Reality Check Please !!

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Darthblade

Darthblade

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Sorry all .... I'm a grumpy old man who's supported the Blades for 58 years now, but let's just please try to take a reality check. And apologies if I offend you with my comments ......

Reality check alert ..... We are almost certainly going to be relegated this season as we cannot compete financially with any of the other clubs except Luton .... the prince doesn't have the money, he's said that and we know it. Example, Burnley have just spent our transfer budget equivalent on a young keeper.

The best we can hope for is that a takeover occurs in the next couple of months, we get a new owner who has the best interests of the Club, and makes funds available in January. In the meantime, the Club must be run in a sustainable way and not get into financial difficulties like so many have done before. Our aim at the moment is surely to use our limited resources to assemble a younger, talented squad, with excellent potential, playing exciting effective football and able to compete for top two Championship next season.

So please ...... let's just be real, accept the (almost) inevitable, and get behind the lads as much as we can to make it as intimidating as we can for our OPPOSITION and support whoever is playing in the red and white stripes.

If you're not prepared to give total support, when our lads will be under the cosh from the first minute of the Premiership season, then don't say anything. They will need to know that we have their backs, not moaning when we make a mistake or concede a goal.

Make no mistake .... we will get ZERO refereeing decisions our way and ZERO decisions in our favour from VAR as we know that the referees look after their favourites.

This has been a public announcement calling for total unequivocal support for the Blades this season ;)👏🤞

COYRAWW UTB & FTP
 

Darthblade said:
The best we can hope for is that a takeover occurs in the next couple of months, we get a new owner who has the best interests of the Club, and makes funds available in January. In the meantime, the Club must be run in a sustainable way and not get into financial difficulties like so many have done before.
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You could quite easily be describing the Prince there.
Darthblade said:
Our aim at the moment is surely to use our limited resources to assemble a younger, talented squad, with excellent potential, playing exciting effective football and able to compete for top two Championship next season.
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That is literally what's happening. It's also what the board said would happen when Hecky was appointed nearly 2 years ago
 
"we get a new owner who has the best interests of the Club"

Yeah, get a daddy big bucks in, who spends irresponsibly then drops us like a bad smell!

Heaven forbid we have an owner who pushes and gambles when he feels it necessary to get promotion but pulls in the reigns so that we don't go into financial difficulty.
Even Wilder agreed we need to work within our means (prior to Ramsdale and Brewster!!)
 
Darthblade said:
Sorry all .... I'm a grumpy old man who's supported the Blades for 58 years now, but let's just please try to take a reality check. And apologies if I offend you with my comments ......

Reality check alert ..... We are almost certainly going to be relegated this season as we cannot compete financially with any of the other clubs except Luton .... the prince doesn't have the money, he's said that and we know it. Example, Burnley have just spent our transfer budget equivalent on a young keeper.

The best we can hope for is that a takeover occurs in the next couple of months, we get a new owner who has the best interests of the Club, and makes funds available in January. In the meantime, the Club must be run in a sustainable way and not get into financial difficulties like so many have done before. Our aim at the moment is surely to use our limited resources to assemble a younger, talented squad, with excellent potential, playing exciting effective football and able to compete for top two Championship next season.

So please ...... let's just be real, accept the (almost) inevitable, and get behind the lads as much as we can to make it as intimidating as we can for our OPPOSITION and support whoever is playing in the red and white stripes.

If you're not prepared to give total support, when our lads will be under the cosh from the first minute of the Premiership season, then don't say anything. They will need to know that we have their backs, not moaning when we make a mistake or concede a goal.

Make no mistake .... we will get ZERO refereeing decisions our way and ZERO decisions in our favour from VAR as we know that the referees look after their favourites.

This has been a public announcement calling for total unequivocal support for the Blades this season ;)👏🤞

COYRAWW UTB & FTP
Click to expand...
I fully agree with all fans giving total and unequivocal support from game 1 to game 38.

I don't agree we're almost certainly going to get relegated (assuming we get another 2 or 3 necessary players). There could easily be 8 or 9 teams scrapping to avoid relegation.
 
Darthblade said:
Make no mistake .... we will get ZERO refereeing decisions our way and ZERO decisions in our favour from VAR as we know that the referees look after their favourites.
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Good post, a hell of a lot of truth in there, laced with some reality checking.

