Transfer targets

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robbiez666 said:
We want 6 or 7 players but have only enquired about 2? Marvellous. That's the spirit. one at a time until we need 5 on the last day.
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He has never said we need to bring in 6 or 7 from outside, merely that he needs 6 to make up the squad. I guess there are at least two youngsters to come in as well as some loans that cannot be finalised until the Premiership squads are settled. The club rarely indicates how many in total it is looking at and is now good at keeping incomers under wraps until the last minute.
 

secretchief said:
I know what stops idle speculation about transfers... actually doing a deal and getting someone through the door
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Since when? It just transforms it into speculation as to whether we're doing the right transfers.
 
Mouth of the South said:
It must have been a different recruitment team that signed Guedioura (even though he was as pointless as Rodwell) last year and Adam Davies in Jan then.

I'm not sure why you're differentiating between permanent transfers and loans - both take substantial effort and I'm sure that, on occasion, loans are sometimes just as complicated and time consuming.
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Even if you include loans their recent track record is risible. Only Gibbs-White stands up.

Tell me if you think I am wrong? I know their job isn't necessarily scouting people (it is clear we do not have a scouting system worthy of the name), but they aren't in a position to laugh at anyone. They have a major job on to regain everyone's confidence.
 
bladesmanluke said:
Why buy a football club if you can't afford to run it
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In fairness to PA he didn't buy a football club. He bought half a football club that was in L1 at the time on the proviso that investment into said club would be split 50/50.

We then progressed too quickly and the owners fell out so he got landed with an entire club instead.

I really don't get the backlash PA gets re our finances and spending. If he hasn't got the money he hasn't got it and even if he has it's not our god given right to demand every penny is spent on The Blades. How would you feel if you were told how you could spend your money by someone else?
 
secretchief said:
Even if you include loans their recent track record is risible. Only Gibbs-White stands up.

Tell me if you think I am wrong? I know their job isn't necessarily scouting people (it is clear we do not have a scouting system worthy of the name), but they aren't in a position to laugh at anyone. They have a major job on to regain everyone's confidence.
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secretchief said:
Even if you include loans their recent track record is risible. Only Gibbs-White stands up.

Tell me if you think I am wrong? I know their job isn't necessarily scouting people (it is clear we do not have a scouting system worthy of the name), but they aren't in a position to laugh at anyone. They have a major job on to regain everyone's confidence.
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I think you're wrong in so much as saying they've not signed anyone in the last 3 windows but I do agree that Gibbs-White aside, the loans brought in at some considerable cost last season did not have the expected or required impact.

Regarding the judging of the recruitment team's success - it depends on what their remit is/was. If it is just a matter of landing a list of players provided to them by the manager e.g. Brewster, Guedioura I don't think you can apportion any blame to them. If however, they are tasked with identifying, scouting and recruiting targets across all teams (which I don't think they are), then I agree they've underperformed badly.

We'll never know the full answer but perhaps the most telling indicator is that they're still in post whereas the person that was in charge during which time there was a ridiculous outlay on massively overvalued players (McBurnie, Mousset, Brewster to name but 3) was sacked.
 
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Upton_Blade said:
In fairness to PA he didn't buy a football club. He bought half a football club that was in L1 at the time on the proviso that investment into said club would be split 50/50.

We then progressed too quickly and the owners fell out so he got landed with an entire club instead.

I really don't get the backlash PA gets re our finances and spending. If he hasn't got the money he hasn't got it and even if he has it's not our god given right to demand every penny is spent on The Blades. How would you feel if you were told how you could spend your money by someone else?
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If he did not have the money to run 1 club why did he add 5 other clubs. So they can all be shit together? Better than to concentrate all means on 1 club I would think.
 
PurpleRain said:
If he did not have the money to run 1 club why did he add 5 other clubs. So they can all be shit together? Better than to concentrate all means on 1 club I would think.
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I may be wrong but he doesn't own Beerschot outright does he? As for the others I very doubt they cost much at all and can sort of see where he's going with the whole United World project although it'll take longer to come to fruition than most fans (short sightedly) are prepared to accept.

He's got the money to run The Blades, as shown in the last couple of sets of accounts. What he hasn't got is the money to fund the reckless spending that most football fans, quite entitled, think he should be spending.

Again it goes down to my original point. If he's looking at UW as a long term project as he feels this is the best way to go, and apportioning his spending accordingly, then as much as we disagree with it that's his prerogative as the owner of the group.

It's proven time and time again that just throwing money at a club isn't always the answer. Just look at Derby and our porcine neighbours for proof of what can happen.

I've no issue about our approach as long as it looks like it's progressing. If there's no progression whatsoever then questions will need to be asked but for now I'm happy to have an open mind about it all.
 
