Post by deadbat on May 23, 2024 19:25:33 GMT
2023/24 SUFC SEASON REVIEW / SCHOOL REPORT
Staff report
Board / Club
Prince HRH Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Every year I write this, I think this might be the last year I discuss him in my end of season review but here we are again! It seems like the Prince has wanted out for some time but there is a genuine argument over how desperate he is to leave. He will want to get a decent amount of money for the club but something is only worth what someone is willing to pay and the lack of reputable investors means I would be concerned that if he is serious about moving the club on. The price now will only go down and as the debts will surely increase in a lower league, I believe he may struggle to give us away in a few years if it has not happened before then.
The previous season, the Mauriss takeover collapsed and never seemed particularly serious and he is now in a California jail. We then had another ‘chancer’ Dozy Mmobuosi linked but that ended and he too is being investigated for fraud. It seems the Blades are no nearer a new owner and have now sourced a company (Lazard) to help them source new income/new ownership. We have had more links with the an American group recently but most will deal with this with trepidation.
It is rather simple that the Prince simply does not have the money to fund or sustain a Premier League club. I do wonder whether when he bought us he ever thought we would actually be in the top league and he would need to support a top-level side? Wilder’s first spell accelerated a journey that he was sadly ill prepared for. That is not his fault but he does seem to enjoy the limelight when we are successful (came back for promotion and the cup semi-final) and we rarely see him here when the times are tough. The discussion over the lack of money he can pump in may be valid but the actual strategy the club operated to trying to make a proper fist of staying in this league was confusing. We waited and waited on Berge and Ndiaye before selling them just before the season. We did not get replacements in on time and effectively threw away the first month of the season. Whatever arguments are put forward financially about players being in the last year of their deal and thus we needed to make our money loses traction when we see double figures of other players running their contract down as it stands. Granted they are not worth as much but surely if we were selling Ndiaye and Berge then the likes of Jebbison, Baldock, McBurnie, Bogle etc all could have generated money instead of the zero pounds (nominal fee or Jebbison due to his age) we may get now? It seems an inconsistent strategy. Also, those that were saying we had offered Ndiaye and Berge contracts but they were not willing to sign, so we had to sell, seem to not realise that there is a bigger concern? Why do our best players not want to resign? IF this has happened now, then it will happen again. Clubs who want to be successful get their best players tied down and keep them. We failed to do this and in the end lost our best two players before the season, adopted a scattergun approach to signings with random development players coming in, clearly not up this level and the decent signings (Archer and Hamer) came in too late to properly be embedded into the side.
The lack of planning, preparation, and the squad we ended up with was an absolute shambles and I felt sorry for Heckingbottom (ultimately he struggled himself and was rightly sacked but was set up to fail) and then latterly Wilder who inherited this mess. The owner has to take responsibility for us being one of the worst Premier League sides ever. It is not just down to him having no money. We have no clear approach to transfers, a poor recruitment model, an awful fitness side at the club and no real strategy on what direction we are going – with some players sold with a year left and other kept (allegedly with the premise they play better in their last year – well that worked out well didn’t it!). The talk of a restructure off the field to help the manager and have proper football people to make decisions perhaps boded well but then we had the rather uninspiring appointments of Mike Allen (been here before) and Jamie Hoyland (been here before).
After a season of pain and so many defeats, where United were out of their depth – news reached us that the Blades were docked two points. Another dreadful moment in a disastrous season. In truth the Blades were fortunate to get away with only two points and indeed the fact they failed to pay for players they signed surely is not right and would rankle with me if I was a fan of one of the teams we finished above last season. The fact we could not pay our bills and somehow thought we could just avoid it, is frankly appalling really. It is not a good look and this on top of failing to pay our bills the previous season, to businesses and some probably local, just makes us look amateurish. The argument is we then went up and made money and some have said we may have had to sell players but not sure I agree with that – I think the sums being discussed could and should have been paid. I think the Prince was waiting for the new owner to come in and pay for the transfers we still owed but it never happened and it just did not get sorted. I think the club probably thought the Football League would just move on after the embargo but of course rightly (regardless of what rules other clubs may be breaking) they still put sanctions on.
