[Football] Claims Chris Wilder demanded £4million pay off from Sheffield Utd

[Hugo Rune]

All three of them a lot better investments than £22m for Berge, £20m for McBurnie, £26m for Brewster and £20m for Ramsdale and the £30m or so spent on other gash.

No idea how much of those signings are down to Wilder, but failed recruitment is what makes them dead last in the league now.

Maybe it’s their transfer strategy? Going for young blood (like we do) is very dangerous if the signings you make need a few seasons to get up to speed.

I think Berge & Brewster have got big futures but injuries with the former and lack of experience with the later have cost them. Ramsdale looks a good player, no better than Walton I guess but not in the same ball park as England’s Pope or Spain’s Sanchez.

McBurnie is a Championship striker however, do I recall you warning us off him?

 

[Bodian]

If he was fired, but he wasn't, he quit

I thought most of the reports were that he left by 'mutual consent' - which usually means 'leave or we'll fire you'?

With regard to other posters comments on the pay v £4m, the owners quote on this is: “We said, ‘no way are we going to pay you £4m, you are resigning, we are not firing you, why would we have to pay almost one year’s salary?'” - so, less than a year's wages for leaving by 'mutual consent'. I would have thought that was fair really.

 

[Harmyar]

Blades Owner Prince Abdullah making the allegations in a couple of national newspapers this morning.

Be interested to see Wilder’s response, it’s a lot of money to ask for whilst effectively having failed at your job, and there might a danger of not only pissing off the United faithful but acting as a red flag for any future employer?

I don't blame him if he has a contract, clubs can't expect employees and that's what they are,to honour contracts if they're not prepared to do the same.

 

[mr sheen]

When I handed in my notice on the Friday, I'd already booked the following Monday off. Got a phone call from my boss late on that Monday night saying there was no need to work my notice or come back in – just to pick up my stuff 'whenever I was passing' but not to make a big thing of it by going around saying goodbye to everyone. Needless to say I was up there first thing on Tuesday to get my stuff. It wasn't an 'acrimonious' departure, but I also took the opportunity to tell him that it felt like I'd been fired, having effectively been frog-marched off the premises.

Needless to say I got no leaving gift or card

Long notice periods are dreadful though, I'm going through a 3 month one at the moment, and am increasingly (and correctly) being sidelined, kept out of decision making, becoming irrelevant. Yet they won't let me have gardening leave or pay me off.

 

[Nameless]

I guess failure for the thread starter = not winning the premier league

This season has to be considered a failure though. Bottom and one of the worst sides the prem has ever seen surely Wilder has to take some responsibility for that the same way he takes responsibility for the successes.

 

[Rugrat]

I thought most of the reports were that he left by 'mutual consent' - which usually means 'leave or we'll fire you'?

I agree, if it were mutual consent a deal would be done. But if the Arab fella offered mutual consent but with no money then surely Wilder says "well fire me then". It's not going to damage his footballing reputation, which is intact regardless, he gets his just deserts and if anything it's the reputation of the Arab fella that is (further) impacted.

I'm with my Blades supporting mate, he'd had enough (relationship, not getting investment he wanted) tried to do a deal, the Arab told him to do one and so he did

All speculation ... the only thing we know for sure is that we'll never know

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Long notice periods are dreadful though, I'm going through a 3 month one at the moment, and am increasingly (and correctly) being sidelined, kept out of decision making, becoming irrelevant. Yet they won't let me have gardening leave or pay me off.

I agree – the month I didn't have to work was a bit of a bonus. My point was the way it was handled. I'd been at the company eight years and worked with a lot of people. Everyone else I knew who'd left got a fond farewell, but I was effectively kicked out ASAP and – quite literally – sent off through the back door.

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Total guess but if he was owed 7 or 8 million over the next 2 and a bit seasons, agreeing to take half the money due to him would shirley be a good sign and a sensible agreement for both sides?

 

[Justice]

As we know a good keeper makes all the difference, Henderson was a big part of their success last season. They used to win most of their games by the odd goal because Henderson pulled off save after save.

 

[Harmyar]

Long notice periods are dreadful though, I'm going through a 3 month one at the moment, and am increasingly (and correctly) being sidelined, kept out of decision making, becoming irrelevant. Yet they won't let me have gardening leave or pay me off.

Go sick then?

