Sheffield United have chosen profit over fans with a season of record-breakingly bad football

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?


Looking across road at the tramps I can't bring myself to be pissed off about this. We can see a future, it might not be pretty but its there. The injuries and questionable training that's caused them (imo) pisses me off. Not because I want to stay in this god awful league (loaded owner needed) but because of the manner of our upcoming relagation. I'd rather enjoy competive football in a lower league, winning some and losing some.
 
biggiesablade said:
Looking across road at the tramps I can't bring myself to be pissed off about this. We can see a future, it might not be pretty but its there. The injuries and questionable training that's caused them (imo) pisses me off. Not because I want to stay in this god awful league (loaded owner needed) but because of the manner of our upcoming relagation. I'd rather enjoy competive football in a lower league, winning some and losing some.
Click to expand...
The terrible injury list is going to continue in the championship if we keep Hecky as manager though. I think that what's frustrating most people. We will still be sat here next season like:
"oh when is Lowe playing, Hecky says he is back on the grass after picking up a broken arm lifting up a kebab"
"maybe the kung-fu/MMA training session was a bad idea after our 2 best players got broken legs - still Ozzy can play CB at a push"
It's really difficult to see us being competitive next year without huge changes.
The pre season this year was also really really bad.
We finished last year on a high being promoted, Hecky came out with some really good soundbites, about working really hard to make the next season a success - but then the reality was a really poor pre-season. Leaving aside the player sales which allegedly we couldnt control, in terms of the bits we could control, the pre-season friendlies didnt seem that well organised, we ended up with no team selection continuity, new players were bought in super late, the new players were all massively overweight/unfit when signed and we basically threw away the first few games of the season and the manager even then played games with the fans/owner by not picking any of the new signings and doing his usual pathetic tactical set up of a back 5/7.
Hudson has really messed up our defensive set up too.
To my mind we look a total mess on the football side of things, that will continue in the championship, and the only thing that can sort it is a new manager.
 
Rudders said:
The terrible injury list is going to continue in the championship if we keep Hecky as manager though. I think that what's frustrating most people. We will still be sat here next season like:
"oh when is Lowe playing, Hecky says he is back on the grass after picking up a broken arm lifting up a kebab"
"maybe the kung-fu/MMA training session was a bad idea after our 2 best players got broken legs - still Ozzy can play CB at a push"
It's really difficult to see us being competitive next year without huge changes.
The pre season this year was also really really bad.
We finished last year on a high being promoted, Hecky came out with some really good soundbites, about working really hard to make the next season a success - but then the reality was a really poor pre-season. Leaving aside the player sales which allegedly we couldnt control, in terms of the bits we could control, the pre-season friendlies didnt seem that well organised, we ended up with no team selection continuity, new players were bought in super late, the new players were all massively overweight/unfit when signed and we basically threw away the first few games of the season and the manager even then played games with the fans/owner by not picking any of the new signings and doing his usual pathetic tactical set up of a back 5/7.
Hudson has really messed up our defensive set up too.
To my mind we look a total mess on the football side of things, that will continue in the championship, and the only thing that can sort it is a new manager.
Click to expand...
And a new owner👍
 
It’s not about profit it’s paying off the massive investment on players and players salaries by CW which resulted in relegation and subsequent losses
Last year we couldn’t even pay bills and existing transfer fees owed to other clubs
The gamble failed unfortunately
The income this year is in part getting the club back on a sounder sustainable financial basis for the next few years
 
again moneys proven to be the difference
last season the 3 promoted sides stayed up ,,, why they could afford transfers and to pay prem wages

this season the 3 promoted cant fork out massive wages and look where they are

all these theories about hecky are a waste of time and space
we just have to accept we are not at the races purely down to being a mablethorpe holiday maker on a top class cruise
 
biggiesablade said:
Looking across road at the tramps I can't bring myself to be pissed off about this. We can see a future, it might not be pretty but its there. The injuries and questionable training that's caused them (imo) pisses me off. Not because I want to stay in this god awful league (loaded owner needed) but because of the manner of our upcoming relagation. I'd rather enjoy competive football in a lower league, winning some and losing some.
Click to expand...
Who cares what they're doing?
We should be judging ourselves on our potential only and this season's pathetic effort is well short of that.
 
