Sheffield United Transformation

[munksyb]

This must be the biggest single transformation of our club ever .

The Prince & Hecky together with his backroom staff look to have completed the best transformation with the lowest budget of a Premier League club.
We looked at times as though we were lurching into a meltdown with the Mauris & Dozy take-overs, but the Prince pulled back from the Abys & looks to have pulled off some fantastic financial transfers, Aided by Illy initialy but then by calling Berge 's Bluff)

I can't remember a better more hopeful / sensibly funded start to a season in my 60 years of supporting the Blades.

We normally talk about waiting to see where we are after 10 games. In this instance it may well be 14/15 games , as we need to blend all these new exciting players in, with 2 loans to come.

Wow

COYRAWW

 

[Jan Age]

let’s start with the positives :

Hamer is possibly THE if not one of the best signings we could have wished to have made.

All the other signings are young and full of potential.

But let’s be sensible:

We lost our best and the championship stand out player from last season (not yet replaced)

We lost a very good midfielder in Berge (Replaced with Souza & Hamer)

We are still very low on numbers and quality in the starting 11 especially up top.

So while we have been given optimism the above signings still need to be followed up with some real talent in those positions otherwise we will still struggle.

Right now we are still looking at bottom three.

I am sure the board are aware of this and are making moves be it permanents or loans.

 

[Jan Age]

I still think we need;

GK
RCB
CM
ST
ST

5 more signings with those two ST positions where my priority would be.

 

[gavtheblade]

17th will do.
Better 3 other sides over 38 games and that will do me.
Burnley were absolutely gash against an unimpressive city last night.
Berge looked his usual self

 

[dublin 10 blade]

I said it ( admittedly ) while we had Sander & Illy we’d survive
after I thought we were Defo down after we’d sold 1 reluctantly and 1 who was going for nothing at end of season anyway
but we seem to have a plan ( for a change ) with all the younger players coming in with excellent resale value to help finance / buy future players if we go down they are tied down on long deals to help us come back up
I’ve said it elsewhere Luton - Wolves to take up 2 places , us and at least 5 others fighting over last spot
UTB

 

[Yogi]

I said it ( admittedly ) while we had Sander & Illy we’d survive
after I thought we were Defo down after we’d sold 1 reluctantly and 1 who was going for nothing at end of season anyway
but we seem to have a plan ( for a change ) with all the younger players coming in with excellent resale value to help finance / buy future players if we go down they are tied down on long deals to help us come back up
I’ve said it elsewhere Luton - Wolves to take up 2 places , us and at least 5 others fighting over last spot
UTB

In fairness Dublin I think the young players with resale value has been ditched probably at Hecky’s insistence. Listening to his press conferences recently he’s been asking for more experienced pro who can perform now and that’s being reflected in what’s happening now Hamer (26) and Akpom (27) (missed out on) are players who should now be in the prime of their careers and whilst if they do well in the prem their value should increase the expectation will be they hit the ground running. Doyle and Archer would be younger obviously but they could be loans

 

[Yogi]

In reference to the OP we’re not transformed quite yet bodies still needed through the door ASAP we’re still very light upfront with only Traore and Osula guaranteed to be fit at the moment after that we’re banking on McBurnie’s recovery and Marsh. No one’s sure when we can expect Jebbo and Brewster back.

I think we still need a striker and a deeper link player in. Hamer is a good creative addition but it can’t all be on his shoulders as teams will just focus on on him if it is. We probably also need one more body in in midfield hopefully Doyle.

 

[nopigfansintown]

Three or four more and I can start to be optimistic. In an ideal world I'd like 1 x GK, 1 x centre back, 1X LWB, 2 x midfielder, 2X strikers.
I'd settle for 1 x centre back, 1 x LWB, 1 x midfielder, 2 x strikers. I think what I have now is a reason not to be totally negative and some hope that we can become competitive. I hope so anyway. Agree with those saying 17th is the goal. I'd be an incredible achievement given everything.

 

[8lade]

Is it just me that sees Hamer as the Ndiaye replacement and Souza as the Berge replacement?
The McAtee role could be taken by Slimani.
Doyle is one we haven't really covered for yet.
It's going to be a couple of weeks before we're all pulling together (tug of war analogy excellent here).

 

[SUFCinks]

Is it just me that sees Hamer as the Ndiaye replacement and Souza as the Berge replacement?
The McAtee role could be taken by Slimani.
Doyle is one we haven't really covered for yet.
It's going to be a couple of weeks before we're all pulling together (tug of war analogy excellent here).

I think we will use Hamer as an AM who will drop deep occasionally as well.

 

[AWetFlannel]

This must be the biggest single transformation of our club ever .

