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Ex-Staff Chris Wilder

  • Thread starter Thread starter Shropshire U
  • Start date Start date
ECYellow said:
Not sure I understand this ‘chippy’ thing in reference to Wilder.

He was the catalyst in getting us promotion from the conference, and arguably helped to save our club from dying at the end of that season, had promotion not been achieved. He then stabilised us in the football league again, despite the budget largely drying up.

There can be no doubt that Chris Wilder was an excellent manager for us and his unsavoury exit to Northampton shouldn’t really cloud people’s judgement of the excellent job he did for us. We almost certainly wouldn’t be where we are now, if it wasn’t for him and that promotion.

He has since been in attendance at the funeral of Mickey Lewis and often speaks in glowing terms of his fondness for our club.
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but apart from all that what has the Chippy old Roman Yorkshireman ever done for us ?
 
Colin B said:
And I'm one of them!

He dismissed our history, and specifically our Milk Cup victory on Radio Oxford and from that moment on he could f**k right off as far as I was concerned.

(Although, on reflection, I thought those comments came later in his tenure, after we were back in League Two, so maybe I'm confusing it with something else he said?)
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At the time which I think was whilst we were still in the BSP.
That just because we had won the league cup and had played in the top flight didn't count for anything when you are in non-league.
OK he was right, but not something he should have said out loud.
I think he learned from that and so his post-match interview was quite magnanimous praising Gary Rowett when he could have called us out for a dry pitch.
Us Oxford fans love to take a soundbite and hold onto it for years or decades.
Kassam "I will take you on a journey"
"Ticket team with decades of experience"
"Aim is to be a top 30 club"
etc.
 
MarkG said:
At the time which I think was whilst we were still in the BSP.
That just because we had won the league cup and had played in the top flight didn't count for anything when you are in non-league.
OK he was right, but not something he should have said out loud.
I think he learned from that and so his post-match interview was quite magnanimous praising Gary Rowett when he could have called us out for a dry pitch.
Us Oxford fans love to take a soundbite and hold onto it for years or decades.
Kassam "I will take you on a journey"
"Ticket team with decades of experience"
"Aim is to be a top 30 club"
etc.
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Yes I find the endless repetition of what were possibly unconsidered or off the cuff remarks pretty tedious and pointless.
 
While I am grateful to Wilder for what he did for us, I never particularly warmed to his 'bulldog chewing a wasp' personality. But even so, while what he said might have been unconsidered, I think it has been taken out of context - as I recall he basically said that it was no good living on past glories and as far as our then-current situation was concerned, those achievements were meaningless. I never thought he meant they were 'worthless'. As someone who supports, played for and manages Sheffield United, I am sure he appreciates the value of a club's history.

He is still a grumpy old b****r though. ;)
 
Blokes a legend in my eyes. As others have already said, he turned us around when we were at our lowest and got us back in the football league. Don’t give a toss about his comment about our history, he made the same comment about Sheffield United.
 
ZeroTheHero said:
While I am grateful to Wilder for what he did for us, I never particularly warmed to his 'bulldog chewing a wasp' personality. But even so, while what he said might have been unconsidered, I think it has been taken out of context - as I recall he basically said that it was no good living on past glories and as far as our then-current situation was concerned, those achievements were meaningless. I never thought he meant they were 'worthless'. As someone who supports, played for and manages Sheffield United, I am sure he appreciates the value of a club's history.

He is still a grumpy old b****r though. ;)
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At the time I found it odd that so many fans got offended by what he said. I've always liked Wilder. I'll take an honest but grumpy manager over a cheerful bullshitter any day.
 
ZeroTheHero said:
While I am grateful to Wilder for what he did for us, I never particularly warmed to his 'bulldog chewing a wasp' personality. But even so, while what he said might have been unconsidered, I think it has been taken out of context - as I recall he basically said that it was no good living on past glories and as far as our then-current situation was concerned, those achievements were meaningless. I never thought he meant they were 'worthless'. As someone who supports, played for and manages Sheffield United, I am sure he appreciates the value of a club's history.

He is still a grumpy old b****r though. ;)
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When he first took us over he was just a grumpy bastard as he couldn’t have been that old, over 15 years ago now and he must have only been about 42.
 
Couldn't care less what CW said, did or does.

Move on and stop being so thin skinned!
 
I have no problem with CW. Did well for us and gave me and 35k other yellows a great day out at Wem Ber Lee. His post match interview was pretty accurate. No idea if he’s grumpy or not…😉
 
Some of you appear to be re-writing history regarding Wilder's time with us.

First the good. We were a shambles of an ex League Club in the Conference when he joined us, and we were at our lowest ebb. He was the right man at the right time and he stopped the rot. He then got us up the following year, but he had a far bigger budget than all bar Luton that year, and he nearly buggered it up by unnecessary tinkering with the side post Christmas. He achieved the bare minimum a club like us should have achieved given the circumstances.

Then the bad. Having got us up he ripped up the promotion team far too quickly. We had four years of stagnation in League Two never once threatening the promotion places. Most ex League teams coming up from the Conference have a momentum that takes them up again, but Wilder killed this. He became more and more irascible in his demeanour and his strong relationship with Kelvin Thomas made him feel bomb proof. There were instances of a drinking and bullying culture at the club and it was not a happy place.

