Worst Blades XI of the 2010s + Man Utd preview (BladesPod)

[Beans]

Afternoon S2,

Final international break of the year (hurray), which means it's also the final break of the decade - so a fine opportunity to fill it with some decade-related content, which is what Roygbiv and I have set out to do.

We spent a good long time picking our Worst Blades XI from the 2010s, before also touching on which players might be heading for a suspension in the next few weeks, thoughts on recruitment in January, which United players we can't do without (and which ones we might be able to get by without), and finally a preview of this weekend's game with Manchester United.

As always, many many thanks for listening, and UTB!



Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/bladespod/id1309198119?mt=2

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6wLq5qaiQ123cLHHMnTixJ

 

[DronnieBlade]

Dean Hammond and 10 others.

UTB

 

[Scooter_mcgavin]

Jordan Stewart

 

[Kanye]

Jordan Stewart

Theres a lot of competition at LB in fairness

 

[Reyt Then]

Jordan Stewart

Me and my dad would take it in turns to hum the circus theme tune whenever he touched the ball. Definitely makes it in to my eleven too.

 

[Harry's Game]

Connor Sammon..

A man who looked like he was someone off the street who had won a raffle to be a professional footballer for a season

 

[Roygbiv]

Jordan Stewart

Jordan Stewart never actually played for us this decade. I did check so I could include him

 

[nezimão]

when monday morning rolled around and i was getting my coffee fixed first thing i was thinking to myself, ‘what’s the thing about mondays i really like?’ then i remembered, ‘blades pod!’

worst blades xi?!? oh my days guys.

 

[Deadly_D'Jaffo]

Simonsen
Westlake Higginbotham McGinty Williams
Hammond Lappin Woolford
Sammon Bent Paynter

 

[RealMcCoy]

Tony McMahon

 

[S64 Blade]

A great pool of untalented players to pick from!

Steve Simonsen
Johnny Ertl
Daniel Bogdanovich
Andy Taylor
Mark Yeates
Stephen Jordan
Nyron Nosworthy
Marcus Bent
Marcus Wiliams
Michael O'Halloran
Will Hoskins
James Beattie
Daryl Westlake
Danny Higginbotham
Jonathan Forte
Barry Robson
Tony McMahon
John Cofie
Billy Paynter
Febian Brandy
Sean McGinty
Aidan White
Simon Lappin
Marlon King
Craig Alcock
Jay McEveley
Michael Higdon
Jason Holt
Martyn Woolford
Dean Hammond
Connor Sammon
Iain Turner

I need a lie down now after being reminded of those dark days...

 

[blademark]

A great pool of untalented players to pick from!

Steve Simonsen
Johnny Ertl
Daniel Bogdanovich
Andy Taylor
Mark Yeates
Stephen Jordan
Nyron Nosworthy
Marcus Bent
Marcus Wiliams
Michael O'Halloran
Will Hoskins
James Beattie
Daryl Westlake
Danny Higginbotham
Jonathan Forte
Barry Robson
Tony McMahon
John Cofie
Billy Paynter
Febian Brandy
Sean McGinty
Aidan White
Simon Lappin
Marlon King
Craig Alcock
Jay McEveley
Michael Higdon
Jason Holt
Martyn Woolford
Dean Hammond
Connor Sammon
Iain Turner

I need a lie down now after being reminded of those dark days...

Most of them are currently lodging at Nigel Adkins house.

 

[Grecian2000]

Dean Hammond and 10 others.

UTB

10 Dean Hammond's and a goalkeeper (unless the invisible one wants to goalie wag as well).

 

[Wards]

Tony McMahon

Wasn’t even a terrible player but by god what an absolute arsehole. Not many Blades players I’ve genuinely disliked but he’s one of them.

 

[S64 Blade]

Most of them are currently lodging at Nigel Adkins house.

Sleeping in the 'room for improvement'.

 

[SwissBlade]

Afternoon S2,

Final international break of the year (hurray), which means it's also the final break of the decade - so a fine opportunity to fill it with some decade-related content, which is what Roygbiv and I have set out to do.

We spent a good long time picking our Worst Blades XI from the 2010s, before also touching on which players might be heading for a suspension in the next few weeks, thoughts on recruitment in January, which United players we can't do without (and which ones we might be able to get by without), and finally a preview of this weekend's game with Manchester United.

