Leaving Early = Lost the Fanbase = Doomed?

[Tarqs]

I'd never left early either. Stayed to the end of those games and yesterday. Although that 8 and various other batterings changed the mindset a bit. Me and my son agreed that we'd call it a day once the opposition got 5 and started to leave early for the first times ever.

Wanted to leave at 15mins and go to the pub when Arsenal went 3 up . He said no the agreed time is 5. So off we went to the pub on 39 mins.

I can take us being shit. I can take batterings. But was soul destroying watching the Blades get beat by 5/6 and more every week. Just didn't have the stomach for it

Same, id never left early until the prem season, it was soul destroying and i think many are mentally scarred from it

Teams in the past had some.fight so the crowd would get behind. This team has none and neither does the crowd
Yes atmosphere yesterday was possibly the worst i can remember witnessing. Surprised no boos to be honest.

 

[blades_95]

Fanbase was divided last year when we were boring & winning. Now we’re boring & losing, barely mustering an attack and look like conceding every time a team comes at us - is it any surprise people are walking out & losing interest?

 

[Gannon's perm]

Same, id never left early until the prem season, it was soul destroying and i think many are mentally scarred from it

Teams in the past had some.fight so the crowd would get behind. This team has none and neither does the crowd
Yes atmosphere yesterday was possibly the worst i can remember witnessing. Surprised no boos to be honest.

Yeah it definitely mentally scarred me
Think in consecutive home games, we conceded 5,5,5 and 6. Something like that. Been going since the late 80s and something died inside that season. Still watch a lot of football, but nowhere near as much.

We've lost 11 out 14 games this season. God knows how bad the batterings would be if we'd gone up

Some boos when the 3rd went in yesterday and a few chanting " you're not fit to wear the shirt".

 

[Broomhall Blade]

The safe standing is a great addition and is working really well.

It's a piece of piss to walk out early now as no one gets disturbed.

Well done United

utb

Personally i haven't noticed any improvement in the atmosphere that i was promised.
Hope we kept the receipt.

 

[I should coco]

I never leave early*. That said, I mentally checked out in August (if not May), so I’ve got no argument with people voting with their feet. It’s been a poor watch for almost a year, so with a drop in quality and results, it’s hard to argue with people deciding they have better places to be.

* I didn’t even turn up yesterday

You went to school in a pit village. Kiveton Park Colliery was half a mile from Wales, Dinno 3 miles, Maltby 4, Shireoaks 5.

You've spent too long in Scab City.

Grow a pair and force yourself back up the M1. Maybe a few sneck jokes and a Betty impression , but FFS don't give up on us now.

 

[nopigfansintown]

We are in a relegation battle. The whole mentality of the club has to shift to reflect that. I'm not sure we have it in us anymore. We have to get that horrible, nasty edge back we used to have at the Lane.

 

[ChipButtyBlade]

I hope nobody left early in the safe standing ?
Because apparently it would create a better atmosphere.

Safe standing aint no place for fat fans either.........dem wi bladder problems..like two ships who can't pass in the night...blame dem rails.

 

[Kenworthy’s Tash]

I am afraid I left on 70 minutes.. still haven’t seen our goal.

You did better than me, I just couldn’t motivate myself to go yesterday, first home game I’ve missed in yonks.

 

[DEM_BLAYADS]

Left on 94th... think it was after we gave a daft free kick away again. I was sucked in after we got one back... we looked on top and Ohare was involved in everything and thought it was only a matter of time until he created/scored a 2nd... then we stuck crosses in over his head for the rest of the game and look like paint drying.

Win, lose or draw, we'll be back for more... and its true, I was pissed off yesterday, less so today and by tuesday evening ill have convinced myself we will be up for it again... rinse and repeat for saturday.

 

[Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou]

Said if the pen goes in we're off. So fucked off and I never leave early. Even the steward didnt want to open the gates to let us out

Also can't stand the away fans walking down bramall lane.

