bricktop
Well-Known Member
Not been tonight, had to work instead, but had the pleasure of catching being able to follow bits of the second half on the way home, and had arrived in to Sheffield at half past 9. Bumped in to LS26BLADE s brother John. Asked him what had gone wrong and he said "Brownie, it was shocking, i left at half time", and had another quick conversation with an old Blade walking through the station and asked him if we was a bad as the scoreline sounded and he said, what i had been saying all season along with countless others, and that was we wasn't good enough.
The first thing we need to look at is the manager. Nigel Adkins for the poor start he has got off to has got a pedigree and given time he could be the man to take us out of this division. First up we need to accept that we aren't getting out this division this season, so we need to make a decision, do we cut our losses on him and sack him, which given the results and sacking managers in the past hasn't served us well, or do we accept we are not going to get out of this division this season, and give him a license to cut all the crap and embark on a drastic rebuilding exercise. I think we should give him a few more games, but he needs to understand that he has to start wielding the axe and trying to do something positive. If we continue with the same old failures then things will never improve, so it needs a change of tack.
First of all we need to address two big matters. One is that we have a few players who are under-performing, or not up to the required standard, and secondly, individually and as a team it is quite apparent that we are going through the motions.
For the next couple of months we need to strip it back and get back to basics. Try and use whatever resources we have, and whatever personal we have to build a strong spine of the team. I've always believed that a side is always better with a decent keeper, a hard bastard at centre half who takes no prisoners, a midfield scrapper who takes no prisoners, and a forward who is a complete hard cunt who asks for and gives no quarter. At the minute non of the current first teamers have that in them, but there will be plenty available on loan, or even give a couple of the under 21s a chance to become that. I don't know much about the under 21s but we have got to start giving them a chance as they can't be any worse than the first teamers.
I would start by telling several of the current players in and around the first team they are dropped and to look for new clubs. They haven't proved themselves, and don't seem to have the aptitude to prove themselves. When was the last time any of them ever walked off looking they would run through walls or bust a gut? I can't remember.
Starting from the back, we look shocking, George Long has the makings of a decent keeper but he is continually let down by the shit in front of him. Mark Howard is an average League One stopper.
Then the defence. Kieron Freeman is the worst full back i have seen at the club, it is shocking how often he is caught out of position, David Edgar is piss poor, granted he is a big lad but he is as week as piss, never been a centre half. Neill Collins has been part of this malaise for the last 5 years but still remains here, as a centre-half he is just pure fucking awful,but he has the captains armband yet is the one who is the quickest to have a pop at others when we concede but never accepts responsibility for his own failings. Chris Basham is marginally better than Collins, but he isn't a centre half either, but he isn't a midfielder either. McEveley, don't even get me started on him. Then on the left side we have got Kieron Wallace, a young lad plucked from non-league as a midfielder but suddenly finds himself battling manfully as a left back because we didn't have no other options there, and then now the regular left-back returns Bob Harris, looked a player when he first signed but along with a lot of others seems to be going through the motions, and then we have got the returning hero, John Brayford, a half decent player returning from injury thrust in to all this shower of shite. He could be the best player in the world but is going to suffer with this lot.
Midfield looks to be vastly under-performing. Centre of the park Dean Hammond looks to be a huge disappointment, it is quite obvious why he has spent the vast majority of his career languishing in the lower two divisions. Paul Coutts looks to be a talented player, albiet one who is severely diminished by injury, and James Wallace the same. Then you have Stefan Scougall who seems completely and utterly bereft of confidence, and seems a shadow of the impish midfielder who ran through opposition defences at will a couple of seasons ago. Louis Reed who was absolutely outstanding when he first broke in to the side but has seemed to go backwards ever since. Jose Baxter would be a great player if he wasn't thick as fuck, drugs ban, always looks overweight and will be the bloke who is skint in his mid 30s wondering where it all went wrong. Then out wide we are still limited, JCR battles on manfully, has more heart than a lot of players we have got and never goes hiding, always looks for the ball, never fearful of getting clattered but there is never no end product. However I'm puzzled how Martyn Woolford has ever made a career out of professional football, and then you have Che Adams, the segway king, got his new contract and scored a handful of goals and now in his own mind thinks he has made it, yet his attitude fucking stinks.