This bit however is bang on, and the reason I don't care about this upcoming season, yes it's great to be promoted as its probably the only realistic honour we're ever going to achieve as a football club, the trophies are all out of reach to a club like ours, unless we get a megabucks owner.. But var kills it dead, and is just a new way of giving the likes of Liverpool an advantage like the old days of bent refs..

Newcastle will start to put silverware away regularly inside the next 2 seasons and they'll talk of a sleeping giant and the following (which has always been massive - they can really call themselves that) but it's a new club in my mind now, the old Newcastle we saw yo yo ing between divisions is gone for good..

Jealous, hell yeah.. Wish it had been us, with our clear Saudi connection, how come it wasn't? I thought the Prince with all his rich family members wouldn't be struggling to garner support... Oh well..
 
Darthblade said:
Sorry all .... I'm a grumpy old man who's supported the Blades for 58 years now, but let's just please try to take a reality check. And apologies if I offend you with my comments ......

Reality check alert ..... We are almost certainly going to be relegated this season as we cannot compete financially with any of the other clubs except Luton .... the prince doesn't have the money, he's said that and we know it. Example, Burnley have just spent our transfer budget equivalent on a young keeper.

The best we can hope for is that a takeover occurs in the next couple of months, we get a new owner who has the best interests of the Club, and makes funds available in January. In the meantime, the Club must be run in a sustainable way and not get into financial difficulties like so many have done before. Our aim at the moment is surely to use our limited resources to assemble a younger, talented squad, with excellent potential, playing exciting effective football and able to compete for top two Championship next season.

So please ...... let's just be real, accept the (almost) inevitable, and get behind the lads as much as we can to make it as intimidating as we can for our OPPOSITION and support whoever is playing in the red and white stripes.

If you're not prepared to give total support, when our lads will be under the cosh from the first minute of the Premiership season, then don't say anything. They will need to know that we have their backs, not moaning when we make a mistake or concede a goal.

Make no mistake .... we will get ZERO refereeing decisions our way and ZERO decisions in our favour from VAR as we know that the referees look after their favourites.

This has been a public announcement calling for total unequivocal support for the Blades this season ;)👏🤞

COYRAWW UTB & FTP
Click to expand...
After 58 years surely you could have waited another month to see just how much money is available and who we have brought in on loan !!
We couldn’t compete financially the last time we got promoted but we did alright.
Enjoy the sunshine and only begin to worry if we have no new players and no points by the end of September 2nd.
 
I think what the OP is trying to say is that there will be some on here who will start slagging the team off if we are in a relegation tussle even though we all know it's going to be a difficult season.

Quite rightly we should be hoping to stay up but expect the likelihood relegation is very possible and take it as 38 free hits.
 
Darthblade said:
Sorry all .... I'm a grumpy old man who's supported the Blades for 58 years now, but let's just please try to take a reality check. And apologies if I offend you with my comments ......

Reality check alert ..... We are almost certainly going to be relegated this season as we cannot compete financially with any of the other clubs except Luton .... the prince doesn't have the money, he's said that and we know it. Example, Burnley have just spent our transfer budget equivalent on a young keeper.

The best we can hope for is that a takeover occurs in the next couple of months, we get a new owner who has the best interests of the Club, and makes funds available in January. In the meantime, the Club must be run in a sustainable way and not get into financial difficulties like so many have done before. Our aim at the moment is surely to use our limited resources to assemble a younger, talented squad, with excellent potential, playing exciting effective football and able to compete for top two Championship next season.

So please ...... let's just be real, accept the (almost) inevitable, and get behind the lads as much as we can to make it as intimidating as we can for our OPPOSITION and support whoever is playing in the red and white stripes.

If you're not prepared to give total support, when our lads will be under the cosh from the first minute of the Premiership season, then don't say anything. They will need to know that we have their backs, not moaning when we make a mistake or concede a goal.

Make no mistake .... we will get ZERO refereeing decisions our way and ZERO decisions in our favour from VAR as we know that the referees look after their favourites.

