I think Micky Adams was given a poisioned chalice right from the very start.
He came in as the clubs 4th manager of the season, and inherited a squad full of loan players, there was noises that a few players weren't as fit as they could have been, and his only options to strengthen was by bringing in free transfers or using the loan market further. That was why it took him a while to get his first result, as he inherited a squad of players who generally was not up to scratch, or not interested in playing for Sheffield United. That is why we ended up with Collins and Doyle, as during the Janurary Transfer Window, clubs look to strengthen their squads and very few clubs let players go, so with the lack of decent available players was the reason we ended up with Collins and Doyle.
My own personal opinion was that this relegation was coming for a long time, i thought it was coming at the back end of last season as we still had the problems of a squad top heavy with loan players, and if we went in to this season with a squad made up of much the same, then we was heading for trouble, and sadly i was right and so it came to pass.
Laying the blame solely at the feet of Micky Adams is completely wrong. He came in to a club that was a complete mess, and couldn't turn it round, but then again i don't think there is many managers who could have turned it round quickly enough to save us from relegation, but Adams has shown some bollocks by accepting some of the blame, and looks to be addressing the problems that have put us in League 1. This decent run of form has come too late to save us from the drop, but at least its a sign that if we give him time, then he will be able to slowly but surely start to get things right, and hopefully given more time he can turn round this slide.
One person who has seemed to got away from this with his reputation intact was Gary Speed. When he was in charge, i thought he looked out of his depth, his radio interviews seemed to indicate a lack of confidence, and a lack of knowledge of how to get us out of the tailspin. We turned in a lot of shocking performances with Gary Speed in charge, and if he had continued we would have still ended up in League 1. Nobody wanted Gary Speed to succeed more than i did, and i wanted to give him time to show that he could turn it round, but from the first few weeks i thought he would prove that good players don't neccesarily make good managers. I was glad when he went, as i thought he was out of his depth, and his eagerness to get out the Lane and take the Wales job showed that he maybe knew he would make it at Bramall Lane and it was an escape for him.