As always, many many thanks for listening, and UTB!



Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/bladespod/id1309198119?mt=2

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6wLq5qaiQ123cLHHMnTixJ

Ahh didn’t realise this was a Man U preview as well. Deleted the pod as I wasn’t interested in the worst xi

will download again and give the weekend preview a listen later

 

[Tray]

Loved the pod again! Strangely therapeutic looking back at how shite we were for so long. As soon as you mentioned Robson, the first thought I had was corners...then you reminded me why! Thought I'd give my worst XI a go, and most are what you've already said:

Steve Simonsen
Daryl Westlake - Paddy McCarthy - Nyron Nosworthy - Marcus WIlliams
Martyn Woolford - Dean Hammond - Febian Brandy
Conor Sammon - John Cofie - Michael Higdon

​

I really can't describe my dislike for McCarthy enough. Horrendous footballer.
Brandy, as mentioned in the pod, got sent off in two games in quick succession. What really stood out for me was that match against MK Dons where he missed an absolute sitter, then did the most ridiculous tackle almost straight away afterwards that got him sent off. Needless and lost us the match.
John Cofie seemed to have a really inflated opinion of himself for an absolutely dire footballer. His attitude put him in my XI. I think all the others were discussed in the pod.

Honourable mentions:

Jay McEveley - actually had a few good games every now and again, but was mainly terrible and epitomized our League One years. Should never ever have been captain, or even considered to be captain.
Matt Hill - terrible left back, pretty alright centre-half. We used to call him "every-header".
Tony McMahon - great at free kicks, far too angry. Liability.
The second coming of Beattie - more red cards than goals. Throttled a Charlton(?) player for no apparent reason meaning we had no credible strikers to replace Ched. Awful, awful comeback.

This last one is nowhere near our worst XI, but McNulty, for a player labeled as a finsher, loved missing sitters. He wound me up to no end, and he's not even in the top 7 or 8 worst strikers of those 10 years.

I feel better now, just off to pray to Wilder.

 

[Beans]

Loved the pod again! Strangely therapeutic looking back at how shite we were for so long. As soon as you mentioned Robson, the first thought I had was corners...then you reminded me why! Thought I'd give my worst XI a go, and most are what you've already said:

Steve Simonsen
Daryl Westlake - Paddy McCarthy - Nyron Nosworthy - Marcus WIlliams
Martyn Woolford - Dean Hammond - Febian Brandy
Conor Sammon - John Cofie - Michael Higdon

​

I really can't describe my dislike for McCarthy enough. Horrendous footballer.
Brandy, as mentioned in the pod, got sent off in two games in quick succession. What really stood out for me was that match against MK Dons where he missed an absolute sitter, then did the most ridiculous tackle almost straight away afterwards that got him sent off. Needless and lost us the match.
John Cofie seemed to have a really inflated opinion of himself for an absolutely dire footballer. His attitude put him in my XI. I think all the others were discussed in the pod.

Honourable mentions:

Jay McEveley - actually had a few good games every now and again, but was mainly terrible and epitomized our League One years. Should never ever have been captain, or even considered to be captain.
Matt Hill - terrible left back, pretty alright centre-half. We used to call him "every-header".
Tony McMahon - great at free kicks, far too angry. Liability.
The second coming of Beattie - more red cards than goals. Throttled a Charlton(?) player for no apparent reason meaning we had no credible strikers to replace Ched. Awful, awful comeback.

This last one is nowhere near our worst XI, but McNulty, for a player labeled as a finsher, loved missing sitters. He wound me up to no end, and he's not even in the top 7 or 8 worst strikers of those 10 years.

I feel better now, just off to pray to Wilder.

Cheers Tray! Yeah, I found this quite cathartic. I know we do the "look how far we've come" quite a lot but it is kind of shocking how many of these players were playing for us no more than 4-5 years ago.

A few people have mentioned Cofie to me. I only saw him a couple of times and he did score a brilliant goal in one of them (against Bournemouth maybe?). I had to go with the sustained misery of Sammon and Hidgon over him.

I must confess I quite liked Matt Hill, particularly at centre-half.

