Expectation management (vs the easy way out).

[nopigfansintown]

Let me preface what I'm going to say by making clear that I, and I guess most Blades fans don't, and should never, see consolidation in League One as acceptable. It can only be explained as a symptom of failure at one or more levels and a knot that must be untied as a matter of urgency.
.
When Jamie Murphy was sold in the summer transfer window, I told my younger brother (12 years old) with whom I go to matches, that it'd be extremely unlikely that we'd go up unless we invested heavily in three or four top class players at this level - with the fee. That squad had only just scraped in to the play offs and major weaknesses throughout the team were apparent. It was also known that our other talisman and galvanising figure, John Brayford, was set to be injured for a considerable amount of time. My point, - which I'm getting to, - is should the club have set the bar lower in order to help the club, manager, fanbase and ultimately themselves in the long run?
If the club statement was: "the wage bill is too high, and the squad too big and not of adequate quality, we shouldn't be considered among the favourites for promotion", the consequences for Adkins would be myriad:
He could have invested in younger development players, making his aim automatic promotion by the end of next season - or even the final year of his contract. He could've fast tracked young players development and put up with the expected inconsistencies of Adams, Kieron Wallace, DCL etc knowing that game time now may reap benefits next season - despite potentially costing us points this. Phipps has already started making moves in this direction by shifting blame to Clough. In the summer they were telling us that the sun was shining when in reality there were big black clouds over the club. I always check the weather before a long journey so I can take my coat( if the weatherman gets it wrong I curse them)..They have lost a lot of goodwill, time and possibly support with this approach. Should the club give us realistic, achievable timeframes for our ambitions and give our manager a reasonable chance, or should they carry on with the bs and spin?

Btw: "the easy way out" is we're going for promotion blah, blah, blah, when our hopes are slim at best.

 

[Esablade]

Let me preface what I'm going to say by making clear that I, and I guess most Blades fans don't, and should never, see consolidation in League One as acceptable. It can only be explained as a symptom of failure at one or more levels and a knot that must be untied as a matter of urgency.
.
When Jamie Murphy was sold in the summer transfer window, I told my younger brother (12 years old) with whom I go to matches, that it'd be extremely unlikely that we'd go up unless we invested heavily in three or four top class players at this level - with the fee. That squad had only just scraped in to the play offs and major weaknesses throughout the team were apparent. It was also known that our other talisman and galvanising figure, John Brayford, was set to be injured for a considerable amount of time. My point, - which I'm getting to, - is should the club have set the bar lower in order to help the club, manager, fanbase and ultimately themselves in the long run?
If the club statement was: "the wage bill is too high, and the squad too big and not of adequate quality, we shouldn't be considered among the favourites for promotion", the consequences for Adkins would be myriad:
He could have invested in younger development players, making his aim automatic promotion by the end of next season - or even the final year of his contract. He could've fast tracked young players development and put up with the expected inconsistencies of Adams, Kieron Wallace, DCL etc knowing that game time now may reap benefits next season - despite potentially costing us points this. Phipps has already started making moves in this direction by shifting blame to Clough. In the summer they were telling us that the sun was shining when in reality there were big black clouds over the club. I always check the weather before a long journey so I can take my coat( if the weatherman gets it wrong I curse them)..They have lost a lot of goodwill, time and possibly support with this approach. Should the club give us realistic, achievable timeframes for our ambitions and give our manager a reasonable chance, or should they carry on with the bs and spin?

Btw: "the easy way out" is we're going for promotion blah, blah, blah, when our hopes are slim at best.

Good post.

It's interesting how the spin has shifted throughout the season re: blame Clough, assessing the current squad, blame Clough,all monies will be re-invested in the 'first team, just wait till January! (an old favourite) , blame Clough, blame fans, Squad too large (and growing larger by the week seemingly with the inclusion of youth players, tea lady etc..) , blame Clough, blame fans , blame Clough, blame Burn, blame Clough blame fans...blame each other, in private!

There are big ego's and petty squabbling at the top...we should be in the Premiere league don't you know...

P.S- Maybe they'll come out and say something along the lines you suggest now...doubt it mind...

