True that!

I am not sure what people realistically want with our club. All I want is for the club to play more entertaining football and not the dreary negative fayre we get dished up every week. OK. Part right; part over-statement. But there are colossal risks seeking to play entertaining football on our budget.

Others have done it. Yup, but usually accompanied by an astonishingly lucky alignment of stars, like Leicester 2015. And would you risk it with our ageing squad (which is not down to Roy)?

Others seem prepared to support our club taking the gamble. Go down fighting but with pride. Very noble, very short sighted and they would be the same people who would be the first to get on the backs of the management when we get stuffed 5-3 every week.

Relegation is not an option but right now it is unthinkable. Blades fans would swap their position with ours in a heartbeat.

And if we do pump funds in [which we obviously don't have] and rise up the table, to what end? We all know what a poison chalice the Europa League is for a club our size, so we don't want to end there until we're ready. Just off that gives us, say 8th. This would be a respectable finish and our highest in the modern Prem [but you lot out there would still complain]. However, the only financial difference for us between that place and where we are now is £10m. You would have to invest way more than that to achieve that return. I know other clubs are doing that; but seriously, what sensible business would do that?

We now have cat 1 youth status and just need to get passed the ransom strip dispute with Sainsbury's before the ground is re-built [where funds have been ring-fenced]. The training and support facilities have also been brought up to Prem standards. We have not stood still. However, Covid must have battered our resources, like everyone else's. To survive this cycle, we need to tightly control expenditure but ensure the Prem income continues. That means treading water in safe mid table on a restricted budget. If the faith in the vaccine is paid, that could mean us [and Burnley, who follow the same path] entering the new season, hardly awash with money but at least in a safe financial condition to build on. Can the same be said of others with already vast, possibly unsustainable, debt?

There are other issues that will plague our summer. 19 contracts up for renewal, a very old squad and limited resources available to refresh it. I can see a few players leaving, a lot of 1 year extensions and most of those who stay having to be flogged to get just one more season out of them. Next season will be that little bit more difficult.

And so to Roy. Where does he feature in all this? He doesn't control the business side, and is probably only consulted on player acquisition. His role, as I see it, is to keep the club in that safe mid table, to ride out the current economic storm, to get that extra % from those ageing players, and to safely steer the club to its next level. Within this scheme, he seems to me to be the perfect man for that job and is doing it OK.

The trouble is, this plan is long term and requires caution, prudence and patience. These are features that many fans on here clearly do not have in abundance.

Good post, and these 30 plus players at the end of their contracts can't keep on playing forever, neither can a 73 year old manager stuck in his ways be expected to carry the club on to the next phase of development over the next few years. We are at that point where change will happen, come what may.

True that!

I am not sure what people realistically want with our club. All I want is for the club to play more entertaining football and not the dreary negative fayre we get dished up every week. OK. Part right; part over-statement. But there are colossal risks seeking to play entertaining football on our budget.

Others have done it. Yup, but usually accompanied by an astonishingly lucky alignment of stars, like Leicester 2015. And would you risk it with our ageing squad (which is not down to Roy)?

Others seem prepared to support our club taking the gamble. Go down fighting but with pride. Very noble, very short sighted and they would be the same people who would be the first to get on the backs of the management when we get stuffed 5-3 every week.

Relegation is not an option but right now it is unthinkable. Blades fans would swap their position with ours in a heartbeat.

And if we do pump funds in [which we obviously don't have] and rise up the table, to what end? We all know what a poison chalice the Europa League is for a club our size, so we don't want to end there until we're ready. Just off that gives us, say 8th. This would be a respectable finish and our highest in the modern Prem [but you lot out there would still complain]. However, the only financial difference for us between that place and where we are now is £10m. You would have to invest way more than that to achieve that return. I know other clubs are doing that; but seriously, what sensible business would do that?

We now have cat 1 youth status and just need to get passed the ransom strip dispute with Sainsbury's before the ground is re-built [where funds have been ring-fenced]. The training and support facilities have also been brought up to Prem standards. We have not stood still. However, Covid must have battered our resources, like everyone else's. To survive this cycle, we need to tightly control expenditure but ensure the Prem income continues. That means treading water in safe mid table on a restricted budget. If the faith in the vaccine is paid, that could mean us [and Burnley, who follow the same path] entering the new season, hardly awash with money but at least in a safe financial condition to build on. Can the same be said of others with already vast, possibly unsustainable, debt?

There are other issues that will plague our summer. 19 contracts up for renewal, a very old squad and limited resources available to refresh it. I can see a few players leaving, a lot of 1 year extensions and most of those who stay having to be flogged to get just one more season out of them. Next season will be that little bit more difficult.

And so to Roy. Where does he feature in all this? He doesn't control the business side, and is probably only consulted on player acquisition. His role, as I see it, is to keep the club in that safe mid table, to ride out the current economic storm, to get that extra % from those ageing players, and to safely steer the club to its next level. Within this scheme, he seems to me to be the perfect man for that job and is doing it OK.

The trouble is, this plan is long term and requires caution, prudence and patience. These are features that many fans on here clearly do not have in abundance.

True that!

I am not sure what people realistically want with our club. All I want is for the club to play more entertaining football and not the dreary negative fayre we get dished up every week. OK. Part right; part over-statement. But there are colossal risks seeking to play entertaining football on our budget.

Others have done it. Yup, but usually accompanied by an astonishingly lucky alignment of stars, like Leicester 2015. And would you risk it with our ageing squad (which is not down to Roy)?

Others seem prepared to support our club taking the gamble. Go down fighting but with pride. Very noble, very short sighted and they would be the same people who would be the first to get on the backs of the management when we get stuffed 5-3 every week.

Relegation is not an option but right now it is unthinkable. Blades fans would swap their position with ours in a heartbeat.

And if we do pump funds in [which we obviously don't have] and rise up the table, to what end? We all know what a poison chalice the Europa League is for a club our size, so we don't want to end there until we're ready. Just off that gives us, say 8th. This would be a respectable finish and our highest in the modern Prem [but you lot out there would still complain]. However, the only financial difference for us between that place and where we are now is £10m. You would have to invest way more than that to achieve that return. I know other clubs are doing that; but seriously, what sensible business would do that?

We now have cat 1 youth status and just need to get passed the ransom strip dispute with Sainsbury's before the ground is re-built [where funds have been ring-fenced]. The training and support facilities have also been brought up to Prem standards. We have not stood still. However, Covid must have battered our resources, like everyone else's. To survive this cycle, we need to tightly control expenditure but ensure the Prem income continues. That means treading water in safe mid table on a restricted budget. If the faith in the vaccine is paid, that could mean us [and Burnley, who follow the same path] entering the new season, hardly awash with money but at least in a safe financial condition to build on. Can the same be said of others with already vast, possibly unsustainable, debt?

There are other issues that will plague our summer. 19 contracts up for renewal, a very old squad and limited resources available to refresh it. I can see a few players leaving, a lot of 1 year extensions and most of those who stay having to be flogged to get just one more season out of them. Next season will be that little bit more difficult.

And so to Roy. Where does he feature in all this? He doesn't control the business side, and is probably only consulted on player acquisition. His role, as I see it, is to keep the club in that safe mid table, to ride out the current economic storm, to get that extra % from those ageing players, and to safely steer the club to its next level. Within this scheme, he seems to me to be the perfect man for that job and is doing it OK.

The trouble is, this plan is long term and requires caution, prudence and patience. These are features that many fans on here clearly do not have in abundance.