Been out all day and it's got a bit lively.
I have a lot of respect for Sheffield United. Proper club and proper fans. By that I mean fans that have stick by the club.
Just because your a big club doesn't mean that you will get a said player.
Bournemouth are insignificant in terms of history, but at this moment are bigger I'm respect of division. Times change and with the money involved in modern football so does that big club thing. Wolves are shelling out 15 million on a player in the same division as you. Would you consider yourselves bigger than them? If so why are you quibbling over a couple of 100k.
You may be a much bigger club in terms of history and gates but your not the draw that you think you are. You certainly don't pay top wages for the division and transfer fees.
Leonard gave an interview in the local rag this week saying he expects to stay at Southend. The chairman and the manager both expect him to stay. The fans want him to stay and if he has read this thread he will know that he is better off at Southend. After all according to your fans he will just be a bit part player.
There's a lot of truth in that thread Mr Shrimp-pyjamas.
I particularly endorse everything you say about the size of the club. Unfortunately, that's not well understood by, I would say, the majority of our fans. They can't come to terms with the fact that little clubs like Bournemouth - who we've always thought of as 3rd or 4th division fodder - and not fit to lace our mighty boots - could possibly be a "bigger" club than us. But they are now and have been for a few years - not in terms of fan base - but in terms of MONEY and LEAGUE STATUS. And that's actually more important than the size of your average gate or how many times you've won whatever domestic trophy in the past 150 years.
As for Wolves...I'm sure their fans would consider them a much bigger and more successful club than us. I'm sure most of our fans would see that as being more equal. However, it's certainly not equal when it comes to splashing out money. As you say, Wolves will think nothing of spending £15M on a player at this level - we just cannot compete financially with that at the present time. In fact, when you look around the Championship, it's easy for us to go...
"We're a bigger club than them, We've got bigger gates than them, We've won the Cup more times than them, We've....
But the facts are, history counts for nothing -absolutely nothing. And we may be a big name, with an illustrious past and a big loyal fan base, but we are not on a level playing field in terms of finances with many of the clubs now at this level. And that gap has widened hugely since we were last at this level.
Despite all that, I expect the special blend of talented players, good management and teamwork, to carry us forward towards the top end of the Championship table - i.e. top 8 or 10. Because I do think we have that aspect of it right at least.
As to Mr Lenny...
I think he's opened his gob and said nowt as we say here in Yorkshire. His statement that "he expects to stay" is meaningless. Note, he didn't say, "I WANT to stay" he said "I expect to stay" - which is different. Very different actually.
He said it is all out of his hands - and so it is. I think Wilder is playing the waiting game because he can. We may go back in there with another bid around £500k depending on what other players become available over the next few weeks. But there's no rush on our part. If he doesn't join us now, but we still fancy signing him, our paltry offer of £350k will look an awful lot more tempting to you in January. That's the plan really.
Good luck for the coming season btw. It's nice to see clubs like Southend back in professional football after an absence and you did well and surprised a few folks last season. I hope you can build on it.