do they want it eh, do they? Do they want to go up? What do ya reckon? It seems so easy on paper.

I think to be fair Gray they are..........


we should be thankful we have one in Billy.

We should be able to manage with what we have, IF our defence didn't concede silly goals like yesterday.

We also don't have lots of available cash - we are told when we are out of this division we might, but for now it looks like we have to talk about players like Hanson (sadly)

Our S6 neighbours are paying about £7m wages per year for just their 5 strikers.

UTB

 

[Sheffsteel]

Surely that's a question that every football club owner must ask themselves based on their own financial situation and ambitions, not a fan, but I'll try using an analogy in my own business life.

I've owned a small IT business for 16 years and I also worked for a large FTSE 100 company at a senior exec level, and at some stage in most financial years I/we had to make a (comparatively) large financial gambles and push the boat out. I/we had to invest in training, IT systems, property, transportation or maybe paying extra for quality staff as we are discussing now, but there was never any guarantee that we'd reap the benefits as you rightly say. Sometimes it doesn't work out, a new multi £million IT system didn't do the job and set us back 2 years, and in my own business, an engineer that I took a gamble on cost me a contact worth £thousands. Fortunately though failures were rare, and doing nothing wasn't ever an option because the competition aren't standing still, and customers want the best service they can get.

In the case of United, we're not talking tens of £millions like we are seeing across the city are we, so what would be a gamble our board and owners? How do you define your what is a 'small gamble' for a pair of muti-millionaires who I assume want to finally see this club back in the Championship and reap the benefits. Would £250k be ok but £1m way too much? How do we know what's right and reasonable for them and the club?

What we do know that Wilder has proved his worth, and on a fraction of the budget of his predecessors. We also know that we are currently in a fantastic position to gain promotion and 'all things being equal', bringing in better quality should result in us getting better results. It comes down to how much we trust in own judgement and our managers in this case Wilder and his team. We can't legislate for players getting injured like Samir or not performing, but just because we've made financial mistakes before as we did with that idiot Adkins, it shouldn't stop us doing what is right NOW. United are fortunate to have a fantastically loyal customer base that most businesses in the real world could only dream about, but try telling we the paying customers that the board didn't give Wilder what he wanted to finish the job just in case he failed again like all the others. I can only imagine the outcry.

So in answer to your question, based on what Wilder has done and shown with less and where we are now, if I was a multi millionaire joint owner of the our club, I'd take everything onboard and IF Chris wanted to push the boat out on a player I'd back him to a £million+ provided he thought that the player was good enough to make the step up, and young enough to be a saleable asset going forward. Sometimes you just got to bite the bullet and trust your instincts. The ghost of Dean Hammond shouldn't haunt us forever. UTB.

Excellent post.

My point was it's so easy to gamble using someone else's money.

The only problem is that McCabe had an atrocious record when it comes to gambling. He pushed the boat out on Hammond and our saviour John 'the beard' Brayford.

Bet the guy is mentality scarred and has nervous spasms when a manager says "just a little bit more money will almost guarantee promotion".

 

[FriethBlade]

One thing worth remembering is it's not like Wilder hasn't been given the opportunity to bring in strikers. He brought both Clarke and Lavery in and 5 months into the season they have how many goals between them ?

Our problem is doing things 'on the cheap' trying to pick up bargains. If we'd spent the fee, signing on monies and wages of those two on one single player we'd be in a better position.

It seems we are going to make the same mistake again with Hanson.

 

[GrayBlade]

Excellent post.

My point was it's so easy to gamble using someone else's money.

The only problem is that McCabe had an atrocious record when it comes to gambling. He pushed the boat out on Hammond and our saviour John 'the beard' Brayford.

Bet the guy is mentality scarred and has nervous spasms when a manager says "just a little bit more money will almost guarantee promotion".

Haha, I know exactly what you mean mate. I still can't get my head around why or how Clough was allowed to acquire a Premier size squad in league one, or why Adkins was given the nod to sign 33 year old Hammond on big money, and then give him a one year option on his contract. McCabe must feel like a punch bag, but somebody else at the club can't have been doing their jobs, not just him.

 

[kennyblade]

I think thats whats behind Wilder's rant at the inneffective attackers we have,its a veiled plea to the board to back him somemore,they would be daft to ignore him.

yes i agree with you on this one chip chris more or less said billy apart all our strikers have had chances in first team and not done the business cmon mcabe start backing the best manager weve had in ages

 

[Davalon]

I've no idea what the budget is, and what will be available if we get promotion.

However shipping soft goals is a bigger problem than taking more chances for me at present.

I'm all for Wilder's go forward mentality and it's a breath of fresh air, but when you concede two goals like yesterday, then it's got be about more than getting another striker.

Whilst not being a fan of Hanson in one sense, I actually think he could be a good addition as long as we don't start changing our default approach. I always think you need a big man up front at this level, if just to bring off the bench.

When teams stick everyone behind the ball like they often do at the Lane, then having someone like him offers an option we simply don't have currently.

Like others have said too, Wright in at the back for