The Prince & Hecky together with his backroom staff look to have completed the best transformation with the lowest budget of a Premier League club.
We looked at times as though we were lurching into a meltdown with the Mauris & Dozy take-overs, but the Prince pulled back from the Abys & looks to have pulled off some fantastic financial transfers, Aided by Illy initialy but then by calling Berge 's Bluff)

I can't remember a better more hopeful / sensibly funded start to a season in my 60 years of supporting the Blades.

We normally talk about waiting to see where we are after 10 games. In this instance it may well be 14/15 games , as we need to blend all these new exciting players in, with 2 loans to come.

Wow

COYRAWW

It shows how divisive things have gotten when someone will claim this is the most hopeful they've been at the start of a season. We have had huge turnovers of players before (Wilder in league 1).

You can't say it's the best. Signing young players with potential can go either way. Signing Che Adams from non league paid of fantastically, signing Brewster from Liverpool hasn't.

There has been absolutely zero evidence that any of our signings will be successful, especially in league we are in because we've not played a game yet.

You may not like the negativity that's been around recently, but this is just silliness. A reasonable positive perspective would be that there is hope that some of our cheap signings can make the massive step up and keep us up, despite having weakened the squad around them by selling our best players. Not that it's been an amazing window managed fantastically well by our genius owner.

 

[AWetFlannel]

I think we will use Hamer as an AM who will drop deep occasionally as well.

I assume it'll be a flat 3 and he'll be one of the 8s either side of Norwood. Hecky said he might have to change his plans though with Ndiaye and Berge leaving.

 

[Yogi]

Is it just me that sees Hamer as the Ndiaye replacement and Souza as the Berge replacement?
The McAtee role could be taken by Slimani.
Doyle is one we haven't really covered for yet.
It's going to be a couple of weeks before we're all pulling together (tug of war analogy excellent here).

The problem with Souza as the Berge replacement is he will offer us nothing going forward. That’s not knocking him it’s just not what he does so if he’s the Berge replacement you take two creative players out of a side that doesn’t really have many and replace them with one.

In some games that’ll be fine when we don’t think we’ll see a lot of the ball but in others we’ll need creative outlets on the pitch to cause teams problems. Right now if you’re looking at playing us all you’d have to do is shut down Hamer.

 

[dublin 10 blade]

In fairness Dublin I think the young players with resale value has been ditched probably at Hecky’s insistence. Listening to his press conferences recently he’s been asking for more experienced pro who can perform now and that’s being reflected in what’s happening now Hamer (26) and Akpom (27) (missed out on) are players who should now be in the prime of their careers and whilst if they do well in the prem their value should increase the expectation will be they hit the ground running. Doyle and Archer would be younger obviously but they could be loans

Agree Yogi about younger lads
It was our issue second season in Prem not enough experience
And something I said back then as well , Deeney in ( on a pay as you play ) for a season to help Brewster / Mcburnie develop win penalties and be a horrible so and so we’d have been ok in my opinion
We’ve a youngish raw team , with current signings bringing our age level way down,
I’m excited about the season , with new signings and prospects of others coming in , while I would have liked Akpom 15 mill is way to much for him
it’ll be hard we’ve already been written off , but then we were laughed at and written off under Chris
It’s roughly a 30 game season for us and we need the points off Chelsea down ( 5th down )
Going 2-7 points first 4 games
UTB

 

[Yogi]

Agree Yogi about younger lads
It was our issue second season in Prem not enough experience
And something I said back then as well , Deeney in ( on a pay as you play ) for a season to help Brewster / Mcburnie develop win penalties and be a horrible so and so we’d have been ok in my opinion
We’ve a youngish raw team , with current signings bringing our age level way down,
I’m excited about the season , with new signings and prospects of others coming in , while I would have liked Akpom 15 mill is way to much for him
it’ll be hard we’ve already been written off , but then we were laughed at and written off under Chris
It’s roughly a 30 game season for us and we need the points off Chelsea down ( 5th down )
Going 2-7 points first 4 games
UTB

Yeah agree on Akpom I hope we explore different options for that spot rather than just focusing it all on Archer. I’m obviously over the moon if all the money for Akpom goes in the Archer fund but I’d still like us to bring in a more deep lying link up player as well.

 

[BrisBlade]

It's certainly more promising than a few days ago. I think Trusty is a good signing, but our left flank still worries me (more than our strikers, but I think I'm in a minority on that). At least three more still to come. I have hope and glad to see others feel the same.

 

[Jan Age]

It shows how divisive things have gotten when someone will claim this is the most hopeful they've been at the start of a season. We have had huge turnovers of players before (Wilder in league 1).

You can't say it's the best. Signing young players with potential can go either way. Signing Che Adams from non league paid of fantastically, signing Brewster from Liverpool hasn't.

