New head scout - Jamie Hoyland

[LondonBlade89]

Definitely need some more luck and a return to the clearer headed thinking that was prevalent before PL promotion.

I just have no idea what the plan is now tbh. What sort of players do they want etc

Couldn’t agree with this more. Obviously a huge part of the excitement Premier League promotion under Wilder was how it brought everyone together after so many awful years. But I think we all felt connected to a style of play. The players that came in fitted that mould. And I don’t mean fitted the mould of a “Sheffield United player” who would run hard, tackle hard and care about the badge. I mean players whose style fit with what we were trying to do and knew exactly what was wanted. As much as I’m a fan of Hecky, our promotion plan last year appeared to be to rely on Ndiaye and to a lesser extent McAtee (and maybe Berge) for some moments of brilliance at the top end and then ensure we’re solid enough at the back end. That completely fell away in the Premier League obviously and it feels we’re still trying to find our way. Wilder talking about recruiting players with the right mentality - understanding the Sheff Utd way - makes me cringe because even putting to one side that pretty much every fan of every club wants that, it was never our aim with recruitment to find passionate players. That was effectively secondary to fit. Christ knows what our fit is now.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Home run hits under Mitchell.

Duffy
Fleck
O’Connell
Wright (signed for nothing a lynchpin of the defence that started it all)
Clarke (low cost signing that really helped solidify us in the championship)
Baldock
Stevens
Lundstram (crucial cog in the best United side I’ve ever seen. Tainted by his later antics and his exit but he was a great player)
Egan
Didzy
Norwood
Henderson
MGW
McAtee
Doyle


Good signings under Mitchell

Hanson
Lafferty
Moore
Stearman
EEL
Donaldson
Lee Evans
Cranie
Madine
JLT
Wes
Rammers
B. Davies
Hourihane


Middle of the road signings under Mitchell.
Blackman
Washington
Dowell
Osborn
Hogan
Mousset (his decline keeping him from being ranked higher)
Lowe
Bogle
Clark

That’s some going. Yes the current side is in a state but I’m not sure it’s necessarily been down to bad recruitment more that the volume of players we’ve signed each year has steadily declined and therefore each player that isn’t a hit hurts us more than it did before.

Lundstram was never great. Good for a time but great? Really?

 

[Sean Thornton]

We seem to specialise in non-combatant midfielders like him. Could stick a blue helmet on a few of them.

To be fair to Hoyland, when he dropped into central defence he had a few really good games.

He looked very good in the back four. And then him and Basset fell out. Never really knew any specific reason.

 

[Rodley]

Promoted from L1 to the PL on £85m total outlay, spine of the team that finished 9th in the PL. But you think it's average because Chris Hussey wasn't good or Caolon Lavery didn't go on to be Harry Kane.

Again, oh dear

Bowled him.

 

[Gin&Juice]

I think we also tend to forget that between signing Brewster in October 2020 and Anel in July 2022 we didn't sign anyone permanently.

I think this is one of the key reasons behind why we're in such a mess, the squad was super lopsided and left us exposed last summer with having to bring in ready made replacements with a minimal budget.

It's critical that the new recruitment set up is allowed to recruit unlike the last time we went down.

Thanks for bringing that up. Because I think it’s fucking discgraceful.

 

[Yogi]

Lundstram was never great. Good for a time but great? Really?

I would have said he was that first season for us he was integral to that way of playing and his emergence pretty much ended us playing with a 10 which was initially the plan. Getting that output from a player we paid less than a million quid for is a great signing.

 

[Stockholm]

Just going back to John Gannon.
One rainy weds night, I had been on a radio operators course at towd Stockbridge college, we were playing pigs at element rustico.
Finished said lesson at 9 pm,
Jumped in car to listen to commo on RS,
"Gannon with the free kick....swings it into the box.....BOOBY DAVIDSON heads it into the back of the net.....3-1 to the blades...."

Needless to say my driving got a little bit erattic for a few seconds.

I we there (at el rustico) that night as young lad.
Next day I went into school and wrote on every blackboard I could 2-0 3-1 UTB!

