Championship is our level!

[Wincobank S9 Blade]

With southern clubs like Brighton, Palace and soon to be Brentford gaining good owners and becoming solid premier league clubs it makes us and similar clubs f*cked unless they win lottery and get bank rolled.

 

[JJBlade]

Sorry, but don't agree there. Sheffield is a vibtant city has really come on in the last twenty years, two excellent universities, the city centre is transformed from the dark days of the eighties when investment full stop was low in the north in particular. I know many students that have settled here and they all speak with glowing terms on how much they love Sheffield, I think Sheffield has one if not the highest retention of students, there's a reason for thst.

Sheffield is underachieving football wise because we neither team has big money or in Wednesdays case they've possibly got big money but spent it badly. If truth be told one team would be better given the size of the city in terms of attracting investors to a one club city. That does not mean I want us to merge with Wednesday but Sheffield can't struggles to support two big Premier League teams unless big money comes in and I think neither team attracts big money because investors see a limit of competing with the other team. Similar at Bristol and Nottingham I might add. Sheffield population is 585,000 and divided between us and Wednesday makes it 292,500. To put that into perspective, Coventry with its one team has a population of 444,000 and they're hardly pulling up any trees either.

Yes, a fair bit has been done
But it is still falling behind

And Coventry hasn't got a 444,000 population

 

[Booker4]

Yes, a fair bit has been done
But it is still falling behind

And Coventry hasn't got a 444,000 population

I looked on Coventry's population that's what came up but has another look and it comes up with circa 371,000 which is still much higher than Sheffield divided in two. I don't see Sheffield as lagging behind similar sized cities, it lags behind Leeds and Manchester I'll agree but they've had huge investment for whatever reason, both are bigger than Sheffield of course, Manchester as greater Manchester granted.

 

[JJBlade]

I looked on Coventry's population that's what came up but has another look and it comes up with circa 371,000 which is still much higher than Sheffield divided in two. I don't see Sheffield as lagging behind similar sized cities, it lags behind Leeds and Manchester I'll agree but they've had huge investment for whatever reason, both are bigger than Sheffield of course, Manchester as greater Manchester granted.

It seems nobody knows what the population of a city is anymore.

They seem to count Bradford, Wakefield, Huddersfield, Castleford, Pontefract, Bingley, Cleckheaton and and every other place in West Yorkshire and half of North Yorkshire when talking about Leeds population.
I've seen it on certain websites as being 2,900,000 which is ridiculous because they are including other cities in their own right in that figure.

If that is how they are going to call it, then Coventry doesn't actually exist because its Birmingham.

Rotherham, Barnsley, Chesterfield, Worksop, and all the peak district towns don't exist either because its Sheffield.

It seems that everywhere has this fellow major city overspill which counts as population, but Sheffield's population doesn't even include places like Mosborough, Killamarsh, Stocksbridge

 

[Caseh]

It's just Sheffield
A Premier UK City which was turned into a second rate city 30 years ago, which has now become a third rate city due to others moving on and Sheffield standing still and settling for third best in every single thing it does

If ever a football team mirrored the city it is located in, it's United

You say that, but a lot of my ex student friends moved here for University and then never left. The hospitals tend to have the same happen, student doctors come on placement and then never leave. City can't be as bad as we think it is.

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

It's just Sheffield
A Premier UK City which was turned into a second rate city 30 years ago, which has now become a third rate city due to others moving on and Sheffield standing still and settling for third best in every single thing it does

If ever a football team mirrored the city it is located in, it's United

100%

 

[Hull Blade]

Was that before or after he took the hemlock?

Think he was playing for Corinthians at the time just before his lucrative move to Garforth Town.

 

[Alan Birchenall's hair]

Sorry, but don't agree there. Sheffield is a vibtant city has really come on in the last twenty years, two excellent universities, the city centre is transformed from the dark days of the eighties when investment full stop was low in the north in particular. I know many students that have settled here and they all speak with glowing terms on how much they love Sheffield, I think Sheffield has one if not the highest retention of students, there's a reason for thst.

