BREWSTER’S MILLIONS
Wilder blamed over fee
CHRIS WILDER has been accused of publicly talking up Rhian Brewster – and costing Sheffield United £23.5million on the misfit striker.
The Blades splashed out a club-record fee to sign the England Under-21 frontman from Liverpool in October, but he has not scored in 23 games.
And owner Prince Abdullah reckons the former Sheffield United manager wrecked the club’s chances of just landing Brewster on loan.
The Saudi prince claims he and chief executive Stephen Bettis wanted to persuade Liverpool to agree to a loan with a view to a permanent transfer this summer if they had stayed up.
He says Wilder undermined their position by speaking publicly about how much he liked Brewster and by refusing to consider alternatives.
Prince Abdullah claims Wilder was just as resolute over Aaron Ramsdale’s £18.5m signing from Bournemouth and would not consider any other goalkeepers.
“We’ve invested a lot in the club, but don’t have unlimited resources,” he said.
“I told him I will not accept in the future that if you want a player, for example Ramsdale, to come to me with one option because that put us in a weak position. The other club will know you only have one option.
“It also didn’t help that Chris talked about Brewster before we even signed him. I thought, and Stephen thought, we maybe could
have got him on loan and if we had stayed in the Premier League, we would be obliged to buy him.
“I wanted him to give me four or five targets and give me room to negotiate with the other clubs. I needed recruitment to change and
for Chris to be more open minded.” Wilder is understood to have felt undermined when the club did not sign anyone in January.
ButWilder tried to quit at the start of January and Prince Abdullah felt it was hard to sign players when he was unsure if his manager would continue at the club.
“There are three reasons we didn’t make any signings,” he added. “Number one, I think Chris resigned on the second or third of January, so how could I spend £2m-£3m extra when I’m not sure the coach will be here in three or four weeks?
“Two, we played six games and we got one point out of 18. I had to think do we really have a good chance of staying up because any money you spend now, it’s gone if you get relegated.
“Thirdly, we were talking about forward players, but when Sander Berge got injured, Chris wanted central midfielders, defensive midfielders and I thought we have enough of those.”