Lastly we need to look at the strike force. Billy Sharp, living off the back of a couple of good seasons at Scunthorpe 10 years ago. He wasn't good enough the first time round, he wasn't good enough the second time round, yet he brought back a third time and expected to be the saviour, thinks he is some sort of talisman but a talisman always produces the goods, i'm a Blade as well, might be in my late 30s, overweight but I'm still a blade, maybe i should get a game as well. Conor Sammon is poor, for a big lad he is poor in the air, doesn't seem to be able to put himself about, and is just pure mediocre, he belongs in the League Of Ireland, then the other strikers. McNulty has the makings of a decent striker but seems to have lost interest which is hardly suprising given some of the others we have got, Higdon had a half decent track record, thought he could do something we but we have never played a style of football that has been to his strengths so we send him out to Oldham where he is impressive, and then we have our saviour, the Range Rover driving, stylish, thrusting man about town Diego De Girolamo who is a world class Italian international in his own mind, but to everyone else is the kid who thinks he has made it despite all the evidence to contrary pointing otherwise.
Personally i would strip the lot back, get them going out there doing long distance runs, get them kicking lumps out of each other at training, and trying to get them to prove they are worthy of being in the first team, rather than letting them walk in to the side week in, week out. If they can't do it, then give some of the younger kids a chance. At least they have will have got a point to prove.
A line needs to be drawn, it is obviously apparent whatever is being tried now isn't working so it needs a different tack. We need to get back to having 11 players out on the pitch that will bust a gut for Sheffield United, if they did that they would be appreciated and respected, not ridiculed. If they don't want to do that, let them rot in the reserves, make their lives not worth living and screw them and their poxy carriers and let them know that Sheffield United isn't an easy wage.
I've been a lifelong Sheffield United nut, a fanatic, someone who has devoted more time, effort and even had the Blades cited on my divorce papers, but nowadays my feelings towards the team on the pitch oscillates between resentment and apathy.
When i grew up, Sheffield United were never the best football club, but i lived through the years of Bassett, where we had a manager who dragged us up through the Divisions kicking and screaming, with players who would die for the cause. I was brought up watching and buying in to a Sheffield United where the sum total was greater than the parts, where we all collectively bought in to something, where even as a teenage fan i would have run through the brick walls if i knew it would be for the betterment of the Blades, and now looking at the shower of shite that courses through the club, that is polluting the lifeblood of the club, it breaks my heart.
Drastic changes need to be made, and made now, because if this continues, i genuinely fear for the future of the club. The changes have to be made firstly on the pitch, Adkins has to make drastic changes and make them fast, if he doesn't see that the drastic changes have to made or doesn't know how to make the drastic changes then i'm afraid that this is just the start of a Kafka-esque nightmare.......
The first thing we need to look at is the manager. Nigel Adkins for the poor start he has got off to has got a pedigree and given time he could be the man to take us out of this division. First up we need to accept that we aren't getting out this division this season, so we need to make a decision, do we cut our losses on him and sack him, which given the results and sacking managers in the past hasn't served us well, or do we accept we are not going to get out of this division this season, and give him a license to cut all the crap and embark on a drastic rebuilding exercise. I think we should give him a few more games, but he needs to understand that he has to start wielding the axe and trying to do something positive. If we continue with the same old failures then things will never improve, so it needs a change of tack.
First of all we need to address two big matters. One is that we have a few players who are under-performing, or not up to the required standard, and secondly, individually and as a team it is quite apparent that we are going through the motions.
For the next couple of months we need to strip it back and get back to basics. Try and use whatever resources we have, and whatever personal we have to build a strong spine of the team. I've always believed that a side is always better with a decent keeper, a hard bastard at centre half who takes no prisoners, a midfield scrapper who takes no prisoners, and a forward who is a complete hard cunt who asks for and gives no quarter. At the minute non of the current first teamers have that in them, but there will be plenty available on loan, or even give a couple of the under 21s a chance to become that. I don't know much about the under 21s but we have got to start giving them a chance as they can't be any worse than the first teamers.
I would start by telling several of the current players in and around the first team they are dropped and to look for new clubs. They haven't proved themselves, and don't seem to have the aptitude to prove themselves. When was the last time any of them ever walked off looking they would run through walls or bust a gut? I can't remember.
Starting from the back, we look shocking, George Long has the makings of a decent keeper but he is continually let down by the shit in front of him. Mark Howard is an average League One stopper.