There has been absolutely zero evidence that any of our signings will be successful, especially in league we are in because we've not played a game yet.

You may not like the negativity that's been around recently, but this is just silliness. A reasonable positive perspective would be that there is hope that some of our cheap signings can make the massive step up and keep us up, despite having weakened the squad around them by selling our best players. Not that it's been an amazing window managed fantastically well by our genius owner.

Well said ….

We will be able to judge more fairly at the end of the window.

A fantastic window to date would have me any keeping your best players AND adding the ones we have signed.

 

[ATL Recs]

17th will do.
Better 3 other sides over 38 games and that will do me.
Burnley were absolutely gash against an unimpressive city last night.
Berge looked his usual self

City mixed and matched the starting 11 played Burnley using walking football and just picked them off - having said that Burnley tried to press Citu high forcing errors - they will cause teams a worry and won’t be bottom 4/5
Very different to use playing against that Coty team as a barometer

 

[Ldn_Rd_Blades]

I think we will use Hamer as an AM who will drop deep occasionally as well.

Got a feeling the whole team will be deep this season.

Can’t let teams run through us like stuttgart did.

We need goal scorer and a left mid

 

[Westran]

I expected us to go more defensive, we have to and so to recruit players to do that for us is great. Last time up we gave Lundstrum that role and in the second season that backfired.

I think the transformation really helps sort out the player contract situation too, we're in a much healthier position with valuable assets running their contracts down replaced with players who should only increase in value on long contracts.

Just need more attacking threat and reinforcements through the door now, and quick. We'll need to be patient, hopefully they all bed in before it's too late.

 

[Bell4]

let’s start with the positives :

Hamer is possibly THE if not one of the best signings we could have wished to have made.

All the other signings are young and full of potential.

But let’s be sensible:

We lost our best and the championship stand out player from last season (not yet replaced)

We lost a very good midfielder in Berge (Replaced with Souza & Hamer)

We are still very low on numbers and quality in the starting 11 especially up top.

So while we have been given optimism the above signings still need to be followed up with some real talent in those positions otherwise we will still struggle.

Right now we are still looking at bottom three.

I am sure the board are aware of this and are making moves be it permanents or loans.

This - all day long

We need further swift action .

 

[ZoneManWilf]

This must be the biggest single transformation of our club ever .

The Prince & Hecky together with his backroom staff look to have completed the best transformation with the lowest budget of a Premier League club.
We looked at times as though we were lurching into a meltdown with the Mauris & Dozy take-overs, but the Prince pulled back from the Abys & looks to have pulled off some fantastic financial transfers, Aided by Illy initialy but then by calling Berge 's Bluff)

I can't remember a better more hopeful / sensibly funded start to a season in my 60 years of supporting the Blades.

We normally talk about waiting to see where we are after 10 games. In this instance it may well be 14/15 games , as we need to blend all these new exciting players in, with 2 loans to come.

Wow

COYRAWW

I'm sorry, but I disagree with this, and I am usually one to take the positives. And I love the Hamer signing and he's definitely an upgrade to Berge.

But 3/4s of the way through last season we looked shot, until Hecky made the change to have a more dynamic midfield with Doyle and McAtee. That midfield which got us over the line is no longer here. Our entire creative output from the last quarter of the season is gone. Hamer is an upgrade, but the rest are unproven, let alone factoring in having to make the step up to Premier League level, and gel as a team, and we cannot afford to have a slow start with the early fixtures and potential available points.

The attacking side of squad is not ready for the start of the season and that is on the board. I understand the reasons for the reduced budget and I don't totally blame them for the Ndiaye situation, but he is such a massive loss in terms of our goalscoring threat. One great signing on the eve of the season does not solve the rest of the issues. We are still starting day one with a weaker XI than the team which got us up. Take Osula if he starts, he's got potential but couldn't hold down a league one place last year and now he leads a Premier League line. Where are the goals coming from? We're so dependent on McBurnie getting fit and replicating his form of mid-season and that's not really what we should be hanging our hat on at this level.

That's not to say I'm not hopeful that the young signings work out and we continue to strengthen - if we got Doyle and a real striking option things will look different. There are a number of teams looking shaky and with Heckingbottom I see hope that we can stay up. But with the attacking situation as of today, no Ndiaye, and the constant ownership questions, to say its's one of the more hopeful ever starts to a season ever is a pretty large overstatement IMO. Still, I hope you're right.

 

[Bladepicker]

This must be the biggest single transformation of our club ever .

