Why We'll Stay Up

[Stebop]

Every time I hear or read a sneering elitist fan from another club say 'you'll go straight back down', I'm reassured this will be a large factor in why we'll stay up.

For all the praise we've received from the more perceptive football followers, I believe the majority still just don't get 'it'. They have no idea what's going on at our club because it bears no resemblance to the sterile and personality-free football culture that dominates the modern English upper tier. Ours isn't just a football team, it's a football movement!

I note the Norwich fan on the end of season awards thread critical of the boozy behaviour by our players yesterday. He watches the John Egan clip in horrified indignation, concerned by the non-inclusiveness of it all (WTF). I watch it and see something that simply cannot be bought or easily replicated. Again, it's the antidote to that same personality-free and sterile football culture. It's authentic, genuine and human - I think they call it team spirit?

I think we'll be the favourites to go down, no matter who comes up in the playoffs. Our team is full of players with unsexy surnames like Stevens and Sharp, not enough Vrancics and Stiepermanns for those in the know. I'll be delighted if we are the favourites, it will feed the preconceptions of the 'straight back down' mob further still.

Bournemouth faced the same preconceptions when they were promoted, and that's the team I think we should look closest to for inspiration. Much of their squad were with them through the lower leagues and have more than held their own at the highest level - so why can't ours? When you consider they signed Callum Wilson, Ryan Fraser, Steve Cook and Josh King for a combined total of under £4m as well, its proof we don't need to shell out £20m for a Premier League quality player.

So I say - bring on the 'you'll go straight back down' claims. Those fans are making a rod for their own manager's backs. When we're inexplicably 2-0 up on their own patch, they'll be screaming for sackings and new signings because how else could this set of no-hopers be winning if not for their own manager and players being shite?

We all know our manager and team are special, but they really don't understand that yet. It's why we'll stay up.

 

[blademark]

Every time I hear or read a sneering elitist fan from another club say 'you'll go straight back down', I'm reassured this will be a large factor in why we'll stay up.

For all the praise we've received from the more perceptive football followers, I believe the majority still just don't get 'it'. They have no idea what's going on at our club because it bears no resemblance to the sterile and personality-free football culture that dominates the modern English upper tier. Ours isn't just a football team, it's a football movement!

I note the Norwich fan on the end of season awards thread critical of the boozy behaviour by our players yesterday. He watches the John Egan clip in horrified indignation, concerned by the non-inclusiveness of it all (WTF). I watch it and see something that simply cannot be bought or easily replicated. Again, it's the antidote to that same personality-free and sterile football culture. It's authentic, genuine and human - I think they call it team spirit?

I think we'll be the favourites to go down, no matter who comes up in the playoffs. Our team is full of players with unsexy surnames like Stevens and Sharp, not enough Vrancics and Stiepermanns for those in the know. I'll be delighted if we are the favourites, it will feed the preconceptions of the 'straight back down' mob further still.

Bournemouth faced the same preconceptions when they were promoted, and that's the team I think we should look closest to for inspiration. Much of their squad were with them through the lower leagues and have more than held their own at the highest level - so why can't ours? When you consider they signed Callum Wilson, Ryan Fraser, Steve Cook and Josh King for a combined total of under £4m as well, its proof we don't need to shell out £20m for a Premier League quality player.

So I say - bring on the 'you'll go straight back down' claims. Those fans are making a rod for their own manager's backs. When we're inexplicably 2-0 up on their own patch, they'll be screaming for sackings and new signings because how else could this set of no-hopers be winning if not for their own manager and players being shite?

We all know our manager and team are special, but they really don't understand that yet. It's why we'll stay up.

Excellent post!

 

[Blackestnite]

Agree 100%

 

[Grizzly blade]

Very insightful and eloquently put sir!

I couldn’t have put it better myself

 

[Fulwood Blade]

Every time I hear or read a sneering elitist fan from another club say 'you'll go straight back down', I'm reassured this will be a large factor in why we'll stay up.

