Wilder skulking off at the end of the game

[PrestwichBlade]

I thought I'd let the air clear for a bit before I waded in on this one.
I went on Saturday, and thought we were in with a shout, especially when we all thought we were 2-0 up. I don't blame the use of VAR, even though I can't stand the thing, if it's disallowed, it's disallowed. I thought that Sunderland were no great shakes, but they were determined and had a plan which they stuck to, even after going behind. After a reasonably positive start to the second half, the team just crawled inside itself and went into a very familiar defensive pattern. We did have clear chances, but they were either missed, or we just ploughed on with trying to defend deep. This failed very recently against Plymouth, Millwall and Oxford, so it's chances of working against a better side than any of them, with a huge prize at the end, wasn't likely to succeed. When Sunderland scored, I knew what was going to happen, as we've seen it so many times. And it happened.
After initially thinking that this wasn't on the manager, it was about Moore's fuck up, I now think it really is on Wilder. He picked the team and the tactics, he made the substitutions, he decided to play JLT, and not let Holding anywhere near the field of play, and he stuck to "sitting in", when there's clear evidence over a number of games, that his team aren't actually very good at "sitting in".

We were playing a team who finished a full 16 points (including the deduction) behind us, who before just beating Coventry had been on an awful run, and who are young and relatively inexperienced. There are no guarantees, but with the start we had, we should have won this game. In my view, not doing so is entirely the responsibility of Wilder and his management team. As was the bizarre end to the regular season, and as is the turgid football served up for so much of this season. For these footballing reasons, Wilder should go, and the board should aim for some sort of reset. I don't know who, I'm a fan, that's not my job.

In terms of Wilder's behaviour and conduct as a manager and representative of SUFC, I think it's fair to say that he should have acknowledged the fans, and he should have been there for the players. That's his job, that's what goes with being a manager and leader. If he can't do this (and clearly he couldn't on Saturday), then he's not up to the job, and should be replaced by someone who is perhaps a bit less self-centered.

Pretty much sums up my thoughts.

 

[VictoryBlade]

Sadly, whilst I agree with everything you say, it’s too late, he’s done for. His behaviour this season tactically and personality wise confirms that. Barry Bannan ripping in to us on social media is, god help me, totally understandable. Wilder sows the seeds……

Not being funny who cares what Mr Combover thinks!

 

[luffenhamblade]

Burnley had to rebuild. 100 points. Promoted.

And Luton? Careful what you wish for.

 

[The Crab]

Some good names suggested above but I do worry how a significant section of our fanbase would react to a foreign coach, especially following Wilder.

Patience would be non-existent with them.

We’d need to be a lot more patient if we stuck with the parochial bladey blade approach. It won’t work in the prem.

Having said that, I’d agree any new manager would need time to restructure things

 

[54yrblade]

Some good names suggested above but I do worry how a significant section of our fanbase would react to a foreign coach, especially following Wilder.

Patience would be non-existent with them.

To be fair, they'd not be happy whoever follows him.
It's going to happen sometime.
The lack of exploiting the Euro/ world market is holding us back

Alan Biggs says he's chatted with Wilder and he's ready to go again

Less than 48 hrs ago he went MIA then needed some time out ....

 

[Sean Thornton]

And Luton? Careful what you wish for.

Not the point though was it? It was about having to rebuild, nothing else.

 

[luffenhamblade]

Not the point though was it? It was about having to rebuild, nothing else.

Fair enough but rebuilding with a strong manager isn't easy and Wilder has done a very decent job. How many clubs changed their manager, rebuilt and weren't successful? Just don't think the grass is always greener that's all.

 

[MartBlade]

Exactly this. We’ve achieved absolutely nothing this season in the cold light of day, and spent a lot of money in doing so. Bar the odd highlight - beating the pigs twice, some exciting stuff in the play offs before the final - we’re no better off than if we’d finished in mid table.