The Prince & Hecky together with his backroom staff look to have completed the best transformation with the lowest budget of a Premier League club.
We looked at times as though we were lurching into a meltdown with the Mauris & Dozy take-overs, but the Prince pulled back from the Abys & looks to have pulled off some fantastic financial transfers, Aided by Illy initialy but then by calling Berge 's Bluff)

I can't remember a better more hopeful / sensibly funded start to a season in my 60 years of supporting the Blades.

We normally talk about waiting to see where we are after 10 games. In this instance it may well be 14/15 games , as we need to blend all these new exciting players in, with 2 loans to come.

Wow

COYRAWW

Was the paint cheaper than cladding Stephen?

 

[Wards]

I still think we need;

GK
RCB
CM
ST
ST

5 more signings with those two ST positions where my priority would be.

Don't think we can register five more.

I think we'll get three, one forward, one midfield and one attach minded midfield

 

[Blade56]

Said it on other threads, we need to use this opportunity (if we stay up) to transition away from a career stepping stone club to a destiny club. This type of signing (and others like Trusty, Slimane et Al) are making us look more attractive, we’re not tying our own hands behind our back and are fishing in a worldwide pool of talent not just in a UK pool anymore.

This is step 1. Another experienced proven player in and we will start to look like an attractive club for the higher rated players to consider a move to SUFC.

 

[Sheffsteel]

This must be the biggest single transformation of our club ever .

The Prince & Hecky together with his backroom staff look to have completed the best transformation with the lowest budget of a Premier League club.
We looked at times as though we were lurching into a meltdown with the Mauris & Dozy take-overs, but the Prince pulled back from the Abys & looks to have pulled off some fantastic financial transfers, Aided by Illy initialy but then by calling Berge 's Bluff)

I can't remember a better more hopeful / sensibly funded start to a season in my 60 years of supporting the Blades.

We normally talk about waiting to see where we are after 10 games. In this instance it may well be 14/15 games , as we need to blend all these new exciting players in, with 2 loans to come.

Wow

COYRAWW

I was told back in May23 by someone I trust closely connected to the ownership that this was always the plan.
I was told N'Diaye is definitely leaving, he refused to discuss a contract and hopes to go to Marseille, so we're looking for replacements.
My contact told me we will only sell N'Diaye and Berge if we receive a decent amount that will allow us to bring in player making the squad better.

Fans over reacted when we didn't make any major signings, some how thinking the owner deliberating wants to destroy SUFC and in the process lose millions.
However lets not over react just because we've made one major signings of a very good player.

At the moment this team will still probably be relegated.

However we have a few more major signings lined up, so lets wait under the window shuts.
It's possible we might not be able to get our 1st choice targets and might be forced to drop down to our 2nd choice targets.

 

[Berkshire Blade]

The excitement of the new and slightly unknown has made a few go a bit giddy. We won't know if it works until it's on the pitch and bedded in.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Said it on other threads, we need to use this opportunity (if we stay up) to transition away from a career stepping stone club to a destiny club. This type of signing (and others like Trusty, Slimane et Al) are making us look more attractive, we’re not tying our own hands behind our back and are fishing in a worldwide pool of talent not just in a UK pool anymore.

This is step 1. Another experienced proven player in and we will start to look like an attractive club for the higher rated players to consider a move to SUFC.

Arent 90% of clubs "stepping stone" clubs.

Players go to massive clubs like Borussia Dortmund and Tottenham Hotspur
because they know if they perform well....then those 2 clubs will always sell off their best players.

So.......if Spurs and Dortmund find it impossible to be a destination club....then we don't stand a chance.

I'd say the model we should follow is Spurs, Dortmund and Brighton.
Basically we are willing to sell our best players but at a premium....so the transfer money can be used to strengthen the squad.

 

[Berkshire Blade]

Said it on other threads, we need to use this opportunity (if we stay up) to transition away from a career stepping stone club to a destiny club. This type of signing (and others like Trusty, Slimane et Al) are making us look more attractive, we’re not tying our own hands behind our back and are fishing in a worldwide pool of talent not just in a UK pool anymore.

This is step 1. Another experienced proven player in and we will start to look like an attractive club for the higher rated players to consider a move to SUFC.

Even man city are a stepping stone for a number of players we will never be a final destination for anyone other than local lads!

 

[Blade56]

Even man city are a stepping stone for a number of players we will never be a final destination for anyone other than local lads!

Not suggesting any club is a forever destination club but many clubs are where are player is happy to stay and extend when it’s going well.

In our current state even with PL promotion our best players saw it as more desirable to get out rather than stay and negotiate a new deal, probably because they don’t see us as a long term PL club.

If we can hang on this season and do a Brentford, Villa et Al transformation our better players will see it as desirable to stay and extend their contracts unless we can sell at a premium. At the moment we have to take what we can get, prime example is Maguire step, step £80m worlds highest defender fee.