As if Sheffield United’s season couldn’t get any worse this year, more information is now coming to light about the shocking summer the team had.
Paul Heckingbottom was essentially sent to a gun fight without a gun when he had both Iliman Ndiaye and Sander Berge sold on the eve of the season.
United’s board caved to offers for the pair after failing to tie them down to new contracts and the loss of those two players has been felt all season long.
Ndiaye’s sale to Marseille felt inevitable at one point but the sale of Berge to Burnley, a relegation rival, stung a lot of fans.
And according to The Times, it stung Paul Heckingbottom too, who apparently only found out Berge was being sold after being sent a photo from the Burnley training ground of Berge.
Heckingbottom had said all summer he didn’t want to lose Berge or Ndiaye but saw both sold. In the end, it’s proven a cataclysmic error from the board and the whole club is now paying a price.
Sander Berge farce sums up this Sheffield United board
Things like this coming out are not a surprise and all it does is ram home the opinion that we are being run like a National League club at times, if not worse.
Selling Berge was bad enough but for Hecky to not even have a say and find out via what is basically a leak, is shocking.
Heckingbottom paid the price with his job but Chris Wilder has done no better and all we are left with now is a poor and damaged squad which shows no signs of getting a win at any point soon.
Prince Abdullah needs to get out of this club and fast. You have to question if he really does want to sell the club, given we’ve had little to no interest.
United are in danger of hurtling back down the leagues towards the League One days if they aren’t careful and after three years of PL money, have nothing to show for it.
Utterly abysmal.