Not even seen our goal yet. Them players are a joke.

 

[54yrblade]

These players brought in this year just don't appear to gel with the fans like in the past. When you hear bash talk about going out for coffee together and the friendships between the group this just doesn't look like it's happening with this group. They aren't a team just a team of individuals doing their own thing

'Connection' mattered
Team, supporters and manager
Gone

One of CWs favourite cards to play is busted.

 

[I should coco]

We are in a relegation battle. The whole mentality of the club has to shift to reflect that. I'm not sure we have it in us anymore. We have to get that horrible, nasty edge back we used to have at the Lane.

Spot on.

It's down to us, the 'supporters', to get nasty.

Sadly, too many turn up with their arms folded wanting to be entertained. Your club should be in your blood. It's not about wheteher you want McDonalds or KFC.

The 80s was a tough time to be a fan. It makes may sound like Grandad Simpson, but we stuck together through thin and thin.

I despair of the twats around me. Me and the other old gits try to get a song going, but ther's a limit to how many waves of apathy sweep over us, before we get washed away*.




*Hyperbole, obviously. Once a Blade, always a cynical hard bitten bastard.

 

[Houston_Blade]

I live in the States and a 3:00pm game is 7:00am for me so by 9:00am the weekend's either off to a good start, or down the pan. It'd be the easiest thing in the world to turn the TV off and just not bother but it's not what I do, I want to watch the whole game and win, lose or draw its my team and it just feels like I'm doing my bit.

As to this season's squad? I don't think they've checked out, I just think they're mostly crap footballers. It looks like they aren't trying but the sad thing is, they are. They're just poor players, poorly trained and set up to fail with that negative one up front, sidewards and backwards passing, even when we're two nil down and offering nothing. Mee and McGuiness are as bad as Robbo and Bindon. Seriki isn't great but he's a right sided defender and as good as owt we've got, certainly better than sticking Tanganga there who's being made to look bad. We're a real soft touch in midfield with no leader, Soumare may come good, Sydie needs an adult to guide him and O'Hare apart the rest have been pitiful. Our strikers aren't great and made to look even worse ploughing that lone farrow up front. That part's on the manager who looks like he's new at the job playing a ridiculously negative formation and asking bang average players to play it.

If we stay up we'll be lucky but with parachute money gone and our ambition seemingly gambling on has beens and hopefuls, God knows what the future brings. At the moment I'd be happy to do a Preston, mid table till we get some stability then hope and pray we find the winning formula again. Where's a Prince when you need one?

UTBFTP

The best thing for me is that my kids play football on Saturday mornings and if they don’t play, I do and finish at 9am, home for 9:30ish. I’m on central time so we tend to KO at 9am and I get the mercy of missing the first half.

 

[Keen Blade]

I've been there for nigh on 60 years and been through the lot but this time is different.
When we fell into the 4th Div and in many similar depressing situations , we hadn't just thrown away 7 season's worth of PL & parachute £.
We were a £ poor club and we could all understand that a rollercoaster life of support was to be expected , with ups dependent on great managers coinciding with some great players blossoming.

When we sunk precious £ into the SS in 73-76 , thereby getting relegated, the club could be forgiven for trying to make concrete progress.

This time , the club has taken a 12-bore and shot off its own legs , through sheer incompetence.
From any objective standpoint , the club looks totally ridiculous ,
which leaves fans with a powerless mixture of raw fury & sheer embarrassment.

It's been said 1000 times but how can you go from a whisker away from the PL to scrapping against the odds to avoid L1 , spending all the £ as you go ?

And if we entered administration tomorrow , what would we have to show for 7 seasons as a yoyo club ?

A field in Dore and a bunch of players worth less than their purchase price.

A side that is so incompetent , it can't negotiate it's way across the halfway line , create any excitement or entertainment.

