Deadbat
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- Aug 6, 2009
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Staff report
Board / Club
Kevin McCabe McCabe has been more prominent in his involvement this year and I have seen him at more games than he has missed. He had to make another changed and decided to axe Adkins after a shocking season. Some felt it was getting ridiculous with us changing manager every season but McCabe was determined not to mess around and felt any continuity would not see us changing under Adkins. He went back to basics with a more United type appointment in Wilder with the sole aim to unite the club on and off the field. He knew that he had got so many of the previous appointments wrong but this time he has got it right. McCabe and the board gave him enough finances to be able to back Wilder too. Whilst we lost young talent like Adams, Ramsdale and Calvert Lewin, not of these were seen as shoe ins to start and the present was seen as far more of a priority as we had to get out of this league. McCabe was able to ensure Wilder could bring in players that cost money with O’Connell, Moore, Clarke, Hanson and Carruthers to name a few. Others such as Duffy, Fleck came in and would not have been on cheap wages. There had been a lot leave but equally the board backed him.
McCabe was there at all the crucial last few games and great to see him being applauded and cheered in the car park after the Northampton win; after so much stick he has had. He was also there at the town hall and Wilder was determined he got the acclaim from the fans too. I admit at times I have wanted him to move on due to the fact he has not really pushed the boat out massively to get us out of this division but also due to the number of awful managerial appointments that he simply kept getting wrong. However, the alternatives to him not being there were limited as not sure anyone could buy him out and I still feel he does care about the club. The fact he is still trying to find more investment suggests his family are not going to put in as much as they have before and you sense this is the time we need his partner in running the club to step up to the plate.
The one most recent development is the Ched Evans signing and McCabe and the club will get some criticism for sanctioning this. Football wise it is up to Wilder and if he thinks he can improve the squad then fine but you do wonder whether it may cause some tension and lead to some difficult splits on the terraces. It is the one time we have been United but this could be a potential spanner in the works. Is it a risk the club needed to take? It is not as if he scored prolifically at this level before or even for Chesterfield. Suppose we have to trust Wilder and hope he is the principle reason behind it and now all this talk about reneged contract offers etc or payments made earlier in the year to cash strapped Chesterfield. 500K is ridiculous for a league one player who barely played or scored so you hope that is just speculation and it is more of a nominal fee.
Prince HRH Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has been conspicuous by his absence as he continues to be involved in Saudi Arabian politics and other matters back in his homeland. He did tweet after the promotion but has not even been over too Sheffield as far as I am aware for a good few years until his surprise appearance on the field when he came on with McCave with the trophy after the final game. The fact he was there I am home was a telling sign. He has let his advisors do most of the running/involvement with the McCabes and the other board members. Now we are up you hope his interest will be piqued and he can now start to invest more and see us take a further upward curve. The talk of him putting more in when we move up to the next level has only been rumours but you hope it is true. You look at the money spent at the likes of our S6 rivals and you see what we might need to do to get out of the league. However, you see the likes of Huddersfield and Reading and realise we may not have to go mad. Just some sensible recruitment but we will need some level of investment to be anywhere near the top of the league and the current squad would not be good enough to challenge.
Jim Phipps had left at the end of the previous season as Adkins moved on and the reshuffle started in earnest. He seemed to leave in not exactly the best of terms although his words since suggest how much he still loves the club. He had said how he wanted to be there to join the celebrations. To my knowledge he is now nothing to do with the club officially.
Selahattain Baki Baki is another one who we heard a lot from on Social Media in connection to United and continues to tweet about the club. Not sure if he is that involved in the day to day running of the club in terms of attending board meetings but was seen on the final day partaking in the celebrations and also around the town hall.