For all the praise we've received from the more perceptive football followers, I believe the majority still just don't get 'it'. They have no idea what's going on at our club because it bears no resemblance to the sterile and personality-free football culture that dominates the modern English upper tier. Ours isn't just a football team, it's a football movement!

I note the Norwich fan on the end of season awards thread critical of the boozy behaviour by our players yesterday. He watches the John Egan clip in horrified indignation, concerned by the non-inclusiveness of it all (WTF). I watch it and see something that simply cannot be bought or easily replicated. Again, it's the antidote to that same personality-free and sterile football culture. It's authentic, genuine and human - I think they call it team spirit?

I think we'll be the favourites to go down, no matter who comes up in the playoffs. Our team is full of players with unsexy surnames like Stevens and Sharp, not enough Vrancics and Stiepermanns for those in the know. I'll be delighted if we are the favourites, it will feed the preconceptions of the 'straight back down' mob further still.

Bournemouth faced the same preconceptions when they were promoted, and that's the team I think we should look closest to for inspiration. Much of their squad were with them through the lower leagues and have more than held their own at the highest level - so why can't ours? When you consider they signed Callum Wilson, Ryan Fraser, Steve Cook and Josh King for a combined total of under £4m as well, its proof we don't need to shell out £20m for a Premier League quality player.

So I say - bring on the 'you'll go straight back down' claims. Those fans are making a rod for their own manager's backs. When we're inexplicably 2-0 up on their own patch, they'll be screaming for sackings and new signings because how else could this set of no-hopers be winning if not for their own manager and players being shite?

We all know our manager and team are special, but they really don't understand that yet. It's why we'll stay up.

Bottle that confidence and optimism and sell it - there will be a few takers on here (ie post Bristol City and Millwall games)

UTB

 

[Broomhall Blade]

The Norwich fans seem to have got a bit arrogant already.
Saying we will be favourites to go down with our Wilder style football, while their style of football is more suited to the Premiership and should see them finish about mid table.
Also slagging Wilder off, some begrudgingly admit he's done well but most can't stand him.
They are also the best side in the championship and deserve the title.

 

[Bladeinleeds]

No one id rather trust with our transfer budget than wilder!

 

[SheepdipBlade]

Yet one word could scupper the whole lot - "Boardroom". The manager, team and fans are ready for the step up - but has it come too soon for the Board? Will they (can they?) do what's needed over the next 12 months? How much faith do you have in that part of the Club?

 

[S64 Blade]

It's early days of course, but I think we will too. We won't be bottling it, like we did under Warnock, put it that way.

 

[Stebop]

Yet one word could scupper the whole lot - "Boardroom". The manager, team and fans are ready for the step up - but has it come too soon for the Board? Will they (can they?) do what's needed over the next 12 months? How much faith do you have in that part of the Club?

To be fair - that is probably the main caveat. We can only hope that doesn't derail what's happening, because if they can sort it out amongst themselves with Wilder firmly in place, who knows how far we can go?

 

[Stretch]

Yet one word could scupper the whole lot - "Boardroom". The manager, team and fans are ready for the step up - but has it come too soon for the Board? Will they (can they?) do what's needed over the next 12 months? How much faith do you have in that part of the Club?

I wouldn't say been away from the top table for 12 years and spending 6 of those in the 3rd tier could be classed as coming too soon for anyone. If anything I think McCabe will have realised what a missed opportunity it was last time and won't let it slip again. Some very, very hard lessons have been learned since we were last up here.

That's all assuming he still has a say after the court's judgement of course.

 

[SheepdipBlade]

To be fair - that is probably the main caveat. We can only hope that doesn't derail what's happening, because if they can sort it out amongst themselves with Wilder firmly in place, who knows how far we can go?

I'd agree with that 100%. If we'd stayed in the Champ I could have seen the court case resolving nothing - and Lord knows what CW would have done then. I just really hope the promotion acts as motivation for the owners to get their shit together rather than makes them dig in to their entrenched positions. Club first - ego (and vested interest?) second now of all times!