Forgot all about that Beattie red card at Charlton. He also got sent off in the first half at Exeter in the final game of the season, a game we needed to win to have any chance of catching Wednesday, and of course missed that absolute sitter at MK Dons a few weeks before. Ugh. Good job he'd had a much better spell with us beforehand (even though it WAS in the previous decade) otherwise he might well have cracked this team!

 

[Balham]

Where do you start with the worst XI?! I've gone for a 4-4-2 formation as that's what all outdated, underperforming sides seem to use; the eagle eyed among you will spot that there are 5 midfielders but one of them is the invisible Dean Hammond so I figure we'd get away with it.

GK: Mark Howard. The most mediocre goalkeeper of a fairly poor selection: we didn't actually have any horrendous goalkeepers through the 10s but then neither did we have any good ones until Henderson joined in 2018.

RB: Darryl Westlake. Another in a line of players we signed from Walsall with high expectations and low reality. Sank quickly, last seen at Stourbridge in 2016.
DC: Neill Collins. The fact that we sank from the Championship into the quagmire of League One and couldn't get out was because our spine was poor - nowhere near as good as they thought they were. Collins' ability to deflect the blame onto his younger colleagues was impressive, his series of sub-par performances less so.
DC: Danny Higginbotham. Should have retired six months before he pitched up at the Lane; played like he already had
LB: Marcus Williams. It wasn't his fault he was shit but it was a fact. Incapable of a five yard pass; specialised in shanking clearances into touch 5 yards up the line

RM: Fabien Brandy. Dead from the neck up as evidenced by those two red cards.
MC: Michael Doyle. This will be controversial but the fact remains that while Doyle was at the Lane, we were awful.
MC: Dean Hammond. Parasite. Did lots of unseen work; so busy doing that that he did fuck all visible work...except giving away a ludicrous penalty in the 93rd minute at Old Trafford
MC: Florent Cuvelier. Promised so much, delivered so little. Permanently injured
LM: Kieran Wallace. It wasn't his fault we plucked him from non-league and dumped him into the third tier but a basic football ability would have been nice. Foxy has a video somewhere of a fantastic free-kick Wallace took.

ST: Daniel Bogdanovic. Barnsley fans were gutted when we signed him. He was shite.
ST: James Beattie. See Fabien Brandy.

Manager: "Alehouse" Micky Adams. Shades Weir for me because of the lasting damage his reign did to the club. Awful signings, alienation of our better players, the last United manager to get us relegated. A terrible legacy.

Honourable mentions (>10 apps)
Goalkeepers: Steve Simonsen (that penalty); George Long (better than many gave him credit for but the 2016 version, confidence destroyed by a combination of Neill Collins and the Kop, was pretty awful); Iain Turner (can't actually recall any performances)
Right backs: Tony McMahon (shitbag); Johannes Ertl (harsh; but post knee-knack he was terrible)
Centre backs: Nyron Nosworthy (Notworthy); David Edgar (nondescript); Cameron Carter-Vickers (unbelievable ability to take his teammates out); Paddy McCarthy (too good to train with his teammates)
Left backs: Joe Mattock
Right mids: Barry Robson (we chased him for ages and he was godawful)
Centre mids: Samir Carruthers (so much promise, so little delivered)
Left mids: David Carney (the world's neshest Australian); Martyn Woolford (the best performance he gave was his middle finger to the Kop. At least he put some effort into that)
Strikers: John Cofie (Man U paid £1,000,000 for him when he was 14!); Marcus Bent (desperation signing); Jonathan Forte; David Kitson (another with an inflated belief in long-since-departed ability); Michael Higdon (Higgopotamus); Conor Sammon (the best striker in the world when it comes to missing open goals from 4 yards)

 

[I should coco]

An excellent one and up there with some of your best - well done lads!

I Loved the centre halves and particularly the Nylon Ten-bob-bit-head love in.

The Hammond bit sent shivers down my spine and I know exactly what Ben meant, when he explained Robson was part of a falling out of love with United period. I expected the fat overweight and completely useless Marcus Bent#2 to have challenged more seriously for one of the striking roles though.

I'm about 20 years older than you two, so Andy is spot on with players like Len De Goey & Guthrie but I'm afraid there is a much longer epic series of pods required to cover that period. I am absolutely certain that a late 70s/ early 80s worst XI, would definitely lose to the one you picked.

Absolute loved the Bladey-Bill thing too and I agree he has to be our player of the decade.

