BladesPod - The Sheffield United Podcast

Best Case & Worst Case Scenarios for 2024/25

By way of a season preview, Ben and Andrew break down the best case and worst case scenarios for Sheffield United in 2024/25 - what needs to go right to have a great (promotion-chasing?) season, and what might go wrong that leads to a bad (don't think about it) one. We discuss the need for reinforcements, the importance of Gus Hamer, whether Wilder will rediscover his mojo, takeover implications and plenty more, and how they could impact the season ahead.

Thanks for listening, and UTB!

Duration:: 1h 20m
Broadcast on:: 07 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

[Music] Hello and welcome to Bladespot. It's Wednesday the 7th of August. My name is Ben and I'm the line is Andrew. How are you my friend? Very good mate. How are you? Very good as well. Thank you. It is the the week of the season kickoff. It's terrible phrasing to start the season. Well we got three days to go. It's Wednesday today. Three days ago we obviously kick off on Friday night against Preston. In lieu of a season preview prediction type thing we're going to do what we did in previous seasons which is give a best case and worst case scenario for this season which is usually what needs to happen for us to have a best possible outcome season and I'll ask you what you think the sort of ceiling on our best case is and what might go wrong that would lead to an absolute disaster of a season and I will also ask you what you think that absolute disaster sort of floor is if you like because it's a bit different than being in the Premier League of course where I think they're you know this will sound silly now but certainly going into last season I think most you know at funds would have you know maybe 15 there's like the best place possible you could get and obviously bottom is what happened whereas I think there's a much bigger variation in the championship obviously. Before we get into that there's a new signing to talk about we've finally signed a new player that we're actually going to go well I think we did go three weeks with one signing which is not ideal leading into you know a massive rebuild but Harry Souter joins on loan from Leicester for the season as with basically everyone else who signed I feel like this is a good signing it's just you know frustrating that it comes in so late I guess you know misses the whole of pre-season and it still needs to be you know one of another five or six I think if we're if we're going to tread towards this best case scenario but um yeah thoughts on Suiter mate I like it I think he's a proven championship defender I think the main thing for me as I said on the last part that the biggest miss of all the players that we've lost maybe not in the in his latter form but was Egan just because we knew week in week out we met this guy I know we didn't play much for Leicester last season I think judging by what Leicester fans are saying that's more on the account that they were a bit of a panic buy they bought him on the back of an unbelievable up 30 million think he was and they played a really high line and he just didn't work with him he only played five games for him and thing but at Stoke he was just as solid as you can get I think the championship level only 25 as well so you know he's still young he's not like we're talking about an aging player was suddenly just gonna plus everything so I think this is a really really good signing then it's sort of that I think your loan signing should be players that you you probably haven't really got much chance of falling which is every play for us but yeah and I think these are the sort of signings that you're probably making to be honest someone like I received almost 30 million less what less than 12 million come on uh yeah they're about so obviously uh a very big lad you know we all got uh well not all of us but some people got excited about like Grubwich is a Grubwich is a big lad in uh I would question how big he actually is really six foot seven center back um yeah that's I imagine he's just gonna drop straight into the middle of um of a back three certainly to start the season I think which maybe we can touch on if we've got time later on but um yeah very very happy with this one he's you know he's not particularly mobile but he is a extremely large headed and kick it center back he's not got an amazing goal record like you you would sort of you know when you think of um what's that guy's name for mill well jake cooper you know seems to seem to rack up the goals against us anyway not necessarily in the rest of his career yeah his actual goal record is not amazing it is it it is for australia i should say he's got one in three for australia but he's um i don't ever put other people so um i think it's so fun who said it was like the energy arger against small people so that's why he's got so many so many goals there didn't understand it but i thought quite like it's an excuse to why he scores yeah he's got in fact i they've got it here very helpful on his wikipedia he's scored against uh yeah scored against Nepal against uh New Zealand, Bangladesh, Palestine, Indonesia not the powerhouses of the football world not the powerhouses no yeah so he's yeah the stealth fans did say he's actually one of his weakest points is actually attacking set pieces sort of our fans like joking like you're burrow, suitor you know what i mean like obviously burrows and ran for his corner and stuff but what he should do along with key for more and he finishes his days and if in else days that's a big team it's a bloody big teammate yes it's an improvement isn't it from from where we were i suppose um last year or even even the year before i don't feel like we were i feel like we had some good athletes in that promotion team you know i'm thinking bulldog and um you know and gy obviously mr bernie when he was on pitch but we we weren't a particularly big team i'm i'm i'm forgetting someone i'm just thinking midfield you know barely always i'm even eager and i don't think we're the fact all for a center off you know it was all obviously but it wasn't while this guy's dominating everything he was good defensive in the in the air obviously opponent the other end but um did get hit on a few things but yeah we were basically relying on mr bernie for the majority of last season in a defense or attacking sense just to win others yeah but i like this sign in it's um i don't think he's going to surprise us in terms of i feel like the stereotype of item is very accurate looking at it is i think he's better on the ball than people might think from what i can gather again just going on what's not fun to say and i think he's a decent passer he's not just going to be a new fit sort of defender but yeah in terms of on the turn that's his biggest struggle if the ball goes over the top very much like egan again actually where the ball of the top is probably not going to get back yeah it's i mean i'm going on Premier League numbers here because he didn't play enough in in a little like 90 minutes something in the championship last season so the season before he had almost a thousand minutes in the Premier League with a Leicester team that went down right so it was a it was a bad Leicester team is that right really i didn't know you've been there that long actually but yeah you're probably signed in january 23 yeah january 23 so he had a half season with Leicester and they got relegated but yes his his numbers are fit the stereotype of what you'd expect a big lumbering centre back and that is very high um non penalty xg for a centre back because he was getting his head on set pieces very high assist for a centre back because he's getting his head on set pieces it's passing numbers of pretty below average but his actual dribbling was quite good like for a centre back so um yeah i would expect him as i said that's that's two years ago that's against as compared to Premier League centre back so you know you're going on cream of the crop there and he was obviously in quite a poor team as well relative to the level but generally yeah i think um what people will expect out of suit is what we will see he will head it he will kick it he can dribble a little bit he will be a threat from set pieces um yeah it's a good good pickup i'm very happy to have him in the building the most interesting thing for me is that he got into the stealth fans he um he's better in a in a back three is the central one they say put him in a back two he's a waste of time he does play in a back two for australia but as we've seen you know the opposition is not too good i'm interested to see how he plays you know we've got if Gil Christ comes in as well which people are remarking him for the uh right back position but again Chelsea fans seem to think he's a just a no-nonsense centre-off in the model john terry's what they were saying so it's interesting that we've got four defenders there for Nell duster in well five including trustee as well will we go back to the three i'm not sure yeah i would be really surprised if we don't play three at the back on fried at least um purely i think it's a reek he has to play then it makes sense to play a three at the back and and i've been doing less defending than him out than he would have to in a full exactly my thoughts yeah okay so uh good sign in hopefully there's you know a few more on the way ideally in the next 48 hours but um you know and i do mean 48 hours not a chris wilder 48 hours yeah um yeah we've still got a few weeks so the window shuts obviously these are starts on friday right best case worst case scenario we're gonna run through these uh fairly quickly i think as in uh not spend ages and ages talking about them because they're kind of things we've touched on through the summer now i think there's a scenario where we finish in virtually any position in the championship season this season apart from maybe first and 24th um it's it's wide open mate and maybe towards the end i'll ask you know for your sort of you know you know put your neck on the line where you actually think we might end up but for now i want to start with the best case scenario we thought about doing this the other way around and ending on a high but actually i think people might switch off so we'll start with the best case scenario um i mean the best case for me as an outcome is top two i think i think there's definitely a chance that that happens i'm not sure how likely it is but there is if the things that we're about to run through come to pass i think we we've got a good shot at uh an automatic return to uh the dreaded premier league do you agree with that or do you think the ceiling is a bit lower i think top two yeah it's possible i think it's highly unlikely really unlikely but it's because we're gonna hopefully we'll come on to the next point i think is but we're also going to set another four or five or at least another four players it's hard to get