So we’re now a club who get promoted or fail. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective but for me… with my own history of watching the Blades, I feel that’s an unreasonable expectation.
I hope you get what you expect, which make us all happy but I also fear things going the other way.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Luton didn't have to rebuild?

Did they mount a promotion challenge?

 

[Blade56]

I know people love to beat Wilder with this Brewster/Cannon criticism.

Fixed it

 

[VictoryBlade]

A leader in any walk of life leads. If you were made redundant at work and your manager just disappeared is that a good leader? No. Obviously not. It's part of the job. It's the first thing a manager should do after a result like that. The first thing. And no, too self-absorbed to do his job.

Sorry, I can't believe people are defending this. We have young players in the team who will never have experienced this kind of disappointment. We have an absolutely useless captain. You want these players to bounce back, you don't just leave them to fester.

Exactly where was Robbo in all of this, just ran off to the dressing room as well! Robbo leader on the pitch you really having a laugh!

 

[MartBlade]

Fixed it

Fair enough … maybe you want to balance that with further players than Cooper, Burrows etc. … we know which list is longer.
At the end of the day people will probably hound him out, which in my view is ridiculous.
All about opinions but I fear that many will realise what they had when it’s gone.

 

[Le Cynique]

So we’re now a club who get promoted or fail. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective but for me… with my own history of watching the Blades, I feel that’s an unreasonable expectation.
I hope you get what you expect, which make us all happy but I also fear things going the other way.

Well, I’d argue that it’s not as simple as that, and you have to look at it in context, but this season I would say that we’ve mainly failed, yes. I have to say that at this moment in time, with the additions of Cooper, Burrows, Campbell and O’Hare were a better team than last season, but that could all change over the summer transfer window. In addition, outside of the few bright points, the style of play has been turgid, frustrating and even baffling at points. We haven’t been plucky underdogs who battled the odds and grabbed success from the jaws of defeat, we’ve been the architects of our own downfall through strange tactical choices, a lack of self-belief and ignoring problems within the squad that we had potential solutions to in favour of stubbornly sticking to a game plan that was clearly not working.

If we use this season as a platform to build on and do a Leeds next season then perhaps it won’t have been wasted, but as it stands, it feels like we’re treading water and that we’ve squandered a fantastic chance to progress and build.

 

[Blade56]

Fair enough … maybe you want to balance that with further players than Cooper, Burrows etc. … we know which list is longer.
At the end of the day people will probably hound him out, which in my view is ridiculous.
All about opinions but I fear that many will realise what they had when it’s gone.

I was just making the point that cannon has deflected the criticism that had until his arrival was all on Brewster

 

[Sean Thornton]

Exactly where was Robbo in all of this, just ran off to the dressing room as well! Robbo leader on the pitch you really having a laugh!

Did he? Any evidence because he didn’t run straight off, as the tv recording shows.

 

[Davalon]

To be fair, they'd not be happy whoever follows him.
It's going to happen sometime.
The lack of exploiting the Euro/ world market is holding us back

Alan Biggs says he's chatted with Wilder and he's ready to go again

Less than 48 hrs ago he went MIA then needed some time out ....

If it's Biggsy, are you sure this isn't news from 2021?

 

[vas borbokis]

As I’ve stated a few times on various threads, it’s not my job to find us a new manager. My ‘ball knowledge’ is largely limited to what we’re doing, I’ll leave the name suggestions to those who take more of an interest in those things.

If we persist with ‘Chris/Neil/Paul from Sheffield’ we’ll never progress as a club. We’ve tried Mickey and Morgs as well temporarily with poor results. Some of our fans love the parochial behaviour as they can pretend Wilder is like them. But a change would be for the better in the long run.

The 92 points actually means nothing now, it’s just another way to highlight how much of a failure this season has been.

I don’t buy into the ‘rebuild’ excuse either. He got rid of a lot of the players he gave long contracts to the first time around and we had more than enough budget to have won promotion, certainly not ‘average’ in Championship terms. Yet we still failed.