Leaving early in protest at such diabolical waste of £ hundreds of millions and failure to take an opportunity to remain a yoyo club until the £ was there to land a berth in the PL ?
LEAVING EARLY ?

And people call it disloyal ?

Chuff me , I'd like to burn the whole place down - that's a perfectly proportionate reaction to what they've done to my love & ambition for them since 2019.

You want to call me "entitled" in a perjorative sense of the word ?
What utter rubbish !

I've followed an under-achieving club for over half a century.
I'm fully entitled to expect it not to be a national laughing-stock for its antics in ownership , management , recruitment and ultimate failure to make progress when presented with 2 promotions.

How many of us must feel that the decision-making - since the American Idiots arrived - has been of a way lower quality than a £ multi-million business deserves.
Especially when it carries the hopes of 25k regulars.

And what hope is left ?
We're stuck with a clueless manager , an insipid squad and about to fall off a £ cliff-edge.

The icing on the cake being the sheer lack of endeavour or entertainment in matches.

Leaving early is only a token form of censure and one of very few that are available to fans who feel the club is being let down by those who own and run it.

Although I've never left before the end , I can fully understand those who do.

 

[North Riding Blade]

We

 

[Gimli]

Pigs, Sneks and now Rats! This forum is a Zoo.

I thought it was a cess pit

 

[Sean Thornton]

I thought it was a cess pit

FH Team at it again?

 

[North Riding Blade]

We never usually leave early. It's like going to watch a film and leaving with 15 mins to go. But, yesterday was shite! We drive 90 mins south, knowing we've 120 mins north at the end, in the dark, to sit and contemplate what we've just seen. Was never a Wilder return fan but gave him the benefit of the doubt. The Derby fans chant of 'going down with Wendy' may be prophetic.
There is no movement beyond the halfway line. People criticised Moore but He would always make a run for the ball, even Cannon makes a diagonal now and again. But, yesterday, nothing. At least I managed to get to the M1 before dark. Not proud of that fact.

 

[Torrix1889]

I don't live in Sheffield, im not fortunate enough to pay 10 bob, jump on a bus or tram then do the reverse at full time to pick up a chippy tea on the way home and be sat watching the 100% club by 6pm.

It costs me a fucking fortune to follow United, home and away.....

43 years.....week in, week out...... and I've had enough.

 

[ISZA ⚔️]

I’ve actually stopped going. 25 years home and away. It doesn’t do anything for me any more. The decline started around covid.

 

[Wards]

I stayed for the 90 but only because my life is boring and I had nowt better to do on a Saturday night.

Probably will be my last season ticket for a while though. After 35 years consecutive I've lost the buzz for it.

 

[Carlton Blade]

I wanted to leave early. Listening to the Derby fans for 30 mins was going to be sickening. But then we scored and only had one attack for the next 10 minutes so all the life was sucked out of both sets of fans. Top work

 

[Nick Jansky]

Spot on.

It's down to us, the 'supporters', to get nasty.

Sadly, too many turn up with their arms folded wanting to be entertained. Your club should be in your blood. It's not about wheteher you want McDonalds or KFC.

The 80s was a tough time to be a fan. It makes may sound like Grandad Simpson, but we stuck together through thin and thin.

I despair of the twats around me. Me and the other old gits try to get a song going, but ther's a limit to how many waves of apathy sweep over us, before we get washed away*.




*Hyperbole, obviously. Once a Blade, always a cynical hard bitten bastard.

You don’t sound like Grandad Simpson. You give off more of an Albert Tatlock vibe.

 

[Tarqs]

I stayed for the 90 but only because my life is boring and I had nowt better to do on a Saturday night.

Probably will be my last season ticket for a while though. After 35 years consecutive I've lost the buzz for it.

Said exactly the same yesterday. Started with the covid season like ISZA ⚔️ and ive graudally found myself getting further and further away from the club mentally.

I give up most of my saturday for this and even when we win i feel empty for some reason.

