Full Transcript - Every word Sheffield United owner Prince Abdullah said on Chris Wilder's departure

Read the full transcript of the interview with Sky Sports below.

On the developments that led to Chris Wilder’s departure:

I have been in the sport for 35 years, I have seen up close and worked with many coaches – World Cup winners, two World Cup finalists, many great coaches – I know some managers aren’t the easiest people to deal with, some have egos, some of the like to create their own facts and believe it.

When you deal with them you have to be flexible, you have sometimes to turn a deaf ear or blind eye just to keep the relationship going. I learnt three things: number one, the most expensive thing in football is to change general manager because what follows that usually is that you have to change the roster and changing the roster usually is expensive so if you can keep the coach or manager for a long time that’s the best thing for the club.

When the coach is average, when the coach is very good that’s more reason to try to keep. I also learn that the club is always better that the recruitment should be a club-owned process, it shouldn’t be left to the coaches. Coaches come and go and then if it’s not a club-owned policy, as I say it will lead to more changes. Coaches usually under pressure to perform now where usually the club think long-term.

Having said that, because of the special situation and the results that Chris delivered for the club the first four years before we promoted, I know that we had to make an exception and go with Chris, to jump in with Chris and not go with what I believe, what I have learnt in 35 years in football.

But in order to do that I thought that I have to do things to alleviate risk so Chris won’t leave us. I did three things: last year i gave him a new contract – four years plus one. I made him for sure the highest-paid employee in the club’s history and that’s a lot of money. If our highest player is around 50 thousand a week, Chris was more than that, substantially more than our highest salary for player.

Second thing I did, I put a huge break up clause for the contract so if any other club came looking for Chris they would have to pay us £15 million to get Chris released from his contract. Those two things were in his contract, I thought even that was not enough.

When I met Chris in Dubai last year in one of the international breaks I offered him, if he stayed five years in the club and we stayed in the Premier League, that I will give him three shares :one per cent of United World, which not only own Sheffield United, all my other clubs, all my other sports assets, some of it in North America. I thought if he can make us safe five years in Premier League then he deserves it and maybe he would be the first part-owner coach/manager in the Premier League. I really felt that, as I said, because we wanted to jump all in with Chris it’s better that we [inaudible] for a long time.

Of course this year did not start as we’d hoped. In December Steven (Bettis – Sheffield United CEO) told me that Chris started to think about resigning, I really got really worried. I thought that the phone call would not do the trick, I had to go and sit with him. Problem is that because of Covid Saudi’s are banned from leaving the country. I spent two weeks trying every way I can to get permission to leave the country. As soon as I got that permission I flew to London, I drove to Sheffield, I met Chris before the Southampton game. I told Chris ‘Listen if you lose every game from now until the end of the season we are not going to fire you, we need you to be our coach’. I’m not talking out of emotion, I’m talking because I believe that you are the best manager to bring us back to the Premier League.

I told him I’m not happy with three things, some of them we can sit after the season and talk about and some we can talk about now. I told him recruitment can be better. We should sit after the season and talk about recruitment and how can we make it better.

I told him I’m not happy sometimes after defeats how you talk to the media, especially when you lash the players like I gave him two examples when he said I can’t make cake out of sand, when he says all I have is Championship players. I told him this doesn’t reflect good on the club’s image. First of all, those players finished ninth last year, we have eight or seven internationals and it hurts the club financially because when we are negotiating with the new sponsors we always tell them even if we get relegated we have good roster to bring us back, we have good team.

When Chris comes and says we have Championship players, it doesn’t help us in any way. I’m OK with Chris taking all the credit when we do well but at least take some responsibility when we lose. Don’t under pressure of some losses go and say everything around me is rubbish, it would be nice to take some responsibility.

We talk about the January transfer window, that was just before the Southampton game. I felt that after the meeting that I gave him assurances, I made sure that I gave the same assurances, not only between me and him, I made an interview with one of the radio stations in Sheffield to assure the fans that we want Chris to stay with us even if we lose all the remaining games.