Give it a fucking rest will you pal? It's tiresome.

 

[utd4ever]

I know people love to beat Wilder with this Cannon criticism. Nobody would argue that he looks a good signing but surely you have to balance that against the free transfer signing of Campbell, O Hare etc..? Loan deal for Souttar ? At the time we were linked with him, many on this forum were screaming that we had to beat Sunderland to his signature !!
People should at least be balanced in criticism.

Campbell was good but it seems he can’t play a full match
O,Hare a good signing. Don’t know why he didn’t start against Sunderland.
Souttar good signing. Didn’t replace him though.

I’d love to be able to give positivity to Wilders reign but this season has been so weirdly frustrating.
We could have gone up automatically but chucked it away at the end.
We hammered Bristol City and Sunderland looked there for the taking and we chucked it away.

 

[Davalon]

I personally couldn’t give a toss if other fans like us or our manager, but I suspect that the board will be somewhat unimpressed by the negative coverage that Wilder’s antics bring to the club, especially if they’re trying to get additional investment, sponsorship deals and that kind of thing. What many of our fans see as passion, they might see as uncouth behaviour and a lack of professionalism, especially if it hits them in the pocket.

Yep this as well, especially with foreign ownership who probably hold positive PR in high regard.

My main point though is that if you're going to ruffle feathers, get under people's skin, attract criticism and abuse because of it, then you've got to be able to let it wash over you and not let it affect your job.

I don't believe we've got a manager and senior players capable of that.

 

[Nick Jansky]

Yep this as well, especially with foreign ownership who probably hold positive PR in high regard.

My main point though is that if you're going to ruffle feathers, get under people's skin, attract criticism and abuse because of it, then you've got to be able to let it wash over you and not let it affect your job.

I don't believe we've got a manager and senior players capable of that.

The problem is about 50% of our fans lap that stuff up. They want a manager & players who are “one of us”. Which actually translates as they don’t want the club to move forward positively, they’re quite happy with what we have & what we are.

We are absolutely split and that won’t heal quickly, certainly not during the tenure of the next manager or two unless one of them delivers instant success. In my view, the sooner we make a start on it, the better.

 

[Davalon]

I suspect that Knill plays good cop to Wilder bad cop in terms of criticism of the players performances.

That's certainly very true. No doubt.

I don't dislike Wilder, I genuinely feel for him this weekend.

I just think he's backed himself into a corner in some ways and put unnecessary pressure on himself and the club, that I'm not convinced he and a few others can handle that well.

 

[sothall blade]

I’ve always been a fan of Wilder, but deary me;
The rant after the Hillborough win
Dancing on tables singing derogatory songs about the opposing manager
Constantly winding Leeds up
Insulting Plymouth when they’re fighting for their lives…we know too well what happened there
All the above shit is for us fans to dish out, not our manager, totally unprofessional behaviour.
I think we have had incredible luck throughout this season, scraping through close games usually 1-0 wins, unfortunately we rode our luck and it ran out when we needed it most and then karma kicked in

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

Fair enough but rebuilding with a strong manager isn't easy and Wilder has done a very decent job. How many clubs changed their manager, rebuilt and weren't successful? Just don't think the grass is always greener that's all.

In what ways have we been 'successful'?

Before you say 92 points? Means nothing if you're still c10 points behind the automatic places and shit the bed in the Play Offs....

Grass may not be greener, buts it's a fucking mud bath on this side of the fence.

