sheffsteel

It’s not too bad….can actually be good…if it’s 1 season and you’re promoted back at the 1st attempt.

Not caring about a result is a normal understandable “safety net” reaction to gaurd against mental health being effected …..when a team keeps losing so often and there’s nothing to play for….you start having gallows humour. The problem is when this becomes the mentality for the bulk of Wednesday fans. with the minus 12 points it’s easy to conclude relegation is guaranteed and realistically there’s nothing to play for this season. In effect matches this season become like friendly matches. The problem is this “can’t be arsed” mentality could spill into the start of next season in league 1. The new owners will really need to make some eye catching exciting sightings to fire up the fan expectation and getting off to a good start will be importantly too.

Math not my strongest…United had just over 1K non season ticket holders buying tickets….not 2K. Lets me honest here ….its not nice attending matches knowing the result is pretty much irrelevant. Every fan has hope….hope to be promoted….hope to stay up…but when that hope is taken away it’s tough. Sometimes think the most passionate fans needs a break just to help sooth their mental health. The irony is today’s match was entertaining and Wednesday actually played well….especially 1st half.

Agree in the circumstances it’s very good, but don’t forget that season tickets are auto counted in the attendance. Wednesday have 19K season ticket holders, so even if no one turns up the attendance can’t be lower than 19K. United have 23K season ticket holders, so even if no one goes the attendance can’t be lower than 23K. Today taking into account the 1.5K Preston fans….there was a 2K non ST holder walk up walk up. United had 25,785 against Portsmouth, so with 1.5K fans Pompey fans there was a similar 2K non ST walk up.

Anyone thought how can Sheff Utd possibly get 23,785 when there’s 23K season ticket holders which are auto counted. So it’s virtually impossible for any Sheff Utd attendance to be below 25K. The official attendance for the game was near 26K………25,785 to be exact. The BBC have incorrectly recorded it as 23,785…..no doubt this will be corrected once they realise their mistake.

You raise an interesting discussion point and it’s tempting to go into hyperbole. Trying not be bias and realistic….what is the situation comparing both Sheffield clubs. I’d say the Sheff United hard core support is currently 23K with 10K to 12K floaters….so potential to average 35K. Where as the Sheff Wed the hardcore support is also around 23K with 20K to 25K floaters….so a potential to average at least 43K. Basically both Sheffield clubs have good support…not great but very good. So how come Sheffield Wednesday can attract so much interest? Obviously it’s that word “potential”. It’s always been a challenge, how do you persuade people who support Wednesday to get off their arse, buy a ticket to attend matches? Reducing prices would help but that’s not the long term answer….think there’s needs to be creative occasional ticket deals. Any wealthy owners who want a challenge, see that give normal/ average funding to SWFC and you’re looking at 25K to 27K attendances which is decent but these days is nothing special. However give big investment, market it well, have success on the pitch and even 40K averages are realistically reachable. However the only way SWFC will ever see regular 40K attendances is with a team challenging for Euro places and this is easier said than done….you only need to look at Leeds…..a massive club with wealthy US owners but they ares struggling to even remain in the PL….and are miles away from challenging for a top 6 place.

This is all about the dominance of the English Premier league. The EPL is huge and everyone keeps saying the bubble will burst however the opposite is happening. The wealth of the English league is becoming bigger and bigger with the gap widening….making it more and more difficult for the Spanish and Italian leagues to compete. In 20 years the Spanish could become like the Scottish league where as the Premier league becomes the world super league. So what can Real and Barca do to stop the gap widening? They’ve taken their charity shield type match to Saudi Arabia and hope to take some league matches to USA…but the league has blocked it. So the best weapon to tackle to English league is to form a new super league and invite the bigger English clubs to play in it. They are gambling and hoping that a new Euro super league becomes more popular world wide than the English league.

It’s an interesting one….Rob Staton was saying yesterday on Radio Sheffield that all Wednesday want is a fit and proper owner with a plan. However what’s a fit and proper owner and what’s a good plan. Chansiri passed the fit and proper test and arrived with a wad of cash to pump/ invest into SWFC. He did have a plan, it was massive ambition to gain promotion to the PL as soon as possible. He was so determined to reach the promised land that he was even prepared to ignore FFP rules, just like Villa and Derby did. Aston Villa were lucky, they just managed to gain promotion before the FFP penalties hit and now the EFL can’t touch them. So would Owls fans prefer a sexy US owner with massive wealth and ambition. Almost like Chansiri with a boom or bust policy. Remember he’s not doing it out of love for Sheff Wed. He’s hoping to invest then use the club to get his money back and make a profit. Think most fans would prefer a Birmingham City style takeover. Spend big in league 1 for instant promotion. Then you have Mike Ashley…who is more for….as Starmer would say “fixing the foundations”. His style would be slow organic progress, might spend 2 or 3 years in league 1 but it would be continuous steady progress each year. The US owner is exciting but more of a risk, like Wednesday appointing Fabio Capello or Roberto Mancini as manager. Whereas Mike Ashley would be more boring but more of a sure thing, like appointing Sean Dyche as manager.

