Up front and truthful

[WORKSOPBLADE]

Yep. I'll be doing my bit by smashing a pie into the face of the guy next to me

Hope you don’t sit on the Kop !!

 

[Bladesman]

Wilder has been truthful he said frees and loans a while ago before the Gus transfer saga started but since then people have been bullshitted by the likes of the Rambler.

No parachute money and financial rules dictate how we operate going forward.

 

[MartBlade]

Yet again here we are throwing first four games of the season away because we’re waiting until the last week scrabbling around for players.

I listened to Radio 5 coverage of the EFL Cup matches yesterday and they were remarking on how many Championship teams are way short of the squad they need. They put it down to the World Cup… PL teams have held on to youngsters for pre season games due to so many players being late back. They expect that there will be a huge melee for frees and loans in the last couple of weeks of August. It’s definitely not just us…. but we are probably amongst the worst affected because we’ve not been able to spend on non-PL deals either due to our parachute deficit.

 

[Donnyblade]

We all knew this was coming, what we need now is for the owners to be sensible with what little money there is available. Clubs can no longer go throwing money around they have to work within those financial constraints, even if we had a billionaire owner we would still need to work within those constraints. We probably still need to sell 2 or 3 players to balance the books before we can make any permanent signings. It's also our wage bill that's killing us we need to offload the high earners getting rid of 1 or 2 of those will help out dramatically. The only reason Boro have spent is because they've had over 50million come in. We have to be realistic.

 

[TJ blade]

For me, Wilder can only piss with the cock he's got. If your owners tell you that they are backing you when they bring you back as manager, your gunna run with it.

Wilder in his interview looked shell shocked and under the same illusion we were before the news of money being owed to the prince.

So I am not going to blame Wilder.

Agree about Wilder... he looked like somebody had pinched his peroni

 

[ChipButtyBlade]

Is Wilder complicit with the owners in a con job on us fans...to make us all happy when he said what we wanted to hear about all the players that were shit were going to get kicked out and we would be replacing with quality..this was said (or words to that effect) to get season ticket renewals sold...were you conned did Wilder give you optimism going forward so you went ahead and renewed..i was very close to not renewing....so fast forward and word is we are 2K season ticket sales down...imagine if Wilder had said nothing how many would not have renewed....5K..6K or more.

 

[blades78]

As pointed out in previous posts, prem teams aren't releasing players yet due to WC which has a knock on effect for all the EFL clubs. It's evident in the lack of transfer activity in the Championship.

We're also stuck with Grbic, RND, Shackleton, McGuiness and Ukaki as well as a few youngsters draining over £50k a week out of the club and need to be move on.

Deals will be in place, but its a case of waiting for above two points to change and then we'll see players arrive.

 

[Nick Jansky]

Talking in mainly old school type clichés is his thing as are his emotional rants that are too based in being a fan and protecting himself than helping the team.

He can't stop himself and shows his limitations.

Enough believed him to keep the heat off him. He's now being seen through.

He's nowhere near the 2016 version and, somehow, we need to move him out if we are to get anywhere in the medium to longer term.

He is a huge part of our current problems, as are the results of his spending in years gone by.

If, as appears to be the case, we are lurching from season to season with no apparent long term plan beyond upgrading the academy should we ever manage two consecutive seasons in the EPL, then he is probably the right man to oversee that.

If, however, we ever get owners who are able to fund a root and branch modernisation of the club, then clearly we would need to bring in someone very different.

Depressing, but that’s where we are. We’ve been in much worse situations over the years, it’s all a part of the 137 year soap opera of Sheffield United FC.

 

[54yrblade]

If, as appears to be the case, we are lurching from season to season with no apparent long term plan beyond upgrading the academy should we ever manage two consecutive seasons in the EPL, then he is probably the right man to oversee that.

If, however, we ever get owners who are able to fund a root and branch modernisation of the club, then clearly we would need to bring in someone very different.

Depressing, but that’s where we are. We’ve been in much worse situations over the years, it’s all a part of the 137 year soap opera of Sheffield United FC.

Are you suggesting that Wilder is now also doing building renovation on the side?

Have to disagree im afraid. He is part of what's led to where we are now and needs to go.

 

[Davalon]

Are you suggesting that Wilder is now also doing building renovation on the side?

