Have you changed your mind??

[davidpinder]

5 games ago we were in a mess, had a terrible performance against Barnsley and we were all expecting blackwell to get the axe. 5 games later won 4, drawn 1 and were in a lot better position.

Did you want blackwell to get the sack after the barnsley game and now you don't because of the up turn in form?

I personally still don't think he will give us the success i want.

 

[DazBlade88]

I haven't changed my mind, I still expect us to finish 10th, and I still expect Blackwell to be in charge at the end of this season regardless of what happens.

Unless he keeps the current trend of managers headbutting players, that is...

 

[raul]

No, because I didn't want him sacked in the first place.

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

I'm still in the same position I've been in since the summer.
I don't like Blackwell. I don't like his tactics, I don't like his demeanor, I don't like his attitude, but he is the Blades manager so as long as he is winning games (and he should be at this level) he has my support.
But, he has to improve the team to keep us moving forward and if we don't do better than last season (i.e. go up) then he has failed.
If that is the case I would be wanting us to replace him in the summer if there is a better candidate who wants to come in.

 

[Bladesway]

No, because I didn't want him sacked in the first place.

This is what I was thinking! Not everyone actually wants him sacked you know, its just those making the most noise.

 

[Deleted member 1486]

He should, of course, be judged on results. But I still don't think he's the man for the job.

Results aside there are a couple of other reasons why I thought (and continue to think) he's not the right man for the job: his style of football and his transfers.

If McCabe sticks to his word and invests in the squad in January (and it's something we desperately need, the lack of players is the most worrying thing at the moment for me), I'm just not sure I want Blackwell to be the man who gets to spend a huge chunk of "our" money on 5 or 6 players.

 

[alcoblade]

He should, of course, be judged on results. But I still don't think he's the man for the job.

Results aside there are a couple of other reasons why I thought (and continue to think) he's not the right man for the job: his style of football and his transfers.

If McCabe sticks to his word and invests in the squad in January (and it's something we desperately need, the lack of players is the most worrying thing at the moment for me), I'm just not sure I want Blackwell to be the man who gets to spend a huge chunk of "our" money on 5 or 6 players.

^^^^^.....what he said.

UTB

 

[Micalijo]

By investment I assume you mean spend more than we get in? Absolutely no chance. As someone eloquently pointed out, he means trimming wage bill.

 

[JohnDenver]

Nope I haven't changed my mind as I think he's miles away from being justifiably sacked.

A club with a high turnover of managers is usually a failing one. As such I find Wendy's sacking of Laws jaw-droppingly crass.

 

[beechblade]

Those games were highly disappointing but I said then he needs backing and once we have a fit squad or almost fit squad then we can start to truly see if he is the right man for the job, barring a blip he gets results, we may not always agree with how he goes about it but he gets those results.

The begining of the season and the last few games have been highly encouraging even the ugly games, I honestly would rather us win ugly than lose with beautiful football, in the end I always want the Blades to win, how they do it doesn't bother me.

I hope Blackwell pursue's the mix of short passing and long passing when its needed thats what will get us out of this division. I hope he can do it because I would love us to be a premiership club, whether he's the right man for the job thats up to Blackwell to prove for us.

Up The Blades!!!!

 

[tomtheblade]

I didn't want him sacked and i don't now. He's not the messiah just because we've won a handful of games in the same way he's not the anti-christ just because we lost a few. He's a decent manager at this level who is capable of getting results and getting us into the playoffs at least. Realistically this is about what we can expect so he's just about living up to expectations at the moment.

I sense more than a little of bridesmaid syndrome about him though, and this is what worries me.

If we are not promoted this season and there is someone available who has a better proven track record of promotion and success, then i'd expect him to go, but not before, barring disaster.

 

[marshy]

I wanted him sacked and I still do.

A few scrapped results do not a decent manager make - ok Saturday was better than we have seen for some time, however...........

Present our current crop of players with a shit or bust game, combined with Blackwell's tactics and we will shit the bed in exactly the same fashion as we have done for the past 18 months.

He will undoubtedly play Monty (and I like Monty) in favour of Williamson next game and in the face of adversity he won't have a clue. If we go out on top, then we will stand a chance of winning a game, but should we need to mix things up and change a game in our favour, then we'll find Kevin lacking once more. It's easy when we're on top, but it's when we're struggling you have to test the mettle of a manager and we don't have the man to do that.

Don't be fooled kids, we have an average squad, with a distinctly average manager. What happens when all our loan players go back? We'll replace them with lesser loan players, that's what. We are starting to see glimmers of last season, but does anyone really believe that if we had to win our next match to clinch promotion we'd actually manage it? We don't have one tenth of the battling spirit that we had under Colin.

I'll give the bloke his dues - if he continues to turn around the slide then he's achieving something, but as has been seen throughout his career, he has no plan B and can't rise to the occassion.

Prove me wrong please Kev.

 

[JohnDenver]

Warnock never got us up through the play-offs and never won us a semi-final. Was he a big game bottler? In fact I remember a near disastrous spell of jitters in the transfer market and on the pitch in '06.