them to gel said last year it's hard to or to build the team on the go and stuff even in the championship that's going to be difficult i think the more realistic option for the successful season would be the playoffs but if we get up to a good start let's say we've got 12 points you know after the first four games you can unless injuries kick in which we'll come on to the worst case scenario i don't see how we get worse so yeah it is a possibility yeah good old playoffs yeah well i want to win one i said i was talking to a lady actually you last week and he said i just don't want to play us and it's not like i want to win a playoff you know i mean even if like i want that i want to go to Wembley and see my team win so i'm happy you know if we finish fourth and win i mean i'll worry about the season after when happens but yeah i'd rather go up at Wembley that does feel like the last sort of mountain to climb as a Sheffield United doesn't it well realistic mounting because you really you're not going to win a court you won't let something ridiculous happen so yeah they'll look the best case scenario for me finishing fifth or whatever being Wednesday in playoff final imagine that oh god don't do that i don't even know if i go yeah i know you always say that five four all right yeah but we agree that there is a there is a scenario where we have a very good season like you know yeah maybe a heckin bottom first season i suppose just extrapolate over the full season yeah this is not you know the we're not saying this is not outrageous to say we're not saying we're going to win the Premier League i think winning the league is a bit outrageous especially with the minus two and stuff because those two might come into that you know when it comes to if things are that close i don't think we have the best squad in the league but i think yeah with a with a fair wind if we if we somehow keep everybody fit in the way that we did in the wilder promotion season from the championship it's not out of the realms of possibility i don't think it'll happen but if we're doing the best case scenario then yes second place i think is definitely a possibility yeah well let's let's start on one of the factors that would lead to a best case scenario now i do think this is this is probably the make or break one for me this is the first thing that's brand to mind and it will not surprise people who've listened to this over the last couple of months i suppose best case scenario to come off we sign at least four or five more starting caliber players including a goalkeeper yes now suit or suit is it suit or is one you can for me you can knock that down to three or four more starting caliber players hmm the fact we're actually going into the season with um adam davis or gurbich as i start in goalkeeper is real let's not it is astonishing when you think like he just sort of hit me early i was like how what's going on it's like what is it three months nearly since the spurs game no two months sorry um the two end last season and we're actually haven't signed a new goalkeeper so yeah to get to get to a level where we could um have a really good season we have to add four or five more players i think is that is just a deal break if this is the squad we're definitely going to be teetering towards worst case scenario more than best case i think yeah yeah absolutely any interest it's funny actually because when adam davis signed his contract um we were all like who adam davis bloody good job he did isn't it i don't know if he goes otherwise you're not teamy boo yeah exactly yeah i mean i don't know even i don't i presume davis all-star and i've seen a few people put gurbich in their team but it's got to be davis i mean is that some poor games davis but nowhere near it at least it looks like he's played in goal before um but yeah the goal keeper situation is obviously a must and as you're right i mean i don't know if it needs to be five starting players but it needs to be five players who we can bring in and not worry about it in the same way last season you know last season norwood went out dole came in they were both good enough to to play bogal bolder both first team as if you know what i mean um billi sharp maybe not in that last season but billi sharp and at burnade they didn't always play it together but they were both start as if you know what i mean they you and i think that's what we need to do we need five players who we can hang us out on i think gillchrist will probably um i need to stop calling him gill christ gill christ i think you should lead into it it's a bit i probably yeah me it might even know arra uh i think um i think he will come in and you imagine he's going to be a starter as well so that's two people bringing me suitor and gillchrist i don't know we're going to line up exactly but but yeah the the next three that we're bringing i presume we're going to use at least four loans we need a goalkeeper we need a striker for me definitely because most you know strikers well key for more it might even be out you know we can't rely on key for more all season and you can't rely on brucer as a backup yeah it hopefully can't see him as anything other than a bonus player i think we're probably need two strikers i know people say well we're only playing one up from but i don't think that's the point you know we that season we got promoted that bernie played what i don't know many games he played but we rotate quite a lot with jebison and brucer played and sharp played you know alongside and die i think we need at least another two strikers and those two strikers they don't have to be world beaters they don't have to be as better than key for more but they've got to be people who have proven it at this level there's a couple of scott hoggins or something like yeah exactly all medians are you know not the gary medina today but as he was you know at the time someone who knows the division or you know i know tom canons link something like that would be fine they don't have to play every single week but we know we can put him in and he's not going to be a louis marshall is completely unproven yeah a couple of people who can run as well which maybe we'll touch on if we've got time um yeah i think the idea of this charlton uh palace kid who we're on low not charlton i'm not going to pronounce until he signs um but yeah i mean he's the sort of player i think who comes straight into a team and he's something different what we've got he's not a striker but that's the sort of player i'm looking at that's the sort of player that i'm thinking even if he don't play 40 games it's somebody we can throw in and say well we know you know there's not going to be much of a drop off if he comes in yeah so still a lot to work a lot of work to do there i think we will i mean i'd be it's well i don't know i've been slightly astonished all the way through this summer but i would truly be astonished if we don't sign four or five more starting caliber players including a goalkeeper um it's whether they all arrive on deadline day and we've already written off like uh what would be like five or six games of the season or something which is not insignificant you know how many games you play 46 so it's more than ten percent of the season yeah the the slav season we sort of seem to write off those early games didn't we i don't know when the first win on the slav was actually but we're picking six yeah yeah when um uh and jai and give us what gives right yeah the date views yeah post so that's post transfer window so you can do it you know you can and we got in the playoffs there but if you took the two points off that season we wouldn't have made the playoffs i think that's right in saying so um so that's good another factor so we could do a win in that first month of a week but you can do it it's frustrating that we've known how long we're going to be in this division i know the market moves slow and all the lone players you know you have to i don't think i don't i think it's a bit of a myth that you have to wait till the very end of the transfer window to get the best lone players i think for for maybe the very best you know you you gives wise and people like that but i think we should have been making moves a little bit early to be honest but we well a lot earlier you know we've we've signed five five six players up until this point but like you said we talked about the best case scenario the best case scenario is we get these players in and the immediately gel yeah definitely give me a goalkeeper i feel pretty good about center but i'm sure an L will leave but um i think if gilchrist comes in gilchrist and yeah i write back a couple of strikers uh and then and then yeah a couple you know a couple of like um yeah almost bonus players if you like have and i don't mean bonus in the booster sense i mean the the sort of wild card you know maybe a tricky wide forward or yeah someone else that can can play in central midfield and you know give give our blaster a breather i suppose then i think we'll have a really fun season i'm not saying uh the starting 11 that we have right now is only half there i think there's quite a decent starting 11 but yeah yeah it's it's not a you know it's not a cup final is it it's 46 game season we need yeah this is the this is what you mean by starting players we're not saying i've seen people put the the first 11 up and say we're not far off now that's fine but that team's not gonna win yeah it's fine if you just play in one game yeah yeah yeah yeah playing against press to anything yeah i could get a result against pressing with that team but for a 46 game season with the backups being especially in the four positions i think defensively as you said if gilchrist comes in we're really also and i think right back still a problem until shackle and maybe comes back and play that because gilchrist like says more of a center off but left back we've got quite enough especially if not in davis comes back and he can play some games center off we've covered i think it's the it's going the other way now that we need to improve it's particularly up from like saver today i've not heard the interview revolution of s2 said that um wilder sort of he didn't actually say more we're definitely gonna be out on on friday but he didn't confirm we're gonna be in i don't know if he's just playing you know mind games and all not one impressing to know but if he's not fair it sums up the how light we are because we're playing re-ambrooster who's realistically not going to complete in 90 minutes and then you've got loui marsh who's played one league game for don't cast or whatever it was last season and oh no whatever you want to call him who's 17 years old so yeah there's a potential for a hilarious starting lineup frankly that um the bench is gonna be fun i can tell you that yeah yes it is i'm just uh i'm just looking back at the because i remember when we kicked off the season i think because this under saliva was