BalticBlade said:
O
Click to expand...
PaulHalfway said:
It’s not about profit it’s paying off the massive investment on players and players salaries by CW which resulted in relegation and subsequent losses
Last year we couldn’t even pay bills and existing transfer fees owed to other clubs
The gamble failed unfortunately
The income this year is in part getting the club back on a sounder sustainable financial basis for the next few years
Click to expand...
We made profits in our last two PL seasons. Just not enough to cover player investment. Hence the cash flow issues.
 

Pedro's Winger said:
Who cares what they're doing?
We should be judging ourselves on our potential only and this season's pathetic effort is well short of that.
Click to expand...
What is our potential at present? With our playing staff contracts, sub par training facilities and relatively poor owner? I think championship is about right for us, I'm not beating the club down BTW. It would of been exciting to see owner splash the cash but I'd rather we be stable as a club not looking over our shoulder. If we hadn't crippled majority of our squad we would have picked more points up but I predict we would have still dropped.
 
Profit is one word to use. Sustainability is another. It's not even twelve months ago where it turned out it was promotion or we're probably fucked, so I don't think it's necessarily fair to report like this has been. Where we have spent, it's been on for all intents and purposes a loan (Archer), getting younger at positions where we needed to get younger, but would probably take time to get up to PL speed (Traore, Trusty, Souza, Slimane), and an effective like for like swap which spends no money but improves the contract situation and arguably improves the side (Hamer for Berge). All these seem to me to be somewhat joined up to try and leave us in a stronger position if (now when) we did return to the Championship than when we left it.

Where the criticism can be laid, however, is the complete underestimation of how much of a lynchpin Ndiaye was, and that he shouldn't have been sold for anything apart from silly money (and what we got for him, by whatever report you want to read, is nowhere near that). This was said at the time by myself and others and isn't hindsight after one point in ten games. Dropping from having a creative option to having no creative options was a completely foreseeable consequence, and it's no surprise that the team has looked a lot worse as a result
 
GlosBlade said:
Can someone post the article it seems to be behind a paywall.
Click to expand...
I'll paste it below.

Sheffield United have chosen profit over fans with a season of record-breakingly bad football​

Everything is broken at Bramall Lane; it was never meant to be like this​

Daniel Storey
October 31, 2023 6:00 am(Updated 9:33 am)
Opinion
Chief Football Writer

SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 21: A dejected Vinicius Souza of Sheffield United during the Premier League match between Sheffield United and Manchester United at Bramall Lane on October 21, 2023 in Sheffield, England. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)


Sheffield United’s defending has been abysmal this season (Photo: Getty)


The irony doesn’t so much linger in the wings as slap Paul Heckingbottom hard across the cheek. Sheffield United have now made the worst start to a season in Premier League history, pushing Sheffield United 2020-21 into second place. That team was managed by Chris Wilder. Reports suggest that Heckingbottom will soon be sacked, to be replaced by… Wilder.

Everything is broken or quickly breaking at Bramall Lane; it was never meant to be like this. Over their last five league games, when Heckingbottom was hoping to build on the slight wisps of promise, Sheffield United have conceded 20 goals and scored just two. They have now taken one point from 10 games and outsiders are starting to whisper about other unwanted records.

Their joint-top goalscorer is own goals, with two. They have been ahead for three per cent of their Premier League minutes. None of this is fun.
To pick out one problem feels cruel, such is the length and breadth of Heckingbottom’s must-do-betters. But Sheffield United’s defending so far this season has been record-breakingly, off-the-side-of-chart bad. They are on course to allow 300 shots on target and 764 shots across a full season, which would “beat” the worst offending totals from last season’s Premier League by 102 and 145 respectively.