Then the defence. Kieron Freeman is the worst full back i have seen at the club, it is shocking how often he is caught out of position, David Edgar is piss poor, granted he is a big lad but he is as week as piss, never been a centre half. Neill Collins has been part of this malaise for the last 5 years but still remains here, as a centre-half he is just pure fucking awful,but he has the captains armband yet is the one who is the quickest to have a pop at others when we concede but never accepts responsibility for his own failings. Chris Basham is marginally better than Collins, but he isn't a centre half either, but he isn't a midfielder either. McEveley, don't even get me started on him. Then on the left side we have got Kieron Wallace, a young lad plucked from non-league as a midfielder but suddenly finds himself battling manfully as a left back because we didn't have no other options there, and then now the regular left-back returns Bob Harris, looked a player when he first signed but along with a lot of others seems to be going through the motions, and then we have got the returning hero, John Brayford, a half decent player returning from injury thrust in to all this shower of shite. He could be the best player in the world but is going to suffer with this lot.
Midfield looks to be vastly under-performing. Centre of the park Dean Hammond looks to be a huge disappointment, it is quite obvious why he has spent the vast majority of his career languishing in the lower two divisions. Paul Coutts looks to be a talented player, albiet one who is severely diminished by injury, and James Wallace the same. Then you have Stefan Scougall who seems completely and utterly bereft of confidence, and seems a shadow of the impish midfielder who ran through opposition defences at will a couple of seasons ago. Louis Reed who was absolutely outstanding when he first broke in to the side but has seemed to go backwards ever since. Jose Baxter would be a great player if he wasn't thick as fuck, drugs ban, always looks overweight and will be the bloke who is skint in his mid 30s wondering where it all went wrong. Then out wide we are still limited, JCR battles on manfully, has more heart than a lot of players we have got and never goes hiding, always looks for the ball, never fearful of getting clattered but there is never no end product. However I'm puzzled how Martyn Woolford has ever made a career out of professional football, and then you have Che Adams, the segway king, got his new contract and scored a handful of goals and now in his own mind thinks he has made it, yet his attitude fucking stinks.
Lastly we need to look at the strike force. Billy Sharp, living off the back of a couple of good seasons at Scunthorpe 10 years ago. He wasn't good enough the first time round, he wasn't good enough the second time round, yet he brought back a third time and expected to be the saviour, thinks he is some sort of talisman but a talisman always produces the goods, i'm a Blade as well, might be in my late 30s, overweight but I'm still a blade, maybe i should get a game as well. Conor Sammon is poor, for a big lad he is poor in the air, doesn't seem to be able to put himself about, and is just pure mediocre, he belongs in the League Of Ireland, then the other strikers. McNulty has the makings of a decent striker but seems to have lost interest which is hardly suprising given some of the others we have got, Higdon had a half decent track record, thought he could do something we but we have never played a style of football that has been to his strengths so we send him out to Oldham where he is impressive, and then we have our saviour, the Range Rover driving, stylish, thrusting man about town Diego De Girolamo who is a world class Italian international in his own mind, but to everyone else is the kid who thinks he has made it despite all the evidence to contrary pointing otherwise.
Personally i would strip the lot back, get them going out there doing long distance runs, get them kicking lumps out of each other at training, and trying to get them to prove they are worthy of being in the first team, rather than letting them walk in to the side week in, week out. If they can't do it, then give some of the younger kids a chance. At least they have will have got a point to prove.
A line needs to be drawn, it is obviously apparent whatever is being tried now isn't working so it needs a different tack. We need to get back to having 11 players out on the pitch that will bust a gut for Sheffield United, if they did that they would be appreciated and respected, not ridiculed. If they don't want to do that, let them rot in the reserves, make their lives not worth living and screw them and their poxy carriers and let them know that Sheffield United isn't an easy wage.
I've been a lifelong Sheffield United nut, a fanatic, someone who has devoted more time, effort and even had the Blades cited on my divorce papers, but nowadays my feelings towards the team on the pitch oscillates between resentment and apathy.
When i grew up, Sheffield United were never the best football club, but i lived through the years of Bassett, where we had a manager who dragged us up through the Divisions kicking and screaming, with players who would die for the cause. I was brought up watching and buying in to a Sheffield United where the sum total was greater than the parts, where we all collectively bought in to something, where even as a teenage fan i would have run through the brick walls if i knew it would be for the betterment of the Blades, and now looking at the shower of shite that courses through the club, that is polluting the lifeblood of the club, it breaks my heart.
Drastic changes need to be made, and made now, because if this continues, i genuinely fear for the future of the club. The changes have to be made firstly on the pitch, Adkins has to make drastic changes and make them fast, if he doesn't see that the drastic changes have to made or doesn't know how to make the drastic changes then i'm afraid that this is just the start of a Kafka-esque nightmare.......
