if he does go? who do we get?

[Pammyliz]

I can understand some people might want to stick but who on earth can say Weir is "doing fine"?

Danny Wilson for me. Can't argue with that win record.

At least danny Wilson kept us at the right end of the table, heart breaking seeing the tables tonight n I agree you can't argue with Wilson a record

 

[highpeakblade]

We don't need a foreign manager in League One, we don't need another gamble, we don't need an up and coming young head trying to establish himself as a manager!.

We need an old head, a motivator and a bollocker who will get the lads on side working for him, for eachother and most importantly for the club.

In the immediate future I don't overall care so much about style as I do about substance. We need to score goals and win games. If this means we adapt a more direct style at times then so be it. I would much rather go home thinking "sound another 2-0 or 3-0 win" rather than "we played some quality football but lost 1-0 or drew 0-0"

We need an old head who believes in a physical approach to his style of play, a bloke who wants us to get stuck in and to get forward into dangerous positions to hit the back of the net.

Warnock, Pulis, Mesgon, Bryan Flynn all have this style of football in common and all at some point have achieved a certain degree of success in doing so. In fact Bryan Flynn is now Director of Football at Doncaster isn't he. Probably wouldn't come but I would have him in charge any day over Weir, he did wonders for Donny.

 

[Silent Blade]

we do not want any more managers who look impressive in theory but not in practise. we need one with a proven track record

 

[oldblade]

I can understand some people might want to stick but who on earth can say Weir is "doing fine"?

Danny Wilson for me. Can't argue with that win record.

Pinchy maybe?

 

[oldblade]

Yes, get Pullis in and watch in awe as he gets rid of the likes of Baxter, Brandy, Cuvelier et-al and replaces them with Doyle clones.

Refresh my memory. What division are Stoke in, and where are we?

 

[brownie4583]

Tony Pulis

 

[BladeFisher]

At least danny Wilson kept us at the right end of the table, heart breaking seeing the tables tonight n I agree you can't argue with Wilson a record

Well there are five advantages with offering Wilson his job back.

1. He knows most of the team.
2. He has got something to prove
3. Financially it might offer a better financial settlement to Wilson (still under discussion regarding his departure).
4. Least possible upset to the set up.
5. McCabe has to eat humble pie.

I would see it as a halfway house/salage solution, perhaps a deal to the end of the season. Of course I would prefer others but it might be a cost effective way out with the least disruption.

 

[Swanseablade]

Pinchy maybe?

Ha, "at least we're keeping the ball."
Albeit exclusively in our own half....

 

[JohnDenver]

It's strange, but I just don't give a shit.

On that basis we may as well let Weir carry on. It's a real life experiment and I'm interested to know the outcome.

 

[alcoblade]

It's strange, but I just don't give a shit.

On that basis we may as well let Weir carry on. It's a real life experiment and I'm interested to know the outcome.

I do, and fuck this experiment. It's based on a misguided notion that the future of football is based on total football. It was complete bollocks when we started on the road, and complete bollocks now we're knocking on the door of the fourth division.

We've paid our dues for daring to pay direct football. Can we just get on and approach the game in a sensible, practical way now? Obviously, without Weir.

UTB

 

[Sothall_Blade]

we do not want any more managers who look impressive in theory but not in practise. we need one with a proven track record

I totally agree. That's why we should go for Warnock.

If we can't get him than Steve Evans would fit the bill.
Six career promotions. 48% win record at both Rotherham and Crawley.
An excellent knowledge of the lower leagues. A big personality to give the club a lift.
That's what we need now. No risks. Almost guaranteed improvement and success.

 

[bladeinspaceandtime]

Pulis, Poyet, Clough.... Deluded, none of these would touch United with a barge pole. The club is a basket case at the moment. We need a big uplift, some forward momentum soon. I can't see past Warnock (it really pains me to say it!)

 

[wardonia_blade]

I am sticking with DW. Not because he is doing fine but because it was always going to take longer than 9 matches to stop the rot at Bramall Lane. He has tried a modern playing style. He has tried to bring in young players. He has tried to get rid of aging journeymen. These were all things that I wanted at the start of the season. He clearly identified what was required but none of it has worked. So let him try something else. This is what we mean by give him time.

If he goes we will go for an older manager with a direct playing style. Because DW was a younger manager with a footballing style. The following manager will then be a younger manager with a footballing style. and on it goes. Fucking madness.

As for the name game - Kevin Blackwell.

