Undr the cosh

[Whiston Blade]

Danny Wilson on the Patreon account this week, only listened to the first 30 mins on the way to work but one of the first things he talks about is the protest in the car park when he was appointed here, talks about the irony of the protest happening next to a statue of Derek Dooley. I'm assuming it will be big on the pigs and Barnsley but hoping he revisits his time at the Lane as a manager towards the end of the episode.

I have a lot of time for Wilson as I played football with his son when I was young, he used to take training for us sometimes and I remember him and Frank Barlow doing a few sessions for us, now frequently see him in pubs around and about.

Is the Patreon content eventually released to us poor lot or do they forever stay behind the paywall? Most I can’t stand on UTC but wouldn’t mind listening to DW tbh.

 

[Revolution]

Is the Patreon content eventually released to us poor lot or do they forever stay behind the paywall? Most I can’t stand on UTC but wouldn’t mind listening to DW tbh.

I believe they stay behind the paywall for ever (well, they have so far).

This season (non patreon) has had some good ones. Craig Hignett, Don Goodman and Kevin Lynch all really worth a listen. Enjoyed part 1 of Malcolm Christie, part 2 was a chore.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Is the Patreon content eventually released to us poor lot or do they forever stay behind the paywall? Most I can’t stand on UTC but wouldn’t mind listening to DW tbh.

They did a Christmas Special last year where they released some of the best stories from the Patreon episodes but that's about it.

I can't stand some of the guests but for £3 a month or whatever it is you get some decent guests and no adverts.

 

[Gin&Juice]

I like Wilson. He tears into McCabe a bit for sacking him, which I do agree with. We were limping, but to give it to Morgan at that time was stupid.

The Ched case as expected destroyed the squad morale.

Interesting insight into Di Canio and how shit the bastards were run back then, basically Dave Richards pleading with the other PL chairman not to sign him and them all agreeing, only for West Ham to get him for 1.5 million, when he was worth easily about 8-10 at the time.

Forgot about the “Sheffield 4” as well. That was fucking pathetic. He’s a good guy, obviously a good manager. Just seemed he was shit on relentlessly after he took Barnsley up.

 

[Revolution]

I like Wilson. He tears into McCabe a bit for sacking him, which I do agree with. We were limping, but to give it to Morgan at that time was stupid.

The Ched case as expected destroyed the squad morale.

Interesting insight into Di Canio and how shit the bastards were run back then, basically Dave Richards pleading with the other PL chairman not to sign him and them all agreeing, only for West Ham to get him for 1.5 million, when he was worth easily about 8-10 at the time.

Forgot about the “Sheffield 4” as well. That was fucking pathetic. He’s a good guy, obviously a good manager. Just seemed he was shit on relentlessly after he took Barnsley up.

I understand Wilson has a book out. Normally I wouldn't buy a book which will have so much in it about the Pigs but I might make an exception given that his time with us was interesting to say the least.

I'm glad he lets McCabe have it. That was one of McCabe's dumbest decisions, and that's saying something.

 

[brownblade]

I believe they stay behind the paywall for ever (well, they have so far).

This season (non patreon) has had some good ones. Craig Hignett, Don Goodman and Kevin Lynch all really worth a listen. Enjoyed part 1 of Malcolm Christie, part 2 was a chore.

Did Hignett mention Ndlovu volleying his shins into pieces?

 

[Revolution]

Did Hignett mention Ndlovu volleying his shins into pieces?

He did not, as far as I can recall.

He did tell a couple of excellent stories about Billy Whitehurst, however. He's also interesting on Middlesbrough's late 90s foreigners, especially Ravanelli.

 

[Sithblade]

Danny interview also here.

 

[billyblademan]

Danny Wilson on the Patreon account this week, only listened to the first 30 mins on the way to work but one of the first things he talks about is the protest in the car park when he was appointed here, talks about the irony of the protest happening next to a statue of Derek Dooley. I'm assuming it will be big on the pigs and Barnsley but hoping he revisits his time at the Lane as a manager towards the end of the episode.

I have a lot of time for Wilson as I played football with his son when I was young, he used to take training for us sometimes and I remember him and Frank Barlow doing a few sessions for us, now frequently see him in pubs around and about.

You could tell throughout his time with us that he was just a really good bloke. The football we played in his first season was the best I'd seen from a Blades team (Wilder's probably matches it since). It got to the point in home games where if the opposition scored first, it was a case of a small shrug - we'll win 4-1 instead of 4-0 then. Was it 11 home games in a row we won? It was all very routine.

The sacking was very strange, but having been at THAT Stevenage game, we were a bunch of rag tags that day. McCabe got seduced by Wednesday changing managers late on the previous year and going up, and hoping the same would happen with us. He apparently was also pissed off that after the Stevenage game, Wilson didn't go full hair dryer.

The second season we were very much flat track bullies. Other than Bournemouth away (after which we went top I think?), we would comfortably beat the crap teams, and make heavy weather of anyone halfway decent. We were also much less entertaining of a watch than the previous year, especially post Blackman. Thus when results against the crap teams started to slide, it was a slippery slope.