 

[Audax]

If he was fired, but he wasn't, he quit

Heard it was mutual consent - that's not the same as quitting, and contractually will mean some form of negotiation has taken place to arrive at a mutually agreeable severance of the contract. On Wilder's side, that would mean agreeing a smaller severance fee than what the contract stipulated, and on the Club's side that would mean a) saving face by not having to sack him, and b) paying out less than if they'd sacked him. I would guess £4 million was Wilder's opening negotiation point, and it may have been revised downwards by the time they reached agreement.

I wouldn't be surprised if the reality was something more like:

Owner: We don't think this is working anymore, we'd like you to leave.
Wilder: I've got a contract, if you're going to fire me that'll cost you. But I'm happy to go "by mutual consent" if you pay me £4 million. You'll be saving £x million"
Owner: But then you'd be resigning, we wouldn't owe you anything.
Wilder: Your options are sack me and pay up £4+x million, or agree mutual consent and pay £4 million. Let me know which you prefer.
Owner: How about £2 million?

etc etc

 

[Guinness Boy]

All three of them a lot better investments than £22m for Berge, £20m for McBurnie, £26m for Brewster and £20m for Ramsdale and the £30m or so spent on other gash.

No idea how much of those signings are down to Wilder, but failed recruitment is what makes them dead last in the league now.

Brewster has been a failed gamble for them. A lot on here complaining we didn't sign him, glad we didn't. Promoting Sanchez has been a stroke of (cheap) genius keeper wise.

I know we disagree on McBurnie's quality but I think we do agree he's the type of player we're missing. I reckon would have scored a lot more for us than them. Berge is a quality player but have we managed a coup by signing Moder for less than half that? Time will tell.

But the overall point is that we have spent big on the squad - but, yes, obviously better.

 

[MJsGhost]

Heard it was mutual consent - that's not the same as quitting, and contractually will mean some form of negotiation has taken place to arrive at a mutually agreeable severance of the contract. On Wilder's side, that would mean agreeing a smaller severance fee than what the contract stipulated, and on the Club's side that would mean a) saving face by not having to sack him, and b) paying out less than if they'd sacked him. I would guess £4 million was Wilder's opening negotiation point, and it may have been revised downwards by the time they reached agreement.

I wouldn't be surprised if the reality was something more like:

Owner: We don't think this is working anymore, we'd like you to leave.
Wilder: I've got a contract, if you're going to fire me that'll cost you. But I'm happy to go "by mutual consent" if you pay me £4 million. You'll be saving £x million"
Owner: But then you'd be resigning, we wouldn't owe you anything.
Wilder: Your options are sack me and pay up £4+x million, or agree mutual consent and pay £4 million. Let me know which you prefer.
Owner: How about £2 million?

etc etc

Yep, though from what I've seen/heard in the media, there may well have been this angle on a very similar theme:

Owner: We don't think this is working anymore, something has to change. If you're to stay, we will hire a director of football to take over all transfer dealings.
Wilder: I signed a contract under the existing set-up and IMO I need to retain control over transfers to be effective. If you're going to fire me that'll cost you. But I'm happy to go "by mutual consent" if you pay me £4 million. You'll be saving £x million"
Owner: But then you'd be resigning, we wouldn't owe you anything.
Wilder: Your options are sack me and pay up £4+x million, or agree mutual consent and pay £4 million. Let me know which you prefer.
Owner: How about £2 million?


Recent signings would suggest it wasn't a bad shout to get someone else to look at transfers but, as ever, there's probably more to it on both sides.

It does look like there's a pretty brutal PR offensive going on - given Wilder's history with the club, it's hard to see why he would do what he has been accused of doing without some pretty severe provocation/understandable reasons.

 

[Munkfish]

There are real parallels between Hughton and Wilder.

Both took their teams to the Premier League having taken over a poor team. Both were trying to replace a club legend striker but ended up with the likes of McBurnie, Brewster, Mousett, Andone and Locadia who couldn’t get the top level goals required.

As the Dyche example shows, Sheff Utd have just sacked the man most likely to get them back to the Premier League, madness.

Wilder’s transfers did not hit the mark quick enough; his recruitment team have really let him down but his top ten Premier League finish was astonishing and should have earned him the right to bring his club back to the top flight. He may have been able to get them top ten again but I think Hughton’s ceiling was around 15th place, he was never going to progress the club unless we got lucky finding an exceptional in-form striker, Wilder amazingly found goals throughout the team in his debut EPL season.

Thanks goodness we have a chairman who understands long term projects and investments and isn’t throwing his toys out of the cot like the wretched Sheff Utd owners. They don’t understand the damage they have done to that club pathetically trying to manipulate the supporters against Wilder; they’ll find out soon enough who the fans back, my guess is it won’t be them.

