Would you rather - stay up in 2006/07 or experience the Wilder years?

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

Morning folks,

I got to thinking yesterday about our last few years and the journey we've been on and how arguably this is the best Blades side I've seen in my lifetime and the best football we've ever played.

Then it dawned on me, that without the anguish of yesteryear, without Jagielka's handball, Webber hitting the post, Unsworth's penalty, Robson, Blackwell, selling the Kyles, Paddy Kenny to QPR, losing in the playoffs (3 times!), Weir, Ched, Adkins, and everything that contributed to the demise, we may have consolidated in the Premier League and avoided the eventual languishing in League 1...

...but had that been the case we would have never witnessed the Wilder years. Tufty ball, Chrissy Wilder and Alan Knill, the return of Billy, the magic of Duffy, Couttsey never giving the ball away, that midfield trio, the overlapping cente halves, the record breaking League One title season, Wilder's unbelievable track record of the past few seasons, that win away at the Pigs (a day not 2-4 get), Brooks' nutmeg, playing proper football the Sheff United way, John Egan's song, Henderson's antics, Norwood's ping, that Chris Basham goal, the celebrations, being the pride of the city and achieving the unexpected.

So my question to you all is, which would you rather?

1. Have stayed up, consolidated and avoided the anguish, but to probably never know the Wilder years.

2. It was all worth it, to be where we are now.

 

[Yoonited]

Morning folks,

I got to thinking yesterday about our last few years and the journey we've been on and how arguably this is the best Blades side I've seen in my lifetime and the best football we've ever played.

Then it dawned on me, that without the anguish of yesteryear, without Jagielka's handball, Webber hitting the post, Unsworth's penalty, Robson, Blackwell, selling the Kyles, Paddy Kenny to QPR, losing in the playoffs (3 times!), Weir, Ched, Adkins, and everything that contributed to the demise, we may have consolidated in the Premier League and avoided the eventual languishing in League 1...

...but had that been the case we would have never witnessed the Wilder years. Tufty ball, Chrissy Wilder and Alan Knill, the return of Billy, the magic of Duffy, Couttsey never giving the ball away, that midfield trio, the overlapping cente halves, the record breaking League One title season, Wilder's unbelievable track record of the past few seasons, that win away at the Pigs (a day not 2-4 get), Brooks' nutmeg, playing proper football the Sheff United way, John Egan's song, Henderson's antics, Norwood's ping, that Chris Basham goal, the celebrations, being the pride of the city and achieving the unexpected.

So my question to you all is, which would you rather?

1. Have stayed up, consolidated and avoided the anguish, but to probably never know the Wilder years.

2. It was all worth it, to be where we are now.

What doesn't kill you can only make you stronger.
This unfinished journey of ours has been incredible thus far and to experience the polar opposite of what went pre Wilder lays down for me all the ghosts of the frustrating past.
It is necessary to feel the lows so we can measure how exhiliratingly far we have come.
Roll on 3pm. UTB

 

[Akinbiyi]

Absolutely no one will vote for the first option

Thanks for your time

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

Thank God Steve Simonsen missed that penalty.

 

[bramptonblade]

We didn’t and we have! End of post UTB!

 

[BigBed]

Wouldn't have missed the past 3 seasons for anything, possibly the best time I've known being a Blade.

 

[ScottishBlade93]

Is this even a question??

 

[blade67]

Wouldn't have missed the past 3 seasons for anything, possibly the best time I've known being a Blade.

This. But I choose that Mike Brierly gets planning permission to create a huge football ground, casino , theme park etc. etc. from where the blades become a global brand winning 10 of the next 15 top division titles and the Champions league 5 times.

Can I pick that instead?

 

[Davalon]

This. But I choose that Mike Brierly gets planning permission to create a huge football ground, casino , theme park etc. etc. from where the blades become a global brand winning 10 of the next 15 top division titles and the Champions league 5 times.

Can I pick that instead?

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

This. But I choose that Mike Brierly gets planning permission to create a huge football ground, casino , theme park etc. etc. from where the blades become a global brand winning 10 of the next 15 top division titles and the Champions league 5 times.

Can I pick that instead?

No way would I swap Bramall Lane for 10 league titles.

If we ever moved to a new stadium that would be me done with football.

 

[Beans]

The thing is, we don’t know what those 13 hypothetical years might have contained. We might have eg got to an FA Cup final (like Wigan, Watford) become the bogey team of a “superpower” club like Liverpool (like Stoke did to Arsenal). We might have become like Southampton in bringing through fantastic youth talent - which we did anyway in the next few years with Walker, Naughton, Lowton, Maguire - but maybe they’d have stuck around longer and developed with us. All situations that I would guess a lot of Blades would hope for us to be in in the next ten years.

Gun to my head I wouldn’t swap the last four years for pretty much anything, but it’s not quite black and white IMO. Also, Jesus was that relegation painful.

 

[mattbianco1]

Everything happens for a reason

 

[Harry's Game]

If we had stopped up in 2007 Warnock would probably still not have had his contract renewed and McCabe would still have appointed Robson, as he had his heart set on that appointment, and given him even more money to waste.

We would almost certainly have then been relegated in 2008.

