Long term planning

[Bergen Blade]

Having won seven games on the trot, it’s hard to criticise things at the Bramall Lane at the moment. The team is settled, plays with confidence and determination and often look to have too much for the majority of opposition in League One.



While all Blades should be delighted about our form, it must be allowed to voice the following concern: Are we building a side that will do well also in the long term?


Our lack of long term planning is the main reason we find ourselves in the third division. After Warnock left we desperately tried to bounce back and countless expensive short term fixes meant that it was only a matter of time before we’d really start to slide.


Our current prefered team is:

Simonsen

Lowton Maguire Collins Jean-Francois

Williamson McDonald Doyle Quinn

Evans Cresswell​

Steve Simonsen, Lee Williamson and Ched Evans will be out of contract in the summer and these are among the highest earners at the club. Simonsen has improved, but probably not enough to be offered a new deal. Williamson and Evans are good players, but still haven’t been close to repaying the outlay the club has had on them. They will probably leave in the summer, if not in January.


Matt Lowton and Harry Maguire are the only youngsters in the side. They have been impressive this season and many clubs are monitoring their progress. For how long can we keep them? The last few years Sheffield United have had an embarrasing record of selling their best young stars to fund a foolishly high wage bill.


Stephen Quinn is also wanted by a few clubs and Blackpool may be his next destination. He’s been everpresent under Danny Wilson, but Quinn’s departure would both help bring the wage bill down and give us a transfer fee.


It won’t surprise many if five of those six will have left by the end of June. Of the others Collins, Doyle and Cresswell, and let’s add Monty, Ertl and Porter and the to be signed Williams, have shown that they’re decent at League One level. But they won’t be assets in the Championship.


Maguire apart, we haven’t managed to blend youngsters into the first team this season. The development squad players Parrino, Warren, Conneely, Harriott, McAllister, Chappell, Tønne and Philliskirk have figured little and will all be disappointed with how this season’s been. I can’t blame them if they get fed up soon and look for moves away.


A player like Erik Tønne who really took his chance when he got it, scoring two in two sub appearances, has been really harshly treated by Danny Wilson. If there was a recipie for stopping a player’s development, we have followed it to perfection.


After his impressive cameos he was thrown on when we were rubbish at Scunthorpe, then completely left out for weeks. We were equally pathetic in the JPT cup vs Bradford when again Tønne was thrown on as a late substitute. There was no rhythm to our attacking that day and although Erik’s overhead kick set up a sitter just before the final whistle, he was unable to rescue us.


He hasn’t figured since. The failure to give a young player gradually more playing time after hitting the ground runnning is destined to leave a player confused and unconfident. To expect miracles when the same player is thrown on on days when the team can’t string two passes together is not fair.


If Danny Wilson brings us long term success he can’t be criticised. His primary task is probably to bring promotion this season, and chosing experience over potential may well be the most effective way of achieving that sole goal.


But let’s keep in mind that Wilson’s record at his former clubs has usually been ONE successful season, before things went downhill. He has to put that right. A team that’s too good for League One, but not good enough for the Championship won’t fulfill the amibtions of a club like Sheffield United. Wilson must have one eye on the future.


The good thing is that things happen quickly in football. Although Sheffield United fans may be scarred from previous disappointments, the January Transfer Window doesn’t have to be a bad thing for us.


It is a chance to right a few wrongs and make a few tweaks to a team and squad that is currently in good form. It’s also a chance to make us better equipped for success beyond this current season. And if Quinn goes, maybe Erik will get a game too.



(From http://scandinavianblades.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/11310235-long-term-planning )

 

[Sothall_Blade]

Maguire apart, we haven’t managed to blend youngsters into the first team this season. The development squad players Parrino, Warren, Conneely, Harriott, McAllister, Chappell, Tønne and Philliskirk have figured little and will all be disappointed with how this season’s been. I can’t blame them if they get fed up soon and look for moves away.

I think you have to make a distinction between genuine "youngsters" such as 19 year old Harriot and 23 year olds Parrino, Conneely and McAllister. Those three might be worth hanging onto as low-wage squad players but Wilson didn't sign them and clearly doesn't see them as first team regulars (Evans, McDonald and Flynn are all the same age and he plays them).

Regarding the others you mentioned, they are still young enough to earn another contract with United. However, sending them out on loan would seem to be a better way to develop them than the odd "behind closed doors" friendly.

 

[bricktop]

I think that, the immediate aim has to be promotion, and picking a side that is full of established players who are more likely to get a win, as a better option that bringing untried and untested players to give them experience. That is just my hunch. I think if a young player is doing it in training, and in behind doors friendlies then his time will come, and he will get picked on merit.

With the case of Erik Tonne he has done reasonably ok when he has been picked, but we don't know the full in's and out's of why he is not being picked more regularly and so far i trust the judgement of Danny Wilson, if he is good enough his time will come.