 

[UnitedBlade]

I'm all for honesty and the inherited squad clearly wasn't up to the task. Sharp aside, Adkins hasn't been able to add sufficient quality. Some more quality was what the Board and fans hoped for. Did the Board know they wouldn't have the funds to add in January ? The rumours suggest they did.

They weren't going to admit it but in a month's time when we aren't on target for these 11 wins from 17, they need to.

Try the youngsters, see if they can cope. Warnock brought Jags and Tonge through in similar circumstances. Not that necessarily our youngsters will be that quality but without playing DCL how do you know ?

If Jim does return to the UK in mid Feb he has a lot of explaining to do whilst supporting the rebuild.

He will almost certainly go for "we are still pushing for play off spot". The important work is what's going on in the background. It's only 13 weeks to the last game so they need to plan the release list if we don't scrape into the play offs which is looking much less likely now.

 

[nopigfansintown]

Great responses. Another thing they also seem to miscalculate is the tolerance threshold of most blades. I believe if you give most blades something to cling to they will back you in big numbers and be fairly patient. I remember being as happy as a wednesdayite in poo because we'd bought Carl Asaba for 72,500 and I thought Warnock was slowly building summat good whilst not being unduly held back by the board.

 

[PeteBlade]

The two most worrying and infuriating statements to come out of the club this week have been Jim claiming their words pre season had been twisted to create unreasonable expectation and the three transfer window nonsense.

Both of these bullshit statements have sent massive alarms ringing for me.

 

[Grey Blade]

My point, - which I'm getting to, - is should the club have set the bar lower in order to help the club, manager, fanbase and ultimately themselves in the long run?

At the preseason Q & A session with NA, he stated " I'll be honest with you now. I've said the squad's not good enough, today, at this moment in time, so we've got work to do on that".

I believe he was actually being realistic and setting the bar lower, but in time, expected to be able to strengthen the squad - either by purchase or different coaching methods. So far he has not managed to achieve this.

Maybe we should have taken more notice of his statement, and less notice of the hype regarding his past successes. However, I know it's difficult, but we have to be patient, allow the summer clear out and build a new team, realistically to get out of league 1, or super optimistically, having scraped into and won the play offs, to build for the championship.

 

[itsinyerblood]

I must admit to having a dose of understandable Blades' fatigue with a side order of lethargy thrown in for good measure.

We rarely hear from the Prince himself. I know good ol' Jim is installed as the mouthpiece for HRH, but sometimes you can't beat a call for leadership from the front, and just for once it might prove useful for the Prince to step forward, show that he's committed, not to say concerned, and make a pronouncement outlining what he and his team manager intend to do next season. I know there's still a slim thread of hope regarding promotion this term, but currently I wonder if there's anyone who actually believes we'll be able to achieve that goal?

Phipps seems, unintentionally I assume, to have been bracketed as a trier who doesn't quite get what matters most of all to the core support of this club. I could be wrong of course, Jim seems like a decent enough chap, but at the risk of marginalising Jim I think it's time for one of our owners to take the lead and spell out what the intentions are once this season is over. I'm not suggesting we're told about budgets or the personnel we're chasing, but I think the PR benefits of the Prince stepping forward and outlining the level of the club's ambition might actually reveal there's a voice behind the anonymity I've come to associate with the Prince. In the scheme of things there are probably other, more pressing, matters to discuss, but we really are treading through a sea of mediocrity that shows no sign of ending, and it might be that the Prince raising his head above the parapets to rally the troops might prove a useful device for other weary supporters, of which I suspect there are many.

I don't really care about employee's titles, or what they're employed to do. From somewhere we need leadership, both on and off the pitch, and I think that this may well prove to be one of those moments when one of our owners - or, and this is an even more radical suggestion, why not both Kev and the Prince, shoulder to shoulder, demonstrating the resolve we all expect from the top - gets a grip and demonstrates the passion backed with a strategy for what we hope to achieve next season.........just a thought of course, or we could follow our usual path of glib statements, full of carefully contrived comments that can be construed this way or that, with no one really having a clue about what the intentions are to move this club upwards and onwards.