I went back to Saudi, I felt good, I felt that this storm has passed then after we lose to Crystal Palace (2 January) Steven called and said Chris wanted to resign.

I had mixed feelings. I don’t want to use big words like I felt betrayed, I felt disappointed. I felt it was my mistake because I put the club in a huge risk recruiting and the way Chris want. We put over £120m. I challenge many fans to name five clubs who invested net spending – the key is net spending because Chelsea spent £240m but they sold Hazard and Morata. I thought that we recruited the way Chris wanted us to recruit.

Look at Liverpool and Tottenham, they only have two forwards. We have six forwards on our roster, maybe the new coach will not want six, will only want two or three. We spent about £60 million on those forwards.

I didn’t think that I could talk to Chris again at that time, I wasn’t feeling very good. I let the vice chairman talk to Chris in one-hour call. I think two or three or four days after that Crystal Palace loss to try to see what’s going on. Chris explained in one-hour call why he wanted to resign. I can assure you there was no talk about the director of football, about roof leak or playing grounds or anything.

He just said he felt that the team needed change, they needed a new voice. We were very clear and said we don't want to fire you but if you want to resign, you can, but we will not pay you the same money as if we were firing you.

The emails started between his representatives and our financial guy and we were astonished to find he had asked for £4m to resign. We said: ‘No way are we going to pay you £4million. You are resigning, we are not firing you, why would we have to pay almost one year's salary?’.

We thought that it’s better to stall, we thought three things could happen if we don’t accept his resignation then. Number one, results could improve and he may change his mind. Number two, I wanted to give us all time to reflect because we did not have a Plan B. We were shocked that he resigned, of course some of us who worked in football understand the pressures coaches face but some other people on the board felt like he’s jumping ship, he quit on us. They have strong feelings about what he did. I thought time will make everybody calm down.

That’s the situation but I have to admit that after the second time he resigned, I always thought that Chris could be the coach to lead us back if we get relegated. I had questions in my mind when we get promoted again: ‘Will he be the best coach to lead us in the Premier League again if he doesn’t change recruitment policy?’.

It always boiled down to one question: the next transfer window. Say that we are relegated and Chris wanted three or four players, would I trust that if I bought these three or four players and we started the Championship badly, lost three or four games, would he not resign then?

Something was broken, maybe trust was broken because I did not think that I count on him for a long time to stick with the club through thick and thin. I don’t blame him for resigning, I’m sure the pressures of Premier League, the pressure of the worst start in the top five divisions in English history is not easy and of course Chris is in front, after every defeat he has to talk to the media.

If he put himself in my position, we spent millions on recruitment and if you are not sure that the coach will be committed to you it doesn’t make it easy.

Was there a breakdown in communication – a point of no return? Was recruitment and the wage structure a key factor?

The wage structure was a key factor but in a different way. I was not happy. I would never accuse Chris of leaking things to the media but it tells you something that our side of the story was never in the media or the newspapers because we never leaked it.

Everything I’m telling you now, fans will be hearing for the first time. I don’t accuse Chris of leaking because Chris, as I know him, is a person of integrity. Maybe some person around him. But how many times did you read that we have a wage structure? I don’t know what a wage structure is.

I read sometimes it’s £20,000, I read sometimes it’s £30,000 – but that’s not true. I don’t want to say how much we are paying players but we have players above £40,000, we have players around £50,000. I’ll tell you a simple example: how many players did we get on loan from a Premier League club the last two years. We got a player from Everton last year (Muhamed Bešić), a player from Chelsea this year (Ethan Ampadu), bought many players from Premier League clubs like Brewster from Liverpool, two players from Bournemouth: Mousset last year and Ramsdale this year. All those players when they came to us got the same salary they were paid in their original club or they got a raise. None of those players are the highest-paid players in our team.

Tell me, if we bring players from Liverpool Chelsea and Everton and they are still paying less than our players, what’s the problem with our wage structure? I felt that was really an excuse for poor performance.

Were you looking for Chris to become more of a head coach than a manager?