Sheffield is underachieving football wise because we neither team has big money or in Wednesdays case they've possibly got big money but spent it badly. If truth be told one team would be better given the size of the city in terms of attracting investors to a one club city. That does not mean I want us to merge with Wednesday but Sheffield can't struggles to support two big Premier League teams unless big money comes in and I think neither team attracts big money because investors see a limit of competing with the other team. Similar at Bristol and Nottingham I might add. Sheffield population is 585,000 and divided between us and Wednesday makes it 292,500. To put that into perspective, Coventry with its one team has a population of 444,000 and they're hardly pulling up any trees either.

Footy - Sheffield is much larger than Nottingham, and a fair bit larger than Bristol. Blades and Owls interest per person probably compares similarly with Forest and County, and is much greater than City and Rovers. Footy interest in similar size cities Leeds and Liverpool also varies. Leeds per person is not as high as Sheffield's, but Liverpool and Everton dwarf both our clubs. Also add together population of Newcastle and Sunderland, and it pretty much comes to that of Sheffield. And they obviously pull far bigger gates than either of ours. So, Sheffield is sort of middling when it comes to interest, but fucking hopeless when it comes to winning owt......
City - I was born, raised, and lived in Sheffield until 20 years ago, when moved to nearer to Huddersfield. I only come in on the train for matchdays to go to the pub and the ground. So I don't really give a fuck about shops etc. But wander down The Moor from the pub to Bramall Lane and tell me you don't see a desperate shithole, similar to Coventry. I'm told the so called redevelopment is starting up again. probably the tenth restart in the last 20 years. Maybe it will work. I hope it will. I'll judge again in five years time......

 

[Booker4]

Footy - Sheffield is much larger than Nottingham, and a fair bit larger than Bristol. Blades and Owls interest per person probably compares similarly with Forest and County, and is much greater than City and Rovers. Footy interest in similar size cities Leeds and Liverpool also varies. Leeds per person is not as high as Sheffield's, but Liverpool and Everton dwarf both our clubs. Also add together population of Newcastle and Sunderland, and it pretty much comes to that of Sheffield. And they obviously pull far bigger gates than either of ours. So, Sheffield is sort of middling when it comes to interest, but fucking hopeless when it comes to winning owt......
City - I was born, raised, and lived in Sheffield until 20 years ago, when moved to nearer to Huddersfield. I only come in on the train for matchdays to go to the pub and the ground. So I don't really give a fuck about shops etc. But wander down The Moor from the pub to Bramall Lane and tell me you don't see a desperate shithole, similar to Coventry. I'm told the so called redevelopment is starting up again. probably the tenth restart in the last 20 years. Maybe it will work. I hope it will. I'll judge again in five years time......

On the first part re the football, Sheffield is a two club city, Leeds isn't and it's got a larger population than ours. You can find large differences in population of cities if you look on the net which is often whether it's the strict boundaries of a city as opposed to a district or borough. Leads' population is around 792,000 and even with the rugby team it's a huge area and attracts huge investment as a city and a football club through their owners.

I'm not disputing that Sheffield does not lag behind Nottingham and Bristol or Coventry, but rather that you can see how Nottingham and Bristol also suffer when it comes to two teams, whereas smaller cities with one team such as Derby and Coventry have achieved more success than either Sheffield side in my lifetime anyway.

Sheffield is bigger than Nottingham but then Nottinghamshire as a county only has three teams of note, Forest are by far the biggest and yet they've not been in the Premier League for 20 years either. So my thoughts are that having a two team city does hold both Sheffield clubs back and similar cities, we're dividing our fan base between two teams, it's not surprising this has a huge effect. Liverpool as a city draws support from all of Merseyside, places like Warrington, St Helens, Runcorn etc, yes some have rugby teams but Liverpool and Everton draw support from all over Merseyside, and obviously beyond. It's location to Ireland and the fact that Liverpool has a large Irish population also means that they get huge support from Ireland and people with Irish heritage all over the world.

When you refer to Newcastle and Sunderland you can't just look at their city populations but the north-east as a whole is huge and there's only two teams for a huge area including Durham, Northumberland - the whole Tyne and Wear region is 1.1m and then you've got the surrounding counties so it's not surprising both of the two Tyne and Wear teams draw huge support.

