Stephen Bettis speaks to local Media

[Sean Thornton]

You cannot force a player to sign a contract

Sorry but according to the football club owners, agents and football CEO’s on here, of course you can.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Y

It's amazing what just a half a billion quid can do, isn't it?

POW! Right in the kisser……

 

[FATTYFOULKE]

How long has Bettis been here. 6/7 years and look at where we are.

Just have a look at some of the people we’ve had in charge of the club at boardroom. Terry Robinson, Julian Winter, Mal Brannigan and another numpty whose name escapes me. We ended up stuck in League One for years.

It‘s obvious how matters are run at the Lane. The Prince gives Bettis a budget for the season, and Bettis manages that budget accordingly, and given the last couple of seasons has managed it well enough and got enough of the right people in to deliver promotion.

We drove a hard bargain for Berge and N’Diaye and used the money to replace them with either like for like players or improved players. Under previous MD’s we wouldn’t have driven the deals like we have or got the replacements we have.

As far as I can see the appointment of Heckingbottom was down to Bettis, he was the eyes and ears on the ground, and if it had been down to the Prince we would have ended up with someone from the Belgian Pro-League.

Some of the decisions he has made might not have been popular, but we have got the 19th biggest budget in a billionaires league, and we are more than punching our weight

But it’s down to the Prince Betis is there.

 

[8lade]

Clearly his Dad or agent (who were feeding the info to OM) went into panic mode and told OM to put the squeeze in him,

Purely down to Ndiaye I'd suggest, in the Sheff U Way video the prince was distraught he couldn't hold onto Ndiaye; he'd already broken the ('trainee' can't remember the word used) wage structure for him and offered all sorts of financial incentives to stay including a good percentage of any fee received for him.

if it had been down to the Prince we would have ended up with someone from the Belgian Pro-League.

Again same Sheff Utd Way video the prince wanted Hecky but thought if we didn't get off to a flyer it would poison his position at the club so appointed Slav instead.

 

[HVR]

Sorry but according to the football club owners, agents and football CEO’s on here, of course you can.

Come on, don't sell them short. Some posters can run a Football Club, build a stadium, negotiate contracts and deals with agents, purchase land for a training facility, organise training regimes to avoid injury, manage players, set up match winning tactics and squad systems, scout players around the globe, design football shirt and manufacture them, and best of all, know the best way to squirrel away millions of pounds into secret off-shore accounts from a loss making business.

 

[Nah den]

Football fans tend to be fickle, tend to want instant gratification, which is fair to an extent, it's an entertainment business ultimately. The problem is you can't run a business/club like that.

 

[Wapping Blade]

I don’t know how you can say this when Alfredo Morelos is still available as a free agent.

Gerrrrrrrrrrimin!

 

[Bl4desutd]

So are the actions of the club beyond question, scrutiny or doubt? Or should we now be unreservedly happy again, because we have Hamer and Archer? Do we have to pick one? Just checking...

You're allowed to do and think both things, and who's to say I'm not? This is my take on this issue alone.

aaaaaaaaaaand…..always look on the bright side of life…de de….de de de de de de

 

[Houston_Blade]

It wasn’t as bad as Yusuf’s interview last year but it was pretty bad.

He seems to be a CEO without much idea about the things that are going wrong in his business or an unwillingness to acknowledge them (at least in public).

His answer about all the budget scenarios he has was laughable, weerz one with ‘transfer embargo’ flashing in cell A1 Steve?!

 

[Rodley]

It wasn’t as bad as Yusuf’s interview last year but it was pretty bad.

He seems to be a CEO without much idea about the things that are going wrong in his business or an unwillingness to acknowledge them (at least in public).

His answer about all the budget scenarios he has was laughable, weerz one with ‘transfer embargo’ flashing in cell A1 Steve?!

The transactional stuff isn’t happening quick enough, I think that’s fairly apparent by the starting XI for the first three games.

Do we need to improve the resources of the recruitment department? I understand we do the legal stuff in-house but this isn’t the typical approach, do we need to start doing appointing a consulting team to manage this?

 

[HammerInPeace]

It’s HammerInPeace !!!

YHIHF

I have no idea who this is but yes, it's me....

