Prince - give us some direction

[Bell4]

Nobody will come out of this season well, but the reputation damage done to both the club and owner will be completely damning.

In fact it’s so bad and we are so dire that I would t be surprised if the premier league put some measures in place to prevent clubs doing what we are currently. Looking from their vested interest we are damaging the reputation of their “brand” hugely at the moment and could see us as a club being spot balled to ensure we don’t darken their door again.
Over dramatic you may say, and of course they could t possibly be so bold and brazen to do it with that as their stated intent…but we all know the levels of corruption in elite sport can be high and I don’t think for one minute that it’s not in football here.

The owner is saying he’s protecting the clubs future, and financially for a year or two he may be…but beyond that I have serious concerns as a club with our structure and size cannot be run on L1 investment and spending limits, and having screwed up the summer transfer policy AGAIN we can. Have zero faith he has the skill, funds or structure to get fit right in any future window.

Doom monger some may say…but this season may well destroy more than being overspent may have done. The fans. Once they are gone, the club has too.

Excellent , if not depressing , post .

The Prem , as you say is a brand - and we are the laughing stock of that brand . They have a qualification criteria on quality of ground before entry , as you say , perhaps we will be the catalyst for quality of team / squad etc.

Nothing surprises me.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Excellent , if not depressing , post .

The Prem , as you say is a brand - and we are the laughing stock of that brand . They have a qualification criteria on quality of ground before entry , as you say , perhaps we will be the catalyst for quality of team / squad etc.

Nothing surprises me.

So promotion from the championship and teams judged - by who? - to have the quality squad go up instead? What about if the teams bottom of the PL have better squads?

Plenty of reasons to knock the club but what a gormless comment. Jesus Christ.

 

[Snowflake]

What’s your first XI of contracted players next season which is good enough to compete?

Take any 11 from the current squad,add in the good youngsters and a couple of experienced players and hey presto we are there.

 

[Snowflake]

Nobody will come out of this season well, but the reputation damage done to both the club and owner will be completely damning.

In fact it’s so bad and we are so dire that I would t be surprised if the premier league put some measures in place to prevent clubs doing what we are currently. Looking from their vested interest we are damaging the reputation of their “brand” hugely at the moment and could see us as a club being spot balled to ensure we don’t darken their door again.
Over dramatic you may say, and of course they could t possibly be so bold and brazen to do it with that as their stated intent…but we all know the levels of corruption in elite sport can be high and I don’t think for one minute that it’s not in football here.

The owner is saying he’s protecting the clubs future, and financially for a year or two he may be…but beyond that I have serious concerns as a club with our structure and size cannot be run on L1 investment and spending limits, and having screwed up the summer transfer policy AGAIN we can. Have zero faith he has the skill, funds or structure to get fit right in any future window.

Doom monger some may say…but this season may well destroy more than being overspent may have done. The fans. Once they are gone, the club has too.

We are not that much worse than Luton, Burnley and Bournemouth.The path you are referring to would be that where there is no relegation.

 

[reedy63]

mlaobob,
Can you explain why some comments are cringeworthy?

 

[Bell4]

So promotion from the championship and teams judged - by who? - to have the quality squad go up instead? What about if the teams bottom of the PL have better squads?

Plenty of reasons to knock the club but what a gormless comment. Jesus Christ.

Gormless

Do you want to call me that face to face ?

 

[loveWalrusDaveTheBlade]

Gormless

Do you want to call me that face to face ?

Get yourselves onto Bramall Lane, sharpish, at full time after Wolves. All kicking off there apparently - you will both blend in perfectly while you sort things out. Winner might even avoid arrest in the general melee
Watch out for me windmilling - you might get a black eye.

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

I find it amazing that he hasn't sacked Heckingbottom yet

Presumably he wants that record

 

[Harry's Game]

I find it amazing that he hasn't sacked Heckingbottom yet

Presumably he wants that record

We can’t afford to pay off Hecky and the coaches contracts i assume

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

We can’t afford to pay off Hecky and the coaches contracts i assume

Sounds about right...

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

The only good thing that can come from this, is that the value of his asset, the club, is depreciating week on week, and so he will have to lower his asking price, and then hopefully he will be off as soon as possible.

 

[itsinyerblood]

We can’t afford to pay off Hecky and the coaches contracts i assume

I guess we could always ask Chancer for a short-term loan.......ooops, maybe not!

 

[botoble]

Prince , the club you own is in free fall , without a strategy, without direction and worst of all - without purpose .

You are passively sleepwalking this proud club into oblivion - please give us all some sort of direction , if only for the sake of the man who has saved this clubs short term future and your backside by getting us up .

