We are now officially screwed...

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bertieblade said:
Interesting to see if hecky is on the touch line Sunday or leaves the motivation and hands on to his coaches. From what I gather I see his role as being not so much a management of the players ( although part of his remit ) but a management of the overall football structure. With his coaches taking training, sorting team selection, tactics etc based on his overall management.

it is obvious our high earners are going to leave and any player not in the immediate first team picture will be moved on with the intention of not only cutting costs but providing funds to run the club.
players to go based on what he said about not being interested or committed include verrips, Freeman, Robinson, Burke,
players Offloaded with the prime intention to raise funds include moose, mcburnie, Berge, baldock, possibly Brewster although it depends on cash flow as to whether we have to get rid in a fire sale or can afford to hang on for better prices.
can see all loans going back dependent upon contract situation, possibly keeping Gibbs whiite.

whilst heckingbottom is in charge of football matters and bettis other management they are both responsible to the board who dictate overall strategy, which means if they need money for other clubs in united world and can raise it by selling a guy from SUFC they will.
sufc are now seemingly a cog in a wheel, I think they thought if they appointed the best coach with a proven record ie Slav they would have a chance of getting back to the premiership. They realised this was not possible quite soon after his appointment and then made plans to cut cloth accordingly. Call it what you will, change in corporate structure etc. Etc. But we are in a mess because we spent money on players who have not retained their value and now have to sell at reduced prices promoting our youth to fill the gap.

need a new owner with new investment or we will wallow around the lower reaches of the championship and possibly get relegated next season.

oh The joys of being a blade
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Listened to the first 10 mins of yesterday’s press conference, strategic plan this, strategic vision that, change in strategic direction - all a load of utter corporate bullshit.

We’re a football club which needs to win games of football and as for the club owner not being present to galvanise the club in such times - shameful.

Heckingbottom comes across as a thoroughly decent fella, but to coin a phrase - poor kid.

What a mess.
 

There are some real doom merchants on here. I'm one of the old codgers on this forum so have seen plenty of ups and downs but have always been a "glass half full" type. Give them a chance, there is nothing you can do about it so enjoy the good bits when they happen. You wouldn't be a Blade if results were all that mattered.
 
St Albans Blade said:
Realist not pessimist. Old Division 4 season veteran.

Harris, Porterfield, Bassett, Warnock, Wilder. All the managers who have achieved promotions for us in the last 50 years.

It doesn't take a genius to already realise that Hecky isn't coming out of that stable.

He'll probably be gone way before his 4.5 year contract runs out.
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I can see your logic but if we'd listened to fans of Bury and Oldham on Warnock and Watford on Bassett we'd have thought we were screwed. Heckingbottom got Barnsley promoted out of League One, won the Auto windscreens Cup in the same season (I know it's not the FA cup but still a trophy), then had Barnsley knocking on the door of the play offs the following season and then their board sold Hourihane and Sam Winnall and that was their bid over. Following season think they were mid table and he got the Leeds job. Their fans seem to think he was awful there but he wasn't there long and didn't have his own players. Heckingbottom knows the players well and that can only be a good thing and I think we'll see an instant improvement.

Is he the right choice in the long term only time will tell, but I do think with McCall as assistant and aided by Jack Lester that we have a more than capable coaching staff. Would he have been my first choice, no, he wouldn't, I wanted Mark Robins but his record has as many sackings as successes also but I think if we appointed him now he would have been a popular choice. I'm willing to give Hecky the time to see how it goes. When you talk about 15 years in the wilderness, maybe so, who knows, but we've been in much worse circumstances than now in my time as a supported 1989 onwards. We're actually in a decent position and have some good players, some good young players on the horizon, there's reason for optimism in my view.
 
MobileBlade said:
Heckingbottom has won at Wembley twice and got promoted. How many of your list have won at Wembley (or indeed any play-off final)?
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MobileBlade said:
Heckingbottom has won at Wembley twice and got promoted. How many of your list have won at Wembley (or indeed any play-off final)? point, but do you really think Hecky’s the one to turn around our , I doubt
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MobileBlade said:
Heckingbottom has won at Wembley twice and got promoted. How many of your list have won at Wembley (or indeed any play-off final)?
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Valid observation, however I doubt Hecky will turn around our desperate play-offs record. How many club’s can claim to have never managed to have been promoted via the play-offs and yet have been relegated through them?!?

UTB
 
Silent Blade said:
Wonder if St Albans Blade FallowfieldBlade and FMBlade1 are the same person using three pseudonyms? They all like to start negative threads
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Don’t worry, the three of us have vast amounts of humble pie on order, just in case the rose-tinted spectacle brigade are right for a change and the Blades gain promotion via the play-offs in May’22.
 