Problem is Wilder was responsible for the transfers. Why the falling out begun was the the owners wanted a director of football. You can see why with the wasted Millions on Brewster, McBurnie and Ramsdale (Easily the worst keeper in the league signed for a cool £18 million).

 

[jackanada]

Not at all, but the team are bottom of the League.

It’s always been part of footballs bubble away from the real world , that a manager at any level gets the sack for effectively not doing his job properly, yet more often than not another club comes along and gives the said manager the same type of job he got the sack for.

What other walk of life would that be the norm?

Correct me if I’m wrong but most Bank Managers down the years that got sacked by Lloyds didn’t immediately go and get a bank managers job with one of the other three banks?

So being a football manager is a bit like being a member of the cabinet, or Dido Harding.

 

[Mancgull]

What's for sure is that this has been handled badly.
What should have happened is that a compromise agreement detailing the 'exit' should have been drafted and then agreed by both sides, with a confidentiality clause in it.
The fact that this hasn't happened shows a lack of business nous by the owner. He's now airing his dirty laundry to the media to discredit Wilder. wilder will get his legal adviser onto this and he'll rightly be able to put his side across.
However, the real damage will be that the players, all understandly fiercely loyal to Wilder will want out. The damage done is pretty significant. Add to this the concern that a prospective coach will have regarding the way Wilder has been dealt with.
I can see Sheffield United struggling next season whereas if they had kept Wilder, or agreed an amicable parting, I think they would have been in a good position for promotion.

 

[NooBHA]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02u3pQD3VM0

Interesting reading the comments on YouTube.

Lots of ghost accounts saying how great the owner is!

"Looks like Chris isn't the man he was really portrayed to be"
"I wish more owners were this open."
"Each and every word came from his heart. You can sense he didn't prepared for interview as he was just being honest."
"Very honest interview from him, no reason to not believe anything he’s saying. Fair play didn’t hold back for a second."
"Wilder are the kind of people that change good people to become brutal. Unfortunately this owner will not trust future managers"
"I agree with the Prince that the new recruits have not turned out to be a good return on investment. We needed players to perform NOW, not only in the future."

This looks like part of a paid PR campaign to discredit Wilder with supporters.

Normally I would say that coming out and " trashing " the Manager is totally out of order. And let's face it . He did trash him even after he did do it. He kept saying I don't want to say anything bad about him.

Chris Wilder put that Club back on the World Wide FootbaMap and earned the Club Millions more that they paid him so he is in credit at least financially with Sheff United.

I think a few posters have missed what he was earning. If you put a few of the statements together. It looks like his annual salary was £3.1 Million.

There is an almost unwritten formula for calculating what eventually gets written into a " Compromise Agreement " when a Manager's Contract is terminated. But Wilder wasn't being sacked. So his contractual entitlement would have been Zero.

I agree with their owner. I didn't like the way that Wilder belittled the players and Club in Press Interviews. The Owner explained in that interview how this can affect future Sponsorship Deals. He didn't have to come out and explain these things.So whilst I hated how he trashed Wilder. I sort of understand that he did it to be more transparent to the fans.

It would however have been better if both the Owner and Wilder hadn't let this play out in the Media. The Club should have said. " Look we contractually owe you nothing if you resign however, you earned this Club a lot of money over the time you were here. So here is your £4m and we wish you all the best for the future.

 

[Pavilionaire]

The owners have made a mistake in announcing Wilder asked for £4 million. Whether he did or not is irrelevant; a deal had already been done and the man has left.

Now, it looks like the owners are lacking in class and simply trying to tarnish Wilder's reputation. By airing their dirty laundry they are losing credibility, especially with the players who probably feel personal loyalty to their former manager.

Wilder has left the club in a far better position than it was in when he arrived, and now any competent manager should be able to take that squad of players (including those returning from injury) and get them promoted next season.

I think if I was Wilder I would have waited until the board acted. He has 3 and a half years left on his contract, so he either gets sacked and it gets paid up or he gets relegated and has a good shot of bringing the Blades up again. Yes, one or two sales will be inevitable but such is the personal loyalty of the players he would have had enough of a core to ensure they would be top 6.

 

[Nitram]

Probably only asking what he was due. If the Prince was so offended and did not want him to go why pay him. Sounds like damage limitation by the owner.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Maybe CW could publicly state the lowest figure they initially offered before settlement?


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