It’s the rules, voted on and agreed and accepted by the clubs before a season starts. The EFL have no power to make up the rules. All they can do is apply them. Think it’s been done as a deterrent because years ago going into admin was quite common. It was heading towards being like the wild west. Just gamble, build up massive debts then walk away scott free with no personal liability. Leicester City played the system, but a brand new stadium with massive debts then had them all quickly written off so they could be debt free and start again. Now admins are quite rare so it must be working.

The official attendance has always been tickets sold and it’s been like this for virtually every club in the league for about 20 years. Explains why when Arsenal were struggling you’d see loads of empty seats but the official attendance was over 60K every single match. When Sunderland were relegated from the PL their ground was never even half full…..often about 25K at the ground but always reported as just over 40,000. Basically the 17K + season tickets holders are auto included whether they attend or not. So there won’t many many falling below 20K this season.

I said at the time it was possibly a “non story”. Rob Staton said after making investigations he understands that the Inland Revenue will imminently serve SWFC with a winding up order over a £1 million tax bill. Obviously it’s just guess work because due to the Data Protection Act the Inland Revenue arent going to give any info to a 3rd party. However notice how Rob Staton hasn’t said it will happen….as a fact. All he’s said is he “understands” it will happen….so if it doesn’t happen they he can say….his source must have misunderstood the situation….like the Danny Röhl nailed on for the Southampton job rumour…..that he mentioned last season. My guess is…..like a good jounalist and radio presenter…..he’s created the news as a talking point and more importantly to play a part in adding public pressure to Chansiri. Also it’s hardly rocket science….the rules are non payment of a tax bill can lead to a winding up order.

Really agree with this….find it pretty amazing and shocking how there’s so many insults and hatred towards anyone who doesn’t agree with them. We saw it with Brexit, then Covid, then Reform, then Palestine action and the Macabbi Tel Aviv fans….now the SWFC boycott. Always said…..open your mind and have some tolerance, use critical thinking to see both sides, how about compromise or politely agree to disagree. People might not believe this but for a small section…going to the Boro match offers escapism and massively helps their mental health. For those poor souls….of course they should go to the match. Each case is different……the sacrifice is different. As long as the vast majority are refusing to attend Boro and pay on the day… and it’s having an effect on Chansiri….thats all that matters.

sounds so simple….take away the politics and it is. over the decades football has always had the power to unite…..for us old uns it seems weird and disturbing that it’s being used to divide.

….is that when the far left pro Palestine hooligans arrive from other parts of the country by coach? Not sure why we don’t do what we normally do regards football hooliganism. Have loads of cameras taking videos and make loads of arrest with stiff sentences. Also the police have massive experience and have kettling operations which have always worked in the past. There’s a slowly building perception of hate towards Jews and it needs to be addressed. Altho there seems to be a building negativity towards Muslims too, so that needs addressing….it’s worrying, there’s no place for racism of any kind. Would rather get these under current feelings of hatred out in the open and see what type of racism we are up against.

Which ever set of violent Euro fans arrive at Villa Park……..surely it’s not going to be anywhere near a Villa v Birmingham City derby. The West Midland police seem to be able to cope with that one. To be honest no one knows the details of the security risk….. reports say that the government are having discussion with the West Midlands police this morning.

Is this fake news? Looks like no winding up order has been issued. The report just says after an investigation by Rob Staton, it will happen imminently as Chancer owes the taxman £1 million. Why would the tax man give details of debts to Rob Staton regards their plans over the next few days. Wouldn't this contravene data protection?

Every member of staff has been paid and will be paid in full….thats not the issue. If anyone isn’t paid for work done then it’s clearly illegal…..and players and staff would be in their right to strike….and take legal action. The situation here is apparent cash flow issues, so players and staff are being giving part or no salary payment on the due date….with the arrears paid at a later date. If this was a one-off with warning, an explanation and a future date of payment…..then it’s still wrong but more acceptable. The big issue with Chansiri is the lack of respect, no future warnings, no explanation and no communication regards when payments can be expected. Also it’s happening almost every month. How can any business have cash flow problems virtually every month?.