 

[grafikhaus]

we do not want any more managers who look impressive in theory but not in practise. we need one with a proven track record

Absolutely right. And let's face it, the reason some people are saying 'Stick with Weir' or - even more ludicrously - 'He's doing fine' is because, unlike just about every other manager, DW doesn't have a record of mostly failure to his name, simply because it's his first managerial job.

Probably a decent bloke, but so am I, and I could get United to bottom of the Third. Time's up, Mr. Weir.

 

[metalblade]

Remember when teams would dread coming to the lane, when premiership teams got turfed out of the cup competitions at the lane, when even though it wasn't always good we had a bit of pride in the team ............... OMG we need to phone Colin.

 

[cooperblade]

If we go for a 'direct' manager, we've got a lot of recent recruits who we will need to move on. Regardless of whether DW stays or not we shouldn't rip up the whole plan after a couple of months. That's the sort of approach that has got us here.

 

[Bergen Blade]

Good shout Bergen. I very much doubt that he'd come but like you say, he might relish the challenge. If HRH is serious about getting us back up to the top, OGS is certainly worth serious consideration.

By the way I think Weir should be given at least another game, but he'll probably have to win that one, and it may also have to be the start of a good run, for him to keep his job.

Solskjær has admitted he's always loved playing manager games, and taking over a crap third division side with a strong fan base and decent money to spend could, perhaps, be tempting! He's currently negotiating a new contract with Molde, but he's already achieved a lot with them and I'm pretty certain he'll have a get out clause.

fuerstenberger, any good, german managers you think would be interested in the job?

 

[BladeFisher]

I am sticking with DW. Not because he is doing fine but because it was always going to take longer than 9 matches to stop the rot at Bramall Lane.

I don't think with finishing 6th last season and 3rd the year before, we had much rot to stop. All Weir has done is introduce a terminal illness. We needed a slight change of course not a reciprocal sailed back to some dark hell hole.

Weir has made the major mistake of changing too much too soon and those that employed him made the mistake if getting sucked in with promises of a radical change of direction. This shows piss poor management and is often a mistake made by younger managers. I made the same mistake years ago and learned from it. The irony is we didn't need to change much.

To listen to some on here we were playing like Cambridge United under Beck and Weir promised an Arsenal style a la Wenger, when it fact such a radical change was not needed at all.

 

[Pinchy]

With one or two notable exceptions, this confirms everything I know about the stupidity of Sheffield United fans:

Bring Warnock back: Warnock has managed 13 clubs, At 12 of them, nobody wants him back. They have colour television and look beyond their backyard wall.

Direct football is equivalent to winning football. History is conclusive to the contrary. Wimbledon are extinct, Watford play properly. Charles Hughes, John Beck and Dinosaur Dave are unemployable.

Our club has rightly decided to shake off this shameful anti-football nonsense. DW is having to build a football team from the ground up, severely hampered by the legacy of numpties like Blackwell and Adams. It's a long term job. If he's not the right man, it doesn't mean we should abandon the right principles. Do you really think our new co-chairman is going to lead a charge back to kick and rush? Or is it just wishful thinking? Nostalgia for the comforting and familiar thud as boot propels ball 70 yards in the stratosphere, low-flying birds scatter and a bunch of Montgomeries tirelessly chase their own tails?

The biggest impediment this club has, I'm afraid, is crystal clear. By far the most unimaginative, unsophisticated, parochial, prehistoric bunch of 'supporters' in the land.

In an odd way, I hope you get your Hoof back. You enjoy it in your little S2 bubble.

It's the Bladesfans' Way. Shame on you.

 

[JohnDenver]

I do, and fuck this experiment. It's based on a misguided notion that the future of football is based on total football. It was complete bollocks when we started on the road, and complete bollocks now we're knocking on the door of the fourth division.

We've paid our dues for daring to pay direct football. Can we just get on and approach the game in a sensible, practical way now? Obviously, without Weir.

UTB

The not caring element of that post was a result of Jaipur and fine malt. It wasn't an attempt at Mic style provocation.

Safe to say I do care, but mid-season sackings remain a last resort. It's still too soon, but Weir couldn't be doing a better job of bringing it forward.

 

[axel smeets]

With one or two notable exceptions, this confirms everything I know about the stupidity of Sheffield United fans:

Bring Warnock back: Warnock has managed 13 clubs, At 12 of them, nobody wants him back. They have colour television and look beyond their backyard wall.

Direct football is equivalent to winning football. History is conclusive to the contrary. Wimbledon are extinct, Watford play properly. Charles Hughes, John Beck and Dinosaur Dave are unemployable.

