Sheffield United essential information

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Dutch Blade

Dutch Blade

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Hi guys,

I could use some help. I'm writing an club profile for my own Dutch website and probably an other Dutch football outlet. Because we promoted to the Premier League, people in the Netherlands are getting more interested about Sheffield United, so I got the request to draft a club profile. I have got a limit of around 2,000 words so I should give everyone a fine taste of our club.

However, I only started to follow Sheffield United intensively 2 years ago, before that I just checked scores and that was basically it. So I probably don't have all the information a real life-long supporter has.

I'm gonna cover the club history, the way to the premier league, maybe a little bit of the ownership battle that's going on, the club philosophy and what to expect off the upcoming season.

So my question to you guys is, do you have any information about our club that I probably not know, considering my background. Maybe something special that happened about Wilder's first year? A certain code that supporters have?

Any information is much appreciated!
 

On the forum we have 2 regularly used codes

GLTTL - good luck to the lad
Normally used for players who have given good service and then leave
WUEDP - where u erd dis pal (roughly translates as, where did you hear this friend?)
Relates to transfer rumours
As far as the club’s philosophy goes we pride ourselves on being able to develop young talent and then sell them for less than they’re worth so that other clubs can capitalise on their talent. Imagine having Kyle Walker and Harry Maguire in the back 4?
Hope this helps
 
Dutch Blades said:
Hi guys,

I could use some help. I'm writing an club profile for my own Dutch website and probably an other Dutch football outlet. Because we promoted to the Premier League, people in the Netherlands are getting more interested about Sheffield United, so I got the request to draft a club profile. I have got a limit of around 2,000 words so I should give everyone a fine taste of our club.

However, I only started to follow Sheffield United intensively 2 years ago, before that I just checked scores and that was basically it. So I probably don't have all the information a real life-long supporter has.

I'm gonna cover the club history, the way to the premier league, maybe a little bit of the ownership battle that's going on, the club philosophy and what to expect off the upcoming season.

So my question to you guys is, do you have any information about our club that I probably not know, considering my background. Maybe something special that happened about Wilder's first year? A certain code that supporters have?

Any information is much appreciated!
Click to expand...
Have you ever been to Bramall Lane ?

I'm sure much of what you need is on Wikipedia but I think the ground is a big part of being the blades.

It's a famous old stadium that can be raucous, especially when we are the underdogs in a game. I think pochetino at spurs said it was the loudest game he'd been to in England.

loads more to come I' sure
 
Must include the GCB (Blades anthem)
 
Interesting concept; what topics are a must for inclusion in a Blades biography (limited to 2,000 words)?
 
Beginning in 1968, every 13 years if we win the last game of the season, we avoid relegation; every 13 years we fail to win that game, and therefore get relegated. This last happened in 2007. If Chris Wilder prevents relegation in 2020, he will confirm his status as a god.
 
I've forgotten what I was going to say........ Oh yes the eternal debate about Magnet (a long lost draught beer) or Maggots which you use for fishing. This occurs in our "Anthem" which is unique in the entire footballing world.
 
een Greasy Chip Butty is een boterham gevuld met friet, het overtollige vet dat wordt gebruikt om de friet te bereiden maakt de boterham 'vettig', de vette friet sandwich wordt vergezeld door een gallon van magneet / maden en een grote snuif tabaksnuif.
 
The Premier league don't like us and few fans of other clubs like us we have long been stereotyped as rough cloggers playing kick and run football. Take a look at the regular Roygbiv and is view from other clubs fans, a common comment after we beat them is "they are nothing special" or average, another word that crops up is "physical" suggesting we are a team of big thugs which is far from the truth. We seldom get any credit for our passing style of play oh and Sheffield United fans are a disgrace if you believe the stories from other clubs fans.
 

HodgysBrokenThumb said:
Beginning in 1968, every 13 years if we win the last game of the season, we avoid relegation; every 13 years we fail to win that game, and therefore get relegated. This last happened in 2007. If Chris Wilder prevents relegation in 2020, he will confirm his status as a god.
Click to expand...
And I thought my knowledge wasn’t bad. You learn something new everyday. Remind me to thank you come the end of the season when we smash Southampton at St Mary’s
;)
 
Dutch Blades said:
Hi guys,

I could use some help. I'm writing an club profile for my own Dutch website and probably an other Dutch football outlet. Because we promoted to the Premier League, people in the Netherlands are getting more interested about Sheffield United, so I got the request to draft a club profile. I have got a limit of around 2,000 words so I should give everyone a fine taste of our club.

However, I only started to follow Sheffield United intensively 2 years ago, before that I just checked scores and that was basically it. So I probably don't have all the information a real life-long supporter has.

I'm gonna cover the club history, the way to the premier league, maybe a little bit of the ownership battle that's going on, the club philosophy and what to expect off the upcoming season.