Off the field, we have finally seen some improvements or potential improvements with the hotel set to reopen and more crucially a new training ground acquired on the old HSBC site. We also acquired the two plots of land from McCabe on the two sides of the Kop. We do seem to be trying to address the scouting/recruitment with changes being made in how we did things and personnel moving out and coming in, but these matters should have been addressed years ago and once again we have completely wasted a chance to try and cement ourselves at the top level and are now headed back down to the Championship with a poorer squad than the one that played here last time meaning there are no guarantees of an immediate return. It worries me that we still do not have a director of football or anyone helping Wilder/Bettis with either side of the footballing areas and means we rely and overload two guys to do it all. No other club of stature operates like this surely?
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The rest of the board as it stands are officially (according to the latest programme) but none of these are in Sheffield and not sure we ever hear or see any of them – I assume board meetings exist online but it seems a strange way to operate (although maybe many businesses/football clubs – Man City for instance – operate like this now?) The fact my notes on these board members remain unchanged for a few years, is a worry but I have to reference them as they are still here according to the listed programme and website!
• Yusuf Giansiracusa (Chairman)
• Princess Reem Bint
• Abdullah Al Saud (who is the owner)
• Abdullah Alghamdi
Yusuf Giansiracusa Was told he was acting chairman when the Prince’s son stepped down but has been chairman for over 2 years! A lawyer by trade – he is most well-known for his press conference after Jokanovic was fired. He said after that we would not hear from him or see him (or the rest of the below) and to be fair he was right as the overall day to day stuff been left to Bettis although he came back to hand the medals out – but that was it.
Princess Reem Another who we don’t hear much from her or what her role is? Apparently, she is involved with the women’s team?
Abdullah Alghamadi – works for a company called Amos holdings and is group CEO where Abdullah’s son also has a role. Alghamadi is Group CEO. He is listed also as a Financial and Investment Advisor as well as being a Sheffield United Board member and a Beerschot board member. He is listed as the CEO of the United World group…
unitedworldacademy.com/our-team/
The other positions of note include:
Stephen Bettis The only real visible presence as part of the board. Certainly, the only one based in Sheffield and who is involved seemingly day to day. Do you know what, I said this last year but I feel sorry for Bettis. Yes, there has been times when we have not heard from him as much but this season he has done two fairly open interviews with Radio Sheffield and is pretty straight on what he says. I do not get all this snake stuff he is accused of. He will have been told by the owner who to sanction in terms of sales/transfers. If there was that much of an issue with him, would Wilder have come back too? I think he has a thankless task but often gets hammered when he comes out and says stuff or when he does not. I actually think that compared to other CEO’s/front men we have had; he has been ok to be honest. I know we do impressions of him on the Tufty Club pod but it is very much tongue in cheek. I really do not mind him. You wonder what kind of day-to-day crap he has to deal with and to be fair he has remained and got on with it. I do not get the criticism he gets. He is essentially nothing to do with how much we spend/do not spend or players we sell. He will be told what to do although his financial background will mean he does offer advice. I just think he is set up as a bit of a fall guy when we have no other board members here or really supporting him day to day? Maybe that is wrong but that is how it seems. We are a huge football club but we operate like a bit of a local league side with Betis and Wilder (Hecky before hm) seemingly doing way too much day to day. We have no director of football still and seem to have moved away from considering this idea – Wilder was not in favour before seemingly – but at some point we need some proper football expertise at this level. That is not a criticism of Bettis but even he would admit that he does not know enough about recruitment in terms of players strengths and weaknesses, even if he does handle a lot of the contract and financial side. The recent appointment of an analyst to the head of recruitment and one that was here before does not really suggest there is going to be a huge change in this area either.