The rest of the board consists of McCabe’s sons Scott McCabe and Simon McCabe are still there. As is Stephen Bettis . All three are part of McCabe’s Scarborough Group. I am unsure how involved these are but have seen more of them around than before and at the later games Scott (must admit do get them mixed up) was always there. McCabe may be looking to pass on the baton more with his age. Martin Green has run Redtooth a gaming company, based in Barlborough and he now oversees the board’s non footballing decisions as another vice chairman. McCabe appointed Tareq Hawasli to the board but we have heard little from him. Not sure he is even connected to the Prince. His CV suggests he has industry experience extends from real estate to energy (including oil, natural gas and alternative energy), IT, healthcare and commodities coupled with extensive experience with both conventional and Shariah compliant financial structures.
The technical football board I am unsure who is on it but I am guessing it involves the below who were all part of the restructuring over the last few years.
David Green heads up a Construction firm based in Renishaw; Green Pilin and now has responsibility for Football Operations. We have Carl Shieber who oversees player contract negotiations and Wilder has alluded to his role being important too. The board generally do seem more together. We have seen and heard less of them (Phipps had been the mouthpiece and did his best to communicate but sometimes it maybe did not work) but when you are winning you do not need to hear much from them.
We have then the directors of Blades Leisure which consists of the McCabe’s, the Prince, Hawasli, Jeremy Tutton and Eyad Jubair . Yes, I have never heard of him either! This section is more around the governance of the assets and the business side outside of the football club I guess?
Dave McCarthy is involved still as Operations Director and we also have Paul Reeves as the head of marketing.
We got a bit bigger sponsorship deal with Alpharooms (and late rooms involved also) and this lasts for a further two seasons and we have another year on our current kit deal with Adidas. If we do well next season then we can get more sponsors on board and bigger income as a result. It certainly helps us being in the higher division. The home kit was really nice this season. Hope we can get an equally nice one for the league above. Adidas is good quality kits but sometimes you get identikit ones that are certain styles that lots of teams have. So, you can lose some individuality. Was not so keen on the away kit (colours – orange with black?) but it was a lucky kit. Much prefer our more traditional away kit colours of yellow or white to be honest.
In terms of the ticket office, at times things could still be better but I have to say overall they have done a great job and to cope with all the away ticket demand, the last home games, season tickets, beam back and Kell Brook and keep dealing with punters both in person and online/telephone was a credit to them as they all ended up working very long hours.
To repeat comments from last season there are some sterling people behind the scenes such as Mick Rooker and John Garrett ; supporters’ liaison officer, always seems to do a decent job behind the scenes and always spoke well when on the radio or at forums. They are the unsung heroes but are the heart and soul of the club; clearly loving the club and working 24/7 some weeks to ensure fans are happy. Gary Sinclair continues to be the voice of the Blades and although he does like the sound of his own voice a bit too much, he clearly loves the club and this is clear in what he does.
Mark Todd continues to do a sterling job with the Sheffield United community foundation and they seem very visible around the city and beyond in terms of the educational and community stuff. My own son attends the camps quite a bit and the people who do the coaching and organising are brilliant with the kids. The camps are great value too and my little un is always raving about them when he comes home.
We also have various old Blades involved in the PR side and match day corporate stuff such as Kevin Gage, Ted Hemsley, Carl Bradshaw etc.
As an aside the two groundsmen; Glenn Nortcliffe and Kelly Barrowclough have been able to now have something to work with. The new Desso pitch saw a great deal of money spent on it after years of having a poor surface and after a rocky start (it looked poor at the start of its first season) it bedded down and was great. I have never seen it look so good so late in the season. Indeed, for the whole of the season it was like a snooker baize and was great to see. Helped us with our passing game and made sure that there were never any chance of postponements either. We deservedly won the pitch of the year for the division.