 

[Large Mendonca]

Seems to me that the rumours that were being mentioned back in December are probably true. I think the Prince has more or less funded what he'd agreed with McCabe back when they did the deal for joint ownership, but i think everyone expected us to be in a much better position following that cash injection (we've got worse). Those reasons have been done to death, and I think they thought Adkins would have done better with what he inherited from Clough; I suppose we all did.
So i don't think it's unrealistic to believe that Phipps was speaking honestly in the Autumn about having another crack in the JTW. My take on it is that as the Prince/McCabe were "equals pequals" in what they agreed back in August 2013, that they would expect McCabe to match any investment that the Prince was prepared to put in. For me there's been a bust up between the 2 parties and McCabe has closed his purse strings (for whatever reason), and hence the media blackout on it all.

I think that's why Phipps sounds broken, he's trying to keep our hopes up when he probably thinks it's game over himself.

 

[Bladesince59]

I don't think it matters what JP and NA tell us about the club's expectations, we can all work that out for ourselves.

 

[Esablade]

I don't think it matters what JP and NA tell us about the club's expectations, we can all work that out for ourselves.

It does matter because for all parties it's going to need sorting out one way or another. We ( the fans) are getting very mixed messages.

It would be nice to hear something from McCabe's side actually about how we're planning to move forwards...'United together'..or not, if that is indeed the case.

As often in the low points, he disappears for a bit...

 

[Bladesince59]

I agree that it would be nice to hear something TRUTHFUL from McCabe rather than just spin. I am not certain that he knows the difference.

 

[BushBlade]

Good thread. Can't really disagree with much of that. I don't know, is my answer, but I do know previously when we've accepted we're skint the fan base has been more united and tolerant. We've been told we have money and that our ambitions are promotion and I think many are as pissed off about being lied to, which is a lot of people's perception at the moment, as they are our failure.

 

[Pittsburg Blade]

I must admit to having a dose of understandable Blades' fatigue with a side order of lethargy thrown in for good measure.

We rarely hear from the Prince himself. I know good ol' Jim is installed as the mouthpiece for HRH, but sometimes you can't beat a call for leadership from the front, and just for once it might prove useful for the Prince to step forward, show that he's committed, not to say concerned, and make a pronouncement outlining what he and his team manager intend to do next season.

Really interesting post. The owners of the club are always quick to receive the plaudits when things are going good, grinning away in the director Box, but they have a habit of disappearing during the tough times when you need them.
Can hardly blame them though. I think poor old Phipps has been destroyed by the Twitter vitriol.

 

[Pittsburg Blade]

Let me preface what I'm going to say by making clear that I, and I guess most Blades fans don't, and should never, see consolidation in League One as acceptable. It can only be explained as a symptom of failure at one or more levels and a knot that must be untied as a matter of urgency.
.
When Jamie Murphy was sold in the summer transfer window, I told my younger brother (12 years old) with whom I go to matches, that it'd be extremely unlikely that we'd go up unless we invested heavily in three or four top class players at this level - with the fee. That squad had only just scraped in to the play offs and major weaknesses throughout the team were apparent. It was also known that our other talisman and galvanising figure, John Brayford, was set to be injured for a considerable amount of time. My point, - which I'm getting to, - is should the club have set the bar lower in order to help the club, manager, fanbase and ultimately themselves in the long run?
If the club statement was: "the wage bill is too high, and the squad too big and not of adequate quality, we shouldn't be considered among the favourites for promotion", the consequences for Adkins would be myriad:
He could have invested in younger development players, making his aim automatic promotion by the end of next season - or even the final year of his contract. He could've fast tracked young players development and put up with the expected inconsistencies of Adams, Kieron Wallace, DCL etc knowing that game time now may reap benefits next season - despite potentially costing us points this. Phipps has already started making moves in this direction by shifting blame to Clough. In the summer they were telling us that the sun was shining when in reality there were big black clouds over the club. I always check the weather before a long journey so I can take my coat( if the weatherman gets it wrong I curse them)..They have lost a lot of goodwill, time and possibly support with this approach. Should the club give us realistic, achievable timeframes for our ambitions and give our manager a reasonable chance, or should they carry on with the bs and spin?

Btw: "the easy way out" is we're going for promotion blah, blah, blah, when our hopes are slim at best.