 

[AWetFlannel]

Genuine question (for once)
Why is Bettis so (universally?) disparaged, denigrated & despised?

Because he's a CEO. He's at work in the interview, and part of his job is lying and spin. Dunno how anyone could like one.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Because he's a CEO. He's at work in the interview, and part of his job is lying and spin. Dunno how anyone could like one.

Eeez frum darn sowth n not frum yarkshear

 

[Rodley]

I don’t think it’s a sensible comparison.
Since promotion, Forest have been able to take a scattergun approach to recruitment, buying a whole range of players and then worrying later about where they might fit in the team ( or not...). Their owners wealth has enabled this approach ( although there must surely still be a major risk of FFP catastrophe down the line).
Our finances have forced us to take a much more targeted approach, identifying specific players, and then convincing them to join us. Some of them will have had various alternative options, complicating and slowing things down. We haven’t been able to use money to fix this, unlike Forest. We’ve had to haggle over price to make things affordable for us, and create imaginative deal structures such as that put in place for Archer. These things add time to the process. Forest haven’t had to do any of that.

Luton had 8 in by their first game, 10 by their second. They ought be less equipped operationally to do their business early given their rapid rise through the leagues.

 

[Rodley]

Genuine question (for once)
Why is Bettis so (universally?) disparaged, denigrated & despised?

I don’t think he is. He’s a decent operator. The snek thing is just a bit of a meme.

 

[loveWalrusDaveTheBlade]

Luton had 8 in by their first game, 10 by their second. They ought be less equipped operationally to do their business early given their rapid rise through the leagues.

You seem to be on a theme of pointing to transactional / operational efficiency as being an issue for us. Can you help me to understand this, please, by giving some clear examples of our lack of efficiency in dealing with activities that were solely under our control during the transfer window? Thanks.

 

[8lade]

They ought be less equipped operationally to do their business early given their rapid rise through the leagues.

Which of their players would you have liked to have seen United in for? Tahith Chong looks a good buy at £4m but I wouldn't be impressed with any of the others. It does appear the better quality players took longer to bring in ergo later in the window.
Burnley are a more comparable team and they bought their players in throughout and up to the end of the window, in a similar fashion to what we did.

 

[Nick Jansky]

Luton had 8 in by their first game, 10 by their second. They ought be less equipped operationally to do their business early given their rapid rise through the leagues.

We could have had the squad fully in place before the first game if we were prepared to sign any old shite.

 

[Rodley]

Which of their players would you have liked to have seen United in for? Tahith Chong looks a good buy at £4m but I wouldn't be impressed with any of the others. It does appear the better quality players took longer to bring in ergo later in the window.
Burnley are a more comparable team and they bought their players in throughout and up to the end of the window, in a similar fashion to what we did.

Burnley had 7 in before the first game and fielded a side that wasn’t an abject shambles.

It’s harder and takes longer for us to make signings than comparable clubs with comparable budgets. This isn’t some sort of witch hunt it’s a matter of fact.

The bottom line is that it’s someone’s responsibility to get deals done and getting them done in a timely fashion. Operationally something is going wrong.

 

[8lade]

It's up to you but I believe Bettis when he says everything was done as quickly as possible and it makes sense, nobody wants to work longer and harder than they have to I'm sure he'd have been happy to go out with enough money and just get the shopping list of players then sit back thinking 'job done' but as we've seen we didn't have a lot to spend.

 

[bertieblade]

Seems the club needs someone with your talent Rodley.
as you have such a clear and obvious appraisal of our failings perhaps you could explain your current job function, relative experience for the role and more importantly how you manage to persuade the three other parties in the transfer ( selling club, player and agent ) to work to our time lines and not theirs?

 

[Houston_Blade]

The transactional stuff isn’t happening quick enough, I think that’s fairly apparent by the starting XI for the first three games.

Do we need to improve the resources of the recruitment department? I understand we do the legal stuff in-house but this isn’t the typical approach, do we need to start doing appointing a consulting team to manage this?

We need to improve the admin side, this probably includes recruitment.

 

[Isaw Joeshaw]

The speed at which we recruit new players is rarely determined by our own efforts , but that of a large number of other factors involving the player , his agent and most importantly the club he is contracted to .