It is true that the Blades haven’t played any of the three teams directly above them, but not playing Sheffield United yet is one of the reasons why they are there at all.
If Heckingbottom does lose his job soon or later, he will have paid a high price for overachievement. This club were 16th in the Championship when Heckingbottom replaced Slavisa Jokanovic.

In less than 18 months he took them out of trouble and into the play-offs and then followed semi-final disappointment with automatic promotion with 91 points. That he was left off the nominations list for the Championship Manager of The Season was a gross omission.
Heckingbottom was hardly provided with the tools for his improbable mission. Abdullah bin Mosaad, the club’s owner, has long insisted that Sheffield United are available for sale but purchases by Henry Mauriss and Dozy Mmobuosi fell through over concerns about the substance of their wealth. The second half of the promotion season was spent under transfer embargo.

Not that it mattered: Heckingbottom had bought only two players for a fee over the preceding 18 months and one of those cost £250,000.
If Heckingbottom’s promotion cheer has quickly dissipated, he has a robust defence than his team for the absolution of guilt. The stark reality: the squad that started last season was stronger than they find in a higher division.

Due to enforced sales and expiring loans, Sheffield United lost their top goalscorer, top two assist providers and second and third highest chance creators and then they lost their captain to serious injury thereafter. Supporters ispoke to on the eve of the season believed that, without a takeover, relegation was a certainty. No news is bad news.
Soccer Football - Premier League - Arsenal v Sheffield United - Emirates Stadium, London, Britain - October 28, 2023 Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom looks dejected after the match Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Couldridge NO USE WITH UNAUTHORIZED AUDIO, VIDEO, DATA, FIXTURE LISTS, CLUB/LEAGUE LOGOS OR 'LIVE' SERVICES. ONLINE IN-MATCH USE LIMITED TO 45 IMAGES, NO VIDEO EMULATION. NO USE IN BETTING, GAMES OR SINGLE CLUB/LEAGUE/PLAYER PUBLICATIONS.
Heckingbottom was hardly provided with the tools for his improbable mission (Photo: Reuters)
Heckingbottom was permitted to recruit 10 new players – although three were on loan, one was a free transfer and three others cost £5m or less. The age profile of those signings was instructive too: the majority are aged 22 and under and Gustavo Hamer is the oldest at 26. Sheffield United looked to be building a squad to flourish in the Championship after relegation.

But then sacking the manager would suggest a demand for more. It would decree that Sheffield United are not simply Luton Town, happy just to be here and to be future-proofed after years of financial turmoil. If Heckingbottom would concede defensive underperformance, a back four of Jayden Bogle, Luke Thomas, Auston Trusty and Jack Robinson is not Premier League quality. You cannot escape reality forever and Heckingbottom is a manager who deals in nuts and bolts.
That is the most galling aspect of this deep funk. Six months ago, this group of supporters were celebrating after securing promotion against West Bromwich Albion. The triumph itself partly explained the joy – the realisation of a goal that had been pursued relentlessly over the previous 18 months.

But revelry blended with excitement. The joy of promotion lies in the prize, not simply the achievement. Too quickly that got lost on the wind.
The futility that may haunt Sheffield United over the next 28 matches is a dangerous entity. Last season, the three promoted clubs all stayed up. But Fulham and Bournemouth spent handsomely, enjoyed parachute payment benefits and had retained some of the better players from their previous Premier League seasons. Nottingham Forest were the exception and spent £160m to stay up.

If you cannot come up and cope, what’s the point in coming up at all? Clubs do indeed get vast broadcasting revenue, but fans being left to only celebrate the bottom line is a dystopian football culture.

Futility is fuelled by hopelessness that stems from a perceived – and in Sheffield United’s case realised – lack of competition. You turn up and, if you’re lucky, you might get a point every now and then and occasionally you’ll have a good day against a meagre opponent. 60 per cent of matches become write-offs.