 

[SheepdipBlade]

I wouldn't say been away from the top table for 12 years and spending 6 of those in the 3rd tier could be classed as coming too soon for anyone. If anything I think McCabe will have realised what a missed opportunity it was last time and won't let it slip again. Some very, very hard lessons have been learned since we were last up here.

That's all assuming he still has a say after the court's judgement of course.

I suspect that promotion wasn't really considered a liklihood by the board this time a year ago and that - even leaving the court case aside - preparations are behind where they would be at Villa Park, the Hawthorne's etc. I might be wrong - hope so!

 

[Th!stledo]

While ever CW is at the helm our odds of staying up will be be very high.
The owners need to make sure that happens and no one else is allowed to prise him away.
I don't think it will be about money. Possibly more, frustration that the owners are playing silly buggers.

 

[Yank]

I feel confident we will stay up with who we have running the club and how we go about things. Will it be easy? Of course not, but I have the utmost faith in Wilder and Co. Everyone else who doesn't think we will are just jealous of how we do the right things or already nervous and/or unsure about their own current prospects.
I say to hell with them and let us see what happens.

UTFB

 

[Grappler]

The "gang" mentality that our team has, the whole "band of brothers" thing, is a reason why we won't go back down, they all play for each other, no ego's in our team.

 

[Antonb]

To be fair to warnock 38 points was a decent tally . Didn't hull stay up year later with like 35

 

[HydeParkBlade]

You make a great point about player value. How many times have we seen players signed for big money and just not cut it in the PL? Player value is not defined monetarily in this league, it's determined by your will to succeed. I've never seen a blades squad with such an abundance of that. We will absolutely stay up, and we'll do it on the cheap, and next season-end it will be regarded as a miracle to everyone else outside of this club, when to us it will have been blindingly obvious from the start.

 

[grafikhaus]

The Norwich fans seem to have got a bit arrogant already.
Saying we will be favourites to go down with our Wilder style football, while their style of football is more suited to the Premiership and should see them finish about mid table.

They are also the best side in the championship and deserve the title.

Although I like Colin Murray (and Holloway) on Quest, a lot of the Norwich and Leeds love-ins comes from the fence sitters who appear with him. Ashton, Warnock etc. just belong to the 'if you say something often enough, people will believe it' school of thought.

Yes, Norwich are very good with an excellent manager, but Leeds? Serial bottlers and dirty cunts.

 

[bornablade]

Just as important is our attitude on the terraces.

We have to stay 100% behind the team even when things are not going well.

We don't need clappers a la Leicester and Huddersfield to create an atmosphere. What we do need is that cauldron of noise that we had on Saturday.

Much has been said about the 'Spirit of 90' - I cannot recall any calls for Bassett's head when we only had 4 points by December. We were in that together. We were the underdogs. The Unfashionables. We stuck together and came through the other side.

This is what we need next season. No one takes the piss out of us.

 

[Pinchy]

We need to learn from last time. Our wage budget was £16m, half of the average PL budget (or maybe even half of the second-lowest, I forget). At all events, no club had ever stayed up on such a budget.

Clearly, we can’t match the top ten or twelve spenders and nowhere near the elite five or six BUT we have to be competitive with the rest so as to give ourselves a fighting chance.

The income thrown at PL clubs is hugely more than last time we were there. We need to go for it, not recklessly, not foolishly, but at least realistically.

 

[Pinchy]

Although I like Colin Murray (and Holloway) on Quest, a lot of the Norwich and Leeds love-ins comes from the fence sitters who appear with him. Ashton, Warnock etc. just belong to the 'if you say something often enough, people will believe it' school of thought.

Yes, Norwich are very good with an excellent manager, but Leeds? Serial bottlers and dirty cunts.

Don’t forget Corrupt and Cheating.