No. I have to be clear about one thing: I don’t want fans to think when I’m talking about we’re not happy with the recruiting [...] that I’m talking about the biggest two signings this year: Brewster and Ramsdale. I think those two players will be very good players, very good signings. Ramsdale now is already turning the corner and he’s playing very well. I think him and Brewster will be the cornerstone of the team next year and the years after. I’m not talking about those two players, I’m talking about this year we needed players to help us this season, not players to help us in the future as the season showed.

This was like some of the views that we expressed to Chris and Stephen in the last transfer window, that we needed players to help us this year, not next season because we don’t have that luxury. When we talk about recruitment, fans don’t see the players we missed [out] on, like the players suggested by the board and we didn’t sign. Some of them now, for very reasonable value are very good players in the Premier League. One of them is having great season in Germany, so recruitment, I thought, we should about. We should not only limit ourselves to one market.

We invested a lot in the club but we don’t have unlimited resources so if you have £1m or £120m, or whatever it is, you better get £120m value. When I told Chris I would not accept in the future – like say he want Ramsdale – to come with me with one option, only Ramsdale, because that put us in a weak [sic].

I have been close to clubs for 35 years. No matter how everybody in the club doesn’t leak things, things leak. Like the other club will know that you only have one option. It also doesn’t help when sometimes Chris, like for instance with Brewster, talked about Brewster before even we signed him. I think, and maybe Stephen think, that we could have got him on loan where if we stayed in Premier League we’d be obliged to buy him. But when you put only one target, I want him to give me four or five targets, and give me room to negotiate and give Stephen and the club room to bring any of the five.

I needed recruitment to change, I needed Chris to be more open. We never talked about director of football, there will be no director of football next season or the season after. But, when it comes to recruitment, it can’t be my way or the highway every time, or only this player and nobody else.

We need to have more options. Then it makes us in a different negotiation position. This is all what I wanted.

Are you saying there was a lack of flexibility from Chris?

I want to be very careful to criticise Chris because he did really wonderful things to the club and me and him or the club falling out with him, I would never say a bad word about Chris.

I will not say like what one fan once told me: ‘How can you spend £130m on the team and you are still playing the team that promoted you from the Championship?’ Most of the games, it’s the same 11 starters or nine or ten. I don’t agree with that opinion. All what I am saying is, when it comes to recruiting, we have to be more flexible.

Why did you now make any signings in the January transfer window?

There were three reasons why we didn’t make signings. Number one, Chris resigned. I think it was January 2 or 3. How could I make January transfer window, spend two or three million extra, when I’m not sure the coach will be with me in three weeks or four weeks. This is one reason. Of course when I met Chris before the Southampton game (13 December), I agreed, despite that we had very poor performance in my opinion at least. January transfer window last year, my evaluation that it wasn’t very good. But anyway I said to Chris ‘OK, we will look at it’.

But three things happened: one, he resigned after the Crystal Palace game. Two, we played six games after I met him in Sheffield and we got one point out of 18. I had to think also about do we really have good chance of staying in the Premier League because any money you spend now and in the loan it's gone now if you get relegated.

This one, was maybe sentimentally it’s important to me. We were talking about forward players. When Berge got injured, we changed the players that Chris wanted to bring to midfield, defensive midfielders. I thought we had enough of those players. I thought, my opinion is we can’t create enough chances. We have problems scoring. But, when it changed to defensive midfielders plus the fact that Chris resigned and we were not sure if he’d stay or not I thought it was not wise to do any January transfer windows.

Would you like Chris to still be in charge and did you make one final push to try and make him stay?

Something had broken when he resigned the second time because when you put your money, and money like £120m is a lot of money for me and a lot of money for Sheffield United, you would expect the coach [...] you don’t expect the manager to quit. I’m not blaming him for quitting or resigning, quitting is a bad word. I think really he felt, or at least that’s what he told us and what he told the vice chairman in the one-hour call, that there are no reasons. He said he didn’t have any offers. The only reason that he think the locker room needs a new voice. He thinks that he’s burned, he gave it all. He tried everything he can and it’s not working.