You can also blame the media (Star) and their incredibly shallow reporting for some of this disconnect..
Wasn't that long ago there was an article with Harry Maguire saying that we could go all season unbeaten, that was sometime in September.
But then again I guess if we just relied on the insipid statements that are issued by the club we'd all be bored to tears.

 

[itsinyerblood]

Really interesting post. The owners of the club are always quick to receive the plaudits when things are going good, grinning away in the director Box, but they have a habit of disappearing during the tough times when you need them.
Can hardly blame them though. I think poor old Phipps has been destroyed by the Twitter vitriol.

It's a strange one, considering how much money each individual has invested so far, you'd think they'd want to at least show a more visible presence where the club is concerned. I'm all for delegation, but the nonsense that some businessmen attach to their time being precious.....c'mon on, do me and everyone else a favour and face up to the responsibilities of being a part owner in this club.

Don't leave something this important to a hired hand, for once Prince and Kev, let's hear you say something that isn't so blandly scripted as to make the effort a waste of time. Tell the supporters of this club what exactly the intentions are for next season. Are we going to be also-rans, bit players who can't strive to match the ambition of obviously lesser clubs, or are we going to impress all and sundry with the ambition to get out of this division once and for all?

 

[Pittsburg Blade]

It's a strange one, considering how much money each individual has invested so far, you'd think they'd want to at least show a more visible presence where the club is concerned. I'm all for delegation, but the nonsense that some businessmen attach to their time being precious.....c'mon on, do me and everyone else a favour and face up to the responsibilities of being a part owner in this club.

Don't leave something this important to a hired hand, for once Prince and Kev, let's hear you say something that isn't so blandly scripted as to make the effort a waste of time. Tell the supporters of this club what exactly the intentions are for next season. Are we going to be also-rans, bit players who can't strive to match the ambition of obviously lesser clubs, or are we going to impress all and sundry with the ambition to get out of this division once and for all?

The owners are sometimes on a hiding to nothing though. They can be equally crucified for low profile (McCabe) or high profile (Mike Ashley).

Also interesting to compare to American Football, where the Lombardi trophy is presented directly to the franchise owners and the players are somewhat of a sideshow.
I can just see McCabe stepping up to receive the FA Cup (or maybe not).

 

[itsinyerblood]

The owners are sometimes on a hiding to nothing though. They can be equally crucified for low profile (McCabe) or high profile (Mike Ashley).

Also interesting to compare to American Football, where the Lombardi trophy is presented directly to the franchise owners and the players are somewhat of a sideshow.
I can just see McCabe stepping up to receive the FA Cup (or maybe not).

I can't think that people like Kev or the Prince have anything less than a thick skin, so being in a spotlight won't make a great deal of difference to individuals who have a daily interest in the cut and thrust of competitive business. Also, we'll never know until we discover exactly what it is that lies at the root of the owner's ambitions for this club. Perhaps a little more involvement with the great unwashed wouldn't harm our owners, and grabbing this club by the collar and spelling out exactly what their plans are would, I'm sure, meet with the approval of many supporters. Of course there'll always be fans who attempt to find fault, and you'll never rid this club of that element, but on the whole I, and others, would welcome the owner's statement of intent and how they intend to achieve this ambition.

 

[nopigfansintown]

bump

 

[robbiez666]

That's been my biggest problem until fairly recently. I want to see development. I would have accepted waiting another year to challenge if it meant sorting things out behind the scenes and building for the future.

 

[Woodwardfan]

