New training pitch

[Toronto Blade]

If you can't afford to turn the heat on how can afford to bring in a decent striker

 

[CaptainMorgans]

In hindsight, I bet PH wishes he'd used the training pitch funds on transfers.
Feel a bit sorry for the bloke, it sounds an absolute shambles above him.

 

[Berkshire Blade]

The Prince, and therefore us as fans, should be thanking Wilder for those two premier league years every single day. Without them I think we could be in trouble

 

[Bladeloyal]

Heatings on ,and talk of injuring because they are on the top pitch is absolutely nonsense . If top pitches are heavy go on the 4 g if the weather's inclement go on the half size indoor pitch .
I think personally they do to much gym work .

 

[Houston_Blade]

Hecky went a bit ranty in his post match, said he’s having to manage his anger regarding the situation. We do have a habit of making things hard work, not paying for undersoil heating is a new way of doing so.

 

[Snowflake]

The Prince, and therefore us as fans, should be thanking Wilder for those two premier league years every single day. Without them I think we could be in trouble

May we see you working notes, please ?

 

[Rufus Smalls]

Heatings on ,and talk of injuring because they are on the top pitch is absolutely nonsense . If top pitches are heavy go on the 4 g if the weather's inclement go on the half size indoor pitch .
I think personally they do to much gym work .

You might have a point there about the gym.

I find it unbelievable that players back in the day, even at the Lane, used to play and train on some atrocious surfaces and not one single moan from the managers or players.

Are we led to believe that the playing surface has to be like a bowling green to prevent injuries ??

 

[More Bladier than thou]

seeing alot on here saying we cant afford to turn on the undersoil heating. Complete bollocks. We haven’t even had freezing conditions since mid December, therefore why would they need put it on ? Also nobody from the club has stated thats the reason. Theres only 2 other reasons-1. Grass and 4g havent grown properly.Pitch is not playble or 2- Drainage issues- most likely scenario since we have had a alot of rain.

 

[Berkshire Blade]

May we see you working notes, please ?

Money is tight even though we made a profit in our two premier league seasons and only spent 3 million on one perm transfer since 2020. The talked about training ground new building didn't happen. A training pitch had to come out of the playing budget and even then we didn't spend enough to get the heating turned on for it. That's with 70+ million parachute money and 24 million plus add ons for Ramsdale. Even with promotion in our own hands zero funds to give the side a little help it seems.

 

[Houston_Blade]

You might have a point there about the gym.

I find it unbelievable that players back in the day, even at the Lane, used to play and train on some atrocious surfaces and not one single moan from the managers or players.

Are we led to believe that the playing surface has to be like a bowling green to prevent injuries ??

I think Hecky’s point is that he wants it like a decent football pitch rather than a bowling green.

 

[Houston_Blade]

seeing alot on here saying we cant afford to turn on the undersoil heating. Complete bollocks. We haven’t even had freezing conditions since mid December, therefore why would they need put it on ? Also nobody from the club has stated thats the reason. Theres only 2 other reasons-1. Grass and 4g havent grown properly.Pitch is not playble or 2- Drainage issues- most likely scenario since we have had a alot of rain.

It wasn’t that we couldn’t afford it, it was that we haven’t paid the contractors to finish it off, that’s paraphrasing from Hecky’s post match tonight on RS.

 

[Rufus Smalls]

I think Hecky’s point is that he wants it like a decent football pitch rather than a bowling green.

Ok, so if they want a decent football pitch then surely there’s something suitable within the boundaries of Sheffield even if it’s just temporary.

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

It wasn’t that we couldn’t afford it, it was that we haven’t paid the contractors to finish it off, that’s paraphrasing from Hecky’s post match tonight on RS.

So if it’s finished off then the drainage is now fine and can be used going forward. Therefore there doesn’t sound a great deal of point in moaning about it now.

 

[Houston_Blade]

So if it’s finished off then the drainage is now fine and can be used going forward. Therefore there doesn’t sound a great deal of point in moaning about it now.