Carl Shieber, I believe is still there heading up the finances but we do not hear too much of him but he was another that seemed to be around, then leave and come back I think? Dave McCarthy is involved still as Operations Director and we also have Paul Reeves as the head of marketing but recently we heard he was leaving to take up a lucrative deal with another ‘Championship’ club and we are appointing someone else in this position? Worrying that in the same way we lose out best players, even the staff in the back ground are leaving for better offers but we do not know the details of this I suppose.
I would hope we might get better sponsorship deals moving forward as the main club sponsor (on the kit) have been smaller companies or ones mired in controversy such as UCG and Randox. The kits themselves were mixed this year. I like the home and the away yellow kit was a really good one but the grey third was awful. Errea continues to have some issues with quality but there have been some improvements seemingly and less kits….erm falling apart this year? The cost of the training wear is too much for products that are nowhere near the quality of Adidas. The actual designs of some of the stuff is quite innovative too so it’s hard finding that balance and with Errea we do get more bespoke stuff and they probably pay us more than Adidas? I recall it being a four-year deal so we still have two years left although it was signed with the entire United World, so if that breaks up, maybe we might have to find a new kit supplier? Also annoying we seem to have to wait right till the start of the season when others in the Errea stable (QPR and Boro) have their kits out so much earlier.
Ticketing is always a discussion point and the arguments on loyalty points rages on although the defeats meant many away games people could get tickets for this year and not sure it will be an issue back in the Championship. Season tickets remain mostly competitive in terms of prices and although a slight increase, not sure they can be criticised as they are better than most, even at the lower level. They do not always help themselves with how they announce things as the move to smartphones being your ticket could have been communicated better than having the Fan Advisory Board have to ask them the questions the evening of the night and release specific answers to queries.
Bettis said plans to redesign the Kop and the South Stand remain in the pipeline but those are surely going to be a long way down the line until we are took over and if ever become established at the top level.
The social media team still continue to do an excellent job. We have content regularly produced and we have seen some brilliant videos, tweets and messages. The content has been reigned in but that is understandable when we are losing every week – no one wants to see the players larking about when that happens!
I repeat what I say every year, but also a big shout out at this point to all the unofficial stuff coming out from so many fans. Dem Blades fanzine and online stuff, The Pinch has been doing for a while now, are great reads and some brilliant writers (much better than me!).
I love the videos, vlogs and interviews and almost daily content, The Sheff Utd Way, keep putting out there. Even with Hal being abroad they keep bringing stuff out and a huge credit to the work of Hal and InGoodNick. Jimmy Ramble has been quite prolific too and managed to get an interview with the Prince and has content almost every day which is impressive! Both these mediums get a lot of criticism for being aligned to the owner which is harsh as they are simply producing content and trying to get fan interaction. There is an argument they will be averse to criticising the owner as he brings them stuff or gives them information via his friend in Spain but I do think they provide some really good content and offer a lot. I do not agree with everything they say but football is always about opinions.
Also, the American Blades, Chad and Noah, who contribute with the passionate watch alongs. Still enjoy the match vlogs from Shoreham View and of course the podcasts/vlogs such as Blades Pod/4 Blades/Red Half of Sheffield and the stuff Travelling Blades does. All offer great analysis and entertainment. There is the Tufty Club too. I digress! Also, it is fantastic the work Rainbow Blades had done too in trying to make the club and fans more inclusive and credit to the club for recognising them and working with them too. There really is some great content out there so well done all. Of course, S2 4SU and its moderators/creators continue to do an amazing job also along with posters like Roy and his superb view from. BladesPod also has done some great stuff on the BBC and the Women’s team.
Not sure many make much actual or much money from it and most are doing it for the love of the Blades so it really is good to hear/see/watch so much great content and all are different/offer something to fans. Been fortunate enough to meet a lot of them now too and they are all fantastic and great company.