Let me preface what I'm going to say by making clear that I, and I guess most Blades fans don't, and should never, see consolidation in League One as acceptable. It can only be explained as a symptom of failure at one or more levels and a knot that must be untied as a matter of urgency.
.
When Jamie Murphy was sold in the summer transfer window, I told my younger brother (12 years old) with whom I go to matches, that it'd be extremely unlikely that we'd go up unless we invested heavily in three or four top class players at this level - with the fee. That squad had only just scraped in to the play offs and major weaknesses throughout the team were apparent. It was also known that our other talisman and galvanising figure, John Brayford, was set to be injured for a considerable amount of time. My point, - which I'm getting to, - is should the club have set the bar lower in order to help the club, manager, fanbase and ultimately themselves in the long run?
If the club statement was: "the wage bill is too high, and the squad too big and not of adequate quality, we shouldn't be considered among the favourites for promotion", the consequences for Adkins would be myriad:
He could have invested in younger development players, making his aim automatic promotion by the end of next season - or even the final year of his contract. He could've fast tracked young players development and put up with the expected inconsistencies of Adams, Kieron Wallace, DCL etc knowing that game time now may reap benefits next season - despite potentially costing us points this. Phipps has already started making moves in this direction by shifting blame to Clough. In the summer they were telling us that the sun was shining when in reality there were big black clouds over the club. I always check the weather before a long journey so I can take my coat( if the weatherman gets it wrong I curse them)..They have lost a lot of goodwill, time and possibly support with this approach. Should the club give us realistic, achievable timeframes for our ambitions and give our manager a reasonable chance, or should they carry on with the bs and spin?

Btw: "the easy way out" is we're going for promotion blah, blah, blah, when our hopes are slim at best.

Let me preface what I'm going to say by making clear that I, and I guess most Blades fans don't, and should never, see consolidation in League One as acceptable. It can only be explained as a symptom of failure at one or more levels and a knot that must be untied as a matter of urgency.
.
When Jamie Murphy was sold in the summer transfer window, I told my younger brother (12 years old) with whom I go to matches, that it'd be extremely unlikely that we'd go up unless we invested heavily in three or four top class players at this level - with the fee. That squad had only just scraped in to the play offs and major weaknesses throughout the team were apparent. It was also known that our other talisman and galvanising figure, John Brayford, was set to be injured for a considerable amount of time. My point, - which I'm getting to, - is should the club have set the bar lower in order to help the club, manager, fanbase and ultimately themselves in the long run?
If the club statement was: "the wage bill is too high, and the squad too big and not of adequate quality, we shouldn't be considered among the favourites for promotion", the consequences for Adkins would be myriad:
He could have invested in younger development players, making his aim automatic promotion by the end of next season - or even the final year of his contract. He could've fast tracked young players development and put up with the expected inconsistencies of Adams, Kieron Wallace, DCL etc knowing that game time now may reap benefits next season - despite potentially costing us points this. Phipps has already started making moves in this direction by shifting blame to Clough. In the summer they were telling us that the sun was shining when in reality there were big black clouds over the club. I always check the weather before a long journey so I can take my coat( if the weatherman gets it wrong I curse them)..They have lost a lot of goodwill, time and possibly support with this approach. Should the club give us realistic, achievable timeframes for our ambitions and give our manager a reasonable chance, or should they carry on with the bs and spin?

Btw: "the easy way out" is we're going for promotion blah, blah, blah, when our hopes are slim at best.

Super O.P. It recognises that the biggest part of the problem about managing or playing at a supposed 'big club' is expectation.

Managing expectations of customers and employees is the key to success for any business. Football is a tricky business which is ruled by emotion more than most businesses. In fairness to Adkins at his 'Meet the Manager' night last July, he said a couple of things which surprised us all: 1. Our squad was not good enough for promotion at that time. 2. We had about the 6th best budget in League 1. How many fans were listening to those statements, i.e. managing their own expectations? He also said we did not intend selling Jamie Murphy, certainly not, and that was factored into his comments no doubt.

The season started 8th August and Murphy was sold within that week. As you say nopigsfan... Brayford was already out for months and by the srtart of the season Done got a long term injury. we were exposed but how many fans had managed their own expectations? I still thought we were well set.

The point I would like to make is that nobody, that's nobody connected with the club, including me or you or even Barney did not expect us to compete for promotion this season.

I have said for years that the problem with SUFC fans is that our expectations match our personal commitment to the club and the great numbers of loyal fans that turn up week in week out, not the reality of what I for one have been suffering these past 59 years. Our dedication to the 'cause' is obsessional, unreal. The commitment and dedication has not been returned at any stage of my 59 years commitment. So what? It's my choice and that's how I choose to live my life; United are my No.1 hobby and they are my passion, goodness knows why. It's to do with where I was born and who my parents were, nothing rational. My expectations were developed in the womb in fact...we all have our crosses to bear!