This has been a public announcement calling for total unequivocal support for the Blades this season ;)👏🤞

COYRAWW UTB & FTP
Click to expand...
The call for support is spot on. One of the negative developments of football recently is that promotion for clubs like United has gone from being a cause for optimism (in 1961 and 1971, for example, there was optimism rather than fear), and Sheffield football at the moment clearly illustrates the gulf between the elite and everyone else. Both clubs have won promotion, but the vibes among the fans of both are largely negative, rather than a sense of ‘onwards and upwards’. This is an illustration of a worrying development in football.
 
Saying that we want to assemble a young squad is one thing, but only signing three permanent players in three seasons so far is not the signs of building a squad. We can't continually rely on loans. They should be their to boost the team but not become the mainstay of it. Re-signing washed up has beens like Fleck is not the signs of building a young squad. It's a waste of valuable wages, even if he had taken a pay cut.

I've already resigned myself to the fact that we will be relegated, much like I did during the summer of our relegation season. It's less stressful managing expectations.

Fingers crossed that Slimane and Traore stick around next summer, and that one of the kids forces their way into the first team, which based on pre-season so far could be Freckleton. He's looked more competent, settled, reliable, mature and ready than Jebbo and Osula. Brooks has done well in two of the three matches. He suffered against Estoril as he was playing an advanced role that didn't suit him. That and we couldn't string two passes together.

I feel for Hecky. He has an impossible task but the Prince needs to reassure him that no matter what happens, no matter how humiliating it may be, he will still be here next summer and the board will take full responsibility for any failures this season.
 
Not to state the obvious too much but the whole structure of football in this country is promotion and relegation. Burnley could spend £150trillion on players and still get relegated because they don't win enough games. All we can do is focus on us, short term wise promotion has brought us financial stability which even if we didn't win 1 game next season, yeah it would be a crap season but better than having no club what-so-ever/having to enter the football pyramid in the North West Counties division like Macclesfield Town have. The signings brought in so far bring a different ID to the club which is where all football is progressing to, a quick counterattack, you couldn't imagine many of the players in the current squad, in the 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 of Warnock's era. I don't think we have enough strikers in the squad to fill one of Warnock's benches for a start.

Regarding ownership yeah it would be great having a blades fan who has a spare £500 million but realistically all owners are after their own interests first and should be as they are business people at the end of the day. Yes they can share a mutual passion for the club or sport but they need to make business decisions for themselves too.

For me with VAR/refereeing decisions it is about experience in that environment, players like Grealish know how to draw a player in for a foul, we have been too honest in the past and lacked the Premiership football IQ in a lot of occasions. Although I can't stand the Olympic dives and rolls inspired by the continental players that first brought it to the game, sometimes it is needed to get the decision. I would also recommend people read/keep up to date with the Laws of the game as some of the stuff you hear being shouted from the stands you do wonder which decade they are referring too.

Total support is objective too, yes we should get behind the side however negative feedback on forums and matches doesn't make you a lesser blade. If we get done over 4-0 by Man City and they were genuinely the better team, fair play. If we lost 1-0 due to a defensive error then the player should expect some stick, just like any profession albeit the weekly wage package of some I would happily take and you could call me what you want to!
 
The whole structure of finance in the Premier League is reckless. If you have a sugar daddy owner, spend away. It doesn't matter that the club don't generate that income. For everyone else who doesn't have a multimillionaire owner, good luck competing, because you can't.

Last time we went up the Prince had all but wiped out the club's debts. We had the 4th lowest wage bill in the Championship. Even with promotion pay rises and new signings we still had a wage bill on par with some of the top earners in the Championship and definitely the lowest in the Premier League. We spent the money we would earn from being in the Premier League. We stuck within our means and ran the club and signed players with money we had. We were financially responsible. The result. We couldn't compete financially with the rest of the league for wages and transfer fees.

The Premier League is out of control and a broken league. It's why I hate it and never watch it unless we're in it. I won't subscribe to SKY or anyone else who televises it as my money will only go to help the financial imbalance, due to the unfair TV revenue where loads of clubs benefit more than others from it. The worst part is that the Premier League is so high on the smell of it's own farts that it doesn't see the problem or worse yet, arrogantly doesn't care.

Unless we get a takeover, which we seem to be the only team who can't get one, then we will never be able to compete in the Premier League or establish ourselves in it. We will becomes another yo-yo club at best.
 