This applies not only to ourselves but virtually every other club in the land and is the reason why so many of them are only completed on or close to deadline day .

Yes , it would have been nice if we could have brought the likes of McAtee and Archer in earlier , but dozens of clubs across the country including some of the top ones will be saying the same about some of their signings .

Personally , I’m just happy that those involved were able to finalise deals to bring players of this quality to our club , particularly in light of the fact that it is common knowledge that a number of other clubs were very interested in both .

 

[S64 Blade]

Had a listen yesterday. I think it was a really good interview. Bettis has always come across quite well, I think.

I think the issues at the club are cantered around a lack of resources, but financial and non financial.

He said that regarding transfers in, they were working hard to get them done. Which I believe, but I think the issue is probably that people at the club, like Bettis, are spread too thinly.

Interesting to hear about the club having agreed a price for some land for a training ground. Let’s hope it can materialise so that Shirecliffe can then move to a Cat A academy and we can kick the club on to the next level a little more easily. I wonder where the site of the land purchase is? I know at/around Concord was mentioned a few months ago.

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

We need to improve the admin side, this probably includes recruitment.

They need more money. We don’t have it.
With Burnley you’re comparing a team with £110m net spend with us at £30m.
I dare say if we had 4 times our budget then our business would have been completed earlier as you don’t need to negotiate as hard and you can get deals done.
Archer would definitely have been completed quicker for starters as would have Souza.
To try and compare us to sides with vastly superior resources and backing is nonsense and is unfair.

 

[Rodley]

Seems the club needs someone with your talent Rodley.
as you have such a clear and obvious appraisal of our failings perhaps you could explain your current job function, relative experience for the role and more importantly how you manage to persuade the three other parties in the transfer ( selling club, player and agent ) to work to our time lines and not theirs?

One thing I do know about is leading complex acquisitions, with multiple parties, to a deadline in a corporate environment. Project managing multidisciplinary teams, negotiating legal agreements, etc.

It’s a different sector and my budget dwarfs SUFC, but if I stood in front of a PLC CEO and said “Sorry, it’s just a bit difficult”, I’d be potted.

 

[loveWalrusDaveTheBlade]

One thing I do know about is leading complex acquisitions, with multiple parties, to a deadline in a corporate environment. Project managing multidisciplinary teams, negotiating legal agreements, etc.

It’s a different sector and my budget dwarfs SUFC, but if I stood in front of a PLC CEO and said “Sorry, it’s just a bit difficult”, I’d be potted.

If Bettis stood in front of the Prince and said “Sorry, it’s just a bit difficult”, he would be potted.

 

[Nick Jansky]

One thing I do know about is leading complex acquisitions, with multiple parties, to a deadline in a corporate environment. Project managing multidisciplinary teams, negotiating legal agreements, etc.

It’s a different sector and my budget dwarfs SUFC, but if I stood in front of a PLC CEO and said “Sorry, it’s just a bit difficult”, I’d be potted.

Do the target of your acquisitions and the vendor ever have multiple choices over who is going to make the acquisition and don’t make their minds up or agree heads of terms until a couple of days before completion date?

Corporate acquisitions are a long way removed from football transfers.

 

[Rodley]

Do the target of your acquisitions and the vendor ever have multiple choices over who is going to make the acquisition and don’t make their minds up or agree heads of terms until a couple of days before completion date?

Corporate acquisitions are a long way removed from football transfers.

Yes, absolutely. It’s fiercely competitive.

When you condense it down to its essentials, doing a deal is doing a deal. The line up for the first three games speak for themselves.

 

[Rodley]

Had a listen yesterday. I think it was a really good interview. Bettis has always come across quite well, I think.

I think the issues at the club are cantered around a lack of resources, but financial and non financial.

He said that regarding transfers in, they were working hard to get them done. Which I believe, but I think the issue is probably that people at the club, like Bettis, are spread too thinly.

Interesting to hear about the club having agreed a price for some land for a training ground. Let’s hope it can materialise so that Shirecliffe can then move to a Cat A academy and we can kick the club on to the next level a little more easily. I wonder where the site of the land purchase is? I know at/around Concord was mentioned a few months ago.

Agreed; he always speaks well, despite the banter on here.