Sheffield United chief blasts back at “unprofessional” Arnold

Sheffield United have hit out at former managerial candidate Graham Arnold for his “unprofessional” remarks about the vacant position at Bramall Lane.
Sheffield United ceo Julian Winter hits back at Graham Arnold.Sheffield United ceo Julian Winter hits back at Graham Arnold.
Sheffield United ceo Julian Winter hits back at Graham Arnold.

Arnold, coach of the Central Coast Mariners in Australia’s A-League, branded the club “prehistoric” in a media report after turning the job down following a video-call interview.

“Forget that the financial offer in itself was quite poor, but I would have been taking three steps backwards in my development as a professional coach if I had gone,” was one of the more scathing comments.

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“It was about smashing the ball long and working on set-pieces... it was prehistoric stuff. That’s not the way to develop a football team.”

But the Blades have today responded via new chief executive Julian Winter.

Mr Winter said: “Whilst Graham Arnold may have been responding to one or two challenging questions, I am flabbergasted and disappointed by Mr Arnold’s remarks which are unprofessional, clearly misinformed and not the actual position of the club.

“Key information about how the club is structured and how it plans to operate has been clearly missed.

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“We set out a clear manager profile to meet the future needs of the Club to ‘act differently’ in terms of player recruitment and continue the utilisation of home grown talent where the Club has been incredibly successful in recent years.”

For more on this story read Wednesday’s Yorkshire Post.