It sounded like it’s about done but he was still expressing frustration at the situation taking 2 months longer than it should have done.

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

It sounded like it’s about done but he was still expressing frustration at the situation taking 2 months longer than it should have done.

That’s my reading. Others were suggesting the issue is going to continue to impact us.
If we’ve left it off and we’re in the top and the impact going forward is that Stevens is out, I’m ok with it.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Ok, so if they want a decent football pitch then surely there’s something suitable within the boundaries of Sheffield even if it’s just temporary.

You would have thought we’d have looked into it but who knows?!

 

[robbiez666]

It sounded like it’s about done but he was still expressing frustration at the situation taking 2 months longer than it should have done.

That’s my reading. Others were suggesting the issue is going to continue to impact us.
If we’ve left it off and we’re in the top and the impact going forward is that Stevens is out, I’m ok with it.

I have zero idea how these things work but it sounded like anything but done. Don't know if it all has to bed in first or something like that. He basically said he'll have to change the training so sounds like an ongoing issue?

 

[Houston_Blade]

I have zero idea how these things work but it sounded like anything but done. Don't know if it all has to bed in first or something like that. He basically said he'll have to change the training so sounds like an ongoing issue?

Yeah, definitely didn’t sound like it was done and Hecky wasn’t happy. It sounds like a bit of a fuck up and egg on face given the social media pitch shite the other month.

 

[Snowflake]

Hecky went a bit ranty in his post match, said he’s having to manage his anger regarding the situation. We do have a habit of making things hard work, not paying for undersoil heating is a new way of doing so.

I may be slow to understand, but at a time of relatively mild weather with no penetrating frost or snow, why does a lack of undersoil heating stop you using the new training pitch ?
Is this a smokescreen for some other concerns that Hecky has ?

 

[Bladeloyal]

I'd say hecky moans a bit to much about nothing .think there a play in there somewhere

 

[Bladeloyal]

Unfortunately the training pitch wasn't done at the optimum time ,long term it's a great addition to our facilities .hecky can moan all he likes but it will be useable when it's right ,to be fair to the club the undersoil heating is available and all the light heating system has been leased to make it a first class facility .what more do people want .as for the injuries it is a complete smokescreen

 

[HeySethUTB]

Smokescreen for what Bladeloyal. Over working in the gym? Older players who are now beginning to breakdown more often?

 

[Bladeloyal]

It's just a easy excuse to criticize facilities and not methods ,a age old problem in human nature

 

[More Bladier than thou]

It wasn’t that we couldn’t afford it, it was that we haven’t paid the contractors to finish it off, that’s paraphrasing from Hecky’s post match tonight on RS.

Kin hell, I didn’t listen to the interview. Really unprofessional to spend all that money on the training ground then not finish it off. However i still don’t understand why they cant use the pitches in the meantime ?

 

[CaptainMorgans]

I may be slow to understand, but at a time of relatively mild weather with no penetrating frost or snow, why does a lack of undersoil heating stop you using the new training pitch ?
Is this a smokescreen for some other concerns that Hecky has ?

"will the grass take sufficiently for the first team to train..." I could see problems here.

In the current cold spell there will be minimal growth, if any at all. If it has undersoil heating then the situation improves, especially if it can get a few hours sun daily and the ambient temperature is 7 degrees Celsius or above.

What often happens is that newly laid pitches are played on too soon, resulting in slippage of the pitch, and slips by players because of it, sometimes causing injuries.

What also often happens, is that too much water is given to the pitch so that the grass roots don`t have to grow down searching for water, and in the process anchoring the pitch properly.

Whether the club has been clever in undertaking the works in a quieter period for pitch contractors, may largely depend upon how it is treated until the Spring.

Snowflake
My interpretation from what PH said is that the new pitches aren't ready to be played on and won't be for a couple of months..

Going off the above, I'm guessing that due to the installation happening in the winter, we probably needed to turn the undersoil heating on to ensure that the grass properly took.
As the Prince couldn't / wouldn't do this, we've now found ourselves with two unusable pitches and are training on the academy fields which are seemingly not fit for purpose for the level we're at and what we're trying to achieve.