PurpleRain said:
If he did not have the money to run 1 club why did he add 5 other clubs. So they can all be shit together? Better than to concentrate all means on 1 club I would think.
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It's like a support group!

On the topic, I get that the Blades, Beerschot and Chateauroux can exchange ideas, possibly players, potentially shift loans between each other over time.

I'm struggling to see how the other two have any benefit for those three.

Any idea? It's not as if UAE re India are hotbeds of talent or that players from there have much chance of getting European work permits at the levels they are at. Unless a lot of the off field admin is in India and the labour market is cheap.

I'm just struggling to see how it works with these latter two.
 
LudlamBlade said:
There's a huge rental and housing crisis going on and you'll find that stuff happening up and down the country, it's not specific to this neck of the woods.

I've lived in Heeley and Meersbrook for years until rent caught up and I had to move back up on the arbour. Recently I've been living in Bristol for work but I've just had to move back to Sheffield because the rental market is genuinely absurd down there. People are paying £700pcm for a room in a shared flat, no bills included.

Even before I moved down there last year, I was renting a nice flat in Meersbrook...same flat is on the market now...but for £725 instead of £550. That's a huge increase in less than a year, which means I'm now having to look at renting somewhere further out. When I rent somewhere further out (because it's more affordable) and other people do the same, then the rents go up in that area and people who were living there before eventually get priced out and have to move somewhere else...where the cycle repeats.

It's one of the worst aspects of capitalism. Those with less get pushed out of the way for those with more. It's crap, and it's particularly rife under this government.

Some very good friends of mine got priced out of Millhouses and ended up having to move to Clowne to get somewhere big enough for them, that they could afford. So they're now living in Derbyshire, and they're pretty annoyed at having to commute to work everyday...never mind having to change their kids schools.

Look at the bigger problem rather than just raging at other people who are affected by the same issues ✌🏻
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More and more people in this state and at some point I would expect they will be become a politically significant proportion of the population. So much so that we actually try to solve the problem caused by economic imbalance and lack of enough decent housing. It amazes me that we keep voting in politicians with no intention of fixing it
 
Champagneblade said:
It's like a support group!

On the topic, I get that the Blades, Beerschot and Chateauroux can exchange ideas, possibly players, potentially shift loans between each other over time.

I'm struggling to see how the other two have any benefit for those three.

Any idea? It's not as if UAE re India are hotbeds of talent or that players from there have much chance of getting European work permits at the levels they are at. Unless a lot of the off field admin is in India and the labour market is cheap.

I'm just struggling to see how it works with these latter two.
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They hardly communicate so it’s very difficult to learn their intentions. 2 years ago we loaned one of our transfer flops to the Dubai club so that seemed handy but it was a one off. If they now would take our transfer flops they could receive an entire team. The team in India I guess they see it as an opportunity in an emerging market to have a club on the cheap and hope the value increases over time. But it’s all a bit strange. I am amazed about the lack of interaction between the 3 main clubs. No friendlies, very little to none player exchanges, no interaction on youth level like exchange programs or tournaments. Only aspects that possible remain is sharing of costs and joint scouting and off course a joint kit supplier and Yelo sponsorship deal.
 
Agree PurpleRain - it feels as though they're missing a trick by not realising a number of potential synergies - the Indian one may be tricky (so why acquire it??) but a lot more could be done across the other clubs. Whilst still not without fault, City Group appears to be a far more joined-up model and an example that United World should strive to achieve.
 
Even having a program where they swapped some of each other's youth players around a bit to give them an enhanced education.

Seems at the moment scouting licences and then the bit about schools where there may or may not be potential in 5+ years. But there seems a lot in between that is left untouched. Seriki was a daft move because they didn't need him. But the U23s have won the league again. There could be three heading to Beerschot who could do a good job. Irrespective of the need, I'm not sure sending just one is helpful. Could have sent Neal, Ayari and Lopata for instance still fulfilled the need for loan time and saved fees no doubt in the process.

If there is this United World it just seems you either get all clubs to buy into it, or not bother.
 

Champagneblade said:
Even having a program where they swapped some of each other's youth players around a bit to give them an enhanced education.

Seems at the moment scouting licences and then the bit about schools where there may or may not be potential in 5+ years. But there seems a lot in between that is left untouched. Seriki was a daft move because they didn't need him. But the U23s have won the league again. There could be three heading to Beerschot who could do a good job. Irrespective of the need, I'm not sure sending just one is helpful. Could have sent Neal, Ayari and Lopata for instance still fulfilled the need for loan time and saved fees no doubt in the process.