Grade B+ (Last season E-)
Next season
The board has changed in some of the personnel but seems more settled now than it has for a while. There is still talk about more investment from overseas and rumours from Asia and other places come and go. I think McCabe wants more money pumped in and the deals to sponsor the South Stand from Hualing and other link ups with China sees the influence from this part of the world growing. I said a year ago if we did not go up that the Prince and his advisors would walk as their interest in this ‘play thing’ would disappear after 3 years+. Well we got up and now I cannot see them walking away from this upward trajectory. I think and hope he can now put more money in. We do not need to spend a fortune but even say 10 million on 3 or 4 players would still not be a massive outlay when you look at Wednesday (17 million was it on Rhodes and Reach plus astronomical wages for Fletcher, Hooper etc) and Villa (signing players around 7-10 million mark, Kodja, Hogan etc) for instance. Still others have finished higher on less outlay and it is not all about spending money.
Off the field; the ground still looks good and remains one of the best outside the top flight. Yes, they could make changes to the Kop and other aspects but you feel that might be a few years away although planning permission for student flats at the back of the Kop and also for another set of properties near the Hotel with a shop underneath has been put in place. You sense if they keep moving forward the actual ground developments could happen. It would be great to flatten the Kop and the poorly constructed corner stand and do it all from scratch and then the ground would look superb.
Fair play for the club for the superb pricing structure of the season tickets and it seems from the comments Martin Green made in early April that United had already surpassed last season’s 13,000 figure. It is a sure sign that we will have crowds of around 23-25,000 minimum next season by the time all sales have been completed and will probably rival or top our rivals from S6 depending on how their season finishes up.
It will be a vital summer and few years to see how much the board really want to get us back up there. It took the likes of Leeds, Wednesday and others 3 or 4 years to even be near the top end of the league. Reality says it could be similar for us but that depends on whether we invest. Those clubs did not have a great deal of funds first few years and Wednesday only started splashing the cash when Chansiri came in. If the Prince really wants it (Premier League) then we will see this next summer. The main thing is we do not go back down and at the very least have to consolidate next season. Love for more but as it stands after 6 years out, I would take middle or just below next season. There are some fans that might say 4th bottom is still not the worst scenario but no offence to other clubs but we should be aiming much higher and have better standards than that with the fanbase and potential.
Board / Club
Kevin McCabe McCabe has been more prominent in his involvement this year and I have seen him at more games than he has missed. He had to make another changed and decided to axe Adkins after a shocking season. Some felt it was getting ridiculous with us changing manager every season but McCabe was determined not to mess around and felt any continuity would not see us changing under Adkins. He went back to basics with a more United type appointment in Wilder with the sole aim to unite the club on and off the field. He knew that he had got so many of the previous appointments wrong but this time he has got it right. McCabe and the board gave him enough finances to be able to back Wilder too. Whilst we lost young talent like Adams, Ramsdale and Calvert Lewin, not of these were seen as shoe ins to start and the present was seen as far more of a priority as we had to get out of this league. McCabe was able to ensure Wilder could bring in players that cost money with O’Connell, Moore, Clarke, Hanson and Carruthers to name a few. Others such as Duffy, Fleck came in and would not have been on cheap wages. There had been a lot leave but equally the board backed him.
McCabe was there at all the crucial last few games and great to see him being applauded and cheered in the car park after the Northampton win; after so much stick he has had. He was also there at the town hall and Wilder was determined he got the acclaim from the fans too. I admit at times I have wanted him to move on due to the fact he has not really pushed the boat out massively to get us out of this division but also due to the number of awful managerial appointments that he simply kept getting wrong. However, the alternatives to him not being there were limited as not sure anyone could buy him out and I still feel he does care about the club. The fact he is still trying to find more investment suggests his family are not going to put in as much as they have before and you sense this is the time we need his partner in running the club to step up to the plate.
The one most recent development is the Ched Evans signing and McCabe and the club will get some criticism for sanctioning this. Football wise it is up to Wilder and if he thinks he can improve the squad then fine but you do wonder whether it may cause some tension and lead to some difficult splits on the terraces. It is the one time we have been United but this could be a potential spanner in the works. Is it a risk the club needed to take? It is not as if he scored prolifically at this level before or even for Chesterfield. Suppose we have to trust Wilder and hope he is the principle reason behind it and now all this talk about reneged contract offers etc or payments made earlier in the year to cash strapped Chesterfield. 500K is ridiculous for a league one player who barely played or scored so you hope that is just speculation and it is more of a nominal fee.