On that note, the towns nearby to Sheffield have their own respective teams such as Barnsley, Rotherham etc. The North-east, Merseyside and Leeds and the surrounding area don't have many other teams at all, Tranmere aside, and often they support Liverpool and Everton as well as Tranmere. So ultimately Sheffield, in my view, football wise suffers from the above factors, but not in anyway does that mean I am in favour of one team. Today football success in England can only be achieved by huge benefactors, big clubs like Villa, Everton, and West Ham, until recently Newcastle, and Sunderland they're bigger than either Sheffield team in my view but their chances of success, bar Newcastle are now limited to League Cup and F.A cup wins, Europa league, maybe occasional Champions League, but the regularity of teams winning like it was in the 70's - it's gone, so I'd rather our rivalry with Wednesday over an artificial rivalry or lesser rivalry than what Sheffield has with it's two respective teams, but on the other hand I'd love to see United in the PL and having the city split support wise is a major hinderance and in my view also a major reason why neither Sheffield team has attracted big money. As I said originally, if we divide Sheffield by two it has two medium sized town teams - 585,000 divided by two makes us much smaller than Coventry as example, a similar sized town is Walsall which has a population of 285,000, other similar sized places are Derby (no nearby teams in Derbyshire for miles) and Wolverhampton which again has populated areas which are near but without a football team such as Dudley (population of 312,000 which is bigger than Wolverhapmton alone!) and Stourbridge which are not included in their population figure, so really the support at both Sheffield teams is remarkable, especially considering the lack of success.

On the city of Sheffield, I don't see it as like been in Cov, I know what you mean, but party that's because the city centre is small and is like a town in how it feels, it's not at all like a bigger city like Leeds, but I know that many people from outside of Sheffield love how it has a smaller feel, I'd hate for Sheffield to be like Leeds if honest, I don't enjoy walking around Leeds city centre, I much prefer the feel of Sheffield.

 

[ucandomagic]

50 plus years watching The Mighty Blades and on reflection I feel that The Championship is our level and looking forward I can see us being in it for many years.
In the 70s watching Currie, Woodward etc was the Crème de La Crème era
Warnocks tenure was great with a plethora of quality players coming through, great to watch and getting promoted was well deserved, but after 1 season we are heading back to The Championship, from then 2005 it was down hill.
The Wilder Times were bloody wonderful 4 fantastic seasons in which we got to The Promised Land.Superb season then fuckin COViD derailed that and we end up back in The Championship.
Will we go up or will we go down next?
Be an interesting poll( don’t know how to create one )
Love this team, always will but by Christ they put us through the ringer and I believe
THE CHAMPIONSHIP IS OUR LEVEL

This graph represents my period on the ride that is the Blades. I've only included 1 manager per season (I've been trying to forget Robson anyway!). I've given Hecky 6th - as that's where we are today.

Over this whole period our average position is about 31st - ie 11th in the Championship, so the OP is correct for most people's living memory.

Personally I prefer the rollercoaster to a carousel (as the Americans call it). Without Div 4 there would have been no Darlington, without the walk of shame, probably no Wilder, 100 point season and 30-goal Billy... I don't think it would have been anywhere near as much fun if we had spent the whole time between 4th and 10th in the top flight.

It would be nice to win something just the once, but I guess that's unlikely now - but we have scored 3 at Wembley.

In your heart the magic never dies.

 

[Captain2]

This graph represents my period on the ride that is the Blades. I've only included 1 manager per season (I've been trying to forget Robson anyway!). I've given Hecky 6th - as that's where we are today.

Over this whole period our average position is about 31st - ie 11th in the Championship, so the OP is correct for most people's living memory.

Personally I prefer the rollercoaster to a carousel (as the Americans call it). Without Div 4 there would have been no Darlington, without the walk of shame, probably no Wilder, 100 point season and 30-goal Billy... I don't think it would have been anywhere near as much fun if we had spent the whole time between 4th and 10th in the top flight.

It would be nice to win something just the once, but I guess that's unlikely now - but we have scored 3 at Wembley.