Last summer I would not for one minute have expected the powers that be at Bramall Lane to 'massage expectations' any lower than they were. Everybody believed we would be promoted, even Adkins who was only doing what every new manager does i.e. painting a harder challenge than he was really taking over. That's what I thought anyway and his utterances about this being the pivotal year and "of paramount importance" that we gain promotion actually re-inforced the confidence. He spoke of 'consequences' if we failed didn't he, so we must have meant business.

I am 100% behind the rationale of this O.P. but I must say if anybody from the Board tells me that promotion from League 1 is not expected this coming season then I will stay at home. That's not because I think promotion is a divine right, but because I will probably skip the ' transitional couple of years' at my stage of life. Nor will I necessarily renew my season ticket if ambitions are more strongly expressed until I see real change in the players on the pitch. I was really up for the Weir project a few years ago. That's when we were told the club had to pay it's own way and we had to rely on the kids for a while. I'm certain that's the way to go but frankly our fans just didn't listen to the strategy. They were at David Weir from Day 1. That is the reality of managing expectations. Try to talk strategy and patience, transition and 'managing personal expectations' from some media cockpit in Saudi and even Scarborough and the whole thing might collapse around all our ears and where does that leave us?

 

[super_pig]

re Weir: day 2 actually..we won on day one.. then sold kMac on day 2 and it all went to shit from there

 

[pommpey]

I think we have a right to expect the club to be better than it currently is. High tens of thousands also demand it as they attend every other week and between 500 and 3000 attend away games. If we just set our bar low and resign ourselves to being Sheffield United - lower league club, we might was well be Bristol Rovers or any other shit club from a big city like Tranmere with big spendy rivals getting 5k per week from the turnstiles. Imagine that? BDTBL with a capacity of 32k and a sixth of that turning up. Fans won't come if we are shit ... it's happened before. It took us years and years and years to build up the fanbase after 'the great disillusionment' post Currie and Woodward ... then again post Bassett. Now we are post Warnock and on our way down once again unless we get the talent back on the pitch, look like challengers and look like we are to be reckoned with in the next level.

That comes from buying good players, not selling good players and certainly not having a billiard-table pitch. I really wish people would stop trying to find excuses and reasons anywhere else.

pommpey

 

[super_pig]

I think we have a right to expect the club to be better than it currently is. High tens of thousands also demand it as they attend every other week and between 500 and 3000 attend away games. If we just set our bar low and resign ourselves to being Sheffield United - lower league club, we might was well be Bristol Rovers or any other shit club from a big city like Tranmere with big spendy rivals getting 5k per week from the turnstiles. Imagine that? BDTBL with a capacity of 32k and a sixth of that turning up. Fans won't come if we are shit ... it's happened before. It took us years and years and years to build up the fanbase after 'the great disillusionment' post Currie and Woodward ... then again post Bassett. Now we are post Warnock and on our way down once again unless we get the talent back on the pitch, look like challengers and look like we are to be reckoned with in the next level.

That comes from buying good players, not selling good players and certainly not having a billiard-table pitch. I really wish people would stop trying to find excuses and reasons anywhere else.

pommpey

bottom line is that is it.. if you keep replacing your players with other players that are ever so slightly worse.. but cheaper! then over time you will end up with entirely shit team. .it's the Man City model in reverse.

 

[pommpey]

bottom line is that is it.. if you keep replacing your players with other players that are ever so slightly worse.. but cheaper! then over time you will end up with entirely shit team. .it's the Man City model in reverse.

And that ... is entirely where we are.

Everyone can keep expecting a golden bolus of faecal matter to slide out of the well-fucked farter of the management, but all that emerges is neat, stinky clay. Our players won't play better because they can't. We need to buy payers who can.

pommpey

 

[super_pig]

given the beard's recent drop in form we all know he is a good player at this level.. him and billy are the only two players at the peak of their powers ie not trainees and not championship crocks.. coincidence???
now go and buy the other nine

 

[Deaneandagana]

Interesting debate and I think you can argue the following;

The manager has had no impact on the performance levels of the players, it's as flat as it was last season, the pro Adkins corner would argue it's the players who aren't up to it, the anti Adkins camp would simply point to the Warnock effect currently taking place at Rotherham - note Greg Halford's resurgence.