If there is this United World it just seems you either get all clubs to buy into it, or not bother.
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Given how badly the Seriki move went it might be more sensible to build familiarity first. Have the junior sides meet up for friendly camps in the summer play against and with each other in mixed teams supervised by different coaching staffs and in different locations each year. That way it’s not all strange faces and surroundings of young players do go to partner teams but rather lads they know and are friendly with and staff who know them. All teams would probably be well served hiring a multilingual member of pastoral staff so the lads can have some one to one support if we’re intending on sending lads to foreign countries and having foreign youngsters come here.
 
Champagneblade said:
Even having a program where they swapped some of each other's youth players around a bit to give them an enhanced education.

Seems at the moment scouting licences and then the bit about schools where there may or may not be potential in 5+ years. But there seems a lot in between that is left untouched. Seriki was a daft move because they didn't need him. But the U23s have won the league again. There could be three heading to Beerschot who could do a good job. Irrespective of the need, I'm not sure sending just one is helpful. Could have sent Neal, Ayari and Lopata for instance still fulfilled the need for loan time and saved fees no doubt in the process.

If there is this United World it just seems you either get all clubs to buy into it, or not bother.
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Yogi said:
Given how badly the Seriki move went it might be more sensible to build familiarity first. Have the junior sides meet up for friendly camps in the summer play against and with each other in mixed teams supervised by different coaching staffs and in different locations each year. That way it’s not all strange faces and surroundings of young players do go to partner teams but rather lads they know and are friendly with and staff who know them. All teams would probably be well served hiring a multilingual member of pastoral staff so the lads can have some one to one support if we’re intending on sending lads to foreign countries and having foreign youngsters come here.
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Can we even do that under EU rules now though? Belgium is lax so I assume we might be able to send that say but I don't think we could replicate.

I don't entirely understand how United World works now we're out of the EU.
 
JJBlade said:
Doesn't matter what I think really, we are in a showdown with the mighty Blackburn Rovers, a team that haven't had a sniff of Premier League football for yonks but will still somehow be able to outdo us in the transfer market
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Carry on with shaking your fist at Bettis/Prince etc then
 
robbiez666 said:
Can we even do that under EU rules now though? Belgium is lax so I assume we might be able to send that say but I don't think we could replicate.

I don't entirely understand how United World works now we're out of the EU.
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I’d assume it would be possibly for the kids to visit here on a short term basis providing they weren’t intending to stay
 
JJBlade said:
Doesn't matter what I think really, we are in a showdown with the mighty Blackburn Rovers, a team that haven't had a sniff of Premier League football for yonks but will still somehow be able to outdo us in the transfer market
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You've really got a lot of faith in a bit of newspaper gossip.
 
JJBlade said:
I won't be surprised
He's shit, and exactly what we tend to get when we spend anything
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JJBlade said:
Doesn't matter what I think really, we are in a showdown with the mighty Blackburn Rovers, a team that haven't had a sniff of Premier League football for yonks but will still somehow be able to outdo us in the transfer market
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Why are you so bothered about him signing for Blackburn if as you say hes shit
You do spout some bollocks
 
Pedro Verde said:
Why are you so bothered about him signing for Blackburn if as you say hes shit
You do spout some bollocks
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I'm not
I'm concerned about the mighty Blackburn Rovers outdoing us in the transfer market.

Still, the "we were never in for him anyway" comments that will follow will be funny
 
PurpleRain said:
They hardly communicate so it’s very difficult to learn their intentions. 2 years ago we loaned one of our transfer flops to the Dubai club so that seemed handy but it was a one off. If they now would take our transfer flops they could receive an entire team. The team in India I guess they see it as an opportunity in an emerging market to have a club on the cheap and hope the value increases over time. But it’s all a bit strange. I am amazed about the lack of interaction between the 3 main clubs. No friendlies, very little to none player exchanges, no interaction on youth level like exchange programs or tournaments. Only aspects that possible remain is sharing of costs and joint scouting and off course a joint kit supplier and Yelo sponsorship deal.
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The problem with UW is they are trying to copy models (Chelsea, Man City) that are purely money making schemes. The owner club sends players to the feeder clubs to build up their value. They then sell them and recycle the funds. It works because the owner club youth teams are full of players good enough to play for the feeder clubs.

That's not the case here. The Belgian first division (and second division) is eons ahead of the level Uniteds U23s play at.

So the plan was supposed to be that Beerschot is the training ground for foreign signings to then move to United. Literally nobody in world football does this. Reason being it wouldn't work without massive oversight from the parent club. You'd even need to match tactics and formation. Let's be honest, who'd want to support what is ostensibly a reserve teamfor a parent club in another country.

It's absolute amateur hour. They are jyst playing at it to hide their lack of funds and, more importantly lack of any sort of plan or football knowledge.

Fingers crossed both United and Beerschot can get out of this mess sooner rather than later.
 

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