Radio Sheffield seem to have got more interviews and stuff coming to them (they came out after the Berge being sold without Hecky’s knowledge – so the club are using them more). The written press is still largely well behind or bringing little to the table. This has got worse since Nathan Hemmingham who was one of the better ones is not involved in covering United. Ditto for Richard Sutcliffe at the Athletic who now writes for Wrexham! The others seem very stale and the likes of Hall/Biggs rarely get any inside scoops or news stories. They do not seem to have any kind of relationship with the powers that. Sadly, the nationals get more stories. Even stuff like TalkSport which I do not really listen to or like get more stuff than the Star and our city daily often throws stuff out days or weeks after the story has come out. Luckily, we have the excellent S2 4SU and lots of other sources to get our information. It is incredible that people pay for the subscriptions the Star does which you have to in order to see the local news. I do wonder from a Sports point of view who exactly subscribes? 30 years ago, Tony Pritchett was a proper journalist who had a good relationship with the manager AND the board. Those days seem long gone.
As an aside the long serving groundsman; Glenn Nortcliffe and his team have continued to maintain the Desso pitch and now have two more to look after at Shirecliffe with more to come at the new HSBC site. There has been an argument that the Women should not use the pitch but we only had 19 games on it a year so surely it should be able to take more – and think it is great both men and women play here.
Grade F (Last season D-):
Next season
It seems we are stuck in a state of limbo. I have said it above I am not sure how serious the Prince is about really selling. I think in an ideal world, he would keep some of the stake he has but get new investment. It is odd as he seems to be rarely involved but then we hear from those close to him, that he cares deeply about us and we saw the video of him on the pitch against West Brom and apparently he cried when Iliman left. We have a company involved to help us find an owner. I think it is safe to say if we do not find anyone now and in the coming months and a return to the top flight is a way off, then he will have to take an almighty discount on what he is reportedly wanting. At least we are seeing some developments with the training ground, hotel and scouting side being addressed but the reality is, until we get a wealth-ier owner we will be hamstring into what we do and at the very best will be a yo-yo side from the top two divisions. To emulate Wolves, Brentford and Brighton is going to take huge investment. I do think we need to get more professional and have a longer-term plan on and off the field. We have gone back to the almost Wilder and his mates type set up and almost an admittance what we can only do it the old School muck o’ nettles way which is a worry. Granted out best times recently have hard working sides playing for the shirt under Bassett, Warnock and Wilder but eventually we need to have a model that does not rely on a motivational manager and the quite dated ‘out fight’ and ‘our run’ ethos – but much more on the final – ‘out play’ part of this motto. To do that we need a clear plan in terms of how we recruit staff and players and something that we can evolve over the years. It seems we are very much relying on two men Bettis and Wilder to be the everything for the club. We need more people and more football expertise to help us compete – especially if we cannot really compete financially. We need to do things differently and find an edge like Brighton and Brentford have. The fact we still do not have a director of football or something similar and rely on one man (Hecky and now Wilder) to seemingly run all the football matters and coach – is bewildering.
Bettis himself has said he cannot believe no one is interested in the club and when you see other Championship clubs took over, you do wonder what the barriers are – we own our ground, will have two training grounds, good level of support and big ground that can be expanded in time. We are up north/lack an airport and all that but not sure they are factors alone to prevent investment but then again all football owners have to be extremely rich and/or mad – both in most cases. As it is, we are sort of limping along again. We hope some of the recent changes are a theme of some proper planning. The reality is we have kind of squandered our meteoric rise and 3/5 seasons in the top flight and not had much to show – so at least the training ground development is a start. We hope we can get Category A status and develop our academy, which has been one of the better ones in the UK. However, where we go and what we do very much depends on the change at the top. If we somehow got promoted again, we would be in exactly the same position in a years’ time as we were before and face another relegation. If we don’t go up, we will have to asset strip further and cut back and will be even less of an attractive proposition to invest.