After that, later I think he asked to have another call with me. We arranged three calls in three days. We said let’s do one hour on Monday, Friday and any other day. We made the first call, the board was there, it was a good video call. We told Chris politely, we told him first that we want him to be our coach next year but we told him some of the things we did not like. I thought the call went very well, I was shocked that his representative called me and said that he did not like the call, he doesn’t want to do more calls. I said ‘No, he has to come to the second call’. He came to the second call, he said ‘I don’t want to talk, I will send you a letter with all of the things I don’t like’. Some of them really, I’m not going to comment because I said I have great respect for Chris. Not only respect, but gratitude.

He sent us a letter with all these reasons like leak in the roof. For God’s sake, if anybody thinks that we would spend £130m on recruitment and we’re not going to fix a roof. I don’t know how much it would cost or new training ground but I’m sure it’s not more than five-hundred or one million.

We spent £50m already buying the stadium back to the club and buying the academy and out of this maybe six or seven million on improvements in the club. It’s ridiculous if anybody thinks we’re not going to fix the roof or training ground. But, of course, you have to look at what we went through, we lost around £20m of revenue with Covid. We tried but of course when he sent us a letter I really didn’t feel good.

I mean, come on, we bring all the board to talk to you and the second day you say ‘I don’t want to talk, I’ll send you a letter’, so I think after that communication broke. We replied to his letter with a letter. I think Chris didn’t like the tone of the letter we sent to him and then third time [...] he insisted on resigning. I think that we felt it’s best for the club to part ways because many things has broken and although I have to admit three days before we parted ways we still had high hopes that we could fix things with Chris and he could stay.

Of course, it wasn’t up to us. Part of it was on Chris that he has to come a little to our side but we can fix that after the season. I think after he got a response to his letter, he was upset and he didn’t want to continue any more.

What happens next?

Our first priority is to get back to the Premier League. All options are open. We will make a decision soon, we want to watch how the team perform, last eight or nine games of the season.

You have difference between when I say general manager and coach, I always use coach. Let me say coach but I mean somebody who will be involved in recruitment but it will not be total. We have to learn from the mistakes we did before.

Are you speaking to any candidates currently?

I can’t comment on that because first of all we have now a coach that we have to respect and we have to see how he does with the team. Look, mathematically we are still in it. I know 99 per cent we are going to get relegated but he goes and he wins the nine remaining games, I don’t know, maybe I’ll sign him for 100 years.

Will Sander Berge and other players be sold?

Some of the players we have a clause in their contracts that if they get a certain offer they can leave. We can’t do anything about it. What I can assure you that our first purpose is to get back to the Premier League and I think we have great advantage. If you look at the Championship table, who’s leading? It’s Watford and Norwich City and Bournemouth is not far away they still have hope. I think if we keep the core team, of course if we can an offer to sell one player, if we don’t have replacement we will bring replacement. It’s not going to be only selling players. If we sell any players we will bring some players in.

Our intention is to keep the core team and get back to the Premier League because staying in the Championship will not make us any money and it's not the right place for a club as big as Sheffield United.

Are you as committed as ever?

If I’m in the club, I’ll be committed one hundred per cent, as I have shown in the past, as I demonstrated with money – not with words. As I demonstrated renewing Chris Wilder’s contract and making him one of the highest-paid coaches. As I did when I offered him ownership of the United World group. I will make everything in my power to make the club successful.

However, we know that sport is not exact science. You can do everything right – and by the way, I think one of the biggest reasons for our drop in results is the absence of fans. I really honestly believe. By the way, even Chris believes that. If we didn’t lose fans because of coronavirus, we wouldn’t have been in a relegation position right now. But things happen and you have to take it, you can’t cry about it or feel sorry for yourself, you have just to work hard and try to do it again – and I think we will do it again.

Any regrets?

No because you can’t change the past. I’m sure there’s always regrets but what good are they? You just learn from them and try to make yourself better in the future.