 

[Booker4]

I’ve always been a fan of Wilder, but deary me;
The rant after the Hillborough win
Dancing on tables singing derogatory songs about the opposing manager
Constantly winding Leeds up
Insulting Plymouth when they’re fighting for their lives…we know too well what happened there
All the above shit is for us fans to dish out, not our manager, totally unprofessional behaviour.
I think we have had incredible luck throughout this season, scraping through close games usually 1-0 wins, unfortunately we rode our luck and it ran out when we needed it most and then karma kicked in

I think we've had incredibly bad luck myself, particularly on Saturday with injuries and that tackle from Hume was a foul in my book due to his trailing leg high up fouling BBD. Souttar and Arblaster injuries have cost us big time in my opinion and had they stayed fit I think we'd have to top two.

On the other points, I can see your argument but at the same time once Wilders gone I think the vast majority will look back very favourable on Wilder and laugh on the moments like at Wednesdays expense. I don't think he's constantly goaded Leeds neither, he lost his cool at Plymouth sure, but overall I think he's arguably the biggest asset this club has, even with some of the stuff you've mentioned.

Much as I don't like Warnock now because I think he's two faced but he was brilliant for us and he did my nut in at times and was regularly winding up the opposition blaming the refs after defeats almost every match but overall he was a great manager for us.

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

I think we've had incredibly bad luck myself, particularly on Saturday with injuries and that tackle from Hume was a foul in my book due to his trailing leg high up fouling BBD. Souttar and Arblaster injuries have cost us big time in my opinion and had they stayed fit I think we'd have to top two.

On the other points, I can see your argument but at the same time once Wilders gone I think the vast majority will look back very favourable on Wilder and laugh on the moments like at Wednesdays expense. I don't think he's constantly goaded Leeds neither, he lost his cool at Plymouth sure, but overall I think he's arguably the biggest asset this club has, even with some of the stuff you've mentioned.

Much as I don't like Warnock now because I think he's two faced but he was brilliant for us and he did my nut in at times and was regularly winding up the opposition blaming the refs after defeats almost every match but overall he was a great manager for us.

Bad luck?

Souttar and Arblaster stay fit and we get automatics? Really? Wow.

It's comments like that which makes me realise i must watch something completely different to a lot of folks round these parts....

 

[Silky Sabella]

I’ve always been a fan of Wilder, but deary me;
The rant after the Hillborough win
Dancing on tables singing derogatory songs about the opposing manager
Constantly winding Leeds up
Insulting Plymouth when they’re fighting for their lives…we know too well what happened there
All the above shit is for us fans to dish out, not our manager, totally unprofessional behaviour.
I think we have had incredible luck throughout this season, scraping through close games usually 1-0 wins, unfortunately we rode our luck and it ran out when we needed it most and then karma kicked in

100 % BRILLIANT STATEMENT

 

[Sean Thornton]

100 % BRILLIANT STATEMENT

The Wendy stuff seems to have taken on a new lease of life for his major detractors. Admittedly at the time many weren’t happy but for me the real low point was Plymouth, where some were trying to defend the indefensible. Disappearing down the tunnel Saturday a close second.

Will we keep him? I have no idea, but one thing needs to be said, all but the more rabid haters surely have a place in their heart for him, for the very very good times. He deserves that and later events shouldn’t negate those achievements s.

 

[reedy63]

Brilliant first half. I thought we would win against Sunderland at Wembley last Saturday. Whatever Wilder said to the players at halftime, they came out as a totally different team. We started to sit back and try to defend a 1-0 lead. As they scored, I knew we would lose. Then, a sloppy backwards pass from Moore to a Sunderland player who scored the winner for them. We threw the game away. Complete shambles, the Sunderland fans must have thought all their birthday came at once. Wilder is nowhere to be seen. Very unprofessional behaviour. If the new owners decide to sack him, I would not complain about that. On the other hand, if they decide to keep him, they should make it clear automatic promotion. If they are mid-table after 10-15 games, He will be sacked.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Give it a fucking rest will you pal? It's tiresome.

Nearly as tiresome as Wilder fanboys

 

[Montymagic]

First day back at work.

Apparently the city is blue and white and losing both games against your rivals means nothing if you end up in the same division now...


Goalposts built on liquid sand.