 

[SB_90]

without going all hippie, things happen for a reason & you don't know what the reason at the time until later. in hindsight if we had beat Huddersfield we would've gone up & got relegated straight away. we wouldn't have had the 2 semi finals or the 5-5 v Swindon. we wouldn't have wilder & we probably be in lower midtable of championship. where we were under Warnock at start of his reign

 

[Brownieblade]

To be honest if we hadn’t come up and just missed out I still likely would not swap

Purely for the style of football along with everything else, just those years watching us play like that

 

[sufcboy95]

We could’ve stayed up and at best become a Watford, Bournemouth, Burnley.

But for me I’d rather have experienced the euphoria we had of the wilder years, 2 promotions and battering Wendy after a 5 year head start.

 

[Houston_Blade]

We could’ve stayed up and at best become a Watford, Bournemouth, Burnley.

But for me I’d rather have experienced the euphoria we had of the wilder years, 2 promotions and battering Wendy after a 5 year head start.

I’d happily take becoming one of those teams. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect anymore.

The podcast that Beans put out yesterday with the Burnley fan was really interesting in terms of what ‘success’ looks like for most clubs in the PL each season. I’d take 17th place for the next 6 seasons as long as we can keep playing our way and incrementally improving the squad.

 

[true99blade]

Our free fall to the third division and the 6 long years we stayed there were miserable to watch. It’s made our recent success all the more satisfying and remarkable. Wouldn’t change a thing.

 

[blade67]

View attachment 63736

oh yeah. I mean Reg brierley. He was going to build a Bladerdome at Bamall Lane and we going to dominate world football

 

[YES Blade]

No way would I swap Bramall Lane for 10 league titles.

If we ever moved to a new stadium that would be me done with football.

What about if the club got into financial trouble, had to re-form as a Phoenix club and lost the Lane in the process?

Would you still be done?

 

[FATTYFOULKE]

Could have stayed up that year but Warnock would probably have taken us down sooner or later.

..and who’s to say we wouldn’t have ended up with Wilder anyway?

Odds were pretty good that with him being a massive Blade he would have ended up here one day.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

What about if the club got into financial trouble, had to re-form as a Phoenix club and lost the Lane in the process?

Would you still be done?

Yes.

 

[YES Blade]

Yes.

Fair enough, just seems odd to me, but each to their own.

As much as I love the Lane and the great memories I’ve had there, I support Sheffield United, not Bramall Lane.

 

[BigBed]

This. But I choose that Mike Brierly gets planning permission to create a huge football ground, casino , theme park etc. etc. from where the blades become a global brand winning 10 of the next 15 top division titles and the Champions league 5 times.

Can I pick that instead?

Can I have some of what your smoking!!!?

 

[Red Wing Blade]

Could you imagine the horror of being us being managed by Kevin Blackwell in the Premier League if we'd beaten Burnley?

For all the bad that's happened there were some good bits too. Let's face it, Danny Wilson stopped us from being the battling Blades and we became a flowing, attacking, free scoring team. Some of the football in his first season was brilliant.

For all of Clough's drawbacks the two cup runs were fun and the Hull semi-final gave us all pride. I'll never forget the standing ovation as the 5th Hull goal went in.

I wouldn't change any of it. Eveything happens for a reason.

The interesting thing would be who would make a Blades 11 of players since Warnock left and Wilder was appointed.

Maguire, Walker, Naughton, Williamson, Murphy and Sharp are the first names that spring to my mind.

 

[Plymouthblade]

Still feels surreal where we are, it’s been a great journey and I feel privileged to have witnessed it, so I’m going for being on a march with Wilders army

 

[cjx blade]

After watching the shit that Burnley played today it can only be one answer to this question.

 

[SwissBlade]

Kozzy_is_my_Dad i think the pain and anguish that we’ve been through over the last few years has allowed us to appreciate our success even more

 

[Never be mastered]

Morning folks,

I got to thinking yesterday about our last few years and the journey we've been on and how arguably this is the best Blades side I've seen in my lifetime and the best football we've ever played.

Then it dawned on me, that without the anguish of yesteryear, without Jagielka's handball, Webber hitting the post, Unsworth's penalty, Robson, Blackwell, selling the Kyles, Paddy Kenny to QPR, losing in the playoffs (3 times!), Weir, Ched, Adkins, and everything that contributed to the demise, we may have consolidated in the Premier League and avoided the eventual languishing in League 1...

...but had that been the case we would have never witnessed the Wilder years. Tufty ball, Chrissy Wilder and Alan Knill, the return of Billy, the magic of Duffy, Couttsey never giving the ball away, that midfield trio, the overlapping cente halves, the record breaking League One title season, Wilder's unbelievable track record of the past few seasons, that win away at the Pigs (a day not 2-4 get), Brooks' nutmeg, playing proper football the Sheff United way, John Egan's song, Henderson's antics, Norwood's ping, that Chris Basham goal, the celebrations, being the pride of the city and achieving the unexpected.

So my question to you all is, which would you rather?

1. Have stayed up, consolidated and avoided the anguish, but to probably never know the Wilder years.

2. It was all worth it, to be where we are now.

Without the lows you cannot appreciate the highs I've seen far too many lows in my time but this journey is incredible and just keeps getting better and better so without a doubt for me it's been worth it .
UTB NBM

 

[rompodebailey]

I have a 11 year old son, the boy lives for united. I for one am glad that his journey did start in the 3rd tier. It also means that in days to come we will have something to look back on, a shared journey that no one will ever take away from us. I just don't think it would have been the same, or meant as much had he come on board a middle of the table premier league SUFC.