Prince , step up , now

We are a top 6 championship sized club when all is said and done. I would say Wednesday would put themselves there or there abouts but would rightly claim they are hugely under achieving as a club.

Every match we have in the premier league is a bonus and is a byproduct of our overachievement.

Despite injuries and adversity Heckingbottom took us up and I would give him the chance to take us back up again next season. It worked for Burnley with Dyche, it worked for Norwich with Farke and I don’t fancy a gamble of a jokanovich best man for the job scenario. Look how badly it ended for Norwich when they replaced Farke with Smith .

Since the Prince has been involved at Bramall lane we have undoubtedly seen some of the most exciting times to be a blade in decades. The bouncing day massacre, 2 promotions to the prem and a league 1 champions medal, Billy Sharp’s renaissance, wilder ball, we got to see Ndiaye for longer than most expected, we saw touches of sheer brilliance from MGW and we have McAtee back for another season. I’d say as track records go we should cut the Prince some slack and let’s see what happens in the championship next year before we start making him into a villain…look at the news coming out of Wednesday today on the back of doing exactly this!??? . I’d genuinely like to see him stay part of the club and get investment as unlike under McCabe I can see him trying to do the right thing even when it doesn’t pay off. The decision to hire Jokanvic was sensible, the attempt to keep Wilder, the decision to give Heckingbottom the job of taking us up and bringing in Lester and McCall.

I don’t honestly know of a manager that given the resources and squad we have could keep us up, don’t get me wrong I’m not saying another manager couldn’t do better than Hecky but the best I could see for us, is finishing above Burnley and Luton. The likes of Wolves, Everton and even Bournemouth have far superior squads and have the ability to string afew results together we however do not.

I am excited to see some of our new signings in the championship and even when we are short of cash we’ll still be better off than half of the championship with a pretty damn strong squad.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Gormless

Do you want to call me that face to face ?

You typed it ten men. Grow the fuck up.

 

[Bell4]

You typed it ten men. Grow the fuck up.

My offer stands

Do you want to insult me face to face ?

 

[Sean Thornton]

My offer stands

Do you want to insult me face to face ?

Dear me.

 

[Hockey'sBeard]

We are a top 6 championship sized club when all is said and done. I would say Wednesday would put themselves there or there abouts but would rightly claim they are hugely under achieving as a club.

Every match we have in the premier league is a bonus and is a byproduct of our overachievement.

Despite injuries and adversity Heckingbottom took us up and I would give him the chance to take us back up again next season. It worked for Burnley with Dyche, it worked for Norwich with Farke and I don’t fancy a gamble of a jokanovich best man for the job scenario. Look how badly it ended for Norwich when they replaced Farke with Smith .

Since the Prince has been involved at Bramall lane we have undoubtedly seen some of the most exciting times to be a blade in decades. The bouncing day massacre, 2 promotions to the prem and a league 1 champions medal, Billy Sharp’s renaissance, wilder ball, we got to see Ndiaye for longer than most expected, we saw touches of sheer brilliance from MGW and we have McAtee back for another season. I’d say as track records go we should cut the Prince some slack and let’s see what happens in the championship next year before we start making him into a villain…look at the news coming out of Wednesday today on the back of doing exactly this!??? . I’d genuinely like to see him stay part of the club and get investment as unlike under McCabe I can see him trying to do the right thing even when it doesn’t pay off. The decision to hire Jokanvic was sensible, the attempt to keep Wilder, the decision to give Heckingbottom the job of taking us up and bringing in Lester and McCall.

I don’t honestly know of a manager that given the resources and squad we have could keep us up, don’t get me wrong I’m not saying another manager couldn’t do better than Hecky but the best I could see for us, is finishing above Burnley and Luton. The likes of Wolves, Everton and even Bournemouth have far superior squads and have the ability to string afew results together we however do not.

I am excited to see some of our new signings in the championship and even when we are short of cash we’ll still be better off than half of the championship with a pretty damn strong squad.

Didn’t know Mr Bettis was on here!

 

[Bell4]

So promotion from the championship and teams judged - by who? - to have the quality squad go up instead? What about if the teams bottom of the PL have better squads?

Plenty of reasons to knock the club but what a gormless comment. Jesus Christ.

The post i was replying to was suggesting that there may be a judgement made on quality in the future, to protect the Prem brand. That is not beyond the realms of possibility , how they do it and who does it - i dont know . As i said in my response to the post , nothing surprises me. There are already qualification criteria for grounds in place to improve the product and infrastructure of the Premier League . Many people have made the point that there are an increased number of American owners in the Prem and that there could be a move to make the Prem a closed shop with no promotion to and relegation from.