Staff report
Board / Club
Prince HRH Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Every year I write this, I think this might be the last year I discuss him in my end of season review but here we are again! It seems like the Prince has wanted out for some time but there is a genuine argument over how desperate he is to leave. He will want to get a decent amount of money for the club but something is only worth what someone is willing to pay and the lack of reputable investors means I would be concerned that if he is serious about moving the club on. The price now will only go down and as the debts will surely increase in a lower league, I believe he may struggle to give us away in a few years if it has not happened before then.
The previous season, the Mauriss takeover collapsed and never seemed particularly serious and he is now in a California jail. We then had another ‘chancer’ Dozy Mmobuosi linked but that ended and he too is being investigated for fraud. It seems the Blades are no nearer a new owner and have now sourced a company (Lazard) to help them source new income/new ownership. We have had more links with the an American group recently but most will deal with this with trepidation.
It is rather simple that the Prince simply does not have the money to fund or sustain a Premier League club. I do wonder whether when he bought us he ever thought we would actually be in the top league and he would need to support a top-level side? Wilder’s first spell accelerated a journey that he was sadly ill prepared for. That is not his fault but he does seem to enjoy the limelight when we are successful (came back for promotion and the cup semi-final) and we rarely see him here when the times are tough. The discussion over the lack of money he can pump in may be valid but the actual strategy the club operated to trying to make a proper fist of staying in this league was confusing. We waited and waited on Berge and Ndiaye before selling them just before the season. We did not get replacements in on time and effectively threw away the first month of the season. Whatever arguments are put forward financially about players being in the last year of their deal and thus we needed to make our money loses traction when we see double figures of other players running their contract down as it stands. Granted they are not worth as much but surely if we were selling Ndiaye and Berge then the likes of Jebbison, Baldock, McBurnie, Bogle etc all could have generated money instead of the zero pounds (nominal fee or Jebbison due to his age) we may get now? It seems an inconsistent strategy. Also, those that were saying we had offered Ndiaye and Berge contracts but they were not willing to sign, so we had to sell, seem to not realise that there is a bigger concern? Why do our best players not want to resign? IF this has happened now, then it will happen again. Clubs who want to be successful get their best players tied down and keep them. We failed to do this and in the end lost our best two players before the season, adopted a scattergun approach to signings with random development players coming in, clearly not up this level and the decent signings (Archer and Hamer) came in too late to properly be embedded into the side.
The lack of planning, preparation, and the squad we ended up with was an absolute shambles and I felt sorry for Heckingbottom (ultimately he struggled himself and was rightly sacked but was set up to fail) and then latterly Wilder who inherited this mess. The owner has to take responsibility for us being one of the worst Premier League sides ever. It is not just down to him having no money. We have no clear approach to transfers, a poor recruitment model, an awful fitness side at the club and no real strategy on what direction we are going – with some players sold with a year left and other kept (allegedly with the premise they play better in their last year – well that worked out well didn’t it!). The talk of a restructure off the field to help the manager and have proper football people to make decisions perhaps boded well but then we had the rather uninspiring appointments of Mike Allen (been here before) and Jamie Hoyland (been here before).
After a season of pain and so many defeats, where United were out of their depth – news reached us that the Blades were docked two points. Another dreadful moment in a disastrous season. In truth the Blades were fortunate to get away with only two points and indeed the fact they failed to pay for players they signed surely is not right and would rankle with me if I was a fan of one of the teams we finished above last season. The fact we could not pay our bills and somehow thought we could just avoid it, is frankly appalling really. It is not a good look and this on top of failing to pay our bills the previous season, to businesses and some probably local, just makes us look amateurish. The argument is we then went up and made money and some have said we may have had to sell players but not sure I agree with that – I think the sums being discussed could and should have been paid. I think the Prince was waiting for the new owner to come in and pay for the transfers we still owed but it never happened and it just did not get sorted. I think the club probably thought the Football League would just move on after the embargo but of course rightly (regardless of what rules other clubs may be breaking) they still put sanctions on.