 

[Dalelane01]

p

 

[Pinchy]

To be fair to warnock 38 points was a decent tally . Didn't hull stay up year later with like 35

It wasn’t enough. He was out of his depth. He always has been. He doesn’t cope at the highest level, him.

 

[Kev Gee]

I don't think the PL will be ready for tuftyball and that suits us just fine!

 

[Minty]

With 3 promotions in 4 seasons, CW has proved he is a fucking excellent manager and I don't think he has a relegation in him. I have faith that he will carry on the with signing "the right players for the club", which will keep us up. Of course it won't be easy but I think we can do it.

 

[Stebop]

You make a great point about player value. How many times have we seen players signed for big money and just not cut it in the PL? Player value is not defined monetarily in this league, it's determined by your will to succeed. I've never seen a blades squad with such an abundance of that. We will absolutely stay up, and we'll do it on the cheap, and next season-end it will be regarded as a miracle to everyone else outside of this club, when to us it will have been blindingly obvious from the start.

It's lazy and unimaginative to think success can only be bought in my opinion. I have a relative who is a Leeds fan and they repeat the same thing every single season - 'no point in any of us going up, we'll all just come straight back down unless we spend hundreds of millions'.

The 17 key Leicester players in their title-winning squad cost less than £35m combined - meanwhile, Manchester City's squad contained a single Eliaquim Mangala costing £42m, and finished 15 points and 3 places behind them.

I'm really looking forward to seeing who Mitchell, Wilder and Knill have on their shortlist - we might even end up with another freebie from Ipswich nobody else fancies

 

[Topplayersleave]

If we set out just to stay up we probably won't.
If I hear any Warnockesque drivel like "We're just happy to be here" and "17th place is what we're aiming for because we're far too fucking useless to get any higher than that" the euphoria will soon wear off.

 

[super_pig]

Every time I hear or read a sneering elitist fan from another club say 'you'll go straight back down', I'm reassured this will be a large factor in why we'll stay up.

For all the praise we've received from the more perceptive football followers, I believe the majority still just don't get 'it'. They have no idea what's going on at our club because it bears no resemblance to the sterile and personality-free football culture that dominates the modern English upper tier. Ours isn't just a football team, it's a football movement!

I note the Norwich fan on the end of season awards thread critical of the boozy behaviour by our players yesterday. He watches the John Egan clip in horrified indignation, concerned by the non-inclusiveness of it all (WTF). I watch it and see something that simply cannot be bought or easily replicated. Again, it's the antidote to that same personality-free and sterile football culture. It's authentic, genuine and human - I think they call it team spirit?

I think we'll be the favourites to go down, no matter who comes up in the playoffs. Our team is full of players with unsexy surnames like Stevens and Sharp, not enough Vrancics and Stiepermanns for those in the know. I'll be delighted if we are the favourites, it will feed the preconceptions of the 'straight back down' mob further still.

Bournemouth faced the same preconceptions when they were promoted, and that's the team I think we should look closest to for inspiration. Much of their squad were with them through the lower leagues and have more than held their own at the highest level - so why can't ours? When you consider they signed Callum Wilson, Ryan Fraser, Steve Cook and Josh King for a combined total of under £4m as well, its proof we don't need to shell out £20m for a Premier League quality player.

So I say - bring on the 'you'll go straight back down' claims. Those fans are making a rod for their own manager's backs. When we're inexplicably 2-0 up on their own patch, they'll be screaming for sackings and new signings because how else could this set of no-hopers be winning if not for their own manager and players being shite?

We all know our manager and team are special, but they really don't understand that yet. It's why we'll stay up.

norwich ‘celebrated ‘ with bottled water.. wtf was that about? pious virtue signalling bollocks
i can’t wait for the racist bollocks to start
we’ve all read roys view froms
physical tick
pashun tick
organised tick
they have no idea we have some really decent players ..villa didn’t know what had hit them at BDTBL they totally underestimated us.. long may it continue

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I think we will go down next season.

Down in history as fucking romping to safety and winning a cup.