this was this august 22nd no this must have been the promotion season under heking bottom like we lost one nil at whatford and i remember the starting lineup that day being like oh my god what is this but actually it's not that bad you got well you got a real goalkeeper in wares you got egan at cent invite you got a real right back in george ball light you got a ji up top sanderburgers in this team yeah it wasn't that bad actually well mind me when we come into the worst case scenario where people might laugh about our doomsday fight some of the predictions really before that i will read the team out for a couple of those games when we're at the height of our injury crisis yeah there is too right another best case factor and i i have this second on the list and i think it is second in order of priority keep hammer i think that is the absolute um well no i think the deal breaker is we had four or five more players but uh a team with hammer and a team without hammer are going to go in vastly different directions this season he uh i don't know i i'm still expecting him to leave it sounds like it's it seems to be so many people talking about his release clause and it sounds like it's going to be out of our hands and i i almost feel it would be uh negligent of a you know forest or someone like that to pick him up if that's the you know if that's a possibility because he's that good he was that good last season in probably the worst team of all time in the premier league um if he tried if he's still here and he can transpose something like well that and his Coventry form for us this season and we can you know get him 40 touches of the ball instead of 25 or whatever every game uh he could be um i mean he could have a storming season he could be taking like 15 goals ten assists out of him that's that's how good he is um and yeah him alongside oh hair and our blaster you know is a midfield three that could be something really really good at this level um but yeah it's so contingent on keeping hammer i think if you take him out i really think that you know the the jenga stack will fall apart for us as it stands it's not just that it's thinking if he comes out that way you imagine now it's going to be very close to deadline day if you leave but it has to be close to deadline day if you leaves because we're soaking the end of the month we're not going to be able to get anyone in over and if we use our four longs or whatever it is by that point as well i don't know even if we try and get a replacement for him how it works we've this is the problem in it but yeah i don't want him to go obviously he's sort of like we're playing press then if he gets a hat trait you'll be like get in oh i'm not sure if that's good overall like you know what i mean well um yeah this is i will sort of defend the club in this sense that there's not much we can do about this you know if someone comes in at the last minute and he's released closes met you know he's probably going to go so it's just that that is a real worry all way if he's still here by deadline day that's going to be the main thing on my mind rather than bringing people in i don't forget me new contract like is this like is this too what he's not in it would he would he be bothered to say like because you know if i don't know the forest come in or if someone better you know full of evidence or someone like that or more like let's do something this season he's probably going to want to go well i want to i mean i this is probably pure football manager um but i just think like i kind of like what i wanted us to do with enjoy where it's you sort of say to hey my right we're gonna we're gonna make you our highest pay player right now by a distance um and if we don't get promoted you have a release clause that is x and you know you go with our blessing but just give us this season you know we we invested in you know we took into the Premier League last summer we brought your best mate in you know uh just give us this season we don't want to lose you right now we want one more season it's only what like 25 26 it's not like yeah you know out of a move so i don't know there's there's no reason for him to sign a contract like that if you know we could jump up to a middling Premier League team like right now you know maybe Everton or Boris as i said so maybe Wall's even the freedom of a little Italy in drum field to act like that so like if you do what he wants you can go in we'll get more good some sort of arrangement yeah yeah a free point in the penny black every Friday penny black as well yeah free parts in the penny black but yeah that's gonna be the wall like i said that's out of our arms i'm not gonna it's gonna be ill be frustrating but i don't think they can really criticize the club with that um because like you say that the the ideal scenario is offering me new contracts or say we'll turn anyone down who comes in give us a year and we'll let you go for less or whatever but i don't know how realistic that is yeah i imagine it's not realistic i'm just sort of plucking it out there i suppose um but if we do keep him if he's still here then uh thank thank god because uh yeah he's he's gonna be the player that we do have a great time watching this season if that's how it was the person yeah i really i i think he is the difference between you know playoffs and possibly low and mid table to be honest i'll ask you for your proper prediction i guess what your yeah proper prediction at the end of it i suppose um but yeah gotta keep that boy in that team um talking of uh boys that's weird younger players um the next one i've got brooks or another youngster takes a big step forward into becoming a regular star and now i don't think andro brooks is there yeah he might shock me and i know he's been doing he sounds like he's been doing all right in pre-season but i i don't feel great about him being a starting player for us like right off the bat i imagine if asulu was still here and he's he's basically signed a zeal for new castle right now i could have seen us with a front three on friday night of asulu more and uh and brooks um but yeah i don't i don't feel he's there yet based on last season so can can he or someone else become you know the next r blaster i guess of like yeah he's fine you know starting every he's in our best team every single week um yeah i think this this is part of our best case scenario as well what do you reckon yeah absolutely brooks is probably like the furthest forward out of the lot of them but another one could come out whether it's marshwell you know um sashdev or whatever it is uh comes forward and and it can be a bonafide option i'm the same you with brooks i think it's a i don't think it's a big season for him in his career but i think it's a big season in where what happens to him next whether it becomes a a regular at championship level whether it's with those or someone else or he sort of has to go back on the leagues and come back up in the way that it's all like Ben Whiteman had to do um yeah i see a lot of people talking about the the kids will be fine is back up i don't see it like that i hope i'm wrong but i just don't think there's any evidence whatsoever to suggest that's the case brooks had a fantastic but consider you came to the worst premier league team ever i don't think he could have done that much more but there were also a lot of signs to suggest that he would probably throw in him when he wasn't ready i wouldn't like to see brooks start more than 15 games this season i think he should be used as like a in the way that i don't know maybe not in the versatile sense but like Ben Osborn you know that's what i'm sort of seeing brooks as this season someone who can come in if everyone's injured and he'll do a job he'll not be out or his depth or anything but not someone i expect to start but i just said the best case scenario is he has a season like you know i'll blast i did last season for port vale and us where it's like a breakout season for him yeah so i think this uh yeah it's something we will probably need the bench on friday is going to be scary by the way unless something insane happens in the next quarter especially if maul's not fair because we are going to play loui master would have thought because brooks is not going to last an eye so yeah yeah you could say that i guess she's crazy well on that note uh best case scenario injuries dry up this is the biggest one for me i know you're obviously we need to say about players but this is the biggest one as i said if we can get that first 11 what's going to be once the players are in another four players we can get that first 11th fit for the vast majority of the season i do think we'll get in the playoffs it's the engine we need these injuries to clear up because the backups are nowhere near good enough to to step up yeah and they've i mean there's got to be a kind of a chance of this i think because of the the purge that's happened over the summer and the squad and all right we've hung on to nor at davis obviously is a very injury prone um not well that's not fair he's he's had some uh two back-to-back very long-term injury am i right saying he's not played pretty season uh yeah he's not open on bench right yeah i don't think he's played at all so again he's another one but oh he's miles off featuring yeah yeah yeah yeah and we've signed two players to play his position as well yeah again he's which i think he's going to be a bonus player again a bit like bruce if he comes in you know he's up keeps fit brilliant but yeah you can't really rely on him but like you say you're right passion's going passion to get many injuries but you're obviously getting on normal would be great with injuries to be fair but it was my burning was very injury prone i was born and started to get injury prone um i'd need to bring up the list of players that we've like go i suppose yeah there's a lot of them um but yeah hold on i could start to get some injuries yeah a lot of wear and tear uh oh glad the big injury which i i think you got back over that to be fair last season you know yeah it's uh he was playing more and more like as the we've basically got him up to his like full athletic peak i think and then some of these are just slightly annoying and obviously we have brought in players like shackleton who is injured already um and doesn't have a great fitness record um uh key for more turns 32 tomorrow so happy birthday key for but please do stay safe um and he's injured as in miss last last week's friendly um so yeah it's is you know i think you can look at it is like well we have purged a lot of the players who are perennially injured or have got a lot of the um a lot of wear on the tires at this this stage of their career but i don't know man the last few years have been uh traumatic in every sense of the word i suppose in terms of squad fitness you know players just dropping like flies you know doesn't matter how old they are what stage of the career