Have to disagree im afraid. He is part of what's led to where we are now and needs to go.

I don't disagree that the management structure needs modernising but unless it's done properly from the top down, we risk another Selles experiment.

Until things are in place properly, we need a manager that works in the current structure.

We also have to factor in a fanbase that includes a sizeable proportion who are resistant to notable change, don't trust foreign managers/coaches, like familiar faces and people who 'get the club', and feel more comfortable with old skool types.

In conclusion, I don't see enough support or patience to allow the modernisation I feel the club needs to meaningfully move forward and stand a chance of reaching the PL and staying there a while.

 

[Houso]

Wilder does not get a pass in all this. He spent money on fees (e.g. Cannon) after the new guys came in and then on wasted wages last season (e.g. Phillips). He's not shown one iota of imagination with frees this summer (e.g. Doherty). He's treated certain players like dogshit (e.g. Brooks). And then he hardly set the world alight with decisions on the pitch towards the end of last season.

The board fucked it too with every bit of AI investment, kneejerk sackings, the Selles appointment, the incredibly bad littany of signings that we couldn't even blame AI on. The Prince fucked it equally before that. Bettis fucked it throughout both tenures. The club has wasted promotion to and a couple of season in the Prem and the riches that delivered.

We need a miracle this season to get anything better than mid table.

 

[Nick Jansky]

Are you suggesting that Wilder is now also doing building renovation on the side?

Have to disagree im afraid. He is part of what's led to where we are now and needs to go.

It would be pointless bringing in a manager to drive the club forward if you don’t provide them with the platform to be able to do that. I agree that it’s shit, but replacing Wilder with a similar firefighter is just shifting the deckchairs on the Titanic. The root problems need addressing, and that isn’t going to happen without quite a lot of investment. Until then, we bumble along.

As everyone knows, I am by no means a fan of Wilder and I am happy to criticise him, but I am a pragmatist and right now I would stick rather than twist.

 

[The Fox]

The truth was that we had to sell and reduce the wage bill this season . That was the case from probably about March last year , it was also reality some were and still are unwilling to face .

The reality is also that the club and management have to remain upbeat and positive despite this .

We were never going to change that , not over one summer and we have to simply make the best of what we can afford with a few changes to personell on and off the pitch .

The emergence of a different structure to encourage and facilitate investment was never going to be quick or easy either but its a step in the right direction.

All we can do is get behind the team and and all the team can do is work thier socks off.

Last season Milwall showed that with a bit of togetherness a team is more than the sum of its parts , thats what sufc has always been .

Its not perfect , but its not a disaster.

 

[Broomhall Blade]

I think most of us could accept the position we are in if the club, manager, chief executive and owners could just be honest and upfront although this would never happen.
When CW told us in March he knew what, who, why and where we needed to improve on and off the field and he had 100% backing from Bettis and the owners and all on the same page for the biggest rebuild he’s done.
Now fast forward to a week before the season we have sold Brooks, Hamer and released multiple players leaving us even shorter in certain areas both in numbers and quality and to be told via media we will have to wait until the end of the window to get loans in.
If they had come out and said we are financially screwed, it’s going to be tough due to last summers sacking of CW and signing poor players on big contracts and wages we would have been angry but still turn up and support what we have just like in the past when we didn’t have a pot to piss in, but no we were fed the all together line and in a good place etc etc.
Now this has created ill feeling and even more animosity towards the board which will effect crowds and the general feeling at the games which could have been avoided if just honest.

They where never going too do that, they needed to shift has many season tickets has possible and if they had come out and said we are selling Brooks, Hamer and possibly Peck and Burrows, and replacing them with a kid on loan from Brentford and some 35 year old not wanted by a team in the same division as us, season ticket sales would have been down below 20k.
They've played a blinder, club shop looks nice though.

 

[Maceyblade]

Given the situation that is rapidly unravelling with regard to the firesale ongoing - although I had reservations before - I am now relieved that Wilder is our Manager. He cares about the club & has a track record of doing well with backs against the wall due to owners (Northampton & Halifax were basket cases).

Wilder struggles when he has money to spend, and wastes it on young players that aren't good enough (Brewster, Cannon). But give him a situation where he has to bargain hunt and he gets crackers like he did 2016 to 2019, and last season with Bamford and Jairo.