Prince HRH Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has been conspicuous by his absence as he continues to be involved in Saudi Arabian politics and other matters back in his homeland. He did tweet after the promotion but has not even been over too Sheffield as far as I am aware for a good few years until his surprise appearance on the field when he came on with McCave with the trophy after the final game. The fact he was there I am home was a telling sign. He has let his advisors do most of the running/involvement with the McCabes and the other board members. Now we are up you hope his interest will be piqued and he can now start to invest more and see us take a further upward curve. The talk of him putting more in when we move up to the next level has only been rumours but you hope it is true. You look at the money spent at the likes of our S6 rivals and you see what we might need to do to get out of the league. However, you see the likes of Huddersfield and Reading and realise we may not have to go mad. Just some sensible recruitment but we will need some level of investment to be anywhere near the top of the league and the current squad would not be good enough to challenge.
Jim Phipps had left at the end of the previous season as Adkins moved on and the reshuffle started in earnest. He seemed to leave in not exactly the best of terms although his words since suggest how much he still loves the club. He had said how he wanted to be there to join the celebrations. To my knowledge he is now nothing to do with the club officially.
Selahattain Baki Baki is another one who we heard a lot from on Social Media in connection to United and continues to tweet about the club. Not sure if he is that involved in the day to day running of the club in terms of attending board meetings but was seen on the final day partaking in the celebrations and also around the town hall.
The rest of the board consists of McCabe’s sons Scott McCabe and Simon McCabe are still there. As is Stephen Bettis . All three are part of McCabe’s Scarborough Group. I am unsure how involved these are but have seen more of them around than before and at the later games Scott (must admit do get them mixed up) was always there. McCabe may be looking to pass on the baton more with his age. Martin Green has run Redtooth a gaming company, based in Barlborough and he now oversees the board’s non footballing decisions as another vice chairman. McCabe appointed Tareq Hawasli to the board but we have heard little from him. Not sure he is even connected to the Prince. His CV suggests he has industry experience extends from real estate to energy (including oil, natural gas and alternative energy), IT, healthcare and commodities coupled with extensive experience with both conventional and Shariah compliant financial structures.
The technical football board I am unsure who is on it but I am guessing it involves the below who were all part of the restructuring over the last few years.
David Green heads up a Construction firm based in Renishaw; Green Pilin and now has responsibility for Football Operations. We have Carl Shieber who oversees player contract negotiations and Wilder has alluded to his role being important too. The board generally do seem more together. We have seen and heard less of them (Phipps had been the mouthpiece and did his best to communicate but sometimes it maybe did not work) but when you are winning you do not need to hear much from them.
We have then the directors of Blades Leisure which consists of the McCabe’s, the Prince, Hawasli, Jeremy Tutton and Eyad Jubair . Yes, I have never heard of him either! This section is more around the governance of the assets and the business side outside of the football club I guess?
Dave McCarthy is involved still as Operations Director and we also have Paul Reeves as the head of marketing.
We got a bit bigger sponsorship deal with Alpharooms (and late rooms involved also) and this lasts for a further two seasons and we have another year on our current kit deal with Adidas. If we do well next season then we can get more sponsors on board and bigger income as a result. It certainly helps us being in the higher division. The home kit was really nice this season. Hope we can get an equally nice one for the league above. Adidas is good quality kits but sometimes you get identikit ones that are certain styles that lots of teams have. So, you can lose some individuality. Was not so keen on the away kit (colours – orange with black?) but it was a lucky kit. Much prefer our more traditional away kit colours of yellow or white to be honest.