Once Lenegan took back control from Thomas, Wilder knew his days were numbered as his mate's protection was gone. That he walked out mid season, to go to Northampton of all places, tells us that he never backed himself to succeed. The manner in which he did it was underhand and disrespectful, as was his touting himself around to other clubs before this. He is widely acknowledged as being a difficult and horrible bloke, particularly if things don't go his way.

I'll finish with his "your history means nothing"comments. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then likewise if somebody feels abused or disrespected, then they are. I certainly felt these things when I listened to him belittling our greatest achievement, and I was far from alone. If others didn't then that's their prerogative, but many did. By the end, he had outstayed his welcome, or gone past his sell by date, and he needed to go. If he had gone two years earlier we probably wouldn't be having these discussions.
 
Wilder gave me one of the best days of my life so I will always be grateful for that and played a big part in the turnaround to be where we are now.

He was average for us in what is the fourth division, not terrible but also not really any better than average.

Not bothered by what he said as our history is what it is, a grumpy little Yorkshireman snapping at an interviewer has no impact on that.

Can’t fault him for what he has achieved seen leaving us, he has really kicked on.

However so have we, so him going was the best for both parties as it was a relationship that was coming apart and doomed to failure.
 
In an echo of the OP’s message, it seems Wilder is surplus to requirements at Sheffield Utd again.
 
JerryL said:
How does the guy that had his team get thrashed 6-0 get a job upgrade but the guy that had his team do it get fired?
Can i get a melodramatic over the top GAMES GONE! from someone, please?
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I think the Wilder thing is as much of a different way of working with the new owners as anything. Think they want to do the stats driven moneyball thing, and Wilder wanted more control.
 
OUFCGav said:
I think the Wilder thing is as much of a different way of working with the new owners as anything. Think they want to do the stats driven moneyball thing, and Wilder wanted more control.
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Football is becoming more about stats such as a teams XG than it is a manager’s win %.

Everyone said Pep coming to England changed the game for the better, well I believe it has gone full circle and football in the English leagues is becoming sterile and boring to watch.

Sky put the drop in their Premier League viewing figures down to there being a lack of a title race. I’d put it down to there rarely being a game that is exciting to watch last season. Even the Manchester derby was as dull as dishwater.
 
Steve Gilbert said:
Football is becoming more about stats such as a teams XG than it is a manager’s win %.

Everyone said Pep coming to England changed the game for the better, well I believe it has gone full circle and football in the English leagues is becoming sterile and boring to watch.

Sky put the drop in their Premier League viewing figures down to there being a lack of a title race. I’d put it down to there rarely being a game that is exciting to watch last season. Even the Manchester derby was as dull as dishwater.
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I'm sure that Brighton and Brentford, 2 of the more exciting teams to watch last season, who do data driven recruitment might disagree.
 
The new owners want more control and a coach.
Wilder wants more control.
Sorry owners will win every time.

Delay is Wilder negotiating a bigger pay off
Gone are the days managers got a small pay off now it's millions at top end
 
OUFCGav said:
I'm sure that Brighton and Brentford, 2 of the more exciting teams to watch last season, who do data driven recruitment might disagree.
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The fact that out of 20 teams you have only listed 2 teams that are ‘exciting’ to watch.

Also a team scouting players based on stats is different from a manager using stats such as XG.

Take Cole Palmer this season as an example, when asked about him scoring a goal he said he got bored of passing the ball backwards so just thought he would take a shot.
It is a sad indictment of the game when even the players are getting bored of playing the constant passing style that so many managers insist on.

This is without even throwing VAR into the mix.
 
The Voice Of Reason said:
Teams that play possession footie are being found out man city , Barca, etc you need a mix of possessions and direct
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Not sure about that - did you watch PSG absolutely demolish a pragmatic Inter in the champions league final? It was almost cruel.

There’s definitely a greater balance now though. I think there’s more ideas coming forward, bright young coaches changing the landscape and overachieving with limited sides. Part of the cinema with football and why it’ll never get boring.

That said, a good possession side that gets it right consistently will usually dominate the trophy scene so until we get more Nottingham Forest’s popping up and 5 or 6 of those making the top 8, I don’t think we can say the possession method had been found out. Great to see Palace win a cup who are a bit more of a countering side. Hopefully the start of something good for football.
 
Swaby39 said:
Not sure about that - did you watch PSG absolutely demolish a pragmatic Inter in the champions league final? It was almost cruel.

There’s definitely a greater balance now though. I think there’s more ideas coming forward, bright young coaches changing the landscape and overachieving with limited sides. Part of the cinema with football and why it’ll never get boring.

That said, a good possession side that gets it right consistently will usually dominate the trophy scene so until we get more Nottingham Forest’s popping up and 5 or 6 of those making the top 8, I don’t think we can say the possession method had been found out. Great to see Palace win a cup who are a bit more of a countering side. Hopefully the start of something good for football.
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Fast dynamic football
Different to pass left, pass back, pass right, pass back footie.
It's had its time. Next footie faze to start
 
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