they're at whether they're playing every week or whether they've just come back into the team um i don't know it's i guess sorry i'm just looking at the squad for the season we got promoted which i think we're probably the peak of our injury worlds um and you've got ball looking there and missed a lot of the season and the stevens missed a lot of the season john flett pretty much missed it all jackal kennel did miss it all um chris basham got a bad injury that season uh re-ambruhster obviously we never fit met bernie got bad injuries um max low whenever fit uh just looking down it now tommy tommy dial started the season uh with an injury then i was born with in and out keer and clark whenever fit it's a lot of players and if that happens this season then yeah we are going to be in trouble yeah we're going to be leaning the other way aren't we i think uh max low is another play with like go is a yeah he's already injured um so this is this is like pure prayer right i don't expect this to happen all um just i mean just based on recent history it's there's no real reason to think that it will miraculously get better you know we we've improved the the shire cliff pitches or whatever haven't we and that didn't seem to have any effect or obviously um i don't know i i don't think it's unfair to say that we've botched pre-season in terms of you know physical preparation um you know having your players in in time um do you ever think i'll say about suit by the way he has been playing for last year he's played a few games for last year in that pre-season so he should be fit it's just not with us you know and and fresh actually because he's not played much football in the last couple of seasons and that's not been fitness related as far as i'm aware that seems to just be pure selection based they're obviously out of storming season last season so don't feel like the uh they needed to use him so yeah i'm not worried about him i mean like any player can get injured but he he doesn't seem like a crock or someone who's you know banged out 3000 minutes every year for the last seven years or something so yeah i think he will improve things in that regard but yeah it's it's such a big ask i think to expect injuries to dry up but if they do you know if um hammer uh oh hair burrows more if they can play virtually every game then yeah i think we can i think we can carry a few weaknesses in the starting line up and still be a potential playoff team so you never know but uh yeah cross cross everything on that one um next thing on here for a best case scenario is the defense improves now it's obviously very likely that we're not going to concede 104 goals this season despite playing eight more games um i'm thinking more here the quality of our defending and the quality of our defenders improves especially trustee and anel if they stay now suit are coming in potentially makes trustees presence less um uh like we're less dependent on him to play so many games although he's not played many in preseason trust day in terms of starts so i do wonder if he's sort of not being phased out but i'd be surprised if he starts the season even if suit would not play yeah um but yeah you know we've got those players just have to get better because they were not good last season um anel if he stays is a big one you know we're going to see the anel from that season in the championship and if so happy days but if he's half-ass in it you know waiting for a move yeah yeah we're going to meet him for a bad team but yeah you got a you got a fancy the defense has got a good chance of improving you know suit are coming in should should help definitely uh you know another right back when they sign should help yeah the field Chris comes in you know as you know it's a good defender by 15 games i think for jealousy last season we're all hoping burrows is better than anyone's played at left back in the last couple years hey i'm i'm uh i'm at you know as a steady steady performer at this level you know all the numbers back that up not nothing spectacular but better than what we had last season i would have thought um and then as you said anel and if anel stay i don't know what's gonna happen where no i don't think anyone does but if anel stays that if he can replicate that form at the beginning of that his first season that's a fantastic defense to have you know him suit a gilchrist robinson trusty to come in we're looking really really good and yeah i think like you say last season we're only 104 goals we conceded i think so i achieved yeah i think once the clean sheets come you know if suit comes in as well in particular and gilchrist and he's a sort of new defense obviously burrows as well and and a new keeper as well that should give him confidence you can get a couple of clean sheets in a row that that should change yeah right now i don't with the two goalkeepers that we have i don't expect many clean sheets clean sheets straight away um because yeah clean sheets and sickbeats um you would hope will be better from set pieces defensively with suit yeah under new goalkeeper when they arrive but um we'll see i guess it's not it's not guaranteed i mean yeah there's a i guess suit are more like that should make us better defensively from set pieces we we you know we were absolutely horrendous just a fast one i mean almost it felt like every corner or or three kick was going to be a goal for the opposition a lot of the time it was it was yeah yeah so we're just donating three goals everywhere and uh yeah we we can't do that this season you know championship teams i it's a bit of a cliche but championship teams do rely on set pieces a bit more you know kind of built towards that um so yeah we'll see i'm not i'm not guaranteeing that uh we'll suddenly be impregnable from set pieces but you god damn we've got to get surely we'll be better you know hopefully this this feels like a really likely one to come off i think yeah we're not going to consider it on four this way yeah because we're going to find this season now i don't think we we need to be better so another thing as well in a negative sense as it stands not that many goals in the team you know realistically no aim at can score or no air can score more we're going to have to be a lot more solid because i don't think we we haven't got anyone really in the team you could you compare it to the team that went up we had met bernay and die mackety uh billy sharp was still there you could point to these people and say well you know they're going to get your goals at the moment there's only really hammer and more who have proven to score goals regular at this level well so hair's goal record like i don't think it's that good to be honest i don't think it's that good um i'm so obsessed with blooming progressive caries and stuff that i haven't actually looked at how many goals he's got yeah he's he didn't get too many i got six last season for Coventry zero the year before five years oh yeah zero the year before we're gonna have to be more solid anyway because you can't concede hundred and four goals and succeed in any in any leagues uh oh yes quite um right and then we've got a couple of off field ones which i think will be a big contributor to us having a good season take over not only complete but also puts us in a stronger financial position for january and beyond now it seems you know pretty likely that this takeover is not going to be completed in time to affect this transfer window very much like you know even if it's completed this week that still only leaves a few weeks of transfer window left and i don't know it just doesn't feel like we're suddenly gonna go out and sign like you know a couple of five million pounds players in the next few weeks it just to be honest that doesn't even feel like a particularly good strategy like maybe you should actually put a bit more forward planning into it but let's say it does complete at some point in the next couple of months and puts us in a position where you know if we're a playoff team in january we can we can take a few swings and you know maybe bringing a really high price load or you know plucked someone out of league one or something like that or someone who's a only a backup in the Premier League that could come in and strengthen us um yeah maybe do not go into my transfer embargo would also help yeah uh who we're gonna have to sell to keep the lights on but yeah yeah would also help um you would hope that this is likely i don't you know i'm not thinking like roman abramavitch like Chelsea kind of thing here but just put us on a footing where we can roll the dice a bit in january i also think it morale wise it'd be big if they take over happens because i was the four blades i thought they were spot on and there's definitely been a mood change against the prince um on the majority of fans um and i think if we start off badly that's gonna get really toxic and i think it's gonna get and that that obviously will affect the team and i i sort of said last season in a half joking way that i hope it gets toxic next season because i want to see some anger because everyone with that apathetic i think that will happen i think that the mood is definitely turned against the owner i think if you get a new owner in everyone swayed you know he's not gonna come in and say i'm gonna sell the players he's gonna give some sort of spiel about you know or whoever it is about how we're gonna and everyone's gonna get excited and i think that could be massive for morale we all know we're not really gonna get any better under this owner i'm probably only going to head one way under this owner as it as it stands so i think it will give everyone a boost yeah that's a good point actually yeah just getting out of that limbo situation of like you know if this is the third time that we publicly that we've tried to sell the club in the last few years yeah i think from a vibes perspective that will help things a lot it will sort of yeah you could potentially unify the fanbase i suppose i know they're listing the short term i think i was fans all looking over the all thinking what's going on in the background because we've obviously got the minus two we had the embargo you know we we who was going to be sold to to keep things going we know about the do it we're it's been a disaster off the page let's not let's not you know sugar coating for the past two or three years and people are going to be thinking about that even if things are going well as they were in the promotion season and i think that should allow you any sort of fears of that as well and everyone should probably get back on the same page i'm not saying this i'm not saying the new owners will be better than the prince i don't know what's going to happen but initially it's you know the um the feel good factor should should happen and everyone should be on the same page at least where they're not at the moment i think a lot of the fans are against the owner and the current regime fresh