As the Sheffield United season ticket-holder muttered to his granddaughter after the defeat to Manchester United: “You get bugger all for trying your hardest”. That might well become the epitaph to their fated campaign. “Enjoy the moment,” advised Heckingbottom when promotion was confirmed to the fanbase and the players. Oh Heck – maybe he saw what was coming next.
 
Last edited:
This season has been pretty embarrassing but you do at least get the feeling that we won’t be absolutely screwed when we inevitably get relegated.

Whilst I’m not saying we should excuse some of the lacklustre performances or that we should just accept relegation meekly, we do need to be aware not just of where we are in the wider context of English football, but also of the longer term prospects of the club.

This article is posted on the same day that the chairman of Wednesday has asked 20,000 of them to contribute £100 each to keep the club running
 
PaulHalfway said:
It’s not about profit it’s paying off the massive investment on players and players salaries by CW which resulted in relegation and subsequent losses
Last year we couldn’t even pay bills and existing transfer fees owed to other clubs
The gamble failed unfortunately
The income this year is in part getting the club back on a sounder sustainable financial basis for the next few years
Click to expand...
Of the 'massive investment' which wasn't actually at all massive investment at Premier League standard, we have sold on 2 of the players in Ramsdale for a profit, and Berge for a loss but after 3 years playing in which he helped us achieve a 9th place finish and a promotion.

That then leaves around 80m on players over 2 seasons which isn't at all a lot by premier league standards. Of those players, cases can be made for McBurnie, Mousset and Bogle all contributing and not being total wasted spend.

The club cannot hide behind Wilder's spending as a reason to not spend in the Premier League again as they have done this season. If that is our approach then how will we ever progress? This owner is running us into the ground, look how many players are out of contract after this season. It's a total joke, and I find it baffling why he doesn't come in for more criticism at games especially.

We got promoted to the premier league and sold our best 2 players, it's as simple as that. Yes you can make a case for Hamer being sensible business but a progressive club would have brought him in to play with Berge, not to replace him.
 
www.spotrac.com

Arsenal F.C. Multi-Year Cap Hits

Arsenal F.C. (AFC) player cap figures, cap hits, seasons
www.spotrac.com www.spotrac.com

I wonder why they beat us

Aaron Ramsdale annual salary of 6m quid is one third of our squads 19m wage bill
166m a year arsenals wage bill 8 times more than us

they should be 8 times better, how can we possibly compete with such numbers
 
Clearly ignores earlier PL seasons where profits were far less than player spending and doesn’t seem to realise that profits are a must to enable that spending to continue. Bearing that in mind it’s probably too much for the Dog Botherer to understand losses in the following two championship seasons needed funding.
 
Smirth said:
Of the 'massive investment' which wasn't actually at all massive investment at Premier League standard, we have sold on 2 of the players in Ramsdale for a profit, and Berge for a loss but after 3 years playing in which he helped us achieve a 9th place finish and a promotion.
Click to expand...

Minor pedantic point, but on the balance sheets Berge's value at the point we sold him was nowhere near what we actually paid for him, without looking into the exact contract details more than 70% of his value would already have been wiped off through amortisation. From a football accounting point of view we sold an asset booked at £5-7m or there abouts for more than that
 
jt64 said:
Minor pedantic point, but on the balance sheets Berge's value at the point we sold him was nowhere near what we actually paid for him, without looking into the exact contract details more than 70% of his value would already have been wiped off through amortisation. From a football accounting point of view we sold an asset booked at £5-7m or there abouts for more than that
Click to expand...
That’s a paper profit though. In Uniteds financial position it’s the cash received that’s important.
 

jt64 said:
Minor pedantic point, but on the balance sheets Berge's value at the point we sold him was nowhere near what we actually paid for him, without looking into the exact contract details more than 70% of his value would already have been wiped off through amortisation. From a football accounting point of view we sold an asset booked at £5-7m or there abouts for more than that
Click to expand...
but take the 2 together and it levels out and 15m for ndiaye dependant on which report you believe means we didnt spend too much we still have mcb and brewster, probaly running at a loss,,, on that front but small fry by prem standards
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

Back
Top Bottom