2002/03 season

[Putney Blade]

Just watched United beat our neighbours 3-1 on U-tube. Kabber, McCall, Brown, Tongue, Peschisolido, Windass, Ndlovu, etc. Played some decent stuff. Had forwards able to score. Had midfielders able to create & score.

10 years later. Got nothing comparable either department!

UTB

 

[ghandi]

Just watched United beat our neighbours 3-1 on U-tube. Kabber, McCall, Brown, Tongue, Peschisolido, Windass, Ndlovu, etc. Played some decent stuff. Had forwards able to score. Had midfielders able to create & score.

10 years later. Got nothing comparable either department!

UTB

Chamberlain is back from Munich

 

[LoughboroBlade]

On Saturday, it'll be nearly 10 years to the day since we beat Derby 2-0, Tonge and Kabba scoring. This was the team:

P Kenny
J Curtis
R Kozluk
P Jagielka
S Murphy
R Page
(79) O Morrison
M Brown
M Tonge
(88) D Windass
(86) S Kabba

Subs
S Yates
M Cas
(86) J Javary
(88) W Allison
(79) P Peschisolido

McCall, Nuddy and Asaba notable absentees from that matchday squad. I recall Owen Morrison had quite a good game - I was surprised we didn't see more of him the rest of the season, and then he disappeared into obscurity. I'd nearly forgotten about Curtis - like our current right back, not exactly one with a particularly attacking mindset. I'd completely forgotten about Cas and JP.

 

[Blackheath Blade]

Just watched United beat our neighbours 3-1 on U-tube. Kabber, McCall, Brown, Tongue, Peschisolido, Windass, Ndlovu, etc. Played some decent stuff. Had forwards able to score. Had midfielders able to create & score.

10 years later. Got nothing comparable either department!

UTB

Thanks for cheering us all up Putney

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

Said it a few times, we haven't matched that midfield since, Tongy and Nuddy both on form, swapping wings (which you just don't see these days), Macca pulling the strings and Browny in the form of his life. The blend was just right, they were creative and scored goals.

 

[ScoobBlade]

It took warnock 3 years to build that team, another 2-3 after to take us up. Don't think we'll see that patience again

 

[davidpinder]

Just watched United beat our neighbours 3-1 on U-tube. Kabber, McCall, Brown, Tongue, Peschisolido, Windass, Ndlovu, etc. Played some decent stuff. Had forwards able to score. Had midfielders able to create & score.

10 years later. Got nothing comparable either department!

UTB

I see what your saying but we are in a different league now literally, that team would win the championship now comfortably times changes, teams/managers change. Come on even the man u side 10 years ago would be pissing the league by an even bigger margin. What is frustrating is the full team is capable of so much better than we are producing.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

It took warnock 3 years to build that team, another 2-3 after to take us up. Don't think we'll see that patience again

I'd say it took him 2.5 years to build the first team and 2 years to build the second.
All the time, the usual suspects were crying out for him to be sacked on here and on the radio.

Fair play to McCabe, he stood by his man and it paid off for him with promotion to the Premier.
At that point, he should have given him another 3 years and said "Now build a Premier League team. Even if we go down, I'll stand by you. This is the long-term plan, this is the budget for 3 years. Try and get us established up there".

He didn't, he gave Warnock a Championship budget in the Premier League and Robson a Premiership budget in the Championship. Now the finances are screwed with no obvious way of retrieving the situation and still no long-term plan on how to become an established Premier League team.

 

[Superblades]

I'd say it took him 2.5 years to build the first team and 2 years to build the second.
All the time, the usual suspects were crying out for him to be sacked on here and on the radio.

Fair play to McCabe, he stood by his man and it paid off for him with promotion to the Premier.
At that point, he should have given him another 3 years and said "Now build a Premier League team. Even if we go down, I'll stand by you. This is the long-term plan, this is the budget for 3 years. Try and get us established up there".

He didn't, he gave Warnock a Championship budget in the Premier League and Robson a Premiership budget in the Championship. Now the finances are screwed with no obvious way of retrieving the situation and still no long-term plan on how to become an established Premier League team.

Agreed. I doubt we will ever see a manager given that much support & time from a chairman again, in terms of letting him build a team for that long. Fans become to restless and demand instant success now.