 

[Bergen Blade]

I think you have to make a distinction between genuine "youngsters" such as 19 year old Harriot and 23 year olds Parrino, Conneely and McAllister. Those three might be worth hanging onto as low-wage squad players but Wilson didn't sign them and clearly doesn't see them as first team regulars (Evans, McDonald and Flynn are all the same age and he plays them).

Matt Lowton was going to be released when we someone came up with the idea of sending him to Hungary. We realised he developed as he got first team football, and brought him back. We chose to get rid of the likes of Kyle McFadzean, Ryan Cresswell, Evan Horwood, Nicky Law, Jonathan Forte and Billy Sharp. We may have saved a bit of cash if we'd dared to play them a bit, rather than going for proven quality in the shape of Jonathan Fortune, Nyron Nosworthy, Joe Mattock, Ryan France, Marcus Bent and Geoff Horsfield.

---------- Post added at 07:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:59 PM ----------

I think that, the immediate aim has to be promotion, and picking a side that is full of established players who are more likely to get a win, as a better option that bringing untried and untested players to give them experience. That is just my hunch. I think if a young player is doing it in training, and in behind doors friendlies then his time will come, and he will get picked on merit.

With the case of Erik Tonne he has done reasonably ok when he has been picked, but we don't know the full in's and out's of why he is not being picked more regularly and so far i trust the judgement of Danny Wilson, if he is good enough his time will come.

Tønne was bloody brilliant when he came on against Bury. I can't see him signing a new contract if the experienced players are always chosen ahead of him, no matter how well he plays. A few years ago I couldn't understand why we weren't playing a certain player more often. I was then told some inside info about him. The management were aware of the player's attributes, but his attitude sadly didn't match. So yes, there may be things that we don't know about. But I think it's unfair on the players to assume they're not professional enough, so I choose to assess them based on what I see.

I don't subscribe to the thought that managers always knows best. Football is a game of opinions and managers have very different philosophies and preferences.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

Matt Lowton was going to be released when we someone came up with the idea of sending him to Hungary. We realised he developed as he got first team football, and brought him back. We chose to get rid of the likes of Kyle McFadzean, Ryan Cresswell, Evan Horwood, Nicky Law, Jonathan Forte and Billy Sharp. We may have saved a bit of cash if we'd dared to play them a bit, rather than going for proven quality in the shape of Jonathan Fortune, Nyron Nosworthy, Joe Mattock, Ryan France, Marcus Bent and Geoff Horsfield.

At the time when we let those young players leave, we were a Premier League/Top 8 Championship side.
None of the players you've mentioned was good enough to play consistently at that level at the time and they still haven't done so 5 or 6 years later.
Even then, you've been very selective and mentioned only the players who've managed to forge a career in the lower leagues.
You could just as easily say why, oh why didn't we give players like Adam Burley, Tyrone Thompson, Jake Speight, Colin Marrison etc..etc.. more chances?
Decisions have to be made on young players at about 21-22 and occasionally one will slip through the net.
With the possible exception of Sharp, our previous coaches judgement on which players would make top Championship players has been proved spot on.

 

[super_pig]

> umm i dunno about that.. how about mellis at chelsea and slew at blackburn..
problem now is that there is no point loaning players to div3 and 4 sides.. as we are down there ourselves!

 

[Bergen Blade]

At the time when we let those young players leave, we were a Premier League/Top 8 Championship side.
None of the players you've mentioned was good enough to play consistently at that level at the time and they still haven't done so 5 or 6 years later.
Even then, you've been very selective and mentioned only the players who've managed to forge a career in the lower leagues.
You could just as easily say why, oh why didn't we give players like Adam Burley, Tyrone Thompson, Jake Speight, Colin Marrison etc..etc.. more chances?
Decisions have to be made on young players at about 21-22 and occasionally one will slip through the net.
With the possible exception of Sharp, our previous coaches judgement on which players would make top Championship players has been proved spot on.

It's the coaches' job to spot potential, they shouldn't give all youngsters playing time.

The list of expensive failures are just examples of players we've prefered to sign, rather than played youngsters. There are always excuses. "He's not ready yet", "the crowd is too hostile", "we need someone who's been there and done it, like Ryan France". When this keeps happening year by year with the team getting worse and worse and our debt bigger and bigger, it shows what our policy has been. We've gone for experience. It's been expensive, and it's not worked.

What kind of message does this send out to the kids at youth level? Recent history has shown that our best talents has played a bit for the first team, then moved on to a better club. Will Lowton and Maguire break the pattern? I hope so! Those who are not quite as good must wonder which club they could start their senior career at.

I think it could have been a motivational thing for our kids to see that we tried to give young players a chance in the first team. And if they just end up as squad players, they'll at least be pretty cheap ones.