New Manager ?

[luffenhamblade]

We had the third biggest budget. By that measure our performance was in line with expectations. You may have expected less but once the season kicked off with the team we had, I expected us to finish in the top 4.

Budget is fine but we were in a difficult position in so many areas and with so many changes in personal. To translate third biggest budget (if that is the case) into third is a strong performance.

 

[luffenhamblade]

If you were expecting anything less than finishing in the playoffs then you were either being absurdly pessimistic or trolling.

You mean 7th? No not really.

 

[ATL Recs]

You’ve touched on something here because that was a strength when we had the absent Prince owning the club.

Hecky did the ground work not Wilder

 

[TJ blade]

I just want a bit of entertaining , exciting football. 90 (92) points and can count on one hand (maybe a mutant 6 finger hand) the number of games we truly bossed. It was a much better season on paper than from the stands.

Wilder knows how to win at this level, no doubt.. but given the strength and cost of our squad, I'd like to see "the beautiful game" at BDTBL for a bit. It would make the grim reality of a season in the Prem far more bearable.

He knows how to win at this level, but not necessarily "big games" and I'm not talking about Sheffield fckg Wednesday !!

 

[alcoblade]

So should we take it the "Sheffield United Way" is better than the vast majority of clubs throughout "modern footballing" world?

No strong opinion either way. But we shouldn't have renewed his contract if that's the case.

 

[sheff_blade90]

I just want a bit of entertaining , exciting football. 90 (92) points and can count on one hand (maybe a mutant 6 finger hand) the number of games we truly bossed. It was a much better season on paper than from the stands.

Wilder knows how to win at this level, no doubt.. but given the strength and cost of our squad, I'd like to see "the beautiful game" at BDTBL for a bit. It would make the grim reality of a season in the Prem far more bearable.

HammerInPeace would know more than me, but this is sounds alot like when west ham got rid of moyes despite winning a trophy. just have to look how lopertegui beautiful football worked out

 

[jt64]

You mean 7th? No not really.

If you thought a club that has just come down from the division above, who would be operating on easily a top six budget, would not finish in the top six, then yes, you were being pessimistic. Perhaps not as pessimistic as some of the clowns who were suggesting back to back relegations could ever be a thing, and they did exist, but still pessimistic. Rationalising pessimism with "but Sheffield United" does not work.

 

[alcoblade]

If you were expecting anything less than finishing in the playoffs then you were either being absurdly pessimistic or trolling.

Lots of people, myself included, considered a playoff position would be a magnificent achievement after last season..

 

[luffenhamblade]

Lots of people, myself included, considered a playoff position would be a magnificent achievement after last season..

I hoped above hope for a top 6 and genuinely thought it might be possible but never dreamt of third given the turmoil we were in.

 

[Bill puntin]

If we mean buisness we should try for Angie postumacalhim

 

[Pandev]

So it turns out the pig fan at their forum was right?

In all honesty, it’s probably the correct and smart decision. The club needs to move forward with modern practices, e.g a director of football model. Wilder is old school and I can’t see him changing from that.

Like the post further up said, all 20 PL clubs use a director of football. We need to modernise and unfortunately, as much as I love Wilder, it’s without him.

 

[Houso]

Lots of people, myself included, considered a playoff position would be a magnificent achievement after last season..

Before the season had started, I'd be inclined to agree. Ten games in and seeing what various players could do (a couple of them notably brought in by Wilder), I think top four was a reasonable assumption.

It should never be understated, not replacing Souttar in January was one of the biggest errors of either of Wilder's spells and utterly baffling. Also, inadequately replacing Bogle/Gilchrist was also a significant and avoidable error. Clarke was never right for the role, so we crowbarred a defensive midfielder in there too much. Promotion was there for us, but the weak foundations that could have been fixed scuppered us IMO.

 

[sheff_blade90]

If you were expecting anything less than finishing in the playoffs then you were either being absurdly pessimistic or trolling.

i think i had us 4th or 5th & i genuinely was being very optimistic at that point

 

[Gordon Freeman]

clowns who were suggesting back to back relegations could ever be a thing

<Luton enters the chat>

 

[KOPPO]

no one will be good enough they will get the sack too.

 

[jt64]

Lots of people, myself included, considered a playoff position would be a magnificent achievement after last season..

I'm not entirely sure why. Nailed on certainty to be relegated was relegated. It's a new season. Slates are wiped clean, facts of how things stand should be looked at at that point. Some fans may bleat about being emotionally scarred or other similar mumbo jumbo phrases, but that sort of thing is irrelevant when making a detached rational assessment of what is likely to happen.

 

[jt64]

<Luton enters the chat>

Luton then looks round, realises it doesn't have our squad or infrastructure, then lets itself out of the back door quietly

 

[Silky Sabella]

It's like waiting for white smoke from the Vatican

 

[Rodley]

Before the season had started, I'd be inclined to agree. Ten games in and seeing what various players could do (a couple of them notably brought in by Wilder), I think top four was a reasonable assumption.

It should never be understated, not replacing Souttar in January was one of the biggest errors of either of Wilder's spells and utterly baffling. Also, inadequately replacing Bogle/Gilchrist was also a significant and avoidable error. Clarke was never right for the role, so we crowbarred a defensive midfielder in there too much. Promotion was there for us, but the weak foundations that could have been fixed scuppered us IMO.

I would agree that relying on Robinson to replace Souttar was a huge mistake. We should have got a centre half for £10m rather than Cannon.

