Steve Chu with a few home truths.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Minton said:

 

I'm not saying that Chansiri is a Saint in all this, just that our problems have been around far longer than his stewardship. Chu is calling for an attitude change from the supporters and purely blaming Chansiri isn't the way to do that.

 

Half of Chu's 12 tweets refer to the 'delusions of massiveness' as a major cause of our problems - the 'massive' things is seen as an ironic joke by many supporters and Chansiri recently said that Sheffield Wednesday aren't as big as some think they are - so Chu is basically in agreement with Chansiri on a major part of his thread and yet is calling him out using this point as a basis for doing so.

He then calls for us to go for 'young, hungry' players who will run through brick walls. The likes of FDB and Brown were signed on this basis and aren't home grown players like Wildsmith, Dawson, Palmer, Penney, Hunt etc. the types of players who should run through brick walls? 

 

Seems a bit muddled to me. 

[pussface]

Yep.

Under Gray our cycle of championship/league one yo yo status was broken, and consolidated us as a mid table championship team. With a net spend of zero £

 

However. Not ‘massive’ enough, so he was dispensed with. The rest is ofc history.

 

Also to take Chu’s analogy further, we finally broke the habit (overspending) only to fall of the wagon as soon as we got took over. The EFL fit and proper testing isn’t fit for purpose. If it was, our chairman wouldn’t be allowed within 5 miles of a football club.

[bolton9owl]

3 hours ago, WalthamOwl said:

He is right but surely to God we are bigger and should be higher than league one? Unfortunately Chansiri probably won’t even read what SC has written and wouldn’t take any notice anyway. Chansiri is killing the club. 

Chansiri is not ‘killing the club’ - Chansiri HAS killed the club - under his mismanagement we are a laughing stock. Just about every pundit, ex players, ex managers have voiced their opinion on the Chansiri regime - I have not heard anyone give him any credit what so ever. All can’t be wrong Chansiri is what’s wrong with SWFC - he simply has to go whatever situation that leaves us in.

Only then, maybe we can’t start to look forward with any amount of positivity.

Pack your bags Delphon  your time at this club is surely coming to an end.

[adelphi1867]

3 hours ago, TheEnchanter said:

What a post, Steve is bang on the money and I think I'm correct in saying he worked within the club over some of that period (may be wrong). 

 

We are criminally mismanaged by the short termism of the current regime, it has cost us horrendously. Any fan that can't see that and still choose to 'back' Chansiri or 'give him the benefit of the doubt' are blind to it all. Which is frightening. 

 

On and off the pitch, through all areas of playing and non playing we are below the standards of much much smaller clubs. It's embarrassing. It's a chain around our neck and it DOES and will keep dragging us towards League 1 rather than the Premiership. It will continue to do so in the future if this inept chairman is allowed to run the club as he does. 

Try the last 40 years.

Chansiri is the latest of a long line of unimaginative owners looking for a short cut to glory.

[0742]

3 hours ago, TheEnchanter said:

 

In the last 2 decades of financial 'rollercoasters' the amount of clubs that have overtaken us is staggering. I'm not just talking about on the pitch either. Off the pitch, which is more important from a long term sustainablility perspective to create the environment for success, we sit outside the top 38 or so teams in the country, proven over the last 20 years. Are you suggesting our troubles are a product of the environment and that we have been well run during these periods? It's like saying we are ******** will always be ******** and should never aspire to not be ********. All because there's been more money in the game and we shouldn't expect that to have affected us positively. 

 

No, I'm suggesting that to claim we are in this situation because there's a "massive aura" around the club is ridiculous. As is saying we just need to find players who will run through walls to move forward.

 

That mismanagement has been compounded by the financial rollercoaster and we've been left behind. 

[briggowl]

19 minutes ago, adelphi1867 said:

Try the last 40 years.

Chansiri is the latest of a long line of unimaginative owners looking for a short cut to glory.

We have had some shocking leadership, DC does massively stand out however having wasted £350m (was his own claim) and promised so much

[Guest LondonOwl313]

It all comes down to money though, and because Premier League revenue has gone up and up, the amount needed to be competitive at Championship level has gone up as well without any real increase in revenue. Leeds have just announced they lost £64m last season, I think £20m was promotion bonuses but imagine if they’d stayed down it shows you how much teams are losing to go after promotion.

 

Our problems are financial, and that’s why we aren’t competitive. When we went down in 2000 there were no parachute payments and we were saddled with £20m+ of debt, something the other teams at Division 1/Championship level weren’t. We were never able to do a proper rebuild with the right quality brought in to actually go for the play offs or better. Eventually by 2010/11 and the second trip to League 1 it came to a head and we got the winding up order. So basically that was a lost decade where nothing was able to change. The ownership structure meant that the board and major shareholders tried to keep us afloat year on year, but nobody came in to buy us because those same people weren’t prepared to lose their investment in the club (sounds rather like now!). The winding up order changed things in that they basically had to accept it wasn’t a going concern and the money was lost, and this then allowed Manderic to come in because the existing shareholders were no longer a barrier to it.

 

Under Manderic he spent what was necessary to get back to the Championship and then keep us there, but never enough to push on. So for those 15 years until DC came in we never were in the right position financially to be competitive.

 

I actually think that in 2015/16, Chansiri did a good job. Yes we spent money but it’s what’s needed. And we spent it pretty well looking at who we brought in. And we got some forward momentum on the pitch. The mistakes started to come after Wembley as we renewed contracts in an imprudent way and we also signed a group of ageing players who really weren’t needed, and the squad was bloated. In aggregate we spent more than enough to have established ourselves as a force at the top end of this division for years to come.