I'm happy to settle in this league if we can get ourselves on a solid financial footing. Stop dreaming about the PL and rebuild as a club.

 

[calcalcal]

Wilder should stop lying to us "punters" and admit we're absolutely wank and have no chance of a good season because our owners are a bunch of clowns. We'd ALL respect him if he told it as it is and nobody would criticise him for it. But he's too selfish and just wants his next paycheck.

Hed also get fired again if he said that tbf. Hes implied as much already about the owners
Haven't even seen helmy at any point. I suspect hes the one who's the problem on account of zero interest any more, but thats just my hunch

 

[calcalcal]

Wilder struggles when he has money to spend, and wastes it on young players that aren't good enough (Brewster, Cannon). But give him a situation where he has to bargain hunt and he gets crackers like he did 2016 to 2019, and last season with Bamford and Jairo.

I'm happy to settle in this league if we can get ourselves on a solid financial footing. Stop dreaming about the PL and rebuild as a club.

Me too. But honestly with other sides in much better financial position under scr I do genuinely fear relegation fight

 

[54yrblade]

Me too. But honestly with other sides in much better financial position under scr I do genuinely fear relegation fight

Any assumption that we won't is wrong

No team in this, L1 and L2, are too big to go down

 

[MartBlade]

Is Wilder complicit with the owners in a con job on us fans...to make us all happy when he said what we wanted to hear about all the players that were shit were going to get kicked out and we would be replacing with quality..this was said (or words to that effect) to get season ticket renewals sold...were you conned did Wilder give you optimism going forward so you went ahead and renewed..i was very close to not renewing....so fast forward and word is we are 2K season ticket sales down...imagine if Wilder had said nothing how many would not have renewed....5K..6K or more.

View attachment 241652

With all due respect, whether or not the manager “bigs things up” is not even a tiny glimmer in my thinking on whether I renew my season ticket. I’m a Blade so if they’re playing at home, I’m going to be there regardless of what the team’s chances are.
I can’t get my head round people deciding whether to renew based on how good we may or may not be.
Crap ownership and long periods of mediocrity are just part of being a Blades fan. That doesn’t mean that I won’t moan and protest when appropriate… but I’ll be looking forward to the first game with inexplicable excitement, like I do every season.
The lows just make the highs more meaningful.

 

[Bladesman]

I don't disagree that the management structure needs modernising but unless it's done properly from the top down, we risk another Selles experiment.

Until things are in place properly, we need a manager that works in the current structure.

We also have to factor in a fanbase that includes a sizeable proportion who are resistant to notable change, don't trust foreign managers/coaches, like familiar faces and people who 'get the club', and feel more comfortable with old skool types.

In conclusion, I don't see enough support or patience to allow the modernisation I feel the club needs to meaningfully move forward and stand a chance of reaching the PL and staying there a while.

I think the modernisation needs to be done but drip fed rather than the experiment last summer which was change the approach all at once.

 

[ChipButtyBlade]

With all due respect, whether or not the manager “bigs things up” is not even a tiny glimmer in my thinking on whether I renew my season ticket. I’m a Blade so if they’re playing at home, I’m going to be there regardless of what the team’s chances are.
I can’t get my head round people deciding whether to renew based on how good we may or may not be.
Crap ownership and long periods of mediocrity are just part of being a Blades fan. That doesn’t mean that I won’t moan and protest when appropriate… but I’ll be looking forward to the first game with inexplicable excitement, like I do every season.
The lows just make the highs more meaningful.

The thread title is about being upfront and truthful..not about whose the bigger fan.

 

[MartBlade]

The thread title is about being upfront and truthful..not about whose the bigger fan.

Nothing to do with bigger fan … there’s plenty more committed than me I’m sure. I just don’t get the indecision on season tickets or going to games… my expectations are set by what the club has always been … and probably always will be. The key is to enjoy going, watching and supporting… and then moaning on a forum

 

[nopigfansintown]

We all knew this was coming, what we need now is for the owners to be sensible with what little money there is available. Clubs can no longer go throwing money around they have to work within those financial constraints, even if we had a billionaire owner we would still need to work within those constraints. We probably still need to sell 2 or 3 players to balance the books before we can make any permanent signings. It's also our wage bill that's killing us we need to offload the high earners getting rid of 1 or 2 of those will help out dramatically. The only reason Boro have spent is because they've had over 50million come in. We have to be realistic.