 

[PrestwichBlade]

I'm not entirely sure why. Nailed on certainty to be relegated was relegated. It's a new season. Slates are wiped clean, facts of how things stand should be looked at at that point. Some fans may bleat about being emotionally scarred or other similar mumbo jumbo phrases, but that sort of thing is irrelevant when making a detached rational assessment of what is likely to happen.

I agree. I acknowledge Wilder did well with a new bunch of players, but I do feel this 'turmoil' angle is somewhat over egged. Let's not forget, he had half of the premier league season to get a lens on things and could start planning for last season well in advance. Again, he did well with that, but it's not like he rocked up 2 weeks before the season started and started from scratch.

 

[skyjam]

no one will be good enough they will get the sack too.

take your medication now

 

[Cheeky Blade]

Hecky did the ground work not Wilder

Hecky did a great job imo, Wilder was around before of course.

 

[MTBlade]

For me with what happened to Baldock, the problems of the summer transfer window due to the protracted takeover, CW deserves another season.

I was starting to think this also.

Now i have sat back and recovered from the end of the season, i have tried to put myself in the owners shoes ( who have a hell of a lot more riding on this than i have) and if the stories are true, i guess i can understand why they may think a change is best now.

IF they are looking to spend, would they want CW spending there money (looking back at January when they were at the club)?

A few players brought in (either loans or fees) with very very limited success.

IF CW is going to spend there money, he will go and get CW players (which is understandable as hes the boss), but if a change is made, will the money spent then be wasted as a new boss may want to play a different style?

I guess the big question is, how much confidence do the owners have in CW from the time they have been in charge.

 

[alcoblade]

I'm not entirely sure why. Nailed on certainty to be relegated was relegated. It's a new season. Slates are wiped clean, facts of how things stand should be looked at at that point. Some fans may bleat about being emotionally scarred or other similar mumbo jumbo phrases, but that sort of thing is irrelevant when making a detached rational assessment of what is likely to happen.

I'm part of a large wattsapp group of Blades. We agree on practically nothing, as is the way. At the end of last season, everyone agreed that a play off place wood be a phenomenal achievement, and the idea we could be relegated again wasn't widespread, but wasn't ridiculed either.

 

[Rodley]

I was starting to think this also.

Now i have sat back and recovered from the end of the season, i have tried to put myself in the owners shoes ( who have a hell of a lot more riding on this than i have) and if the stories are true, i guess i can understand why they may think a change is best now.

IF they are looking to spend, would they want CW spending there money (looking back at January when they were at the club)?

A few players brought in (either loans or fees) with very very limited success.

IF CW is going to spend there money, he will go and get CW players (which is understandable as hes the boss), but if a change is made, will the money spent then be wasted as a new boss may want to play a different style?

I guess the big question is, how much confidence do the owners have in CW from the time they have been in charge.

I can understand the argument either way.

But in many ways it’s not a binary argument. CW has his flaws, particularly getting too focussed on individual transfer targets, but I don’t think this means we have to go all in on AI. Equally any manager who is coming to Sheffield United in the Championship will likely have flaws themselves.

I’d probably be persuaded to twist if we could get Steve Cooper. He’s a good manager and I think with heavy backing we might have a chance to stop up next year. I’m less excited for a unproven option or less experienced as we just need someone to “get us over the top”, rather than embed a whole new philosophy and approach. We only have one season of parachute payments left!

 

[DI36O]

Poll from this very website right before the season started

And looking at a pre-season predictions thread from 5th August
"9th"
"3 or 4 places higher IF we get 3 or 4 starters in"
"could see us making the playoffs"
Another poster from that thread did think we could do automatic in fairness

 

[alcoblade]

Before the season had started, I'd be inclined to agree. Ten games in and seeing what various players could do (a couple of them notably brought in by Wilder), I think top four was a reasonable assumption.

It should never be understated, not replacing Souttar in January was one of the biggest errors of either of Wilder's spells and utterly baffling. Also, inadequately replacing Bogle/Gilchrist was also a significant and avoidable error. Clarke was never right for the role, so we crowbarred a defensive midfielder in there too much. Promotion was there for us, but the weak foundations that could have been fixed scuppered us IMO.

I agree with all that. But it would be unfair to start judgment from 10 games in. It was a remarkable turn around given the rebuild. The second half of the season was a real disappointment, and boring. I think he did more than enough to be given another chance this season. Albeit with a number of caveats about things that needed to change.

 

[A Storm of Blades]

The ideal would be Wilder admitting the football was atrocious and it was something he intends to address. Few are better equipped to take us up, but I won’t lie, the standard of football made me question the point at times.

 

[dc_blade]

I'm part of a large wattsapp group of Blades. We agree on practically nothing, as I'd the way. At the end of last season, everyone agreed that a play off place wood be a phenomenal achievement, and the idea we could be relegated again wasn't widespread, but wasn't ridiculed either.

I do understand the sentiment after the horror show the season before but it was a misreading of our situation last summer. We had some good players in the squad and even under the Prince were always likely to have one of the biggest budgets in the division. Wilder did well to get that team to gel so quickly but I don't think he massively overperformed expectations.

 

[alcoblade]

I do understand the sentiment after the horror show the season before but it was a misreading of our situation last summer. We had some good players in the squad and even under the Prince were always likely to have one of the biggest budgets in the division. Wilder did well to get that team to gel so quickly but I don't think he massively overperformed expectations.

He did according to 5 out of 6 people who voted in the poll above though.