So my question to you guys is, do you have any information about our club that I probably not know, considering my background. Maybe something special that happened about Wilder's first year? A certain code that supporters have?

Any information is much appreciated!
Click to expand...

Historical

Not strictly United, but Sheffield's role in the invention of the modern game. See the Sheffield rules, Sheffield FC, Hallam etc. Without Sheffield football would either not exist, or not be the game that is loved today. There are a huge number of football firsts that were derived from Sheffield.

The fact that United are the first United.

Brian Deane scoring the first Premier League goal.

Bramall Lane:
the oldest professional stadium in the world.
The stage for a myriad of sports including Test Cricket cricket and an FA Cup Final: https://www.sufc.co.uk/news/2018/july/history-of-bramall-lane/
The fact Bramall Lane hosted the first floodlit game.
United were also involved in the first ever radio commentary away at Arsenal.


Fans view of the ground
We take pride in the city centre location, and refer to Sheffield Wednesday - a club on the outskirts of the city - as "South Barnsley".
There are many great pubs in the vicinity of Bramall Lane, and Sheffield and United fans are rather fond of this fact. This isn't the trend in English football with most new stadiums being built out of town. Our ground regularly comes top or close to top in polls of visitting fans, for the same reasons.

Fanbase
Largely working class, with an unpretentious working class mentality. The city is famed for it's steelmaking past which is emphasised by the club badge. This reputation goes back centuries but is now largely seen as vital to the industrial revolution: http://www.softmachines.org/wordpress/?p=2057
Harry Brealey - who later invented stainless steel - had his works across the road from the John Street side of the ground; so Sheffield's steel making past lies right at the heart of the club's identity. http://www.museums-sheffield.org.uk/project-archive/burngreave-voices/BrearleyH.html
https://www.sufc.co.uk/news/2018/october/forged-in-steel/





Sheffield, and the surrounding areas, also have a long connection with mining- particularly coal mining.


Wilder and the current team:
The manager and current captain (Sharp) are both boyhood Blades. In Wilder's case he went from ballboy, to player to manager.
Our promotion squads were made up of players solely from British and Irish backgrounds. We've been labelled parochial or a 'Brexit' team, but this inaccurate due to the pioneering style of play and the reasons we have for purchasing these players which have little to do with nationality.
Our pioneering playing style: 3-5-2 with overlapping centre backs.
The small budgets that saw us rise up the leagues. Biggest signings: Egan 3.5 million; Norwood 1.2million; Lundstram 700k. All signings offset by player sales to higher divisions, or in Evans and Leonar's case substantialprofits (mostly premier league teams) : Che Adams, Dominic Calvert Lewin, Aaron Ramsdale, David Brooks, Lee Evans, Ryan Leonard. Also, the Maguire and Walker sell on clauses in 17/18 totalled more than 8 million alone. Our promotions have not been achieved based on huge owner led investment, but via selling big assets and reinvesting prudently.
Wilder's managerial record speaks for itself: three automatic promotions in four years amidst boardroom wrangling and tight finances at both clubs. He's never been sacked in 20 years and has been successfull where ever he's been. He also started in the Meadowhall league and climbed the divisions organically; a rarity in the modern game.

United's Shirecliffe based academy system

Key to everything we've done. Players created: Phil Jagielka, Matt Lowton, Harry Maguire, Kyle Walker, Kyle Naughton, Dominic Calvert Lewin, Stephen Quinn, Aaron Ramsdale, David Brooks amongst many others that have secured transfers to higher tiers.

Club anthem:
You fill up my senses,
Like a gallon of Magnet,
Like a packet of Woodbines,
Like a good pinch of snuff,
Like a night out in Sheffield,
Like a greasy chip butty,
My Sheffield United,
Come thrill me again
Na na na na na...Ooooohh!

Annie's song (John Denver)


More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greasy_Chip_Butty_Song





 
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Renowned as one of the best away days for other fans due to the sheer number of boozers near the ground.

Bramall Lane one of the few grounds (along with Elland Road, St Andrews, The Den, Portsmouth) left in the UK capable of generating that raucous, old school atmosphere.

You’ll be aware we also held cricket matches at BDTBL until the 1970s?

In footballing terms, Sheffield is one of the most insular in the UK. Most of the younger generations shun Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool and follow either United or Wednesday. You’ll be aware the rivalry is intense (apparently the last derby match had the highest policing cost of any football match in the UK).
 
Dutch Blades said:
Hi guys,

I could use some help. I'm writing an club profile for my own Dutch website and probably an other Dutch football outlet. Because we promoted to the Premier League, people in the Netherlands are getting more interested about Sheffield United, so I got the request to draft a club profile. I have got a limit of around 2,000 words so I should give everyone a fine taste of our club.

