Over 35 years of putting the Blades first before my family, before work, before holidays, before jobs, BEFORE EVERYTHING! Not anymore. If money were no object then I would have renewed and made up some silly reason to justify it, but no wage rise for 2 years, no idea if i will have a job in a years time, 3 kids at home.
Sorry this time logic has to win and I will not be renewing it's nearly £500 I cannot afford, so I will pick and choose and take advantage of the special offers the club will have to put on to even half fill the ground!!!!!
And the only thing my club can tell me is that I will not be a "True Blade" because I will not be at the Lane.
Thanks very much!!!!!!!!!
Brampton I was in pretty much the same situation this time last year. Well over 30 years of making huge personal sacrifices for United came to an end for me.
I don't recognise the game anymore from the one I grew up with and I certainly don't recognise my beloved club anymore.
If I was 25 instead of 45 it probably wouldn't feel as bad but I grew up at a time when anything seemed possible for United. Yes we were generally shit but there was still the dream that we could achieve something in English football and even have a decent stab at Europe one day. Our day would come and we'd have a great time on the way cos we were Blades and there seemed something different and special about being a Blade and our badly run club.
To a large degree I couldn't care what league we are in I just want to feel a part of the club and a passion for it, some feeling that the players care about us and the club and I want the dream back. And I don't mean the modern day dream of a few years of finishing mid table in the Prem.
I realised last season that the dream aint coming back. Football and United seem stuffed. It's changed.
I thought my world would cave it if I was at home instead of the Lane for a home game. But it gets easier - and there's always the offers to just check that it's still shit and you made the right decision.
United are still in my heart - I can't get rid of them that easily the club is still part of me. I probably think about them several times an hour every bloody day. I may not be classed as a True Blade now but I have given more to United and care for us more than Trevor Birch and whatever marketing genius is behind this year's STs will ever do.
I just don't get how a so called well run business can roll out the white flag so easily and accept that it will lose up to half its ST holders in just over a year. It's madness.
To say it's ok cos other clubs will lose ST holders, or it's just the part timers walking away, or club x is charing more than us, is just symptomatic of how everything is going. It's about United. It's about our board getting its arse in gear and coming up with a plan to keep and get more ST holders - cos that is the best way of securing the future of the club and ensuring that its heart keeps beating.
The club needs to realise that hardcore fans are walking away - is it really so detached that it doesn't know what's going on? It's the club's lifeblood and they need to ditch the crazy ST prices and deadlines and match day prices and start with a blank piece of paper and then relaunch STs. For anyone who thinks that's crazy - just think how crazy it is to lose half your fans without a fight.