Off the field, we have finally seen some improvements or potential improvements with the hotel set to reopen and more crucially a new training ground acquired on the old HSBC site. We also acquired the two plots of land from McCabe on the two sides of the Kop. We do seem to be trying to address the scouting/recruitment with changes being made in how we did things and personnel moving out and coming in, but these matters should have been addressed years ago and once again we have completely wasted a chance to try and cement ourselves at the top level and are now headed back down to the Championship with a poorer squad than the one that played here last time meaning there are no guarantees of an immediate return. It worries me that we still do not have a director of football or anyone helping Wilder/Bettis with either side of the footballing areas and means we rely and overload two guys to do it all. No other club of stature operates like this surely?
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The rest of the board as it stands are officially (according to the latest programme) but none of these are in Sheffield and not sure we ever hear or see any of them – I assume board meetings exist online but it seems a strange way to operate (although maybe many businesses/football clubs – Man City for instance – operate like this now?) The fact my notes on these board members remain unchanged for a few years, is a worry but I have to reference them as they are still here according to the listed programme and website!
• Yusuf Giansiracusa (Chairman)
• Princess Reem Bint
• Abdullah Al Saud (who is the owner)
• Abdullah Alghamdi
Yusuf Giansiracusa Was told he was acting chairman when the Prince’s son stepped down but has been chairman for over 2 years! A lawyer by trade – he is most well-known for his press conference after Jokanovic was fired. He said after that we would not hear from him or see him (or the rest of the below) and to be fair he was right as the overall day to day stuff been left to Bettis although he came back to hand the medals out – but that was it.
Princess Reem Another who we don’t hear much from her or what her role is? Apparently, she is involved with the women’s team?
Abdullah Alghamadi – works for a company called Amos holdings and is group CEO where Abdullah’s son also has a role. Alghamadi is Group CEO. He is listed also as a Financial and Investment Advisor as well as being a Sheffield United Board member and a Beerschot board member. He is listed as the CEO of the United World group…
unitedworldacademy.com/our-team/
The other positions of note include:
Stephen Bettis The only real visible presence as part of the board. Certainly, the only one based in Sheffield and who is involved seemingly day to day. Do you know what, I said this last year but I feel sorry for Bettis. Yes, there has been times when we have not heard from him as much but this season he has done two fairly open interviews with Radio Sheffield and is pretty straight on what he says. I do not get all this snake stuff he is accused of. He will have been told by the owner who to sanction in terms of sales/transfers. If there was that much of an issue with him, would Wilder have come back too? I think he has a thankless task but often gets hammered when he comes out and says stuff or when he does not. I actually think that compared to other CEO’s/front men we have had; he has been ok to be honest. I know we do impressions of him on the Tufty Club pod but it is very much tongue in cheek. I really do not mind him. You wonder what kind of day-to-day crap he has to deal with and to be fair he has remained and got on with it. I do not get the criticism he gets. He is essentially nothing to do with how much we spend/do not spend or players we sell. He will be told what to do although his financial background will mean he does offer advice. I just think he is set up as a bit of a fall guy when we have no other board members here or really supporting him day to day? Maybe that is wrong but that is how it seems. We are a huge football club but we operate like a bit of a local league side with Betis and Wilder (Hecky before hm) seemingly doing way too much day to day. We have no director of football still and seem to have moved away from considering this idea – Wilder was not in favour before seemingly – but at some point we need some proper football expertise at this level. That is not a criticism of Bettis but even he would admit that he does not know enough about recruitment in terms of players strengths and weaknesses, even if he does handle a lot of the contract and financial side. The recent appointment of an analyst to the head of recruitment and one that was here before does not really suggest there is going to be a huge change in this area either.