HodgysBrokenThumb said:
Both clubs have won promotion, but the vibes among the fans of both are largely negative, rather than a sense of ‘onwards and upwards’. This is an illustration of a worrying development in football.
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...or it's just the default Sheffield mindset 😁

A positive about being the relegation favourite is that every goal scored and every point gained will be more greatly celebrated.
 
The only unrealistic expectation in all of that is that the fans will get behind the team.

Our support is wank, we're basically a northern Fulham.

Too many "geeus summat to shout abart then" wankers who need culling. Always reactive, never proactive.
Furthermore, has anybody heard the "Family Enclosure" ever get a song going? Nah, god forbid little Timmy hears any naughty language.

I think we're more likely to be treated favorably by VAR than we are to have a decent atmosphere at Bramall Lane next season quite frankly.
 
Katzenjammer said:
Too many "geeus summat to shout abart then" wankers who need culling. Always reactive, never proactive.
Furthermore, has anybody heard the "Family Enclosure" ever get a song going? Nah, god forbid little Timmy hears any naughty language.
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I don't disagree with some of that but genuinely piss funny blaming the family enclosure!! Make some noise yer miserable little bleeders
 
Katzenjammer said:
The only unrealistic expectation in all of that is that the fans will get behind the team.

Our support is wank, we're basically a northern Fulham.

Too many "geeus summat to shout abart then" wankers who need culling. Always reactive, never proactive.
Furthermore, has anybody heard the "Family Enclosure" ever get a song going? Nah, god forbid little Timmy hears any naughty language.

I think we're more likely to be treated favorably by VAR than we are to have a decent atmosphere at Bramall Lane next season quite frankly.
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Utter crap
 
raimond said:
I don't disagree with some of that but genuinely piss funny blaming the family enclosure!! Make some noise yer miserable little bleeders
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But that's my point, there shouldn't be one.

I grew up amongst the sights, sounds and indeed the scents of the terraces. It didn't hurt or traumatise me. I wasn't boxed into a sanitised special area where no form of expression is allowed.
 
mattbianco1 said:
You could quite easily be describing the Prince there.


That is literally what's happening. It's also what the board said would happen when Hecky was appointed nearly 2 years ago
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I really struggle with the idea that the Prince has the best interests of the club at heart.

Seems pretty clear he'd sell to literally anyone without a second thought for what happens after he's gone. He's taken no opportunities to improve the infrastructure of the club in terms of the training ground or the academy. He's put us in a terrible position for the 24/25 season. He's done nothing to protect the assets we have.

What are things you think he's done to put us in a position to compete for the top two in the Championship next season?
 
Katzenjammer said:
But that's my point, there shouldn't be one.

I grew up amongst the sights, sounds and indeed the scents of the terraces. It didn't hurt or traumatise me. I wasn't boxed into a sanitised special area where no form of expression is allowed.
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Same here mate but everywhere has them. At least ours is over at the side....Man City's is behind the goal they always attack in the 2nd half (equivalent of our Kop). Now that would kill it.
 
Hope I’m wrong come 31st August but at the moment the recruitment in the championship was much better than what we’ve managed to do this season.

For me we’re 3/4 players light, the team we put out yesterday showed that. We have 4 first team centre halves covering 3 positions & 5 centre midfields (including Osborn & Fleck).

Our strike force is Jebbo, NDiaye, Osula, Troare (unknown) and McBurnie. We actually don’t have any back up to NDiaye so relying on him being fit & not leaving. Last season we had Khadra for the first 6 months.

There’s a lack of stand out quality & match winners to be competitive.

We still have time to sort it so I’m hoping for someone to tag me in this post in 6 months time and say how wrong I was!
 

Kozzy_is_my_Dad said:
We're so worryingly far off being Premier League standard, I'm now starting to get really concerned. The recruitment isn't bolstering our chances and we look set to lose two of our star quality players. Buckle in, Blades - this could be really grim.
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If you're concerned about not being premier league standard this season then that's unwarranted as that's not our goal (although it is a hope that we remain a premier league team)

If you're concerned about next season not having a team ready for a strong push for promotion back to the premier league than I could be a bit more understanding.

However we still have the rest of this window plus 2 more windows to get that sorted and although only 2 permanents in so far it's a decent'ish base plate.
 
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