Keep up the good work.

 

[Geordie Blade]

For what it's worth, I'm not a fan of picking 'worst' XIs. Quality is relative really and, no matter how 'bad' the names above are, the fact of the matter is that they are leagues ahead of what 99.9% of posters on here will ever achieve in football. I also don't like the idea of shaming players who put the effort in (Monty, Gannon, etc.). Whilst Simonsen and McEveley will always be associated with bad times, I felt that they both gave everything, despite their limitations. Someone like Bob Booker gets hero worshipped despite being limited in ability, purely because his spell happened to coincide with success.

I'd be much more interested in calling out those players for the Blades who didn't put in a proper shift, whether they had quality or not.

 

[Jesus_was_a_Blade]

Loved the pod again! Strangely therapeutic looking back at how shite we were for so long. As soon as you mentioned Robson, the first thought I had was corners...then you reminded me why! Thought I'd give my worst XI a go, and most are what you've already said:

Steve Simonsen
Daryl Westlake - Paddy McCarthy - Nyron Nosworthy - Marcus WIlliams
Martyn Woolford - Dean Hammond - Febian Brandy
Conor Sammon - John Cofie - Michael Higdon

​

I really can't describe my dislike for McCarthy enough. Horrendous footballer.
Brandy, as mentioned in the pod, got sent off in two games in quick succession. What really stood out for me was that match against MK Dons where he missed an absolute sitter, then did the most ridiculous tackle almost straight away afterwards that got him sent off. Needless and lost us the match.
John Cofie seemed to have a really inflated opinion of himself for an absolutely dire footballer. His attitude put him in my XI. I think all the others were discussed in the pod.

Honourable mentions:

Jay McEveley - actually had a few good games every now and again, but was mainly terrible and epitomized our League One years. Should never ever have been captain, or even considered to be captain.
Matt Hill - terrible left back, pretty alright centre-half. We used to call him "every-header".
Tony McMahon - great at free kicks, far too angry. Liability.
The second coming of Beattie - more red cards than goals. Throttled a Charlton(?) player for no apparent reason meaning we had no credible strikers to replace Ched. Awful, awful comeback.

This last one is nowhere near our worst XI, but McNulty, for a player labeled as a finsher, loved missing sitters. He wound me up to no end, and he's not even in the top 7 or 8 worst strikers of those 10 years.

I feel better now, just off to pray to Wilder.

I was thinking of Paddy McCarthy as well, god he was awful.

Am I right in saying he didn't train with us either? Only travelled up from Palace for the games, then went back down again?

Imagine trying to work on defensive shape in training when one of your starting CB's is 200 miles away

No wonder we were shit...

 

[AWetFlannel]

You can make a case for Baldock, Freeman, Lowton and even Brayford for our best RB. Coutts over Norwood for me n'all and I'm not even sorry.

Great pod as always, keep it up. (Updates on Egan if there are any would be handy)

 

[tincan]

How many would have had the early stages of Courts,Freeman and Lundstrams time, as amongst the worst, but persistence by them and the managers pays off and makes them the greater player. To realise their faults for the team and rectify them, is a true measure have how good they are. The reverse is true of many of the 5game wonders, never had the chance to improve themselves.
A better measure is the manager who recruited, trained and played players who never performed at over 4/10. Also is it good or bad that he binned players who never got a chance.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

Febian and Tony send their love:-

 

[HeCanDoMagic]

You can make a case for Baldock, Freeman, Lowton and even Brayford for our best RB. Coutts over Norwood for me n'all and I'm not even sorry.

Great pod as always, keep it up. (Updates on Egan if there are any would be handy)

Baryford? No you can't. No case at all.

 

[Dnblade]

Cheers lads...Football Daily featuring JOC,CW and McG is worth a listen aswell.https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07vnqsq

 

[Millhousesblade1889]

A great pool of untalented players to pick from!

Steve Simonsen
Johnny Ertl
Daniel Bogdanovich
Andy Taylor
Mark Yeates
Stephen Jordan
Nyron Nosworthy
Marcus Bent
Marcus Wiliams
Michael O'Halloran
Will Hoskins
James Beattie
Daryl Westlake
Danny Higginbotham
Jonathan Forte
Barry Robson
Tony McMahon
John Cofie
Billy Paynter
Febian Brandy
Sean McGinty
Aidan White
Simon Lappin
Marlon King
Craig Alcock
Jay McEveley
Michael Higdon
Jason Holt
Martyn Woolford
Dean Hammond
Connor Sammon
Iain Turner

I need a lie down now after being reminded of those dark days...