Carl Shieber, I believe is still there heading up the finances but we do not hear too much of him but he was another that seemed to be around, then leave and come back I think? Dave McCarthy is involved still as Operations Director and we also have Paul Reeves as the head of marketing but recently we heard he was leaving to take up a lucrative deal with another ‘Championship’ club and we are appointing someone else in this position? Worrying that in the same way we lose out best players, even the staff in the back ground are leaving for better offers but we do not know the details of this I suppose.
I would hope we might get better sponsorship deals moving forward as the main club sponsor (on the kit) have been smaller companies or ones mired in controversy such as UCG and Randox. The kits themselves were mixed this year. I like the home and the away yellow kit was a really good one but the grey third was awful. Errea continues to have some issues with quality but there have been some improvements seemingly and less kits….erm falling apart this year? The cost of the training wear is too much for products that are nowhere near the quality of Adidas. The actual designs of some of the stuff is quite innovative too so it’s hard finding that balance and with Errea we do get more bespoke stuff and they probably pay us more than Adidas? I recall it being a four-year deal so we still have two years left although it was signed with the entire United World, so if that breaks up, maybe we might have to find a new kit supplier? Also annoying we seem to have to wait right till the start of the season when others in the Errea stable (QPR and Boro) have their kits out so much earlier.
Ticketing is always a discussion point and the arguments on loyalty points rages on although the defeats meant many away games people could get tickets for this year and not sure it will be an issue back in the Championship. Season tickets remain mostly competitive in terms of prices and although a slight increase, not sure they can be criticised as they are better than most, even at the lower level. They do not always help themselves with how they announce things as the move to smartphones being your ticket could have been communicated better than having the Fan Advisory Board have to ask them the questions the evening of the night and release specific answers to queries.
Bettis said plans to redesign the Kop and the South Stand remain in the pipeline but those are surely going to be a long way down the line until we are took over and if ever become established at the top level.
The social media team still continue to do an excellent job. We have content regularly produced and we have seen some brilliant videos, tweets and messages. The content has been reigned in but that is understandable when we are losing every week – no one wants to see the players larking about when that happens!
I repeat what I say every year, but also a big shout out at this point to all the unofficial stuff coming out from so many fans. Dem Blades fanzine and online stuff, The Pinch has been doing for a while now, are great reads and some brilliant writers (much better than me!).
I love the videos, vlogs and interviews and almost daily content, The Sheff Utd Way, keep putting out there. Even with Hal being abroad they keep bringing stuff out and a huge credit to the work of Hal and InGoodNick. Jimmy Ramble has been quite prolific too and managed to get an interview with the Prince and has content almost every day which is impressive! Both these mediums get a lot of criticism for being aligned to the owner which is harsh as they are simply producing content and trying to get fan interaction. There is an argument they will be averse to criticising the owner as he brings them stuff or gives them information via his friend in Spain but I do think they provide some really good content and offer a lot. I do not agree with everything they say but football is always about opinions.
Also, the American Blades, Chad and Noah, who contribute with the passionate watch alongs. Still enjoy the match vlogs from Shoreham View and of course the podcasts/vlogs such as Blades Pod/4 Blades/Red Half of Sheffield and the stuff Travelling Blades does. All offer great analysis and entertainment. There is the Tufty Club too. I digress! Also, it is fantastic the work Rainbow Blades had done too in trying to make the club and fans more inclusive and credit to the club for recognising them and working with them too. There really is some great content out there so well done all. Of course, S2 4SU and its moderators/creators continue to do an amazing job also along with posters like Roy and his superb view from. BladesPod also has done some great stuff on the BBC and the Women’s team.
Not sure many make much actual or much money from it and most are doing it for the love of the Blades so it really is good to hear/see/watch so much great content and all are different/offer something to fans. Been fortunate enough to meet a lot of them now too and they are all fantastic and great company.