I remember this idea was suggested in the late 90’s by Sheff Utd Chairman Mike McDonald. He was a Manchester based Man City fan and went to the press saying if Sheffield wants to achieve anything major then it needs to become a one city club like Leeds and Newcastle, obviously there was a massive backlash and it was unanimously rejected by both sets of fans. Instant reaction is an obvious NO but the longer both clubs are outside the top flight the way football finances are structured means the gap between the PL and Championship becomes bigger resulting in both clubs slowly dying (commercially).

If an owner can’t or won’t fund a club….then surely that results in that club going into admin.

Agree what you find is that clubs struggling near the bottom of the league always seem to have unsuitable owners. So every single season you’ll have 3 or 4 owners who…..according to their fans are unsuitable and need changing. Spurs are a massive club…..very successful financially but don’t show much ambition and hardly won anything over 50 years. Their fans want their owners gone saying they are also unsuitable as they are profiting from their club. Many Wednesday fans would love John Textor to become the new owner but he has a questionable past. The nature of being a wealthy business man is that they are often cold hearted, single minded selfish, slippy, risk taking. It depends where you draw the line but let’s not forget there is already an agreed EFL criteria regards “fit and proper” and the specific scenarios where a club can be taken off an owner…so they become forced to sell. I think the regulator will be more of a pressure group and have time and persons to do some digging/ detective work into the finances/ operations of certain clubs, then with legal advise they will be able to give reasons why someone could be deemed unsuitable under the current rules. Also think the regulator will be examining the current fit and proper rules and will try to bring in amendments but suspect the new rules will apply to new owners. Will be interesting to see what powers the regulator has…but most things related to this government tend to be disappointing.

Not sure if you know this, but in 2020 the Middlesboro chairman Steve Gibson proposed this type of idea regards an annual financial review. There was the FFP rules to control over spending but 3 club owners deliberately ignored FFP rules. Those clubs were Aston Villa, Derby Co and Sheff Wed. Their logic was FFP restrictions were on a 3 year rolling programme, so if a club (like Aston Villa) manager to gain promotion within 3 years of overspending, then they escape any EFL punishment because they now come under the jurisdiction of the Premier League. Villa gamble paid off, Wednesday and Derbys gamble came close to promotion but just failed. Gibson complaint was mainly aimed at Derby Co, who at the time had sold their stadium to try to avoid a large FFP points deduction. Gibson proposed at the annual owners EFL meeting that the EFL follow a model similar to what happens in Germany. He wanted the EFL to use an independent auditor who would be asked to audit and monitor the finances of every EFL club. His idea wasn’t for owners to lose to control but the EFL could block and not sanction certain transfers and warn against offering players large contracts that a club couldn’t afford. There was a vote at the end of his proposal and it was unanimously rejected. What you find regards rules is that 99% of fans have self interest. It would be so typical that John Textor declares his intention to buy SWFC with a view to throwing loads of money at the club but the new regulator change the rules to protect clubs and the leagues. Imagine if the new regulator said they won’t allow players from abroad to be loaned to clubs in the EFL if the owners are the same. So that would mean the players from Botofogo and Olympique Lyonnais (clubsowned by Textor) can’t play for Wednesday. In order to protect clubs the regulator might say, future investments build up debts to the individual owner, not the club. You can just imagine Textor saying he wanted to buy SWFC and had big plans for the club but he’s been forced to walk away because the regulator have made it too unattractive to become an owner. Would there then be an outcry from Owls making it difficult for future owners to show ambition?

What does “uncompetitive mean”, there would need to be a legal definition. Is it losing every game by 3-0 or more? How about a spell of 10 consecutive matches losing 3-0 or more? However what if the players deliberately tried to be thrashed so they could get rid of an owner they didn’t like. There’s examples of many teams that have been uncompetitive in the past. Only the other year Sheff United went 4 consecutive home matches losing 0-5…..even lost a home match 0-8. Should the SU owner be forced to have the club taken off him as it spoiled the credibility of the PL? Any new rules must be brought in before the season starts….so everyone knows what rules there are working to but the normal logic is an “uncompetitive team”, is simply relegated.

Keep repeating this. The EFL have little power to change anything…..all they can do is apply the rules. They represent and work for the clubs….which is effectively the owners…not the fans. It’s up to the owners to propose and vote on reform but it’s common sense owners are never gong to vote in rules to make ownership more difficult with stiffer penalties.

He is paying all the wages eventually…..just playing mind games delaying payments with seemingly little communication or warning. It’s cruel and shows he either has no heart or he’s a madman.

Don’t think they want a boycott of away games. Those fans are funding Chansiri (to a smaller degree) but think for away regulars who have built up points it’s too much of a sacrifice.