A quality / standard qualification criteria is not new, there are already qualification criteria for many sports - for example , in many Olympic events competitors have to achieve a qualification standard before they are selected. There are team selection criteria in place for certain cup competitions, so that the integrity of the competition is maintained. Utd are currently breaking their own records for the poorest ever start to a prem season , the most shots against, the most goals conceded , the fewest attempts on goal , the fewest points etc. The approach by the club indicates that they have no serious intention of staying in the Prem , therefore not enhancing the brand & not becoming an attractive component of the league, perhaps seen as a dead rubber fixture by many other clubs and their supporters - we are indeed a laughing stock in the eyes of many football pundits and some have said that we are a waste of a place .

Im not saying i care what they say - i am only pointing out that they are saying it.

So , to respond in the way you did to my post by calling it Gormless is what gets my goat. You and many others feel it is ok to insult posters who are giving an opinion, behind the safety of a key board .

Therefore my offer to call me out face to face was made - but all i get back is more condescending behaviour.

 

[botoble]

Didn’t know Mr Bettis was on here!

Which parts do you disagree with?

 

[Jacobsenthecrab]

We can’t afford to pay off Hecky and the coaches contracts i assume

I’ve seen 2 people in a bar tonight in Manchester and I’m convinced Hecky is going and CW is in as a result.
Not what I want but it seems a done deal now.
They should have kept a lower profile though

 

[ATL Recs]

This squad , not the current side, with the on loan youngsters is good enough. Add in a bit of experience and promotion is a real prospect.
The difficulty is that we don’t appear to have found the youngsters who in 18 months will be good enough at PL level unless Slimane, Larouchi and others are better than I think.

Most of this squad is likely to not be here next season

 

[Grizzly blade]

We are not that much worse than Luton, Burnley and Bournemouth.The path you are referring to would be that where there is no relegation.

That’s a very brave comment before we have played them.
Judging on their performances against premier league opponents alone and ignoring the results of us and them I cannot agree with you.
We are dreadful, can’t pass the ball, defend, keep the ball and will likely be comfortably beaten by all 3 of them. We couldn’t beat Luton last season either.

And I’m not referring to no relegation at all. I’m suggesting that the premier league could easily influence future attempts by our club to join their club while it is in its current guise.
We are an embarrassment to their brand and bringing the competition into disrepute! A complete laughing stock when you consider the money they filter in just for turning up.

This is one way they could influence clubs- prize money will be allocated to clubs based on their net spend increase on fees and wages since promotion- net spend is £40m more than the previous season then that’s what you get, and parachute payments are adjusted accordingly. What they do with the rest of what normally is given is up to them.


Bold statement here- you could pluck any of the top 15 teams in the champ and swap them with us and that team would perform better and cause more problems for opponents than we do. I can’t stress enough just how bad we are.

 

[Snowflake]

I th

Most of this squad is likely to not be here next season

I think many will still be here. Who else would have them ?

 

[Snowflake]

W

That’s a very brave comment before we have played them.
Judging on their performances against premier league opponents alone and ignoring the results of us and them I cannot agree with you.
We are dreadful, can’t pass the ball, defend, keep the ball and will likely be comfortably beaten by all 3 of them. We couldn’t beat Luton last season either.

And I’m not referring to no relegation at all. I’m suggesting that the premier league could easily influence future attempts by our club to join their club while it is in its current guise.
We are an embarrassment to their brand and bringing the competition into disrepute! A complete laughing stock when you consider the money they filter in just for turning up.

This is one way they could influence clubs- prize money will be allocated to clubs based on their net spend increase on fees and wages since promotion- net spend is £40m more than the previous season then that’s what you get, and parachute payments are adjusted accordingly. What they do with the rest of what normally is given is up to them.


Bold statement here- you could pluck any of the top 15 teams in the champ and swap them with us and that team would perform better and cause more problems for opponents than we do. I can’t stress enough just how bad we are.

We obviously feel differently about how poor we are.
This is a side that almost beat Spurs and held Man City for a long time, but then were embarrassed by Newcastle and Arsenal.
We simply cannot tell what standard we are after these 10 matches. If by 1st January we are still abysmal then you will be right in questioning my bravado !!

 

[Grizzly blade]

W

We obviously feel differently about how poor we are.
This is a side that almost beat Spurs and held Man City for a long time, but then were embarrassed by Newcastle and Arsenal.
We simply cannot tell what standard we are after these 10 matches. If by 1st January we are still abysmal then you will be right in questioning my bravado !!

Seriously, if you cannot see how bad we really are then I feel sorry for you.