Radio Sheffield seem to have got more interviews and stuff coming to them (they came out after the Berge being sold without Hecky’s knowledge – so the club are using them more). The written press is still largely well behind or bringing little to the table. This has got worse since Nathan Hemmingham who was one of the better ones is not involved in covering United. Ditto for Richard Sutcliffe at the Athletic who now writes for Wrexham! The others seem very stale and the likes of Hall/Biggs rarely get any inside scoops or news stories. They do not seem to have any kind of relationship with the powers that. Sadly, the nationals get more stories. Even stuff like TalkSport which I do not really listen to or like get more stuff than the Star and our city daily often throws stuff out days or weeks after the story has come out. Luckily, we have the excellent S2 4SU and lots of other sources to get our information. It is incredible that people pay for the subscriptions the Star does which you have to in order to see the local news. I do wonder from a Sports point of view who exactly subscribes? 30 years ago, Tony Pritchett was a proper journalist who had a good relationship with the manager AND the board. Those days seem long gone.
As an aside the long serving groundsman; Glenn Nortcliffe and his team have continued to maintain the Desso pitch and now have two more to look after at Shirecliffe with more to come at the new HSBC site. There has been an argument that the Women should not use the pitch but we only had 19 games on it a year so surely it should be able to take more – and think it is great both men and women play here.
Grade F (Last season D-):
Next season
It seems we are stuck in a state of limbo. I have said it above I am not sure how serious the Prince is about really selling. I think in an ideal world, he would keep some of the stake he has but get new investment. It is odd as he seems to be rarely involved but then we hear from those close to him, that he cares deeply about us and we saw the video of him on the pitch against West Brom and apparently he cried when Iliman left. We have a company involved to help us find an owner. I think it is safe to say if we do not find anyone now and in the coming months and a return to the top flight is a way off, then he will have to take an almighty discount on what he is reportedly wanting. At least we are seeing some developments with the training ground, hotel and scouting side being addressed but the reality is, until we get a wealth-ier owner we will be hamstring into what we do and at the very best will be a yo-yo side from the top two divisions. To emulate Wolves, Brentford and Brighton is going to take huge investment. I do think we need to get more professional and have a longer-term plan on and off the field. We have gone back to the almost Wilder and his mates type set up and almost an admittance what we can only do it the old School muck o’ nettles way which is a worry. Granted out best times recently have hard working sides playing for the shirt under Bassett, Warnock and Wilder but eventually we need to have a model that does not rely on a motivational manager and the quite dated ‘out fight’ and ‘our run’ ethos – but much more on the final – ‘out play’ part of this motto. To do that we need a clear plan in terms of how we recruit staff and players and something that we can evolve over the years. It seems we are very much relying on two men Bettis and Wilder to be the everything for the club. We need more people and more football expertise to help us compete – especially if we cannot really compete financially. We need to do things differently and find an edge like Brighton and Brentford have. The fact we still do not have a director of football or something similar and rely on one man (Hecky and now Wilder) to seemingly run all the football matters and coach – is bewildering.
Bettis himself has said he cannot believe no one is interested in the club and when you see other Championship clubs took over, you do wonder what the barriers are – we own our ground, will have two training grounds, good level of support and big ground that can be expanded in time. We are up north/lack an airport and all that but not sure they are factors alone to prevent investment but then again all football owners have to be extremely rich and/or mad – both in most cases. As it is, we are sort of limping along again. We hope some of the recent changes are a theme of some proper planning. The reality is we have kind of squandered our meteoric rise and 3/5 seasons in the top flight and not had much to show – so at least the training ground development is a start. We hope we can get Category A status and develop our academy, which has been one of the better ones in the UK. However, where we go and what we do very much depends on the change at the top. If we somehow got promoted again, we would be in exactly the same position in a years’ time as we were before and face another relegation. If we don’t go up, we will have to asset strip further and cut back and will be even less of an attractive proposition to invest.
