Cut your coat according to your cloth

Trevor Birch has confirmed what many have suspected for a while. The football club has been funding other parts of McCabe’s empire. SUFC is solvent but “The Business” is losing money. He is not prepared to invest any more money and thinks it is time the club stood on its own two feet! Well, maybe it would if it were not carrying the Hotel and Chengdu. Everyone makes mistakes but these are bloody expensive ones.

Appointing Bryan Robson as manager was McCabe’s biggest clanger and a financial catastrophe. Captain Marvel was chosen because he was a big name and would raise the profile of the club. He did not just employ a poor manager he gave him the biggest transfer budget of any manager in our history. He gambled with the parachute payments and lost spectacularly. The recession alone should not have hurt us but coupled with the Robson debacle it is a different story.

The hotel is a needless luxury. It is a folly that we did not want or need. If we were an established premiership club, you could understand it. Not many championship clubs feel the overwhelming desire to build their very own hotel. It was built because one man wanted it building. It will not win us any games nor score the winning goal in the play-off final. That is £18 million that we could have avoided shelling out.

As well as selling our better players, any chance we can offload Chengdu? After all, it is a sound investment we are led to believe so there should be no problem finding a buyer. The Ferencvaros link is the amusing one. That does have potential but our Kevin has resisted the urge to re-name them Ferencvaros Blades. Unlike the Chinese club McCabe owns Fradi, so if it does come good these proceeds go straight into his back pocket.

At least, the truth has come out and the idiots can stop hailing him as some kind of messiah who has our best interests at heart. He has used the club to increase his wealth and at the same time has saddled us with debt. He is looking for fresh investment rather than a takeover. In other words, he wants to have his cake and eat it. Fingers crossed the next chairman does not have a surname starting with Mc.

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Time For Some New Ideas

After the play-off final defeat Blackwell had the balls to offer his resignation. He was astute enough to realise he had taken the club as far as he could. Credit to him for that but McCabe had other ideas and persuaded him to reconsider. We now know that was not for football reasons. Blackwell has got on with the job while the board have sold numerous quality players. When your gut instinct tells you the time has come to leave it is usually spot on. Blackwell is doing a job for the board that many other managers would complain vociferously about.

The most annoying part of this season is the financial state of affairs. If the club is skint then why not just admit it? In the summer, there was a real buzz about this season but when the season tickets were sold it was clear what the real intentions were. The loss of parachute payments, loans repaid to McCabe and the Kop redevelopment all add up to a considerable sum. The fact the club has accepted £100,000 from Sheffield Eagles for the use of our stadium demonstrates how much we need the revenue.

Of course, if the financial picture has changed then the football club needs to follow suit. It is all well and good cutting the wage bill but what happens when there is nothing left to sell? We have been here before when Charles Green sold the team and in no time we had a relegation battle on our hands. All this pretending to be a financially sound club fools no one especially when half the players in the team are not ours. If we cannot afford to buy the finished article then the alternative is up and coming talent. There is no logic in spending millions on one player when the substitute’s bench is half empty.

And then we come back to the manager and his preferred style of play. We can handle the fact we are unlikely to be promoted but watching hoof ball is no good. For whatever reasons (losing Beattie being one of them) Blackwell has failed to recreate the level of performance of two years ago when he took over from Robson. In his own words, he has taken us as far as he can. We have seen smaller clubs pass the ball and make us look silly. They have done this without hotels and links to third world clubs.

The new Kop roof should be postponed for the time being and those resources channelled into areas with a greater need. For example, another centre half to play alongside Morgan might not be a bad idea as it seems likely Killgallon’s days are numbered. The board should ensure the next manager is a marked improvement on the Robson fiasco. Advertise the vacancy and interview a shortlist instead of plucking a manager from thin air.

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Good News And Bad News

Beating the snort beasts is always a thoroughly enjoyable experience even if we tried to let them back in. Losing Jamie Ward was a blow and had an adverse effect on our attacking endeavours. The final score might have been more flattering if he had not sustained the injured hamstring. Why on earth we sat back in the second half only Blackwell knows. The pigs were there for the taking and sitting back just handed them the initiative. Teams can be a dangerous proposition in the second half especially after a one sided 45 minutes.

The defence has received plenty of accolades recently from outside the club. Ironically, this has coincided with some poor defending and numerous sloppy goals. Conceding seven times in the last three games certainly shut the admirers up. The absence of Killgallon only emphasised the important role he plays in central defence.

If the playing style is going to centre solely on hoofing the ball up to Henderson at every available opportunity then there is no point in spending millions on players. Both Bassett and Warnock proved this style of play does not break the bank. And if Evans is going to sit on the bench for half of our matches then you have to question the logic of splashing out £3million to sign him.

Neil Shipperley was a good target man and a massive influence in the last promotion season. But he did not give half as many free kicks away as Henderson does. Referees do not give Hendo the benefit of the doubt although sometimes he does not help himself. United could definitely make better use of the player.

Then we come to the formation and some will say it nearly got promoted last season. It should also be remembered that playing 4-5-1 effectively got us relegated from the premiership. There are times when this formation works well however, it should be the exception rather than the rule. Using this strategy every time we play away from home is short sighted, naive and predictable.

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Decent Start To The Season

There has been plenty of re-profiling of the squad in recent weeks with more outgoings than players coming in. We no longer have one of the biggest squads in the division and at some point during the season we will have injury problems. Hopefully the long term loan deal will come to our rescue with a centre half and a striker.

Keeping Killgallon was essential and not even the board of directors could ignore that. The sooner he signs a new contract the better because you can guarantee there will be clubs sniffing around once the transfer window opens. He will be crucial to any promotion challenge and losing him in January would be a massive setback.

James Harper is a great signing and adds quality to our midfield. This is always a problem position. Removing Hendrie and Carney from the wage bill is sound business. As for Howard, he is one of those midfielders that want to get forward rather than a player who wants to pull the strings.

Apart from a poor performance in the Carling Cup the season has started reasonably well. The lack of width from last season has been well and truly addressed with options on both flanks. Up front Ched Evans should get better as the season progresses and Ward continues to improve.

We should be in a position to give the pigs a tough test shortly and put right the wrongs of the recent meetings. The manager and players should approach it in the correct manner. Let us have none of this “just another game” rubbish and we will be fine.

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