Wow, I remember us playing on a freezing cold Friday night and Marlon King scored. David Weir was in charge, but I cant remember who we played or what the score was. I remember thinking we've hit an all time low here....I think Cuvelier got injured that game too?

 

[Millhousesblade1889]

Where do you start with the worst XI?! I've gone for a 4-4-2 formation as that's what all outdated, underperforming sides seem to use; the eagle eyed among you will spot that there are 5 midfielders but one of them is the invisible Dean Hammond so I figure we'd get away with it.

GK: Mark Howard. The most mediocre goalkeeper of a fairly poor selection: we didn't actually have any horrendous goalkeepers through the 10s but then neither did we have any good ones until Henderson joined in 2018.

RB: Darryl Westlake. Another in a line of players we signed from Walsall with high expectations and low reality. Sank quickly, last seen at Stourbridge in 2016.
DC: Neill Collins. The fact that we sank from the Championship into the quagmire of League One and couldn't get out was because our spine was poor - nowhere near as good as they thought they were. Collins' ability to deflect the blame onto his younger colleagues was impressive, his series of sub-par performances less so.
DC: Danny Higginbotham. Should have retired six months before he pitched up at the Lane; played like he already had
LB: Marcus Williams. It wasn't his fault he was shit but it was a fact. Incapable of a five yard pass; specialised in shanking clearances into touch 5 yards up the line

RM: Fabien Brandy. Dead from the neck up as evidenced by those two red cards.
MC: Michael Doyle. This will be controversial but the fact remains that while Doyle was at the Lane, we were awful.
MC: Dean Hammond. Parasite. Did lots of unseen work; so busy doing that that he did fuck all visible work...except giving away a ludicrous penalty in the 93rd minute at Old Trafford
MC: Florent Cuvelier. Promised so much, delivered so little. Permanently injured
LM: Kieran Wallace. It wasn't his fault we plucked him from non-league and dumped him into the third tier but a basic football ability would have been nice. Foxy has a video somewhere of a fantastic free-kick Wallace took.

ST: Daniel Bogdanovic. Barnsley fans were gutted when we signed him. He was shite.
ST: James Beattie. See Fabien Brandy.

Manager: "Alehouse" Micky Adams. Shades Weir for me because of the lasting damage his reign did to the club. Awful signings, alienation of our better players, the last United manager to get us relegated. A terrible legacy.

Honourable mentions (>10 apps)
Goalkeepers: Steve Simonsen (that penalty); George Long (better than many gave him credit for but the 2016 version, confidence destroyed by a combination of Neill Collins and the Kop, was pretty awful); Iain Turner (can't actually recall any performances)
Right backs: Tony McMahon (shitbag); Johannes Ertl (harsh; but post knee-knack he was terrible)
Centre backs: Nyron Nosworthy (Notworthy); David Edgar (nondescript); Cameron Carter-Vickers (unbelievable ability to take his teammates out); Paddy McCarthy (too good to train with his teammates)
Left backs: Joe Mattock
Right mids: Barry Robson (we chased him for ages and he was godawful)
Centre mids: Samir Carruthers (so much promise, so little delivered)
Left mids: David Carney (the world's neshest Australian); Martyn Woolford (the best performance he gave was his middle finger to the Kop. At least he put some effort into that)
Strikers: John Cofie (Man U paid £1,000,000 for him when he was 14!); Marcus Bent (desperation signing); Jonathan Forte; David Kitson (another with an inflated belief in long-since-departed ability); Michael Higdon (Higgopotamus); Conor Sammon (the best striker in the world when it comes to missing open goals from 4 yards)

Doyle and Monty in centre midfield were the dark days. Literally both the opposite to Norwood. I actually agree with Carruthers he was shite too.

 

[true99blade]

Good listen that. There’s almost endless possibilities for a ‘worst of’ team we’ve seen that much garbage. Incredible how things have changed.

And couldn’t help but chuckle at the “free beer for £5” advertisement.