Our club has rightly decided to shake off this shameful anti-football nonsense. DW is having to build a football team from the ground up, severely hampered by the legacy of numpties like Blackwell and Adams. It's a long term job. If he's not the right man, it doesn't mean we should abandon the right principles. Do you really think our new co-chairman is going to lead a charge back to kick and rush? Or is it just wishful thinking? Nostalgia for the comforting and familiar thud as boot propels ball 70 yards in the stratosphere, low-flying birds scatter and a bunch of Montgomeries tirelessly chase their own tails?

The biggest impediment this club has, I'm afraid, is crystal clear. By far the most unimaginative, unsophisticated, parochial, prehistoric bunch of 'supporters' in the land.

In an odd way, I hope you get your Hoof back. You enjoy it in your little S2 bubble.

It's the Bladesfans' Way. Shame on you.

My god, you're condescending Pinchy. Everybody else is wrong, and you are right. And if they have a different opinion to you, you'll just call them Neanderthals. Does this stem from your profession by any chance?

 

[Latters]

DW is having to build a football team from the ground up, severely hampered by the legacy of numpties like Blackwell and Adams. It's a long term job. If he's not the right man, it doesn't mean we should abandon the right principles.

This quote contains both the only part of your post that I agree with and the biggest bag of bollocks I've read on here for a while.

The part I agree with is that we shouldn't abandon the footballing principles on a whim and just get a clogger in for the sake of a change.

Now, on to the bollocks. I really do not buy this "DW is having to build a football team from the ground up." It took Wilson one close season to get the same bunch of players playing a completely different style to A. The one they were used to and B. The one they were signed to play. Granted, they were playing against opposition with less ability than the previous season, but it wouldn't have mattered who we were playing. We effectively changed the style before the season even began.

We weren't playing hoof all last season, or the season before. Players were passing the ball well, then moving into more advanced space ready to receive it again. It isn't, as some might say, rocket science.

Why has the change, that involves moving 1 (yes ONE) player further back in the formation (442 to 451) still not clicked? Why is Weir making an absolute pig's ear of it this season? He doesn't have a massive task, but he is making it appear that way. He has been allowed to sign players, decent players for this level (if it is actually him that has chosen them).

Wilson got a team that was used to kicking it high and far to pass and move, score goals aplenty and not concede many. Before all his best attacking options were sold, we scored at will. When they were sold, he adapted his style slightly. We still didn't hoof it and we still didn't concede. Weir has been able to bring in the likes of Baxter, King, Cuvelier and Brandy, yet we still can't play as effectively as we did without these. He has signed these players specifically to fit his style, but he cannot get them to play it. He is an awful manager.

The passing style isn't the problem the clueless numpty trying to implement the system is the problem.

 

[Patrick Suffaux]

Danny Wilson would have this team comfortably sat in the top six. Whatever criticism a small minority may have of him, his win record speaks for itself and we were never out of contention under him. He was a good manager and it was a fucking moronic decision to sack him.

If they had anything about them at Bramall Lane they would be on the phone already begging for him to come back. He wouldn't be a huge transition from the style Weir is trying to implement, only it would be more effective and we would start getting some of the basics right.

As for the Warnock cries (again) ffs.....NO!

 

[judge]

With one or two notable exceptions, this confirms everything I know about the stupidity of Sheffield United fans:

Bring Warnock back: Warnock has managed 13 clubs, At 12 of them, nobody wants him back. They have colour television and look beyond their backyard wall.

Direct football is equivalent to winning football. History is conclusive to the contrary. Wimbledon are extinct, Watford play properly. Charles Hughes, John Beck and Dinosaur Dave are unemployable.

Our club has rightly decided to shake off this shameful anti-football nonsense. DW is having to build a football team from the ground up, severely hampered by the legacy of numpties like Blackwell and Adams. It's a long term job. If he's not the right man, it doesn't mean we should abandon the right principles. Do you really think our new co-chairman is going to lead a charge back to kick and rush? Or is it just wishful thinking? Nostalgia for the comforting and familiar thud as boot propels ball 70 yards in the stratosphere, low-flying birds scatter and a bunch of Montgomeries tirelessly chase their own tails?

The biggest impediment this club has, I'm afraid, is crystal clear. By far the most unimaginative, unsophisticated, parochial, prehistoric bunch of 'supporters' in the land.

In an odd way, I hope you get your Hoof back. You enjoy it in your little S2 bubble.

It's the Bladesfans' Way. Shame on you.

I hop that weir stays and we get relegated , you will enjoy it in your alzheimers bubble

 

[BladeFisher]

Danny Wilson would have this team comfortably sat in the top six. Whatever criticism a small minority may have of him, his win record speaks for itself and we were never out of contention under him. He was a good manager and it was a fucking moronic decision to sack him.