Almost beat spurs? But didn’t, and would hardly say we would have deserved the win if we had.
City- complete control in first gear, on another day would have put 5/6 past us.

It’s not about results, defending for our lives simply to keep the score down and claiming we “nearly won or nearly got a point” isn’t indication of anything other than us being dire.
We hardly lay a glove on teams, and are relying on their errors or failings.
Joint top scorer this season is? Yep…OG FFS

 

[Hockey'sBeard]

Which parts do you disagree with?

Don’t actually disagree with much / anything you are saying but it’s far too positive and optimistic for this forum which is why I added smiley face to my ironic comment- could almost be a comment direct from the club - the future is bright when we go back to the championship.
I wish there was more honesty from the club about what our long term aim is but assume that now we’re here in the prem they can’t admit we only came up for the money and to start rebuilding the squad (long overdue in my view)

 

[LBA_Blade]

You're right. The EPL want clubs to spend BIG. So the league is competitive as possible and attracts the world's best players. That's why prize money, TV revenues and parachute payments are so lucrative. There is no excuse for doing what we have done. None. It's gaming the system, it's damaging to the product (the EPL) and the powers that be will soon get wise to it and stamp it out.

If they thought logically about it rather than just having a "stamp it out" policy they could have a different structure for the playoffs which would be a money spinner.

Reduce Championship to 1 Auto - to be replaced by bottom team in Premiership

Playoffs are 2nd,3rd of Championship plus 18th, 19th Premiership.

Round robin of each 4 teams but only 3 fixtures (i.e. no home or away) at the end of the playoffs -Top 2 of this new "mini-league" go to the Premiership bottom 2 go to the Championship

There could be a few different ways and combos the above could work but would give keep the incentive going until the end of the season, the Championship sides get the chance to test themselves against Premiership opposition plus Premiership opposition barring the bottom side has a chance of saving themselves and their season from relegation.

 

[Pedro's Winger]

We are a top 6 championship sized club when all is said and done. I would say Wednesday would put themselves there or there abouts but would rightly claim they are hugely under achieving as a club.

Every match we have in the premier league is a bonus and is a byproduct of our overachievement.

Despite injuries and adversity Heckingbottom took us up and I would give him the chance to take us back up again next season. It worked for Burnley with Dyche, it worked for Norwich with Farke and I don’t fancy a gamble of a jokanovich best man for the job scenario. Look how badly it ended for Norwich when they replaced Farke with Smith .

Since the Prince has been involved at Bramall lane we have undoubtedly seen some of the most exciting times to be a blade in decades. The bouncing day massacre, 2 promotions to the prem and a league 1 champions medal, Billy Sharp’s renaissance, wilder ball, we got to see Ndiaye for longer than most expected, we saw touches of sheer brilliance from MGW and we have McAtee back for another season. I’d say as track records go we should cut the Prince some slack and let’s see what happens in the championship next year before we start making him into a villain…look at the news coming out of Wednesday today on the back of doing exactly this!??? . I’d genuinely like to see him stay part of the club and get investment as unlike under McCabe I can see him trying to do the right thing even when it doesn’t pay off. The decision to hire Jokanvic was sensible, the attempt to keep Wilder, the decision to give Heckingbottom the job of taking us up and bringing in Lester and McCall.

I don’t honestly know of a manager that given the resources and squad we have could keep us up, don’t get me wrong I’m not saying another manager couldn’t do better than Hecky but the best I could see for us, is finishing above Burnley and Luton. The likes of Wolves, Everton and even Bournemouth have far superior squads and have the ability to string afew results together we however do not.

I am excited to see some of our new signings in the championship and even when we are short of cash we’ll still be better off than half of the championship with a pretty damn strong squad.

Historically, United are in the top 20 English clubs.
In general terms now you've got around 12 elite clubs who would rightly claim a place at the top table through history, crowd size etc - Manchester x 2, Liverpool x 2, North East x 2, London x 4, Leeds and Aston Villa.
Beyond that, it's much of a muchness and no reason to settle for United just being a top 6 Championship club.

 

[Silent Blade]

Historically, United are in the top 20 English clubs.

Not since 1976

 

[Carlton Blade]

There's some epic overreaction in this thread.

We'll not spend more than our income. That's it. No risk of foreclosure etc.

Budget for next season will be £65m ish + player sales
Y2 - £55m plus player sales
Y3 and onwards (Championship level) £17-20m+ player sales.

Club won't fold, it'll just be nearer Rotherham than Forest

By all means, slag that off and want ownership with more investment power. But words like "oblivion" and "disaster" are (unless there's still a giant hole in the finances after this season, I don't think there is but who knows for sure?) not describing what's going on.