 

[CPB]

Wilson did a good job I feel with us. First season down he got us really going, and not for Evans we would have gone up auto.
That squad though was v.good really, I think it would have survived in the league above. The season we went down was a calamity of errors from top to bottom. But we should have done better with some of the players we had.

Season after like many have said we had to adapt because we lost the likes of Quinn, Williamson, C.Evans and Lowton.
So Wilson made us hard to beat, but N.Blackman was a sound signing. Unfortunately we decided to sell him after 6 months and was left with limited striking options.

It was daft to sack him like we did but we know why McCabe did so, it rarely works the way you want it too. It might have worked better had McCabe appointed someone else outside the club not Morgan.

 

[Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou]

Trippier the latest one, bit of a coup

 

[Caveblade]

Wilson did a good job I feel with us. First season down he got us really going, and not for Evans we would have gone up auto.
That squad though was v.good really, I think it would have survived in the league above. The season we went down was a calamity of errors from top to bottom. But we should have done better with some of the players we had.

Season after like many have said we had to adapt because we lost the likes of Quinn, Williamson, C.Evans and Lowton.
So Wilson made us hard to beat, but N.Blackman was a sound signing. Unfortunately we decided to sell him after 6 months and was left with limited striking options.

It was daft to sack him like we did but we know why McCabe did so, it rarely works the way you want it too. It might have worked better had McCabe appointed someone else outside the club not Morgan.

Oh the irony. McCabe sacks a good manager when the blame for the slide could be fairly laid at his door for his lack of bottle and desperation to flog the family silver at the first sniff of a bid.

 

[Revolution]

Trippier the latest one, bit of a coup

I'm looking forward to this.

Intrigued current players are prepared to go on. Stockdale was really good but in the last 10 mins gave away all his timewasting techniques. Interesting listening for refs.

Luke Varney also good last week. The current series continues to have some really good ones.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Trippier was good, good to hear from a top player. Says "to be fair" too much though!

 

[Champagneblade]

Wilson did a good job I feel with us. First season down he got us really going, and not for Evans we would have gone up auto.
That squad though was v.good really, I think it would have survived in the league above. The season we went down was a calamity of errors from top to bottom. But we should have done better with some of the players we had.

Season after like many have said we had to adapt because we lost the likes of Quinn, Williamson, C.Evans and Lowton.
So Wilson made us hard to beat, but N.Blackman was a sound signing. Unfortunately we decided to sell him after 6 months and was left with limited striking options.

It was daft to sack him like we did but we know why McCabe did so, it rarely works the way you want it too. It might have worked better had McCabe appointed someone else outside the club not Morgan.

I wasn’t quite on the same Wilson love in that some of you seem to be.

Great bloke. Absolutely. Came over as a real gent.

As a manager he’d just taken Swindon down from the division we wanted out of so I wasn’t sure what qualified him for our position.

He had an unbelievable squad. All he needed to do, literally the only piece of management was to get a back up for Ched. He had three bites of it and they all failed. Will Hoskins was already carrying a hernia when we signed him apparently. Beattie was already a liability at that stage. O’Halloran was dreadful.

The second season was pretty turgid with shite like Marcus Williams pulling on the shirt and each game trying to win 1-0 or that’s how it felt to me at least. Getting Blackman was a boon especially his unbelievable penalty record but the football was a shadow of the prior year and he’d missed his chance as players who were willing to stay for one more year moved on. Then we hit the buffers at New Year and McCabe did what McCabe had done before and sold players. In the space of a few weeks Shaun Miller got badly injured when it started to look like he might form a partnership with Porter. Diego, who had started to be introduced into the team, succumbed to a career changing injury as well.

Then the master stroke of selling Blackman and getting Forte on loan gave his already turgid team little hope of improvement.

The team was going backwards. I can understand why some would say give him until the end of the season but I suppose McCabe thought a chance was a good idea. But giving it to Morgs was neither here nor there. He’ll probably look back on the aches thing as pivotal though. Especially in hindsight bad he was declared not guilty at appeal. Plus you remember things like John Terry getting a case to take place after the season, whereas ours apparently couldn’t wait two weeks!

 

[Champagneblade]

He’ll probably look back on the aches thing as pivotal though. Especially in hindsight bad he was declared not guilty at appeal.

Before autocorrect got hold of it, this said:

He’ll probably look back on the Evans thing as pivotal though. Especially in hindsight and he was declared not guilty at appeal.

Sorry if it made less sense than my usual posts

 

[Revolution]

I wasn’t quite on the same Wilson love in that some of you seem to be.

Great bloke. Absolutely. Came over as a real gent.

As a manager he’d just taken Swindon down from the division we wanted out of so I wasn’t sure what qualified him for our position.

He had an unbelievable squad. All he needed to do, literally the only piece of management was to get a back up for Ched. He had three bites of it and they all failed. Will Hoskins was already carrying a hernia when we signed him apparently. Beattie was already a liability at that stage. O’Halloran was dreadful.