Booker4 said:
I can see your logic but if we'd listened to fans of Bury and Oldham on Warnock and Watford on Bassett we'd have thought we were screwed. Heckingbottom got Barnsley promoted out of League One, won the Auto windscreens Cup in the same season (I know it's not the FA cup but still a trophy), then had Barnsley knocking on the door of the play offs the following season and then their board sold Hourihane and Sam Winnall and that was their bid over. Following season think they were mid table and he got the Leeds job. Their fans seem to think he was awful there but he wasn't there long and didn't have his own players. Heckingbottom knows the players well and that can only be a good thing and I think we'll see an instant improvement.

Is he the right choice in the long term only time will tell, but I do think with McCall as assistant and aided by Jack Lester that we have a more than capable coaching staff. Would he have been my first choice, no, he wouldn't, I wanted Mark Robins but his record has as many sackings as successes also but I think if we appointed him now he would have been a popular choice. I'm willing to give Hecky the time to see how it goes. When you talk about 15 years in the wilderness, maybe so, who knows, but we've been in much worse circumstances than now in my time as a supported 1989 onwards. We're actually in a decent position and have some good players, some good young players on the horizon, there's reason for optimism in my view.
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Sense an element of the glass
Is half-full when it’s clearly three-quarters empty in this optimistic view. The main thing here is the ‘strategic’ mission is flawed in being around 10-15 years late. We are where we are, but we’re not where we could or should be. We’re at risk of free-fall with this particular combination of players, management and directors.

McCall is the only glimpse of light I see in this current set-up.
 
St Albans Blade said:
After his cosmopolitan London and Middle East jobs, S2 was always going to be a culture clash for Slav.

He also fell for our directors' decade-after-decade 'promise the world, deliver nowt' transfer budget nonsense.

Inheriting a squad that is still mentally shattered from 20/21 season hasn't helped him, including an over-the-hill or underachieving front line, plus a selection of Jekyll & Hyde goalkeepers.

I think he's genuinely a good technical coach/manager and with a decent, non-shell-shocked squad he'll succeed elsewhere; probably coming back to haunt us in some end-of-season league fixture or important cup-tie, eventually.

Heckingbottom is not going to inspire this current squad onwards and upwards, any such thought is beyond naive. Terrible choice, if it's not on a very limited caretaker/interim basis.

Our poor, pauper Prince from Saudi may completely eject soon. Whether he'll await our demise to League 1 is unlikely, as we're more valuable and attractive to potential buyers as a struggling Championship club with parachute payments than as a third-tier side.

Slav probably negotiated a release payment that will sting the club for some time to come, hence the promotion for in-contract Heckingbottom rather than looking to the outside market for a proven 'get-us-to-the Premiership' manager. This role may well scar the undoubted club servant, Heckinbottom, too - as it won't end well.

I still believe that Alexander Blessin is the right person for the job. But we're now in such a mess we can't even afford a Belgian League's minor club manager!

So, barring a miracle or a Blessin', we can look forward to our typical 10 to 15 seasons mystery tour back to the Premier League.

Hold on to your hats and try and enjoy the ride...

... and despite everything, UTB.
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I was with you to you said Blessin, we have no idea what type of manager he would become. To much of a risk although I think Heckingbottom is a bigger risk. Should have stuck with Slav and found some money for him
 
I have seldom read such negative stuff, even on this forum.
I think we all applauded PA for appointing Slav who seeMEd to be the right man for the job and will not have been cheap. One of the problems however is that he didnt take over (coz of his previous contract) until it was too late to assess the existing squad and to do any meaningful trading in the transfer market. My only criticism is whether Slav was given an accurate picture of what his budget was. It appears perhaps not.
The fact is the players have clearly not been playing for him (for whatever reason).
He comes across to me as another Bryan Robson. Yesterdays man and recruiting his old players (probably on big wages) who are also yesterdays men or useless (Olsen).
We have players who, if they can be made to play to their full ability, can get us promotion (mcB, Brewster, Berge) plus some of the old guard who have gone off the boil but who can be much better than they were last season and so far this season.
The players showed today they can and will play for Hecky. He has also shown he can and will bring through players from the U23s.
We are not going to be able to buy players for £20mill but CW showed you can still build a promotion winning team on modest funds. Its about recruiting/developing and motivating the right players. Sadly CW failed on the recruitment front but I am optimistic Hecky will turn out to be a very good appointment.
UTB
 
Yewsman said:
I have seldom read such negative stuff, even on this forum.
I think we all applauded PA for appointing Slav who seeMEd to be the right man for the job and will not have been cheap. One of the problems however is that he didnt take over (coz of his previous contract) until it was too late to assess the existing squad and to do any meaningful trading in the transfer market. My only criticism is whether Slav was given an accurate picture of what his budget was. It appears perhaps not.
The fact is the players have clearly not been playing for him (for whatever reason).
He comes across to me as another Bryan Robson. Yesterdays man and recruiting his old players (probably on big wages) who are also yesterdays men or useless (Olsen).
We have players who, if they can be made to play to their full ability, can get us promotion (mcB, Brewster, Berge) plus some of the old guard who have gone off the boil but who can be much better than they were last season and so far this season.
The players showed today they can and will play for Hecky. He has also shown he can and will bring through players from the U23s.
We are not going to be able to buy players for £20mill but CW showed you can still build a promotion winning team on modest funds. Its about recruiting/developing and motivating the right players. Sadly CW failed on the recruitment front but I am optimistic Hecky will turn out to be a very good appointment.
UTB
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Really good summary. One swallow doesn't make a summer, great (and a little surprising) result against Bristol. To me, that forthcoming Middlesbrough fixture will be a real barometer of where we're headed in the immediate future.
 
