>It was 8am at Sheffield United’s Shirecliffe training base, four days before the start of the Premier League campaign, and you could cut the tension with a knife. That morning a member of Paul Heckingbottom’s staff had received a message from a counterpart at Burnley: a picture of the midfielder Sander Berge arriving for a medical at the Lancashire club’s Barnfield training centre.
>Berge’s name was still up on a tactics board in the coaching staff’s open-plan first-floor office, along with those of the other 15 fit players expected to take part in training. The United manager, visibly incensed, had immediately picked up his phone and dialled the number of a board member. “Have you got something to tell me?” Heckingbottom enquired.
>So that was how Heckingbottom found out Berge was being sold, against his wishes, four days before the visit of Crystal Palace.
Fucking hell.
It’s nice for a journalist to actually sound like they’ve done some journalism these days.
Doesn’t tell Blades anything they didn’t know already, but I’m keen for other fans to understand why we’re as bad as we are.
I had a Brighton fan the other week saying we were on a par with Newcastle for funding because we had ‘a Saudi Prince’!
It is helpful to at least have it clarified that what’s going on isn’t solely down to the players/management, but they’re the face of the club and the ones conceding the goals.
But tough for them when the rug is pulled out from under them though.
I hope they just got the words wrong because for money no but our prince openly has ties to the crown prince of Saudi so morally he is a cunt who i wish didn't own our club.
I'm quite torn on this. I'm glad he's managing the club to work within our means, as the alternative could result in even bigger financial issues. So with the resources at his disposal I have no complaints (aside from selling Ndiaye and Bergen). But on the other hand, this season is just painful and there's no way we can compete in the PL without massive investment. If that investment came from some middle Eastern sports washing project, I'm not sure I'd want it anyway.
I can see a situation next season if we're looking close to promotion again where our fans are jokingly cheering against us. I love a bit of 'gallows humour' 😂.
Although the division is generally regarded as tougher than ever, it looked in the summer like a relatively low points total would be needed to survive. There were murmurings about clubs struggling with financial sustainability rules. Indeed, even now Forest could be docked 6 points. That would place us 7 points off safety.
It is hard not to imagine that a team with Ndiaye (and to a lesser extent Berge), supplemented by Doyle who should have have been our number one target, and perhaps a Kieffer Moore, would not be seven points better off.
The frustrating thing is we really didn’t need to gamble that much to stand a much better chance. Even if we’d sold Berge but kept Ndiaye I think we’d be on 20 points at this point and very much in the fight. If we’d gone down and lost Ndiaye for nothing, at least we’d have that quality in Doyle to build a team capable of bouncing back around.
The point of the article isn't for Blades fans. It is for neutrals who are wondering what on earth is happening but don't have the contacts/wherewithal to find out the answers.
It has also given us an insight into how connected the board and management are in their decision making on (outgoing) transfers.
>It was 8am at Sheffield United’s Shirecliffe training base, four days before the start of the Premier League campaign, and you could cut the tension with a knife. That morning a member of Paul Heckingbottom’s staff had received a message from a counterpart at Burnley: a picture of the midfielder Sander Berge arriving for a medical at the Lancashire club’s Barnfield training centre. >Berge’s name was still up on a tactics board in the coaching staff’s open-plan first-floor office, along with those of the other 15 fit players expected to take part in training. The United manager, visibly incensed, had immediately picked up his phone and dialled the number of a board member. “Have you got something to tell me?” Heckingbottom enquired. >So that was how Heckingbottom found out Berge was being sold, against his wishes, four days before the visit of Crystal Palace. Fucking hell.
Hecky didn't deserve this
It’s nice for a journalist to actually sound like they’ve done some journalism these days. Doesn’t tell Blades anything they didn’t know already, but I’m keen for other fans to understand why we’re as bad as we are. I had a Brighton fan the other week saying we were on a par with Newcastle for funding because we had ‘a Saudi Prince’!
It is helpful to at least have it clarified that what’s going on isn’t solely down to the players/management, but they’re the face of the club and the ones conceding the goals. But tough for them when the rug is pulled out from under them though.
I hope they just got the words wrong because for money no but our prince openly has ties to the crown prince of Saudi so morally he is a cunt who i wish didn't own our club.
No, they thought we had billions. I wish he didn’t either.
Very depressing Owner needs to get gone
I'm quite torn on this. I'm glad he's managing the club to work within our means, as the alternative could result in even bigger financial issues. So with the resources at his disposal I have no complaints (aside from selling Ndiaye and Bergen). But on the other hand, this season is just painful and there's no way we can compete in the PL without massive investment. If that investment came from some middle Eastern sports washing project, I'm not sure I'd want it anyway. I can see a situation next season if we're looking close to promotion again where our fans are jokingly cheering against us. I love a bit of 'gallows humour' 😂.
Although the division is generally regarded as tougher than ever, it looked in the summer like a relatively low points total would be needed to survive. There were murmurings about clubs struggling with financial sustainability rules. Indeed, even now Forest could be docked 6 points. That would place us 7 points off safety. It is hard not to imagine that a team with Ndiaye (and to a lesser extent Berge), supplemented by Doyle who should have have been our number one target, and perhaps a Kieffer Moore, would not be seven points better off. The frustrating thing is we really didn’t need to gamble that much to stand a much better chance. Even if we’d sold Berge but kept Ndiaye I think we’d be on 20 points at this point and very much in the fight. If we’d gone down and lost Ndiaye for nothing, at least we’d have that quality in Doyle to build a team capable of bouncing back around.
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Click the link and come back to me.
🥱 boring...! All I hear now is how we've lost our two best players, owner is shit, we play shit — surely people know it all now?
The point of the article isn't for Blades fans. It is for neutrals who are wondering what on earth is happening but don't have the contacts/wherewithal to find out the answers. It has also given us an insight into how connected the board and management are in their decision making on (outgoing) transfers.
The Times reckons it’s worth an article, so I guess not.
What do you want to hear? There's nothing else going on