In terms of the ticket office, at times things could still be better but I have to say overall they have done a great job and to cope with all the away ticket demand, the last home games, season tickets, beam back and Kell Brook and keep dealing with punters both in person and online/telephone was a credit to them as they all ended up working very long hours.
To repeat comments from last season there are some sterling people behind the scenes such as Mick Rooker and John Garrett ; supporters’ liaison officer, always seems to do a decent job behind the scenes and always spoke well when on the radio or at forums. They are the unsung heroes but are the heart and soul of the club; clearly loving the club and working 24/7 some weeks to ensure fans are happy. Gary Sinclair continues to be the voice of the Blades and although he does like the sound of his own voice a bit too much, he clearly loves the club and this is clear in what he does.
Mark Todd continues to do a sterling job with the Sheffield United community foundation and they seem very visible around the city and beyond in terms of the educational and community stuff. My own son attends the camps quite a bit and the people who do the coaching and organising are brilliant with the kids. The camps are great value too and my little un is always raving about them when he comes home.
We also have various old Blades involved in the PR side and match day corporate stuff such as Kevin Gage, Ted Hemsley, Carl Bradshaw etc.
As an aside the two groundsmen; Glenn Nortcliffe and Kelly Barrowclough have been able to now have something to work with. The new Desso pitch saw a great deal of money spent on it after years of having a poor surface and after a rocky start (it looked poor at the start of its first season) it bedded down and was great. I have never seen it look so good so late in the season. Indeed, for the whole of the season it was like a snooker baize and was great to see. Helped us with our passing game and made sure that there were never any chance of postponements either. We deservedly won the pitch of the year for the division.
Grade B+ (Last season E-)
Next season
The board has changed in some of the personnel but seems more settled now than it has for a while. There is still talk about more investment from overseas and rumours from Asia and other places come and go. I think McCabe wants more money pumped in and the deals to sponsor the South Stand from Hualing and other link ups with China sees the influence from this part of the world growing. I said a year ago if we did not go up that the Prince and his advisors would walk as their interest in this ‘play thing’ would disappear after 3 years+. Well we got up and now I cannot see them walking away from this upward trajectory. I think and hope he can now put more money in. We do not need to spend a fortune but even say 10 million on 3 or 4 players would still not be a massive outlay when you look at Wednesday (17 million was it on Rhodes and Reach plus astronomical wages for Fletcher, Hooper etc) and Villa (signing players around 7-10 million mark, Kodja, Hogan etc) for instance. Still others have finished higher on less outlay and it is not all about spending money.
Off the field; the ground still looks good and remains one of the best outside the top flight. Yes, they could make changes to the Kop and other aspects but you feel that might be a few years away although planning permission for student flats at the back of the Kop and also for another set of properties near the Hotel with a shop underneath has been put in place. You sense if they keep moving forward the actual ground developments could happen. It would be great to flatten the Kop and the poorly constructed corner stand and do it all from scratch and then the ground would look superb.
Fair play for the club for the superb pricing structure of the season tickets and it seems from the comments Martin Green made in early April that United had already surpassed last season’s 13,000 figure. It is a sure sign that we will have crowds of around 23-25,000 minimum next season by the time all sales have been completed and will probably rival or top our rivals from S6 depending on how their season finishes up.
It will be a vital summer and few years to see how much the board really want to get us back up there. It took the likes of Leeds, Wednesday and others 3 or 4 years to even be near the top end of the league. Reality says it could be similar for us but that depends on whether we invest. Those clubs did not have a great deal of funds first few years and Wednesday only started splashing the cash when Chansiri came in. If the Prince really wants it (Premier League) then we will see this next summer. The main thing is we do not go back down and at the very least have to consolidate next season. Love for more but as it stands after 6 years out, I would take middle or just below next season. There are some fans that might say 4th bottom is still not the worst scenario but no offence to other clubs but we should be aiming much higher and have better standards than that with the fanbase and potential.
superb stuff
)
