He actually did a quite exceptional job here, given the structure of the club during his time was bare bones to say the least. No analysts, no medical team outside of a basic physio setup, not a single full time scout let alone a head scout / recruitment manager, a small coaching staff of around three underneath him (who, god bless them, weren’t the best coaches ever), a Chairman back and forth across the Atlantic as though he were hopping on a bus, and such tight financial restrictions by a totally disinterested owner that there were some very ‘creative’ alternative funds having to be found, just to be able to get players of any calibre in let alone decent ones. And yet despite this he had us in the top half of L2 every season after we got promoted, and left us top in January when he eventually had enough. People can say the wheels were coming off anyway that season, but that isn’t true - they came off because he left, not because they were doomed to regardless. Look at everything he has achieved since he left. Miraculously keeping Northampton up when they were dead and buried, getting them promoted as champions with nearly 100 points a couple of seasons later when they were practically in administration, two promotions in three seasons with Sheffield Utd to get them into the Prem... he was excellent here. Appleton’s first season saw him finish lower than Wilder ever did with us in L2, and it required a late charge just to get 13th after a season long relegation battle. Bedding in or not, he had five times the structure being built around him that Wilder ever had.
I think they're just shite tbf!Something seems a little amiss at Sheff Utd....
Sheffield United 0-6 Arsenal: Blades ripped apart in first-half 'disgrace'
Sheffield United's first half against Arsenal was so bad, one pundit described it as "one of the worst performances I've ever seen".www.bbc.co.uk
Exactly. A championship club playing in the prem. Nothing more.
But they will go down with a 5 year parachute payment and attempt to climb back up again. How many clubs in the Championship currently have this unfair advantage?
No they won't.
That depends on how much you get yourself into debt to get there in the first place, and how much you spend trying to stay there. There is a reason there is a massive debt problem in The Championship...
Think having a terrible start to the 22/23 season with Boro and going on the insane Watford merry-go-round had already done a fair bit of damage to be fair.
Even being in the PL doesn't stop the racking up of losses:
Aston Villa finances: Club report £119.6m loss for 2022-23 season
Aston Villa report a loss of £119.6m in their latest accounts up to 31 May 2023.www.bbc.co.uk
Good. Let the awful premier league eat itself, and s**t itself back out
And more dull and soulless
It is what we aspire to apparantly. Some say we are already this despite being in div 3.
I stand corrected, Colin, but even 3 years doesn't make for a level playing field. Isn't it just a reward for failure?
Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm dead against the current structure of the parachute payments, as I think they wildly distort the playing field in The Championship.
Haven’t the EFL/EPL been threatened by FIFA/EUFA if we did have a regulator? I may have misheard but I thought there was some sort of threat towards the football in this country.