How about Howard Kendall? The same happened to him. I'd call him a bottler but his lawyers might get onto me.

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

I actually don't think our team is that weak Marshy. From the teams that have been at the Lane I haven't seen anyone who is considerably better than our first choice side.
Which is why I think we'll make the playoffs comfortably , however as you pointed out we'll have no plan b and come unstuck.

 

[tomtheblade]

I actually don't think our team is that weak Marshy. From the teams that have been at the Lane I haven't seen anyone who is considerably better than our first choice side.
Which is why I think we'll make the playoffs comfortably , however as you pointed out we'll have no plan b and come unstuck.

I think the key as always is confidence. We had it in abundance when Blackie took over because once we got out of trouble we had nothing to lose so attacked every game with everything. Since then we've been more (too) cautious and paid the price imo.

I agree we have a good first team and on the day are more than a match for anyone in this league, we just need to believe more, and that is Blackwells job. Granted our squad is too thin so we have a need to avoid injuries and suspension as much as possible.

 

[Santos]

5 games ago we were in a mess, had a terrible performance against Barnsley and we were all expecting blackwell to get the axe. 5 games later won 4, drawn 1 and were in a lot better position.

Did you want blackwell to get the sack after the barnsley game and now you don't because of the up turn in form?

I personally still don't think he will give us the success i want.

Not wavered at all, Blackwell in last month, Blackwell in thís month.

Any team in England suffers when you have four or five regulars out and a few more who shouldn't have been playing. Now we have players like Monty & Ward back it isn't surprising in the slightest to see our form improve.

I think a lot of fans quite literally go off the rails at Blackwell after one defeat and don't bother thinking about mitigating circumstances as they can't stand him/don't rate him. Then when results improve you get the Blackunwellwishers piping down a bit. Still, lose on Sảturday and it'll be the same again.

He ain't amazing but based on points in this league, not many managers can rival him. We'll be there or there abouts again.

 

[Revolution]

For most of this season I was not a Blackwell fan for various reasons, but saw no point in firing him because no one we could get instead was realistically going to do better due to various financial constraints (as Wednesday are about to find out for themselves).

The departure of Cotterill and some other weird personnel decisions (notably on the flanks and the signing of Cresswell) put me in the "Blackwell out" camp, because it seemed like any sort of interesting football was off the agenda for the forseeable future, he seemed to be wilfully discarding some of the pieces that caused our upturn in form last year, and this was affecting results.

I am still unhappy about these things but credit where credit's due, United have won 4 and drawn 2 out of the last 6 matches, and some of the credit for that has to go to Blackwell. The question of who is the manager is of lesser importance to me than the fact that we are winning, so if Blackwell can keep this run going, great.

The next 2 matches will be an interesting test for the team. It's hard to call. Things have gone so up and down this year that losing both heavily or winning both easily are both plausible outcomes.

 

[Notts Blade]

After the Barnsley match I was convinced that Blackwell was the wrong manager for the club. However I didn't want him sacked as I thought that would be a very premature reaction. I was willing to give him until January, see how he coped and the team performed with some players back from injury whilst playing some must win and some could win matches against teams around us and at the bottom of the league.

After the last five matches I am reasonably pleased with what I've seen. We're not playing at our best, we're not easily beating teams in all honesty we should be beating easily but we're grinding out results, showing some patches of good football and a lot of spirit and determination. In my opinion this on its own shows the players are still playing for Blackwell and so we should keep with him at the very least until the end of the season.

I still don't think he's a good manager for us in the long term though.

 

[mattbianco1]

Changed my mind? No. I said stick by him and our performances will pick up.

Thought they played well vs Palace. Got the ball down, passed it well. I was really impressed with Williamson & i thought Harper played better next to him rather than Monty. I do like Montgomery but i feel that we could pass it around better and created more things with two midfielders who are comfortable on the ball. Anyone agree?

 

[sitwell]

Warnock never got us up through the play-offs and never won us a semi-final. Was he a big game bottler? In fact I remember a near disastrous spell of jitters in the transfer market and on the pitch in '06.

How about Howard Kendall? The same happened to him. I'd call him a bottler but his lawyers might get onto me.

For a big game bottler his record against the grunters wasn't bad.

 

[Grecian2000]

Changed my mind? No. I said stick by him and our performances will pick up.

Thought they played well vs Palace. Got the ball down, passed it well. I was really impressed with Williamson & i thought Harper played better next to him rather than Monty. I do like Montgomery but i feel that we could pass it around better and created more things with two midfielders who are comfortable on the ball. Anyone agree?

100% agree.

Williamson looks class and Harper looks way better alongside him.

No Hendo, No Monty, way better football, No coincidence.

Could this be his accidental finding of a football team like when Iffy got injured at the start of 02/03 and all of a sudden we had a team on our hands.

If Blackwell can see what happened on Saturday (i.e our first real performance of the season) then OK, if he reverts back to the hoof then he's still got to go.