Surely the manager should be able to motivate, inspire and drive his players?

Secondly, agree with Pommpey - this is the worst 3rd Divn in living memory, for heavens sake let's have / show some ambition.

We have by far the biggest crowds, resources, best facilities, infrastructure & of course the greatest fans, it's simply not acceptable to settle for this shit.

 

[Gordon cowans]

Decent OP.
We cant say how long do we give him in october if the season gets off to a stinker,but we will.
We cant say this time next year he has to go when we probably around 8th,but we will.
It's a complete transformation not the odd tweak,this squad needs totally rebuilt,its going to be a lengthy process unless we get a chinese oil tycoon.
The massive question is have we got the right man.?we all in for the long haul and the journey is going to be very bumpy.
Only true blades need apply,its not a journey that the big game only blades may enjoy

 

[super_pig]

Interesting debate and I think you can argue the following;

The manager has had no impact on the performance levels of the players, it's as flat as it was last season, the pro Adkins corner would argue it's the players who aren't up to it, the anti Adkins camp would simply point to the Warnock effect currently taking place at Rotherham - note Greg Halford's resurgence.

Surely the manager should be able to motivate, inspire and drive his players?

agree but Rotherham have better players to start with.. you can't make a silk purse out of a pigs ear. .unless you're Warnock. but he is unusual

 

[Lord Bos of Eckington.]

Let me preface what I'm going to say by making clear that I, and I guess most Blades fans don't, and should never, see consolidation in League One as acceptable. It can only be explained as a symptom of failure at one or more levels and a knot that must be untied as a matter of urgency.
.
When Jamie Murphy was sold in the summer transfer window, I told my younger brother (12 years old) with whom I go to matches, that it'd be extremely unlikely that we'd go up unless we invested heavily in three or four top class players at this level - with the fee. That squad had only just scraped in to the play offs and major weaknesses throughout the team were apparent. It was also known that our other talisman and galvanising figure, John Brayford, was set to be injured for a considerable amount of time. My point, - which I'm getting to, - is should the club have set the bar lower in order to help the club, manager, fanbase and ultimately themselves in the long run?
If the club statement was: "the wage bill is too high, and the squad too big and not of adequate quality, we shouldn't be considered among the favourites for promotion", the consequences for Adkins would be myriad:
He could have invested in younger development players, making his aim automatic promotion by the end of next season - or even the final year of his contract. He could've fast tracked young players development and put up with the expected inconsistencies of Adams, Kieron Wallace, DCL etc knowing that game time now may reap benefits next season - despite potentially costing us points this. Phipps has already started making moves in this direction by shifting blame to Clough. In the summer they were telling us that the sun was shining when in reality there were big black clouds over the club. I always check the weather before a long journey so I can take my coat( if the weatherman gets it wrong I curse them)..They have lost a lot of goodwill, time and possibly support with this approach. Should the club give us realistic, achievable timeframes for our ambitions and give our manager a reasonable chance, or should they carry on with the bs and spin?

Btw: "the easy way out" is we're going for promotion blah, blah, blah, when our hopes are slim at best.

Do respect your posts which are always good .

In simple terms I don't think Adkins or the board knew how this season was to pan out , especially up to date worst than dire .

I think they were all deluded like I was that promotion was on the cards , especially with the appointment of Adkins who is a great positive bloke and motivator. The Adkins interviews have been top of the league , promotion chasing , ( in his mind ), but in reality , the truth is on the field we are bad . They all thought we would be there or there about.

Gillingham away told us different , but it wasn't a blip , it was the benchmark.

UTB

 

[Bladesway]

The owners are sometimes on a hiding to nothing though. They can be equally crucified for low profile (McCabe) or high profile (Mike Ashley).

Don't say things like "Europe in 5 years" then? Totally disagree with the ownership thing. They hide behind firing other people and are more responsible for twisting the truth than anyone.

McCabe and the Prince have hidden behind others for too long. Come and face the fans and face the music with some gun barrel straight honesty. Then they will get all the respect in the world.