The SCR constraints are still very generous. Owners can pump in 33 million every three year period, with 15 million being the maximum allowable for any one season. The big change is the way the money is pumped in rather than a big change re making clubs sustainable (and competitive) without owner funding. If our owners aren't willing to do that we'll get left behind as it's still a money pit with plenty willing to pump in equity.

I'd love to know our calculations as things stand. If we are close to the limits now we may need to take our medicine for a season or two before they're allowed to spend. If the owners aren't able or willing to compete it's going to be very tough going forward with all the sharks without parachute payments chucking their owner's money about.

 

[Maurice Maurice]

So if we sign a couple of decent players next week, hit the ground running and beat Birmingham then what? Most teams in this division who don't have parachute payments aren't in any position to go throwing cash around, and probably the last thing to do is waste what cash we/they do have on dross. The opening thread is asking for the board to come out and tell us they're skint, what if they're not? What if they think Cannon's a waste of money, McGuiness wasn't worth the fee we paid for him? What if they're being diligent with the cash they do have and are trying to do what they believe is best for the club.

Wilder said that Brooks wasn't talking contract extension and wasn't committed to the club, good riddance then. Gus never gave the impression that it was about anything more than a few magic moments and a move for more money when the time was right. Him and Coventry are a good fit because they're punching above their weight and he'll get his pay bump without having to work too hard in what will be a poor side.

We can't affect what the owners do, we'll never be privy to all the shit happening in the background, that's the way it is at the Lane and at pretty much every other club. All I do is support the team whenever we play and if I was as suicidal as some of you sound on this and other threads I'd seriously consider finding a new hobby like sewing or flower arranging.

UTBFTP

 

[Revolution]

It would be pointless bringing in a manager to drive the club forward if you don’t provide them with the platform to be able to do that. I agree that it’s shit, but replacing Wilder with a similar firefighter is just shifting the deckchairs on the Titanic. The root problems need addressing, and that isn’t going to happen without quite a lot of investment. Until then, we bumble along.

As everyone knows, I am by no means a fan of Wilder and I am happy to criticise him, but I am a pragmatist and right now I would stick rather than twist.

Quite.

Wilder is a long way from his 2016-20 peak, but he is still a vastly experienced manager who has his strengths. I have no confidence whatsoever that the current regime could recruit anyone better.

 

[Hamer's Right Peg]

Teams in worse positions have got promoted.

Hull City last season
Blackpool 2010 - utter car crash off the pitch at that time with the Oystons but Holloway did a miracle.

Not saying we need a miracle but we have a decent floor and just need the odd player to really elevate the team

 

[vas borbokis]

Pre Wilder we had about 8 years of decline. It was woeful. Prince and McCabe at war ending in court..
We were 6 years in League one and not even competitive there.
There's Nobody better than Wilder (who basically bleeds red & white) to manage our club through this current ownership crisis..
Imo anyway.

 

[Scoips]

I think the problem with Wilder is that he is not a coach, he's a man manager and team builder. He tries to acquire experienced, intelligent players who don't need coaching and to a large extent work out their own ways of playing together. The 16-19 team were a great example of this and got us to the Premier League, but Wilder couldn't integrate newer, younger players into that team as it evolved. And since the 16-19 version of Alan Knill, Wilder doesn't seem to have been able to bring in coaches that can complement him.
Unfortunately, the only part of SUFC that seems to operate with any competence is the academy, which continues to produce players capable of League football at a creditable rate. But in order to transition into the first team, those players still need a great deal of coaching within the first team set up, and they just don't seem to get it, so they have to leave to develop. That's why Brooks left, why I think Seriki will go and quite possibly Peck, who has been good for us, but has a much higher ceiling if he gets the elite coaching his talents deserve. For all that Wilder is a huge fan, the disconnect between his competencies and the club's model for generating income through player development is stark.

 

[dexter101]

Wilder should stop lying to us "punters" and admit we're absolutely wank and have no chance of a good season because our owners are a bunch of clowns. We'd ALL respect him if he told it as it is and nobody would criticise him for it. But he's too selfish and just wants his next paycheck.

I know he is a Blade, but sacrificing his own employment and career is probably a bit much to ask of him.

Good to know you are staying open minded to next season's chances though!