start right like you know just a total blank slate of uh yeah who knows where this could go we don't we don't know if it'll be particularly good or particularly bad yet but at least we'd all be kind on the same page i suppose like and you could look for the you can look to the future as well i don't think we can do that at the moment with whatever the chances start trying to sell i mean i've seen people say the rebuilds going well i've massively disagree because the i think the loan signings that we look like to be bringing in are fantastic and you need them but we've signed five permanent players and like he's 14 we've let go i'm not 18 eight to get someone picking up on this in the right the fourth was four of them alone players but so he's 14 players of let go and five to come in that's not a rebuild as it stands you know that's knocking your house down and bringing half the bricks to rebuild it um so i and i and the reason that rebuild is not happening is because this owner doesn't have the the money or whatever it is and we can't really look to the future we're looking again quite short termism i think um they're going to bring four or five loans in and whatever we might buy someone with your soul the money but realistically it's it's not a rebuild it's not the sort of rebuild that a club in our position needs with with the amount of players that we've lost yeah well and the owner's trying to sell he wants out like you know we're we're in a we're in this holding pattern until it happens right like yeah we you know so it's sort of a holding pattern that is uh gradually declining to earth i would suggest yeah well this is the thing that like i say you can't look to the future while over the the owner is saying i don't well you might want to be here but you know he's looking to at least give up the majority of his shares so i don't know like i say even if we didn't if we didn't go up this season i think it's going to be panic stations and i don't know if we will go whatever but if we don't go up it's going to be panic stations because we know that this owner can't afford to run a championship club if we got no owners in you could possibly look and say well all right we didn't go up but he looked promising and you know we can bring him in maybe you know he's just a lot more exciting yeah absolutely so i i do think that is a big deal as well because obviously it's a story that's dragged on through the summer i think everyone is sick of it essentially um and just wants it over with yeah ideally over with because it has been completed not because um yeah perhaps the whatever um okay and then the last one i've got is a best case scenario um and this is a big one as well wilder's got his mojo back and he he is something approx something close to the manager he was um pre-COVID and arguably at Middlesbrough before it went sour there you know he took he took a bunch of good players and um he had them playing very well you know the underlying numbers had a had a much better team than the one he left um and karaq obviously inherited that and you know kicked them on even further yeah it's you know i haven't seen either of these interviews to be honest there was an interview after um uh the hooders feel friendly which you know didn't ring a alarm bells but it seemed to seem to be it sounded like it was um you know he's he's saying what we're all thinking kind of thing and then we got very frustrated yeah yeah yeah yeah he we're obviously really really frustrated with the lack of activity um and he didn't really call anyone out but i think they were underlined tones there that all was not well um and then it sounds like we've had a sort of uh you know media day interview the other day that's uh i mean eggy says we're gonna win the league now after watching that apparently so i need to watch it as well yeah um but yeah now like i say i'm not i've not seen this media once before i'm gonna i'm gonna check that out but he seems like he's more of his old self we know what he's an emotional manager he's art on the sleeve and that's what people loved about him he never showed the coat with it he never he never came out and said we played well and we didn't play well and stuff like that so he's going to be emotional throughout the season but i i'll listen to the pinch podcast um the interview george elik from not the top 20 podcast and he was saying and he's probably right there's this narrative that loves that word as well well they don't know narrative um he's just narrative about chris wilder where he's just this busted flush in reality he's probably had one bad season overall because the middle bro you know he was good with middle bro in that first season they all loved him nearly got him in the playoffs second season didn't happen he'd left before christmas then he went to waltford who you put pep in charge of waltford nothing's going to change there and then he came into wars and again put pep in charge of us last season and nothing we're going to change so this is a massive season for wilder and i think he knows this as well yeah i'm fascinated to see if this comes off honestly right if we see why it would be a departure from last season wouldn't it in terms of his i don't know everything really is is is uh in-game management is tactical you know ability is yeah man management uh the kind of players he's bringing in is is mood i suppose and you know how he i guess redirects criticism if you like or deflects criticism and yeah i'm really interested if he doesn't get what he wants which i don't know what's going to happen and if the prince stays how long he can bite his tongue so he would definitely buy any song in that interview and that's pre-season so yeah as i said i didn't watch it i just saw a few clips like with the sound off on my social media and he was you know tugging at his air and his face and stuff as he's answering these questions um yeah as as well they've got his mojo back he's backing you know it's it was an impossible job last season yeah i'm not going to blame at all for that it was an impossible job that he you know his predecessor had as well yes but yeah he he didn't uh he didn't film me with much optimism um going into this season i guess well i didn't want him back because i thought he were trying for a new slate and i want to see it but i actually i don't know if he's just pre-season optimism or you know what people fans do get i am glad he's at the club now with everything that's going off off the page i am glad we've got someone there who didn't and then all managers do care but this guy it's not just about him caring because he's shuffled you know at a farm this is massive for him this is absolutely huge for him because i do think he's been wrongly you know put on the dinosaur you know dustbin or what in the dinosaur dustbin or whatever but because he's only really had one half of a bad job because i can't really blame him at all for what happened to Watford and in his last season i don't think he improved his but i don't think anyone would have improved his i don't think anyone would have thought of that Watford team has we saw last season yeah i guess so uh yeah the sort of negative there is that um it's kind of that tongue biting thing you alluded to that it's so beholden to this job that he kind of has to you know suck it up essentially and just do what he's told and yeah that's i don't know if that's conducive to like a productive working relationship but like is a the hierarchy of a football club so um we'll see especially if there's a takeover you know we may feel um you know re empowered if you like yeah um so yeah we'll see so yeah to have a best-case scenario season we need to sign at least four or five more starting caliber players needs to keep haymer brooks or another youngster needs to take a big step forward injuries have to dry up the defense has to improve the takeover has to complete complete and put us in a stronger financial position and uh while the recaptures his mojo all those things happen mate we're going back to the the dreaded Premier League as i'm going to keep calling it but we'll have a fun season we'll win far more games than we lose and um yeah i'll feel uh i'll feel like i can forget the previous season because i've really enjoyed this one um worst case scenario won't dwell on these because a lot of them are going to they're depressing and a lot of them are getting sort of you know diametrically opposed to the things that we just said so we'll run through them a bit more quickly now the worst case scenario we don't sign a new goalkeeper we are team Evo and team madam davis all the way this season and we think that that is acceptable and it ain't that's just that's gonna you know hamstring our efforts to be a playoff team uh well we we're not going to get in playoffs let's be honest if if we're not sure if our first tries goalkeeper yeah and uh i i don't know i feel like people should be up in arms but if that's what happens if they're trying to see something no surely not i think this is as unlikely as as getting out of my promotion it's what i was just as likely as that i think we will sign someone i think the i suppose one of the concerns is is we'll go we'll get on to the injuries again in a bit if the keeper gets injured or something like that or he just has a couple of bad games in a row and loses his confidence whoever he may be that's going to be bad but you can't you know that every club could have that you know what i mean so we absolutely need a goalkeeper though yeah yeah so this is very very unlikely that we go through the whole season with gurbish and um and davis but it's you know there's there's kind of unlikely to me that we would start at Preston with one of those two and that's what's happened so i'm not rolling it out but yeah we're you know heavily linked with the cooper of plymeth uh it was rush worth play for he was uh he was he bright and there were swans that i see that's right yeah um yeah just just give me anyone man like they don't need to be a permanent sign in at this stage cooper is linked as a permanent sign i think rushworth would be on low and obviously what's wazzle up to and in uh any some big money as well he should um yeah so if we have no new keeper uh forget it for this season mate yeah it's it's gonna be a bad time uh anell and hamer both leave with the latter going at the last minute yeah there's a small chance we could replace hamer at the last minute we did it with burger if you remember we pulled the trigger real quick on hamer after burger left and we have cone a lined up if you remember when we tried to sell burger in january last that's true yeah and i'm good job in inside in by like i don't know how well he's doing a walker but i think he's pulled up any trees but yeah so we met i was whole i trust wilders do this i not know if i trust the club but i want help that we have continuously plans in place if that does happen surely if hamer does have this release