The second season was pretty turgid with shite like Marcus Williams pulling on the shirt and each game trying to win 1-0 or that’s how it felt to me at least. Getting Blackman was a boon especially his unbelievable penalty record but the football was a shadow of the prior year and he’d missed his chance as players who were willing to stay for one more year moved on. Then we hit the buffers at New Year and McCabe did what McCabe had done before and sold players. In the space of a few weeks Shaun Miller got badly injured when it started to look like he might form a partnership with Porter. Diego, who had started to be introduced into the team, succumbed to a career changing injury as well.

Then the master stroke of selling Blackman and getting Forte on loan gave his already turgid team little hope of improvement.

The team was going backwards. I can understand why some would say give him until the end of the season but I suppose McCabe thought a chance was a good idea. But giving it to Morgs was neither here nor there. He’ll probably look back on the aches thing as pivotal though. Especially in hindsight bad he was declared not guilty at appeal. Plus you remember things like John Terry getting a case to take place after the season, whereas ours apparently couldn’t wait two weeks!

I will never understand this criticism of Wilson.

It is essentially saying that we should have brought in a fourth option in case Evans was sent down. And it's actually a 6th option, as we also had Cresswell and Porter.

The club planned and were unlucky, and people who say that we should have known that all of the options we brought in were duds are doing so with an enormous amount of hindsight.

As for the following year, Wilson's record was W17 D17 L7 when he was dismissed, with a side that had had players who scored 52 goals between them the previous season removed from it. He then had Blackman sold under him at the last minute. He was also unlucky with injuries. The team was going backwards, sure, but that wasn't his fault. The team was worse and went out of the playoffs with a whimper after he left.

 

[Wards]

It was almost certainly a result of McCabe penny pinching at every opportunity after that first season in L1. Would give him credit for holding onto some fairly decent players in that first year down albeit I don't remember many teams clamouring to sign them at the time. Once we lost in the PO's his mindset seemed to be to cut back on everything and anywhere possible, the old "cut our cloth accordingly" was rolled out on many an occasion. I'll always have some sympathy for Wilson in that second season due to that. The football was pretty dour and we certainly didn't look like a team capable of winning promotion but having to integrate a lot of new players was never going to be easy nor conducive to good football.

 

[Champagneblade]

I will never understand this criticism of Wilson.

It is essentially saying that we should have brought in a fourth option in case Evans was sent down. And it's actually a 6th option, as we also had Cresswell and Porter.

The club planned and were unlucky, and people who say that we should have known that all of the options we brought in were duds are doing so with an enormous amount of hindsight.

As for the following year, Wilson's record was W17 D17 L7 when he was dismissed, with a side that had had players who scored 52 goals between them the previous season removed from it. He then had Blackman sold under him at the last minute. He was also unlucky with injuries. The team was going backwards, sure, but that wasn't his fault. The team was worse and went out of the playoffs with a whimper after he left.

The job was an absolute gift.

That squad should have been well clear of promotion. It shouldn’t have been giving a far inferior Wednesday team even a slight amount of daylight.

No hindsight here. Beattie was finished. That was clear. Signing Hoskins when he was already injured was unnecessary and O’Halloran was a dreadful piece of judgment.

Happy to agree to disagree but a blind man could have got those guys to top two.

 

[Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou]

Ex Blade

 

[beatific blade]

Ex Blade

Ffs just seeing his name has triggered my pre-Wilder PTSD

 

[Large Mendonca]

Had a good debut I seem to remember (did we beat Chezzy 2-0?) but then I don’t really remember him being that remarkable. As others have said though, I do try to airbrush that season from memory……

 

[Houston_Blade]

36 appearances apparently, I remember him playing but not that many times.

 

[billyblademan]

He was a very average CB at the time. Inconsistent - looked decent some days but had a mistake in him. We had some really shit seasons didn't we, down there!

 

[Houston_Blade]

He was a very average CB at the time. Inconsistent - looked decent some days but had a mistake in him. We had some really shit seasons didn't we, down there!

I'm assuming my memory of the time is occupied by how shit Collins and McEveley were so Edgar is a vague one at best.

 

[Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou]

Edgar was best of a bad bunch I remember

 

[BLADES1988]

The Coeoeoeloeoelan Lavery of defending. He tried bless him though.

 

[Balti Pie]

Years later when I read that Wilder was in for a centre half called Egan at Brentford, I got him mixed up with this guy in my head!
Well, the names are fairly similar.....sort of!
"We're paying how much for him? He wasn't anything special when we had him the first time!"
Like others I did think Edgar was the best of a bad bunch at that time - but that's probably more of a reflection on the others rather than on him!

 

[HarryHaslam]

I’m terms of where we were at that time I didn’t think he did too bad for us tbh.

 

[Chezzy Blades]

My main memory of him was Uche Ikepeazu throwing him around like a ragdoll in front of the away end at Port Vale then going on to set up/score the winner against us.