Second Season Syndrome & A Tougher League

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I have to agree with BanderSerge more or less.

Have the past 4 years under CWAK taught us Blades nothing? When we came up to the Champ, everyone (and I include myself) thought if we could finish about 15th in our first season back we'll have done really well, after the Burton game when Coutts broke his leg we were top of the league and I think we'd all agree if things had been different we'd have finished higher than 10th. Fast forward to next pre-season and I think most were thinking a mid-table finish would be good and challenging for the play-offs would be an achievement.... signed Norwood, Basham arrived, and the rest as they say is history. This pre-season, we were wrote off by just about everyone, maybe us Blades optimistically hoped for survival, I think 15th was favourite on the forum vote and I'm sure that was being optimistic. Everyone else had us to finish rock bottom and potentially with very few points. We go into the final game with 54 points on the board and can't finish any lower than 10th.... 10TH!!!

Write off the CWAK effect at your peril. We've improved every season so far and I for one have stopped doubting this manager and his ability to achieve what most of think is beyond us.
 

Quite a few on here stating Arsenal will be better next season. I’d be really interested to hear the rationale behind that.

They have a rookie manager, need to spend big especially on the defence and may lose their best player who is the only player in their squad that is even remotely any where near world class quality.
 
Second season syndrome is a complete myth, so let's dispense with that one straight away.

For the last 3 seasons I have continually heard sections of our fanbase fret, worry about and talk down our own chances. Why? Because of what other teams might do, or because stronger teams are coming down, or stronger teams are coming up and so & so will be much stronger next season. Rarely do I hear the same people acknowledge that we will also be stronger. Honestly, I have to give my head a shake sometimes.

We brushed plenty of PL teams aside this season, and this management team are very quick learners, so the rest might want to watch out. Europe has been dangled in front of our face and we just faded when it counted this time. We won't at the 2nd attempt.
 
If I had to gauge the feeling among Blades fans at the moment, I'd say the one thing that's a bit of an unknown is how far the owners are willing to go financially in order to ensure the club can compete. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was amazed that having already forked out the best part of £45m in pre-season, we then went and splashed another £22m on one player - unheard of in S2. So I think we're all unsure how the next pre-season will pan out. I'd say don't be amazed if we are amazed again!

It still does feel like some fantasy football dream, that our club are spending such vast sums on players, even though it's perhaps not a lot compared to the sums being spent by other clubs. However it's a far cry from the days when Bassett had to empty his own piggy bank to force through the purchase of Brian Gayle while our neighbours were splashing out nearly £3m on the likes of Des Walker.

Obviously the big problem to resolve is the keeper situation. I hope Henderson comes back, however I think it unlikely. Even if Man Utd don't sell De Gea, I think Dean will go to another big club, Chelsea perhaps the most likely. While I'd love the club to move heaven and earth to get him, realistically just from the wages perspective, I don't see it happening. What I am sure of though is that CWAK will have been planning for this.
 
We are currently rewriting the formula for second season syndrome. We will end up going down in history as the main example of it.

Great stuff.
 
It's a complete myth
I'm a pig
we almost got in Europe last season

:tumbleweed::rolleyes:
 
Second season syndrome is a complete myth, so let's dispense with that one straight away.

For the last 3 seasons I have continually heard sections of our fanbase fret, worry about and talk down our own chances. Why? Because of what other teams might do, or because stronger teams are coming down, or stronger teams are coming up and so & so will be much stronger next season. Rarely do I hear the same people acknowledge that we will also be stronger. Honestly, I have to give my head a shake sometimes.

We brushed plenty of PL teams aside this season, and this management team are very quick learners, so the rest might want to watch out. Europe has been dangled in front of our face and we just faded when it counted this time. We won't at the 2nd attempt.

Nice to see that my reply from July has aged well :(

As it happens, I still think 2nd season syndrome IS a myth. We just decided to play it safe far too early this season, and it has cost us.
 
we've stopped playing the Sheffield United 'way'. Partly through injuries and partly because of this flat four bollocks that has never worked properly. We haven't looked ourselves since day one. It's ok playing flat four if we're two down at City or Liverpool, but flat four against WBA, Villa, Leeds? Teams we were taking the piss out of in the Championship? It doesn't make sense.
One thing is for certain, we can't play our system without Bash and JoC so we may as well go 433 until JoC is fit. Call it damage limitation. We've currently too many square pegs in round holes trying to find a miraculous solution for the JoC problem. We won't. He is unique. And ffs put Sander in a central role. It is like playing TC left wing.
 

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