Considering Heckingbottom gave up a significant chunk of his playing budget to at least give the squad he had the best possible opportunity, for the Prince to not meet him halfway and pay his bills must be seriously disappointing.
He's pretty much said as much himself.
I can't imagine it's gone down well with the players either.

 

[Hamandcheese]

Maybe we should train as little as possible and just use the matches as training, as they start to pile up. Play practice matches every week for those who don't play in the league

It'd probably reduce injuries and in that case the net result could be positive

 

[Snowflake]

Snowflake
My interpretation from what PH said is that the new pitches aren't ready to be played on and won't be for a couple of months..

Going off the above, I'm guessing that due to the installation happening in the winter, we probably needed to turn the undersoil heating on to ensure that the grass properly took.
As the Prince couldn't / wouldn't do this, we've now found ourselves with two unusable pitches and are training on the academy fields which are seemingly not fit for purpose for the level we're at and what we're trying to achieve.

Considering Heckingbottom gave up a significant chunk of his playing budget to at least give the squad he had the best possible opportunity, for the Prince to not meet him halfway and pay his bills must be seriously disappointing.
He's pretty much said as much himself.
I can't imagine it's gone down well with the players either.

He said they were a couple of months behind schedule, that schedule was supposed to be mid Autumn, so they are now ready ?
Surely most of the work and the seeding was done by the end of Summer, so had the best possible growing time, during early Autumn ?
Maybe it is more tricky growing grass for a pitch than for my lawn !

 

[Pompey_Blade]

Sounds like he's just looking to blame anything but the training methods for all the injuries to me.

 

[CaptainMorgans]

He said they were a couple of months behind schedule, that schedule was supposed to be mid Autumn, so they are now ready ?
Surely most of the work and the seeding was done by the end of Summer, so had the best possible growing time, during early Autumn ?
Maybe it is more tricky growing grass for a pitch than for my lawn !

I know they're not ready to use yet, as Heckingbottom said it.
He also said that we have a difficult period coming up because we're going to be using the academy pitches which "have turned" (presumably to shit).

He wanted them ready by now, so as to avoid having to use the boggy fields.

 

[Addison]

"Enda and George picked up injuries. We're at that stage now where academy pitches we are training on have turned. Its going to be a challenge. We have to put it on the medical staff and sports science team to come up with plans to help us get through this because we saw what happened last time.

We had a lot of unlucky contact injuries at the start of the season, part and parcel of the game but we've now put added pressure on our players and picked up 1 or 2 strains. I know from being in this position before and the experience of last season on that ground and how it played a part on the players bodies so we've seen it already. We need to change how we train and try to be prepared for it because ultimately thats going to be a factor going forward.

Yes a lot of money has been spent on the pitches and it will be beneficial when we can get on it. We didn't get the undersoil heating plugged in and paid off in time. Its in now thats good. Ideally we would have liked that done at the same time so we were on the pitch which I wouldn't be chatting about now if it had been. We're going to be a couple of months behind so we've got to be prepared for it.

I've got to manage myself through it. The frustration, the anger, the disappointment if something does happen. Frustrations at maybe not the preparations we would have liked to get the team set up. We've all got to be prepared for this patch until we get back to where we want to be where we can take that element of risk and get it back in our control."

Anyone reading that can see a manager who normally plays a straight bat and toes the party line is unhappy with how the installation of the pitches has been managed. In bold I've highlighted what I believe are the key points.

We are going to have to change how we train moving forward because of the delays. This could go on for some weeks until the pitches are ready. This could impact on team performance on the pitch and increase the risk of injury.PH is unhappy that how he wants to prepare the team for matches is now compromised in the short term by the off field mis management.

Not a good read for the Board and the fact PH has felt compelled to go public with it is concerning. Hopefully the rumours of a minted Egyptian buyer are true and we can swiftly move onto visible owners fully supportive of our promotion charge.