clause we have a like it's practically you know we've had conversations with other teams of like look we're coming in with this much of a bit yeah for your player is this acceptable yes or no we need to know now yeah yeah but again it's you know that's not i don't know that it's not unusual is it for a team to lose a key player right at the end of the window and not be able to replace them in time so or the replacement not being very good i'd argue if gilchrist comes in with sort of already replaced and now it is you know i'd like another defender but i i think suit her and uh gilchrist could could play alongside robinson and trusty or whatever and and you've got enough defenders there but yeah hamer's the big one because you're not going to get anyone you want to fall with his sort of quality um fit for the money that we'll be able to spend from it so you might be looking at a different way and bringing a couple in which is obviously even more difficult especially if it happens at the last minute yeah absolutely um but yeah that would that would be very bad if uh well if both of those leave particular hamer as we're talked about already um what if gil t takes a step back i mentioned those last week and i think it is quite possible you know it is robinson's been really good the last couple of seasons but it's been it's been sort of really good almost in a like a backhanded compliment way like really good relative to i guess how we expect him to play it's still probably only a middling championship defender right is you know is is a bit of a non-factor on the ball um yeah he's he's a good defender but he's not much more than that of things um what if he goes back to being a slightly below average defender now we might we might be okay if you've got souta here and but you'd come in and relying on trusty stepping up um which i don't feel good about so i i don't know i feel like we've all sort of written him in uh robinson as like he's you know just lock him in for 46 games or whatever and he'll he'll do a final job what if he doesn't what if he has a really bad season i don't think this is again i don't think this is that that important given the defenders that we brought in you can always go up to a floor on the back or whatever i don't think he's is especially for keeper now i don't think he's as important as he may have been a couple of weeks ago when we didn't have any you know well we were out so we're not saying i think he'll crystal come in so i don't think that's that important what i do think it's important he looks like he's gonna be club captain i'm not sure if that's a great thing if you don't play every week i don't know who it was going to be the captain if if you don't play i think that is an important role yeah well it might be someone who wouldn't eat yeah it could be i mean i'm very short leaders yeah now everyone with like a market joe warrall is captain i don't think he's going to come in now with the defenders that we've signed so be interested to see who comes in yeah i don't know like well suit as leadership skills alike or you don't really want a long player as captain is it going to be our blaster again he was key for more you know his experience i don't know but yeah i'm not quite as bothered about the the robinson because i think even if robinson doesn't play as well as lassie's and he's still good enough to come in and do a job for yeah for enough i think it's a season yeah just kind of understand underline our lack of uh i don't know leadership i guess as it stands anyway you know we it's not to say a couple of players can't step up and become yeah you know this is my team i'm i'm going to drag it by the scruff of the night you know hammer showed some of those qualities lassie's and i suppose to an extent our blaster obviously as he said got the uh armband for a while um injuries continue and this feels likely unfortunate but particularly affect more burrows and oh hair and hammer i think this is it this for me is the whether we're getting the playoffs or whether we like i said keep saying it if we keep that first 11 on first 14 to 15 once the players come in fit i think we'll get in the playoffs i think if we i'm just going to read you the team out here we add 14 injuries when we played stoke city away underacking bottom and can you remember this game where we both wrote it off after i remember doing the podcast saying we can't read anything into that because we had that many injuries that let me just read you the team out um what played in that game we had fodringham carring gordon chris bashham john egan rith nighting Davis james mackatie all of an old tommy doil illaman and die rian bruister and read a cadre that team is miles better than the one that will have this season if we won't fall in injury that's incredibly depressing you could make the case that's better than the team we're going to put out on friday you could you could yeah i mean doil norward mackatie made feels not bad is it you know yeah i know i know like mackatie was just sort of he was still in his like we're not sure is a real play uh phase so yeah but yeah i mean that defense is well the goalkeepers obviously better it's it was all keepers better and dies in there i guess you're got caron gordon at right back yeah i mean caron gordon i mean running or in davis as well left by not bad bashham as a two when he sent her off never worked but on the same what i'm saying is that that's with 14 injuries that and that's like we had the depth to put that team out what if we got the bench what was the bench that doing the bench was adam davis sancher it's actually i can't believe right sashdev andrew brox who obviously had never played at that point ben ausborn daniel jeberson billish up and oli rblaster okay so the bench is comparable with what we're probably going to have on friday for example but yes it's close it's close and that is as you say that is with 14 injuries and uh right now we don't have 14 injuries uh let's let's hope that continues um but i won't rule it out yeah if if if we do get as injury here we're in for a bad time i think i didn't ask you this off the but what do you think is the what is the floor on this team i think like well if if these worst case scenario things and we've got a couple more um come off what do you think could be the worst case scenario for this season i suppose it depends on how long term the injuries are if they're just missing six or seven weeks it'll absolutely blow any promotion bid but it'll probably keep us out of trouble because when they come back you know they can they can provide i don't think we'll be in a relegation battle famous last words but i do think we'll be at the lower end of the table if if we get the same sort of injuries as we did under hecking bottom we're going to be scrubbing around in 16 17 18 i think yeah i do think there's a possibility of a relegation pile like yeah i don't think it's out of the question people laugh at you about that i've seen people say we're not going to go down if we get these injuries you all i say to people think we've been over the top take 40 in players out of this squad and put your team together and see if you think that'll stay up and i i will it wouldn't no almost certainly one um yeah that's my worst case scenario i stress you know but i think it is a possibility if these things happen then i think that will happen um the next one on here is kind of related but uh what if none of the youngsters so i'd like for example lewy marsh uh femi sariquia in hampson what if none of those are close to first team readiness yet leaving us relying on a squad that's far too small and yeah we just kind of laid it out there didn't we that i think we have to expect this as well i i i think this is probably more likely than yeah having a crippling injury list to be honest it's just a huge ask for any of those to suddenly go from probably too standard to you know a team with championship playoff ambitions you can pull sariquia and marshy and maybe for for the odd game yeah you can be fudge it yeah yeah but they can't be playing more than five games this season realistic life unless like you say unless we as the best case scenario one of them breaks through we saw it david brooks he sort of came out of nowhere we knew we were talented but we're going to go online to chest to feel that a fantastic preseason sudden like you know he's he's our best player and on his way to to bottom of the season after it can happen marsh could just step up all the sudden become like david brooks but you can't expect that you cannot expect that to happen if sariquia starts on uh friday that for me should be one of no us no offense you know he should be on loan some way should not be playing at a a championship club we want promotion unless he's massively and he might have i can only go on what i've seen and the the views that i've got from mother and fams i've not seen him play so he might have massively improved like saying the way that brooks did slate it came on fairly rapid like you know when he went to whole he really came into his own ben white men and there's loads of success stories but it happened but doesn't normally happen like that normally you have to build in the way not in david's did and have a few loans or even arblaster harry mcguire played how many games in league one i don't know do you know i mean just and he would never become the player that he were going to become that he has become um you know now everyone's a carl walker yeah uh what if the takeover falls through or transpires to leave us in the same or worse financial position as we are currently meaning no strengthening in january and potentially selling players to keep the lights on as you said could happen you know we've we've said last week um you know it seems pretty apparent that uh new owners it doesn't look like they're gonna move the needle financially that much otherwise yeah i don't know wolf a star as you think it would have completed by now but you feel there would be more noise around it i suppose um so yeah that they are i think the absolute worst case is it falls through and we've just wasted an entire summer and the whole process needs to start again um but yeah there's also a possibility that it doesn't really help us that much apart from you know unifying the fan base in the short term i suppose with the the sort of unknown factor yeah definite definite possibility i think yeah but now he needs an ounce of it i will never i hate the word i think i think i've seen down a smith to eat it a few times and i hate this term since the kevin the cave days of self-sustaining because realistically that means you're gonna go down it's impossible you can't self-sustaining the championship you can't do it and if he doesn't sell this season or before next season we're in for a yeah and we don't go up i think we know what's coming we we had a you know we we had a real scare of this like um the season before if you aren't i gonna