In your heart the magic never dies.

View attachment 134459

What is apparent is that top class players the likes of Martin Peters don’t make the best managers.
I really enjoyed Howard Kendals reign how different would our history have been if we hadn’t bottled it and lost to Palace.Petr Katchuro what a player he was

 

[blade too long]

View attachment 134459

this says Fuirphy was our best ever manager in terms of highest position but Bassett and Wilder showed the best improvements
Warnock and Blackwell periods look like covid peaks

Peters was noted for ghosting in . he certainly looked a spectre at the Lane

 

[Alan Birchenall's hair]

We had a poll in the pub on Satdi as to who was our worst ever manager. Haslam won it comfortably, followed by Adkins. But many had the shite qualities that could have made them contenders.........

 

[Scarebus]

This graph represents my period on the ride that is the Blades. I've only included 1 manager per season (I've been trying to forget Robson anyway!). I've given Hecky 6th - as that's where we are today.

Over this whole period our average position is about 31st - ie 11th in the Championship, so the OP is correct for most people's living memory.

Personally I prefer the rollercoaster to a carousel (as the Americans call it). Without Div 4 there would have been no Darlington, without the walk of shame, probably no Wilder, 100 point season and 30-goal Billy... I don't think it would have been anywhere near as much fun if we had spent the whole time between 4th and 10th in the top flight.

It would be nice to win something just the once, but I guess that's unlikely now - but we have scored 3 at Wembley.

In your heart the magic never dies.

View attachment 134459

Feel a bit sorry for Hecky looking at that. Jokanovic took us down to 18th and Hecky has bought us back up to 6th. Hecky deserves an upwards line

 

[Champagneblade]

We had a poll in the pub on Satdi as to who was our worst ever manager. Haslam won it comfortably, followed by Adkins. But many had the shite qualities that could have made them contenders.........

Did you all forget a out David Weir or Micky Adams?

 

[Alan Birchenall's hair]

Did you all forget a out David Weir or Micky Adams?

Yeah, both of those had a shout. But Haslam and Adkins had much longer at being shite, so got the nod.

 

[Silent Blade]

this says Fuirphy was our best ever manager in terms of highest position

We finished 5th under Harris

 

[WORKSOPBLADE]

We had a poll in the pub on Satdi as to who was our worst ever manager. Haslam won it comfortably, followed by Adkins. But many had the shite qualities that could have made them contenders.........

Jimmy Sirrell and Martin Peters must’ve run him close??!

 

[Ridgeway Blade]

Haslam at least got Alex Sabella to the Lane whereas Adkins got Dean Hammond. Says a lot!

My stats since starting watching in 1958/9 when we finished 4th in Div 2 are: 1 season in the old Div 4, 10 in Div 3/League 1, 34 in Div 2/Championship and 18 in the Div1/Prem.

 

[CPB]

Back to the original topic we are amongst a host of clubs that in the past 4 or 5 decades have spent most of it in this division or above and are capable of attracting crowds over 30k or more.

In this group of teams are....
Us, Forest, Derby, Norwich, Ipswich, Middlesborough, West Brom and SWFC amongst others.

The likes of Wolves and in particular Leicester would also be in this bracket of clubs. However Leicester have moved up a level in status I feel.
The success of winning that PL title and now the FA Cup alongside the improvements they have made to their setup in their academy and continue PL Status means that they are now part of a bigger group of clubs. Will it last forever... probably not but they have a good grounding to maintain up there and have attracted new fans in the UK and beyond. This season in the league hasn't been fantastic but no risk of relegation, whilst they are now also in the semi finals of the Europa League too.

For us doing what Leicester have done is highly improbable. But if we can get up and maintain our status in the top flight it does us a whole load of good financially and the attention that comes with it. Plus your far more likely to win a cup as a top flight team having a cup run than a Championship one.

Our club would be no less deserving of doing this then any of the others I've mentioned. Some have even done it before relegation again in recent times. So yeah for me making a team a top flight regular is something we should aim for and it's not above our status.

 

[BobblesBlade]

I’d love to see us be a stable prem team with a go at European football and a cup final or two.