However, I only started to follow Sheffield United intensively 2 years ago, before that I just checked scores and that was basically it. So I probably don't have all the information a real life-long supporter has.

I'm gonna cover the club history, the way to the premier league, maybe a little bit of the ownership battle that's going on, the club philosophy and what to expect off the upcoming season.

So my question to you guys is, do you have any information about our club that I probably not know, considering my background. Maybe something special that happened about Wilder's first year? A certain code that supporters have?

Any information is much appreciated!
Click to expand...

A topical point for today, Sheffield United was originally a Cricket club and Bramall Lane used to host England Cricket matches and was home to Yorkshire county cricket club. There is still a Sheffield United cricket club, but sadly they built a new stand in the 70s where the cricket pitch was and Bramall Lane can no longer host cricket matches.

Yorkshire now play in Leeds. If you are from Sheffield, you know that Leeds is a dark place forever taking the best things from Sheffield.
 
Dutch Blades said:
Hi guys,

I could use some help. I'm writing an club profile for my own Dutch website and probably an other Dutch football outlet. Because we promoted to the Premier League, people in the Netherlands are getting more interested about Sheffield United, so I got the request to draft a club profile. I have got a limit of around 2,000 words so I should give everyone a fine taste of our club.

However, I only started to follow Sheffield United intensively 2 years ago, before that I just checked scores and that was basically it. So I probably don't have all the information a real life-long supporter has.

I'm gonna cover the club history, the way to the premier league, maybe a little bit of the ownership battle that's going on, the club philosophy and what to expect off the upcoming season.

So my question to you guys is, do you have any information about our club that I probably not know, considering my background. Maybe something special that happened about Wilder's first year? A certain code that supporters have?

Any information is much appreciated!
Click to expand...
Apart from being the “The original United?”
 
McGrath said:
A topical point for today, Sheffield United was originally a Cricket club and Bramall Lane used to host England Cricket matches and was home to Yorkshire county cricket club. There is still a Sheffield United cricket club, but sadly they built a new stand in the 70s where the cricket pitch was and Bramall Lane can no longer host cricket matches.

Yorkshire now play in Leeds. If you are from Sheffield, you know that Leeds is a dark place forever taking the best things from Sheffield.
Click to expand...
I always thought McCabe should have invested in the Don Valley Bowl and turned it into a proper cricket ground for the original United to play at, instead of putting his money into the OLP. Making it into a proper bowl with seats would attract more events and visitors to Sheffield than the OLP stadium could dream of.
 
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When I was a kid in the 1970’s my grandad used to say to me.

‘United....always the bridesmaid......never the bride”.

I heard that term/ description of United by our supporters several more times by different people in the 70’s and 80’s.

We do have a history of and I think it’s part of many fans DNA that we expect to challenge in competitions
We regular have good cup runs and we regularly challenge for promotion
BUT always seem to ultimately fail...usually with bad luck right at the end.
We’ve lost every cup semi final in every competition since the war.
We’ve lost every promotion play-off final too.

The last time we had a team capable of winning major honours was 1939.
We had just gained promotion to the top flight, think we were 2nd in the league , then world war 2 started.
Our promising team with the brilliant Jimmy Hagen couldn’t play for us because the football league was suspended for 6 years.

We now joke that if ever we challenge Liverpool and Man City at the top of the PL, then that’s when world war 3 will start
Or if we ever qualify for Europe then the rules will be changed meaning we miss out.

Hence why last seasons promotion was so sweet....many older Blades were adamant that Leeds would pip us and we’d then fail in the play-off final.
Basically we’re a naturally pessimistic/ cautions fan base. Although to be fair Chris Wilder is like a miracle worker,
he’s so authoritative and single minded that I think even the football Gods who normally bring their bad luck are scared of him.
 
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CarlMcBlade said:
I always thought McCabe should have invested in the Don Valley Bowl and turned it into a proper cricket ground for the original United to play at, instead of putting his money into the OLP. Making it into a proper bowl with seats would attract more events and visitors to Sheffield than the OLP stadium could dream of.
Click to expand...

It's a great idea, and I've had similar thoughts. Seeing top class cricket in Sheffield again would be brilliant. Yorkshire is a County Cricket club, not a Leeds cricket club and it should be accessible to everyone in the county.
 

spongebobblade said:
And I thought my knowledge wasn’t bad. You learn something new everyday. Remind me to thank you come the end of the season when we smash Southampton at St Mary’s
;)
Click to expand...
My capacity to cheer people up knows no bounds... My serious point is that any Blades between 1925 and 2016 have needed to expect the worst in order to cope. My first thought when promotion was confirmed last season was to be glad that our 2020 relegation will not be from the Championship. If Wilder keeps us up this season, I think there will be a change in mentality amongst Blades supporters. That would be some legacy.
 
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