 

[Sean Thornton]

I would have said he was that first season for us he was integral to that way of playing and his emergence pretty much ended us playing with a 10 which was initially the plan. Getting that output from a player we paid less than a million quid for is a great signing.

Low bar?

 

[Sean Thornton]

Bowled him.

Not out.

 

[Yogi]

Low bar.

As signings go we got a very good return on our investment but obviously opinions differ

 

[sheff_blade90]

Home run hits under Mitchell.

Duffy
Fleck
O’Connell
Wright (signed for nothing a lynchpin of the defence that started it all)
Clarke (low cost signing that really helped solidify us in the championship)
Baldock
Stevens
Lundstram (crucial cog in the best United side I’ve ever seen. Tainted by his later antics and his exit but he was a great player)
Egan
Didzy
Norwood
Henderson
MGW
McAtee
Doyle


Good signings under Mitchell

Hanson
Lafferty
Moore
Stearman
EEL
Donaldson
Lee Evans
Cranie
Madine
JLT
Wes
Rammers
B. Davies
Hourihane


Middle of the road signings under Mitchell.
Blackman
Washington
Dowell
Osborn
Hogan
Mousset (his decline keeping him from being ranked higher)
Lowe
Bogle
Clark

That’s some going. Yes the current side is in a state but I’m not sure it’s necessarily been down to bad recruitment more that the volume of players we’ve signed each year has steadily declined and therefore each player that isn’t a hit hurts us more than it did before.

have i missed something about Lafferty & Lee Evans. for them to be ranked as good on a par with JLT & Wes

 

[andy m]

As signings go we got a very good return on our investment but obviously opinions differ

I would say that great six months were more than offset by the way he stunk the place out the following season.

 

[Yogi]

have i missed something about Lafferty & Lee Evans. for them to be ranked as good on a par with JLT & Wes

It’s not about the ability of the player but what we invested and what we got back. Lafferty was a loan and then free who was a solid left back in the league one promotion season and then a serviceable back up to Stevens when we had to allocated resources elsewhere in the championship I’d argue that’s a good transfer.

Evans is less concrete and I’d be happy to move him down but my reasoning was that for not much outlay we got a run of the mill championship midfielder which I think we then subsequently sold for a profit

 

[Sean Thornton]

have i missed something about Lafferty & Lee Evans. for them to be ranked as good on a par with JLT & Wes

What must Stearman and Cranie think?

 

[sheff_blade90]

What must Stearman and Cranie think?

they need to be home runs just for celebrations post promotion. in hindsight the town hall celebrations 12 months ago missed a bladdered cranie singing wonderwall

 

[BobblesBlade]

Also most of his hits were in league 1 and championship. In the premier league when we couldn't afford too many misses things went badly wrong.

Are you being serious here.
Most of the hits saw us go from League 1 to the Premier League.

The premier league is totally different and there is no way you can blame Mitchell.

 

[tyke1889]

Not sure you needed to explain who John Gannon the footballer was mate
Think the explanation of him being Cities scout would have been better time spent.

I actually think that many of the naysayers will have no idea who JG is as a player

 

[Champagneblade]

Please, no one elevate John Gannon to “legend” status. I can see it coming. He was shite overall.

Him breaking his arm was the impetus we needed to get promotion that season!

He did help to give Cloughie the ‘screaming abdabs’, whatever they are!

 

[Berkshire Blade]

He's confirmed he's joined via Twitter and the star say he's chief scout not head of recruitment which is still to be appointed

 

[Rudders]

It’s not about the ability of the player but what we invested and what we got back. Lafferty was a loan and then free who was a solid left back in the league one promotion season and then a serviceable back up to Stevens when we had to allocated resources elsewhere in the championship I’d argue that’s a good transfer.

Really liked Lafferty we had a succession of poor left backs prior to him. Him and Freeman ushered in the Wilderball system with some brill attacking displays from full back, they both got good goals that promotion season?! Over 15 goals from full backs that season??

 

[Deadly_D'Jaffo]

Just please keep these "experts" as far away as possible from any player recommendations...

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