that season on the wrecking bottom then god knows where we'd be we're very very close to finding out what i think it is if the sales doesn't go through about what we're gonna happen then i'm not i don't know what you know how about it a get or if it's just gonna be fire sales to keep going but we are gonna if we if we don't have the parachute payments this chairman whatever you think of him whatever you think he is you know as a how he how he's been a custodian of the club he does not have the money to to run a championship club and he will end up we will end up in lead one yeah well the other thing is and i i don't want to really dwell on this because it hasn't happened yet but we we've kind of run out of that running out of assets to sell me you know yes if this falls through and we we're in a situation where it's like oh we need to you know make up another i don't know get to say say it falls this is you know worst case as we talk about falls through we have a mediocre season we're still in the championship next season we need to make up another massive shortfall as the parachute payments you know decline year on year and that obviously will be the last season of them who we selling it's is hamer who has this release clause apparently and you know probably i don't know i've lost the silver out of the big football you were thought one of those four probably gone this summer so yeah and teams will obviously have us pounced down on price that stage was all never up against it i'm 10 million in for solo which i never expected so i don't know what the market is it's so honest well i guess so but then you know that sounds like it's largely being swallowed up into running costs so then you have to question what is the financial situation at the club you know if we need to suddenly raise 10 million what does that mean for the new owners you know when they come in are they happy enough to sell that asset 10 million like and if they are is that good yeah sorry sorry we are in the worst case all right the last the last thing in the worst case uh what if wilder is yesterday's man or gets replaced with someone worse by new owners with grand ideas which again is a possibility you could have somebody coming in and going like get rid of this dinosaur i am bringing in some complete randomer from wherever that i read an article about on Forbes and thought was a good one i think this i think wilder will i've said this before i think i'll have to do very well to still have a job by the end of the season for two reasons one of them is if the takeover goes through most you know new owners want their own man but that's nothing to do with what you know wilder unless wilder is really really performing and gets us in the top six or whatever they're going to probably want their own man and if it falls through these you know i i think it's going to be a difficult season um because i don't know i think he's got i if you ask me now will wilder be our manager this time next season i'll say no and that's nothing to do with his ability or nothing i'm really impressed with him this pre-season how he's wheeled and dealed and got players in but i just think it's going to be a massive ask for him to it'll last it it'll do a really really good job to be still in this position next season yeah i agree with you i definitely go with you on on that um yeah the other thing is you know what if he what if he just isn't a good manager anymore i mean i know you said we've talked about like the extenuating circumstances of last season and you know what you're saying about oh he's really only one bad season well he didn't make us better last season possibly made us worse i've seen my team win one game since december i think like you know because i wasn't at the loot in a way game we just what if he is just not a good manager anymore and it's i don't know it's it's been here for a long time now like ten months all right started in November and nine months yeah yeah that's a long time to you know it's not like we're judging him on four games at the end of the season here or anything um yeah i think it is a i think there's a very real possibility that he's just not the manager he was five years ago it's a long time ago um and yeah if that's the case then yeah who knows where we're going to be massive possibility massive but for all the good talk he's done and for all i think he's made some really good signings given the limitations we're going to see what happens on the pitch aren't we're going to see what happens um but yeah i mean managers do loot i don't know what ten years ago not even that Nigel Atkins but probably you know like one of the hottest managers around poleham that's another and you know and and oh in coyle and all these people who everyone thought were going to be this next thing and they just lose whatever happens football moves on and they don't move on with it it could happen yeah and he wouldn't be in a job if you didn't have the connection with the owner no like he would not be managing they certainly got a job in the Premier League so it's it's only that that is as kind of kept him at this level he might well have still been out of work like the last year yeah i'm trying to think like i'm just looking like down the leagues i think he's the sort of manager with his record in the past few years rightly or wrong with this is he'd be at a black burn or a press turn or someone like that at best i think yeah this is what i mean i don't i feel like they'd take a swing on a younger manager at this point and while there's not age it you know it's not royage scenario but um yeah i just feel like they probably would take a swing on a young man again a huge thing and like i keep saying it's a massive season for us but he said it's probably the biggest season almost for wilder yeah in his managerial career whether he you know can hit the heights again and go i mean but you know David Moyes were written off uh five six years ago as like being old school and he had a fantastic job at west i know he's been sacked but everyone gets sacked now but he'd done a fantastic bit you know i i think 50% of Premier League clubs would have David Moyes now because he's rebuilt his reputation yeah yeah true um what was i gonna say about this uh yeah so i like that that idea of like you know this is it has to work for him it's a massive season from but i also felt the last season was a massive season for him and uh i don't know it didn't it didn't fill me with joy to be honest that the wilder experience wanted return um but there we go uh so that's yeah best case worst case scenario let me let me just put put his put yourself on the neck on the line mate where where do you actually you know based on all those things it's a you know we talked a little bit about how likely we think each one actually is to come off um taking that into account where do you actually think we will finish and you can i'll let you i'll you know make some assumptions as to we're not gonna just not sign anyone for the next few weeks i'm gonna go i'll go eighth because i think we'll get a decent squad in but i just don't know how i just think the depth is that bad that if the injury is uh half as bad as they have been i think we're really struggle i think it could go either way i really did i think like again they said it on the pinch podcast and i think you know it out of all the teams in the division i've looked at all i've listened to all these uh podcasts you know people rate is 124 Ben Bloom not talk to any other people as well and i think out of all the ones we are the least would be the hardest to predict because we could go top six if we keep that first 11 together and bring some more in but we could easily be in the bottom half of the table if we get a few injuries it's so i'm gonna sort of go in between almost and say eight yeah i i'd go slightly lower i think i think we'll be in that sort of 10th to 12th yeah 10th to 14th range i just i don't know it's too many unknowns there's too many unknowns i feel like there's i feel like we're starting from a really low base like i feel like so much i feel like loads has to go right for us as we kind of talked about to be a yeah a top six team i just yeah it's not enough to just say well we've got some really good players but we don't have many of them we don't have any depth i don't know if wild is good i don't know if we're gonna have to sell someone else the injuries are obviously a massive factor um yeah i don't know what had happened this exercise as well with the worst and best case scenario that you know the worst case scenario as you said could sense to be a relegation battle that and people have laughed at that it's not ludicrous if you just look at the amount of injuries that we got last time if that happens and the best case scenario could be top two if that team clicks because there's some real talent so i think it makes sense to go in the middle for now because we don't know that we'll have a better idea in a couple of moments of i think but we're not going to know in fact for a couple of months because he's a completely new team sitting right on that fence i'm going to pin a number down i'll say 10th i'll take the optimistic range of my timetable possibilities and go with 10th okie dokie so um yeah it seems like a suler is off to a new castle sounds like that will be confirmed very very soon if it's not been already the club i've been confirmed of this so uh yeah just for britsio romano banging on about it um and i just wanted to raise this because you had a uh an insanely good prediction it turns out last season with regards to willa seuler uh you staked a chip buddy on uh one of a seuler jebison or benny triore being worth 10 million pounds i'm laughing at benny triore right now but we've got four million for him so oh yeah yeah it's by the end of last season and um i i agreed with you so i didn't go against you on the prediction and then when we when we talked about it at the end of last season we both sort of laughed at each other and you know both said like what a ridiculous prediction this was i said i can't believe i agreed with you on this well mate you nailed it no god please um yeah i think i mean if i said to you one of my chip buddy predictions would have been those three need any internet yeah none of those three will be playing for his next season would you have gone with me maybe if you told me that all three would be playing in a top flight team no gold tweet them all last season and they've all gone what for a combined 60 million of what ever it's been you that is impressive so great prediction by you and just on that note because um they're a little bit housekeeping uh for for anybody who cares we did some chip body predictions for the yoros as well um i just want to run through them because i forgot to do it last week so i predicted that uh england's participation in the yoros will come to an end before united announce their first signing you went against