 

But even if we acknowledge that mistakes in recruitment were made in 2016/17 and that sowed the seeds for this current downfall, that isn’t even the main factor. Teams do make these mistakes but it isn’t always terminal. The bigger mistake is the cliff edge in funding that came after that as we haven’t bought any good players since. Chansiri used FFP as a smokescreen as to why we couldn’t spend, but it’s actually clear that he’s unable to spend irrespective of that. We’re being relegated because we’ve had 7 transfer windows since we signed Rhodes and Van Aken in summer 2017 and we’ve brought in only Iorfa who’s any good in the whole of that time. Money talks and we badly need investment again.

 

Nothing will change until someone comes in and spends and it’s done wisely, and the numbers needed keep going up as the gap to the PL grows. It’s clear Chansiri’s race is done so there needs to be some kind of event that makes him finally hit the sell button in much the same way as what happened in 2010. At that point maybe we can rebuild and be massive once more but it really is a difficult journey where a lot has to go right. There are at least a dozen clubs trying to do the same thing and they’re all in a better place in that process than we are.

[Yellowbelly]

What he says about young players not being given a chance rings true. From the boardroom through the management team down to the fans young players are not given the time, trust or support they need in order to develop. When, through necessity, they get thrown in and prove themselves they are still not valued and as a result get out as quick as they can. Then we all play shoulda, coulda, woulda.

[Bluesteel]

I think Chu’s plan for younger players on the way up is sound and what most of us have been saying.

 

But the push for the premier league at the time was right for this club. I don’t think many fans really think or expect the club to get to the premier league or think we are “massive” which was tongue in cheek. They just want us to be top end of the championship 

[Stu]

Hopefully it's not just me, but the "massive" tag some seem to attach to us is cringey as f**k! Even worse we had a period of signing players and getting them to drop the M bomb in the interview , we've not been "massive" since we finished 3rd won a trophy and got into Europe, and even then there were plenty bigger than us.

[Guest LondonOwl313]

2 hours ago, Minton said:

 

I'm not saying that Chansiri is a Saint in all this, just that our problems have been around far longer than his stewardship. Chu is calling for an attitude change from the supporters and purely blaming Chansiri isn't the way to do that.

I think with Chansiri it’s more a feeling of disappointment over what could have been, because the guy has put the money in but spent it badly. In 2000-2010 there was disillusionment but we never had much of a chance. When you have the carrot dangled in front of you and it’s taken away that breaks you so much more than never having anything to start with

[Beauchief Owl]

5 hours ago, Inspector Lestrade said:

Saying absolutely nothing new and the great idea is to get a team of hungry young players which is always going to be a gamble.

 

Need a blend of experience and youth.  

I thought that was supposed to be the basis of recruitment this year. Ironic that the two most young and hungry players we started with, may both well end up going for a pittance. If there's a wrong way of doing things, we do it.

[MrsHall]

Ah man...the massive...it's just some fun for us proles. Any grown ups taking it seriously must be a bit green. UTO.

[SDS Owl]

Yeah we know......surely this isn’t news to anyone.  

[keepitsteel89]

He looks in his 40's now, what was his role at the club in the 2000's?

[shandypants]

6 hours ago, ANDY said:

 

I generally agree with this but what he doesn’t mention is our potential. Our potential for growth is phenomenal compared with most other teams in the EFL and the Prem. I wonder how  many chairmen, including the current, have gambled short-term on tapping that potential and if that is the reason we never seem to have a long-term strategy. 

[Inspector Lestrade]

22 minutes ago, Beauchief Owl said:

I thought that was supposed to be the basis of recruitment this year. Ironic that the two most young and hungry players we started with, may both well end up going for a pittance. If there's a wrong way of doing things, we do it.

 

That's the trouble with youngsters they understandably want to play at the highest level offered to them.  For me, we should be looking to sign players from the Premiership academies who haven't made the grade.  We also need should we go down, proven championship players who will bring experience to help the youngsters come on and also won't be daunted by the challenge ahead of them.

 

The trouble is that every club is looking for the same. 

[Bluesteel]

I think the club is correct to think big (if they are?!) but you have to get the structure right.

 

I think this seasons performance has killed any idea that it’s the pressure of fans and expectations (non existent) that hamper the team. In 2000 I think we expected to come back but since then the playoffs have been the best we’ve ever hoped for. That’s not unreasonable for a club this size. 

[Beauchief Owl]

Just now, Inspector Lestrade said:

 

That's the trouble with youngsters they understandably want to play at the highest level offered to them.  For me, we should be looking to sign players from the Premiership academies who haven't made the grade.  We also need should we go down, proven championship players who will bring experience to help the youngsters come on and also won't be daunted by the challenge ahead of them.

 

The trouble is that every club is looking for the same. 

I agree, but other clubs are smart enough to have them tied down to contracts that enable the club to get a reasonable fee, we don't.

You have to question the likes of Bullen and Thompson here  and why they haven't pushed for Shaw and Urgohide to be given contracts earlier. Could they not see their potential? 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Inspector Lestrade said:

 

That's the trouble with youngsters they understandably want to play at the highest level offered to them.  For me, we should be looking to sign players from the Premiership academies who haven't made the grade.  We also need should we go down, proven championship players who will bring experience to help the youngsters come on and also won't be daunted by the challenge ahead of them.

 

The trouble is that every club is looking for the same. 

 

Like combining Dele Bashiru and Brown who haven't made breakthrough's at PL clubs with experience like Bannan, Reach and Lees?........................