 

[Revolution]

I do like Montgomery but i feel that we could pass it around better and created more things with two midfielders who are comfortable on the ball. Anyone agree?

It seems to have escaped your notice, but tucked away in the various Monty threads, amidst posts claiming that he is the greatest defensive midfielder of all time, you'll find the odd post pointing out that when we use 4-4-2 perhaps we'd be better off playing 2 all rounders in the centre of the park, rather than giving one place to someone who makes no offensive contribution whatsoever and expecting the other player to be the second coming of Michael Brown...

 

[Robbie]

I still want Blackwell out

 

[Bladesman]

I wanted him sacked and I still do.

A few scrapped results do not a decent manager make - ok Saturday was better than we have seen for some time, however...........

Present our current crop of players with a shit or bust game, combined with Blackwell's tactics and we will shit the bed in exactly the same fashion as we have done for the past 18 months.

He will undoubtedly play Monty (and I like Monty) in favour of Williamson next game and in the face of adversity he won't have a clue. If we go out on top, then we will stand a chance of winning a game, but should we need to mix things up and change a game in our favour, then we'll find Kevin lacking once more. It's easy when we're on top, but it's when we're struggling you have to test the mettle of a manager and we don't have the man to do that.

Don't be fooled kids, we have an average squad, with a distinctly average manager. What happens when all our loan players go back? We'll replace them with lesser loan players, that's what. We are starting to see glimmers of last season, but does anyone really believe that if we had to win our next match to clinch promotion we'd actually manage it? We don't have one tenth of the battling spirit that we had under Colin.

I'll give the bloke his dues - if he continues to turn around the slide then he's achieving something, but as has been seen throughout his career, he has no plan B and can't rise to the occassion.

Prove me wrong please Kev.

Totally agree there Marshy.

I think he is more of an average manager that will keep us in this league and hovering around promotion but just like last season it will result in failure.

So I would still happily see Blackwell leave and he probably will soon enough.

 

[DuncDisorderly]

I haven't changed my mind at all. I think he is a decent manager, despite what the prophets of doom would have us believe. We got oh, so close last year, and he has clearly tried to bring in what we were missing, more firepower, width, and greater creativity in the middle. Its what we'd all been talking about.

This year, a lot of hoo-ha about the bad run, but he said things would improve when the first teamers were back. They are, and it is improving. They said he could only play hoofball, but we didn't play hoofball the last few games. Is that because we had a team that was best playing to a big target man and now we have the right personnel on the pitch to play more football? Looks like it to me. Am I a genius or talking out of my backpassage? Who knows, but I did say judge him when he has his squad back.

Despite doom and gloom early on last year, I saw a spark that told me we would be OK. This year I can say it again. Top six nailed on, maybe better. Nothing to fear in this league.

As for those saying he's limited and can't take us to the next level, I refer you to Tony Pulis. Never say never...

 

[Pinchy]

Changed my mind? No. I said stick by him and our performances will pick up.

Thought they played well vs Palace. Got the ball down, passed it well. I was really impressed with Williamson & i thought Harper played better next to him rather than Monty. I do like Montgomery but i feel that we could pass it around better and created more things with two midfielders who are comfortable on the ball. Anyone agree?

I agree entirely with your second paragraph.

I would love Blacko to prove me wrong and lead us gloriously to the Prem but if he did I would advocate learning from our mistake with NW last time and sack him immediately [harsh but no room for sentiment in football].

In truth I don't expect him to achieve promotion. I have not changed my mind at all.

Blacko OUT.

 

[beightonblade]

No ............. i've not changed mi mind.

 

[Fiery Blade]

No. I've not changed my mind either - Blackwell ought to be winning games at this level with the squad he has and yes Williamson doews look a good buy but I don't want to see good money paid for the likes of Cresswell (although he tries hard is not that good and will not get better!) spent in January.
Whether we like it or not Blackwell is here for the rest of the season at least and unfortunately we will just fall short and destined to play next season in the championship! Another wasted season!

 

[happyhippy]

I still want Blackwell out

Another in the 'not changed mind' camp then

I'm just as I was. Not convinced, but happy that no kneejerk decisions were made. That said, it was safe to say that we knew full there wouldn't be changes. We knew we had injury problems. We knew we had/have a squad which didn't/doesn't fully know each other yet.

Despite the recent unbeaten run though, things are still not totally well, and I continue to say that I'm not convinced by Blackie. We're still in a better position than most, and it has been damned rare in my lifetime as a Blade that I could have said that. For that at least I'm grateful.

Do I want him sacked? No, unless there is a better man lined up to take over affairs with immediate effect. I certainly don't want an interregnum, potentially causing even more uncertainty. Also, more crucially, that could create a position whereby if we need more players on loan, the likelyhood of people coming would rapidly decrease even more.

 

[Torrix1889]

Not changed my mind one iota, he can’t get his arse out of BDTBL quick enough for me. I’ve said it before but long-term I can’t see us improving any further under Blackwell and just because we’ve had a couple of wins, (with only 1 good performance) my view hasn’t changed at all.