If they had anything about them at Bramall Lane they would be on the phone already begging for him to come back. He wouldn't be a huge transition from the style Weir is trying to implement, only it would be more effective and we would start getting some of the basics right.

As for the Warnock cries (again) ffs.....NO!

In the short term bringing Wilson backs makes an awful lot of sense. I think he would do quite well with the current squad actually.

 

[Patrick Suffaux]

In the short term bringing Wilson backs makes an awful lot of sense. I think he would do quite well with the current squad actually.

Completely agree. I think he would love working with the current squad. Loads of ability in it and I think he would start winning games very quickly.

 

[BladeFisher]

With one or two notable exceptions, this confirms everything I know about the stupidity of Sheffield United fans:

Bring Warnock back: Warnock has managed 13 clubs, At 12 of them, nobody wants him back. They have colour television and look beyond their backyard wall.

Direct football is equivalent to winning football. History is conclusive to the contrary. Wimbledon are extinct, Watford play properly. Charles Hughes, John Beck and Dinosaur Dave are unemployable.

Our club has rightly decided to shake off this shameful anti-football nonsense. DW is having to build a football team from the ground up, severely hampered by the legacy of numpties like Blackwell and Adams. It's a long term job. If he's not the right man, it doesn't mean we should abandon the right principles. Do you really think our new co-chairman is going to lead a charge back to kick and rush? Or is it just wishful thinking? Nostalgia for the comforting and familiar thud as boot propels ball 70 yards in the stratosphere, low-flying birds scatter and a bunch of Montgomeries tirelessly chase their own tails?

The biggest impediment this club has, I'm afraid, is crystal clear. By far the most unimaginative, unsophisticated, parochial, prehistoric bunch of 'supporters' in the land.

In an odd way, I hope you get your Hoof back. You enjoy it in your little S2 bubble.

It's the Bladesfans' Way. Shame on you.

Your post reminds me of a programme I saw the other night on Sky about a lunatic woman who had the Sparkles Guest House in Blackpool. She was so obsessed with the children's fantasy element she forgot she was running a business. It was obvious when Ruth Watson arrived to 'help' her that Ma Sparkles was completely nuts and didn't grasp that she was running a business first and foremost but was obseesed with her glorified children's theme park. Eventually it was obvious she was bonkers and she sold the place 'cos nobody would stay and spend £200/night to stay in her children's tat.

Under the Pinchy proposals it clearly doesn't matter that the club is plummeting like a stone, we can't win matches but so long as we play total football that is all that matters.

Funny enough I am not sure that passing the ball around is the objective of the game. Clearly millions of people around the world have been deceived and duped for the last 150 odd years and scoring more goals than the opposition to win is clearly no longer the objective.

Whilst the style of play clearly has an impact on effectiveness in reaching the objective, and if sufficiently attractive, would probably bring in more spectators, if you don't win you will soon lose sight of the objective and not provide much point in attending to watch it.

After all I am sure you can visit many recs up and down the country for free to see passing football, not much point paying £25 for the privilege and the team still doesn't win.

 

[Blade59]

I don't get this notion why a change of manger automatically means we go back to hoof. Can you only play proper football with the current style. Does playing 2 strikers mean you can't pass the ball and keep possession. Asthers have said we were hardly 80's Wimbeldon before Weir came. Kendall changed Bassets style almost immediately. Likewise Wilson with Adams squad. Could it be the style is irrelevant and the present manager is simply not good enough at the present time.

 

[blader]

So mainly the list consists of:

Pulis
Warnock
Pearce
Clough

F*** me. Let's just stick with what we have if they're the alternatives!

Edit: give it a week or 2 and I wouldn't mind Tony Mowbray....

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

Football evolves and changes season on season. The basic premise stays the same, score more than the opposition, but the tactics change constantly. In some ways the direct style has almost been legislated out of the game. The forcing game employed by Bassett et al, with players like Jones, Booker, Bradshaw, Downes would never work now as players never finished a game. However, despite just about every top side now playing 4-2-3-1, there are many different styles employed with that formation. Another manager/coach coming in now could keep the formation but play in a totally different way. Fans do get hung up on formations and styles, when tactics and flexibility are what matters (see the stuff Bergen Blade does on our defensive woes). Personally, I think Weir is trying to be too sophisticated with his tactics within this formation, trying to emulate the likes of Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea without the quality of players able to carry out those tactics. His lack of compromise will cost him.