me on that uh you were correct because we signed i think we signed a couple of plays but so they were very shackleton and uh mackal yeah yeah we got some out that's the final so yeah so that is one nil to you on that one uh i also predicted that there'd be more own goals scored in the tournament the total goals by scotland you agreed with me on this one so there was no chip body at stake so it remains one nearly were of course more own goals scored than scotland scored um and my last one was a man city player to score in the final uh and that did not happen he scored in the final uh um yeah yeah and i don't i'm not watching if i think yeah it wasn't rogery or phoden or stokes you went against me so you win that one as well so you you leave two nil as it stands now your predictions were that ronaldo will not score and i went against you and you were correct and i was not which makes it three nil to you know it's incredible last super close yeah as i said it i were like that's he's balanced a score he takes all pen holidays but he missed a pen he had about 50 shots miss some absolutes says like the whole team was built around trying to get ronaldo this uh this is start goal but he didn't make it and your bold prediction it came off three nil uh this one did not come off but again i have to credit you for the boldness and that was hungry to make the semifinals so this looked like a realistic possibility actually like if not hungry then a team like that like austria based on it could easily be something yeah switzerland obviously if they'd beaten us um on penalties would have been in there and i'd i put them in the same level as hungry but um no i didn't happen i went against you so i i get a chip back on that one uh and your last one again got a credit here for the prediction libdom leader ed davey to be spotted at the yoros uh just in germany for obviously football related reasons no uh no no firework report it lost interest once he got his 93 seats wherever he got 73 seats or whatever it was he's gone back to be normal now he's an absolute sword i went i went against you so that's one to me so you win that three two so well done you so i owe you uh are you on balance a net balance of one chip boy so good job by you uh we'll do some more of these for this coming football season but we'll do them next week i think once we've had the first time yeah once we've had the first away game certainly um so yeah wrapping up mate it's pressing away on friday night uh hopefully gonna watch this in the pub with you i think yeah oh yeah it's on sky sports plus which is a new channel so don't get confused if you put sky sports main event on because it's uh it's another game i think it's don't cast the um okay that's weird yeah i think so yeah so looking earlier so yeah if you're in a pub time to get sky sports plus on it's uh i think you don't have to pay for any extra for it it's on you know all the normal avenue's yeah i'm fascinated mate like to see how this goes you know we've got we've got play a bunch of players i've not seen yeah burrows oh hair i've not seen more playfurs because i've not paid attention to these friendlies uh suit are obviously coming in that's so you know that's suddenly like a one to look for every time and get a free kick or a corner um we obviously have the potential for a bit of a bomb scare at the back with the goalkeeper uh right back is pretty likely to be syriki i think unless somebody signs the next couple of days so you know i mean i'm interested to see if he is much better than i think it is essentially um yeah who knows Preston's your proper uh proper championship yardstick comment sorry yeah the most championship team of all time yeah Preston uh fans are not uh optimistic whatsoever they've obviously lost the well what your class is one of the best plays in alan brown um and uh yeah the not best player well one of i think well no but you probably rise just like that's so Preston isn't it yeah he's a perfectly fine championship player but the fact that he would be their best player just i mean that just screams Preston they've got recently is it Reese i want to say that that forward who scored a few goals from the season we went up but um i asked to i've got the view from uh lined up that'll be out tomorrow um one of the i thought laugh at this quote uh from a Preston player for wrestling fan uh shuffled you know how to collect in players which in my view is as bad as not having enough they've got too many players and they don't heart and they will lose heart and interest as the continuing continuous change in the eleven they will never gel as one team so come on all right players pal like oh dear uh cheddar then still plays with them apparently is it all right it's all right it's all right it's i might have done he's uh he's i'm just looking at wikipedia's let's say he's retired come on give me that sweet sweet retirement word uh because i don't want you uh i don't mean you're planning us this um yeah Ben White must have looked up to him uh it's a very very very very me i got this again off the pink podcast but it's um the 23rd last season in expected goals um very dower defensive team which is their fans are not happy about that at all judging by the view from they fairly direct play one up from which is normally uh will keen yeah they're not it's very very defensive and it'll be up to us to break them down i think yeah they don't have Daniel Johnson anymore do they he's uh yeah so yeah so that's that's good news at least it's very good you know Emma Reese Jakobson is the player i think he was the one who scored twice against us when they were down to ten men do you remember that yes i do remember that all yeah that was a low night with it um but yeah i don't know i i'm i feel like i'm just going into this season with like uh i don't really know what gesture to describe i was kind of just throwing my hands up in there of like i haven't he's a part he's not having a idea yeah i want to see he's a partridge from where it's not it's not that dismissive he's a completely sought uh you know what you got yeah sure what you've got yeah no idea um yeah it's it's not a brutal start by any means you know like uh that Watford game i mentioned they they just come down from the uh the Premier League for example he did we start against the previous season any idea no that was them that was the previous season wasn't it the previous the promotion season was Watford the one before that was burning him at home i don't even remember that Watford no yeah i've absolutely no remember oh sorry yeah this life season yeah yeah well that was yeah football was still a bit weird then that was the first game back with fun isn't it um but yeah Preston and QPR is not a is not a brutal start so you got to hope we can get above back get back in the black over the next two games but i've absolutely no idea if we could have a total disaster on Friday with a with a terrible goalkeeper at disposal everything could uh you know i think right now attack is definitely uh the best form of defense for us so or certainly from midfield anyways or shall i worry by the sounds of it we we've only got bruce to fit but yeah that's true uh who knows mate with it you know it is a new season for the i don't know for the for the first time in a while i've don't really have any expectations for how it's going to go or like high expectations no idea really excited interest in interested broad probably rather than excited to be fair but really interested to see what happens and how we set up and i would play yeah i think this is probably since just thinking back i think since wildest first season in the championship this has been the first one where i'm almost like anything above mid table is a huge bonus like just don't have massive expectations i'm kind of just looking forward to seeing how we do and yeah i mean look it's we don't play a home game for another eight days after this but i would like to see my team win at home again like i really would like to see my team win at home again but let's let's start with a win full stop i suppose on Friday night against Preston um yeah i hope it's not produced up front on his own because otherwise those hamstrings are going to be a ping probably shortly around half time all the much right they're not talked to the big lad right let's wrap up mate uh what what you got to plug i presume the view from Preston is is getting locked and loaded is it imminent yeah that's dawnish right i'll be posting that tomorrow morning uh the prejudice is anything else that comes up got the view from harry sue uh out as well good reviews on the whole for him from stock and last the fans uh hopefully i'll be releasing the gill christ one uh today if that gets done um and they're good reviews as well really good reviews uh on him so you know exciting times um so that's all i've raised view from dot com and then we've got the new series of mainly started yesterday i know it's starting landing my feed last night series eight series eight proper long standing podcast and we're starting with the main man himself a lot of people asked us through a channel five did the documentary on Richard and judo so we cover that too much hilarious some terrible impressions really bad impressions uh part part for the course for you too yeah uh women are still uh new one was out last week uh united sign full back abby Lafayette from uh from whatford uh few players assign new contracts as well still a pretty small squad because uh ash hodson retired just six with retired those were two of the uh well they were basically the only two remaining like senior players as in players over the age of 23 sorry i said uh yeah ash hodson retired retired just six with retired so fie haywood has left and joined new castle so um yeah there's still only like five players on the books and there's a month till kick off now so i expect to see stuff starting to happen quite soon i guess um because otherwise yeah we're leaving it pretty late um i'm gonna do i don't think i've told you this yet but uh i'm gonna do like a special with um anna kent from rainbow blades as well uh podcast yeah so that that'll go in this feed um it'll be like a bonus episode so look out for that uh in a in a couple of weeks when i go back from week holidays and when we're a bit closer to uh women's season starting so yeah looking forward to talking to anna about um united women uh yeah that's womenasteel.substack.com you're obviously already subscribed to this if you're listening to it. Roy'sViewFrom.com and Living With Madely is your project project your podcast with Liam project it was kind of a project um right mate the season is upon us uh let's hope we get off to a good start and get um get those minus two points in the rear rear window um i'll see you on friday thank you very much for your time mate really really appreciate as always and uh yeah i'll sieve for the uh the kickoff yeah i'll see you friday paul thanks a lot You