Who was our best ever manager at recruiting players?

[DronnieBlade]

, in what way am I wrong, because I don't agree on your claim about Wilders transfer dealings? There's a name for folks like you as well....

So which claim are you are sticking with to describe Wilders pre Prem recruitment, "off the charts good" or "got more right than wrong".....

You aren’t wrong pal. You told me so. So that’s me told !!

Off the charts. Im sticking with off the charts.

Getting a club from bottom of Div 3 to the PL in 3 short seasons would suggest the recruitment in this period wasn’t, quote “atrocious” !!

UTB

 

[Wizard]

Problem with the above is you're judging Premier League acquisitions against a Championship landscape.

The idea is to buy players from lower down who step up. Not buy players whilst you're up that are only decent once you go down.

As I mentioned on a separate thread we'll be about 41m down on 5 of his signings. Ramsdale might offset that by 12m but where you get the rest of the profit on to simply break even is anyone's guess.

But we were always gonna be in danger of going down and buying younger players who would stick around and develop and maintain their value was a good strategy. Berge, Bogle, Brewster, Ramsdale, Lowe, Osborn all fall into that category. The main player we've lost value in is McBurnie but I'd stand by that as an understandable transfer, he was 23 and just scored 22 in 42 (a better record than Gyokores, Johnson, Piroe, Weimann this year) and did well in his first season. I don't think anyone could have predicted this drop in form & fitness & lack of ability to make an impact this year. It's hard & often expensive to buy players who are sure things in the premier league and with the injuries & poor performances of some of our most important players (JOC, Fleck, Norwood, Stevens, etc.) along with COVID halting all of the momentum we'd built to that point and removing the atmosphere it was always gonna be a tough year. If you look at the business other clubs did and I'm not sure what we could've done in that window really that would've been enough to keep us up

 

[MagnifiqueShorehamStreet]

But we were always gonna be in danger of going down and buying younger players who would stick around and develop and maintain their value was a good strategy. Berge, Bogle, Brewster, Ramsdale, Lowe, Osborn all fall into that category. The main player we've lost value in is McBurnie but I'd stand by that as an understandable transfer, he was 23 and just scored 22 in 42 (a better record than Gyokores, Johnson, Piroe, Weimann this year) and did well in his first season. I don't think anyone could have predicted this drop in form & fitness & lack of ability to make an impact this year. It's hard & often expensive to buy players who are sure things in the premier league and with the injuries & poor performances of some of our most important players (JOC, Fleck, Norwood, Stevens, etc.) along with COVID halting all of the momentum we'd built to that point and removing the atmosphere it was always gonna be a tough year. If you look at the business other clubs did and I'm not sure what we could've done in that window really that would've been enough to keep us up

Wilder has to be up there.
Took us to the Prem, from League 1, with some very astute signings

 

[DronnieBlade]

But we were always gonna be in danger of going down and buying younger players who would stick around and develop and maintain their value was a good strategy. Berge, Bogle, Brewster, Ramsdale, Lowe, Osborn all fall into that category. The main player we've lost value in is McBurnie but I'd stand by that as an understandable transfer, he was 23 and just scored 22 in 42 (a better record than Gyokores, Johnson, Piroe, Weimann this year) and did well in his first season. I don't think anyone could have predicted this drop in form & fitness & lack of ability to make an impact this year. It's hard & often expensive to buy players who are sure things in the premier league and with the injuries & poor performances of some of our most important players (JOC, Fleck, Norwood, Stevens, etc.) along with COVID halting all of the momentum we'd built to that point and removing the atmosphere it was always gonna be a tough year. If you look at the business other clubs did and I'm not sure what we could've done in that window really that would've been enough to keep us up

Anyone ? .

UTB

 

[coaxingstar71]

Has to be Bassett, especially given that he perennially had fuck all to spend. One of his first deals was to sell Martin Kuhl to Watford and got Tony Agana and some change to bring in more players. Then brought in Deane, Bryson, Roberts, Webster, Gannon and Tracey for probably less than £100k. Later brought in Bradshaw, Hill, Beesley, Hoyland, Barnes and Pemberton for probably around £1m. While Premier League clubs were spending around £3m - £5m for players, he brought in Paul Rogers from non-league Sutton Utd for virtually fuck all, probably the last time a Premier league club directly signed a non-league player who went straight into the first team.

Bassett signed Brian Gayle for around £700k and had to personally guarantee the deal himself, due to the financial chaos he was working with.

By comparison, Kendall signed good players, however Hutch cost £1.2m, and even Ebbrell, possibly one of our worst ever signings cost £1m for 45 minutes.

 

[Lower Drop Blade]

Sir Harry of Longball...end of thread

 

[Bladezz]

Easy answer

Chris Wilder took a team with no saleable assets , and built us a team that took us to 9th in the PL where we now have discussions whether we should cash in on our £25m signing.

Doesn’t happen without amazing skill.

 

[petcharlie]

John Harris by a country mile.

John Flynn £5,000
Billy Dearden £10,000
Gil Reece £10,000
Tony Currie £26,500 - what a steal
David Powell £28,500
Eddie Colquhoun £35,000
Trevor Hockey £40,000
Colin Addison £40,000

Built the second promotion team of 70/71 after the Board had dismantled his first one and sold off the crown jewels in Jones and Birchenall. Brought through the likes of Badger, Salmons and Woodward in addition to Jones and Birchenall from the juniors.

Correct mate left all the other candidates standing . A canny Scot made Yorkshire people and princes look like spend thrifts .

 

[bartman]

Easy answer

Chris Wilder took a team with no saleable assets , and built us a team that took us to 9th in the PL where we now have discussions whether we should cash in on our £25m signing.

Doesn’t happen without amazing skill.

No saleable assets- apart from DCL,Adams,Ramsdale who he sold for for a few milion

 

[Duffy21Blade]

In an ironic twist of fate, the manager who made the most key signing in our recent history was probably Nigel Adkins when he brought Billy back to the club.

But Chris Wilder's recruitment through 2016 to 2019 was pretty much spot on. Made a couple of mistakes early doors with Hussey and James Wilson, but then quickly rectified the situation both tactically and the right personnel changes. Replaced Long with Moore, brought in Ebanks-Landell and Daniel Lafferty to fit straight into the 3-5-2.

We had a bad window in January 2018 but I think Wilder's hands were a bit tied at this point. But Fleck, Duffy, Jake Wright, Stevens, and McGoldrick were all freebies, and all have made meaningful contributions. Based on 2016 - 2019 only, the most expensive signing in terms of the transfer fee was Egan.

To recruit a group of players that didn't cost mega millions, and to then get from League One to the Premier League within three seasons is a pretty remarkable achievement in this age of Football.