WHether its cos im getting older, i dunno, but think i might go back to spending my saturdays actually playing again.

 

[Sean Thornton]

You don’t sound like Grandad Simpson. You give off more of an Albert Tatlock vibe.

 

[Bladesince59]

Fortress Bramall Lane

 

[Caveblade]

I left as soon as the pen was awarded. Not entitled just lost the passion and love for it. The last season in the prem broke me. Football is broken and yesterday just felt like a continuation of that death spiral.

I have been going since 74 and have seen some utter shite, including the infamous Oldham game. That was right up there, spineless, inept and only going one way.

I went to Macdonald's and got a coffee whilst I waited for my lift as it was better for my mental health than watching that shower of shit. I am another exile with a 100 mile roundtrip, which I have done through thick and thin. I am getting to the stage where the golf course looks like a far more attractive option. Even for midweek night matches .

To hear Wilder say "we are not far away" has me shaking my head. He gave us the best time I have ever had as a Blade, but he is not the same manager and will sleepwalk us into relegation.

50 odd years of watching, one common denominator? Absolute fucking clowns in the boardroom. Nowt changes, Yorkshire, Arab, American we just seem to attract fraudsters, Clowns and Idiots.

 

[Younger Dryas Blade]

After the 5-1 defeat to Newcastle in 23/24, Wilder said, talking about the fans ...

“Rightly so they’ve walked out on games, in games that I’ve been managed as well, and I’ve got absolutely no issue about that because it hasn’t been good enough but it will be good enough next year. It will be 100% be good enough next year. They won’t be walking out, they will be there in the stands home and away and we’ll get it right and we’ll get the club back where it should be.”

And he was right, TBF

I wasn't worried about this season once Wilder came back, even with it taking us a bit longer to get going. I wasn't even worried as I walked out of Deepdale. Mad games happen sometimes in football. But I hadn't considered that he may lose the match-going fans. Fans leaving early is a stab in the heart for Wilder. It always has been. Now I'm really worried!

I bet he isn't worried. Paid up for termination of contract, having the summer off and then been rehired on a decent wedge.
Wilder is currently suffering from 'Lucky git syndrome' and the smug fact that he won the battle with the new owners.
As Apollo told Rocky after Clubber Lang smashed the shit out of him, 'You have lost the eye of the tiger man'
Sums up the current version of Wilder IMO.

 

[LBA_Blade]

One of the most fun batterings if that is a thing was losing 6-0 to Arsenal in the League cup in I think it was 2008, nothing to do with on the pitch but I remember it getting to 5-0 and for some reason all the blades fans just went through our repertoire of songs for ages, as they were 5-0 up before 60 minutes , the Arsenal fans that were close by couldn’t understand it and were trying to shout back and were outsung.

 

[North Riding Blade]

I left as soon as the pen was awarded. Not entitled just lost the passion and love for it. The last season in the prem broke me. Football is broken and yesterday just felt like a continuation of that death spiral.

I have been going since 74 and have seen some utter shite, including the infamous Oldham game. That was right up there, spineless, inept and only going one way.

I went to Macdonald's and got a coffee whilst I waited for my lift as it was better for my mental health than watching that shower of shit. I am another exile with a 100 mile roundtrip, which I have done through thick and thin. I am getting to the stage where the golf course looks like a far more attractive option. Even for midweek night matches .

To hear Wilder say "we are not far away" has me shaking my head. He gave us the best time I have ever had as a Blade, but he is not the same manager and will sleepwalk us into relegation.

50 odd years of watching, one common denominator? Absolute fucking clowns in the boardroom. Nowt changes, Yorkshire, Arab, American we just seem to attract fraudsters, Clowns and Idiots.

Similar. As I said above. Mrs NRB and myself set off beck to the car as soon as the pen hit the net. I hate that! That I've found myself growing to realise they aren't ever going to miraculously recover from an unrecoverable situation. Growing old is just another shite aspect of being a Blade.