I think the on the pitch stuff will be ok, we'll not go down and might improve enough that our season will not be over with 10 weeks to spare like it was looking under Slav.

The off-field side of things doesn't fill me with any confidence at all though, there's a lot of hearsay in terms of what people have heard from various sources and it's all bad news. We really need promotion within the next 2 years or we'll be a financial mess for years to come.
 
derekacorah said:
I think the on the pitch stuff will be ok, we'll not go down and might improve enough that our season will not be over with 10 weeks to spare like it was looking under Slav.

The off-field side of things doesn't fill me with any confidence at all though, there's a lot of hearsay in terms of what people have heard from various sources and it's all bad news. We really need promotion within the next 2 years or we'll be a financial mess for years to come.
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"£14 your programmes!"
 

St Albans Blade said:
After his cosmopolitan London and Middle East jobs, S2 was always going to be a culture clash for Slav.

He also fell for our directors' decade-after-decade 'promise the world, deliver nowt' transfer budget nonsense.

Inheriting a squad that is still mentally shattered from 20/21 season hasn't helped him, including an over-the-hill or underachieving front line, plus a selection of Jekyll & Hyde goalkeepers.

I think he's genuinely a good technical coach/manager and with a decent, non-shell-shocked squad he'll succeed elsewhere; probably coming back to haunt us in some end-of-season league fixture or important cup-tie, eventually.

Heckingbottom is not going to inspire this current squad onwards and upwards, any such thought is beyond naive. Terrible choice, if it's not on a very limited caretaker/interim basis.

Our poor, pauper Prince from Saudi may completely eject soon. Whether he'll await our demise to League 1 is unlikely, as we're more valuable and attractive to potential buyers as a struggling Championship club with parachute payments than as a third-tier side.

Slav probably negotiated a release payment that will sting the club for some time to come, hence the promotion for in-contract Heckingbottom rather than looking to the outside market for a proven 'get-us-to-the Premiership' manager. This role may well scar the undoubted club servant, Heckinbottom, too - as it won't end well.

I still believe that Alexander Blessin is the right person for the job. But we're now in such a mess we can't even afford a Belgian League's minor club manager!

So, barring a miracle or a Blessin', we can look forward to our typical 10 to 15 seasons mystery tour back to the Premier League.

Hold on to your hats and try and enjoy the ride...

... and despite everything, UTB.
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Yes and I admire your in-depth knowledge of how PH will do, and your even greater knowledge of Blessin, it never ceases to amaze me on the huge depth of football knowledge of our fan base. You posted a decent post but it actually only boils down to your less than biased opinions.
 
derekacorah said:
I think the on the pitch stuff will be ok, we'll not go down and might improve enough that our season will not be over with 10 weeks to spare like it was looking under Slav.

The off-field side of things doesn't fill me with any confidence at all though, there's a lot of hearsay in terms of what people have heard from various sources and it's all bad news. We really need promotion within the next 2 years or we'll be a financial mess for years to come.
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Sounds like the New South Stand years all over again! Unfortunately they ended with us in League 2 ☹️
 
Beighton Bob said:
Yes and I admire your in-depth knowledge of how PH will do, and your even greater knowledge of Blessin, it never ceases to amaze me on the huge depth of football knowledge of our fan base. You posted a decent post but it actually only boils down to your less than biased opinions.
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Fair point, it was just a few observations and, yes, a personal opinion.

Blessin will turn up somewhere much bigger than Oostende eventually and do a significant job 😉
 
Hagansbootlaces said:
The contract length re Hecky,,put yourselves in his position just signed a long term contract in a job he is unlikely to get sacked from or get any criticism from fans and media, his boss now says okay I want you to step up to the top job, you will get criticism from every quarter and you could get sacked, but you get a pay rise, the contract is a 12 month rolling deal, do well your kept on.

How many of us would say yes no problem, and how many would say no thanks I have a safe job, just takes me 12 months to earn what you want to pay me in 6 months but I can get sacked
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I wouldn't be surprised if PH has the option to return to the U23s should it go tits up...
 
Chingo said:
What’s confusing me is that if this Saudi/Newcastle thing is the reason for the prince stepping back where does it leave us ?
Seems we will be in some kind of limbo where the prince cannot put money in (If he was going to) , and nothing can be done with the club till we get some kind of new owners ???
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Bit out of loop but how does Saudi / Newcastle situation affect us?
 
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