Secondly, I can't believe it's 10 years since the 02/03 season! What a great time for watching the Blades, you just knew they would always put up a fight and make a game of it.

 

[bartman]

.

He didn't, he gave Warnock a Championship budget in the Premier League and Robson a Premiership budget in the Championship. .

Just a shame then he wasted money on Akinbyi,Horsefield,Shelton,Fathi,Lucketti,Killgallon and Leighterwood (approx £9million in fees) and yet didn't plan for an injury to or main striker relying on Nade instead of having a recall clause on Horsefield from his loan spell at Leeds.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

Just a shame then he wasted money on Akinbyi,Horsefield,Shelton,Fathi,Lucketti,Killgallon and Leighterwood (approx £9million in fees) and yet didn't plan for an injury to or main striker relying on Nade instead of having a recall clause on Horsefield from his loan spell at Leeds.

He bought Stead as cover for Hulse. Horsfield wouldn't have got in the team ahead of him anyway.
Ade and Lucketti contributed to our promotion. Horsfield was a mistake.
The others are all playing at Premiership/Championship level still.
When you gamble on Championship wage players cutting it in the Premiership, not all will succeed.
He got it right with Kenny, Geary, Armstrong, Morgan, CKR and Hulse.
No credit for signing them? Just focusing on the "failures"?

 

[bartman]

He bought Stead as cover for Hulse. Horsfield wouldn't have got in the team ahead of him anyway.
Ade and Lucketti contributed to our promotion. Horsfield was a mistake.
The others are all playing at Premiership/Championship level still.
When you gamble on Championship wage players cutting it in the Premiership, not all will succeed.
He got it right with Kenny, Geary, Armstrong, Morgan, CKR and Hulse.
No credit for signing them? Just focusing on the "failures"?

You said he wasn't backed to the correct level by McCabe. I think he was. He brought in Stead but our only other back up strikers were Nade and Webber as he had fallen out with Horsfield. Horsefield would have been an ideal back up for Hulse

 

[Superblades]

As always the opinion on Warnock will always be divided with Blades fans. My opinion, for what it's worth:

It may have ended on a sour note but what he achieved and the roller coaster he took us on, then he's always welcome back to the lane. I wasn't a big fan of his and I was one of the fans shouting for his head at the end of the 04/05 season. The bloke turned us from a relegation cert in '99, into a team what was worth heading to the lane to watch and a team to be proud of.

 

[KenMcnaughtsNuts]

at the time i didnt think we were all that good either. not a patch on previous teams we had. especially up front. nobody would take windass/pesch/kabba ahead of deane/agana/saunders and a few others. very decent, but not quality. tonge, brown and jags sounds pretty sweet though.

as for warnock he destroyed us by wasting all our money on shit. hes a good coach. actually hes a really good coach. but hes not professional enough to ever be a winning manager. not helped by mccabe and his stupid european ambitions.

you could argue, if mccabe had been a normal sensible owner and restricted warnocks spending to what we could really afford, then right now we would be mid table in the premier league with warnock still in charge doing a stoke every year. who is more to blame out of the two depends on how you want to look at it.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

You said he wasn't backed to the correct level by McCabe. I think he was. He brought in Stead but our only other back up strikers were Nade and Webber as he had fallen out with Horsfield. Horsefield would have been an ideal back up for Hulse

He came out of the January Transfer window with a choice of Hulse, Stead, Nade, Webber, Shelton and CKR.
Most people would consider that to be enough strikers for the two places available.
I'm not sure what the obsession with Horsfield is.
He scored 4 goals from 27 matches that season while on loan in the lower league.
Most Blades would agree he was crap for us and wouldn't have picked him ahead of the others.

 

[Maidenhead]

Just watched United beat our neighbours 3-1 on U-tube. Kabber, McCall, Brown, Tongue, Peschisolido, Windass, Ndlovu, etc. Played some decent stuff. Had forwards able to score. Had midfielders able to create & score.

10 years later. Got nothing comparable either department!

UTB

who's this Kabber? Completely passed me by that one

 

[bartman]

He came out of the January Transfer window with a choice of Hulse, Stead, Nade, Webber, Shelton and CKR.
Most people would consider that to be enough strikers for the two places available.
I'm not sure what the obsession with Horsfield is.
He scored 4 goals from 27 matches that season while on loan in the lower league.
Most Blades would agree he was crap for us and wouldn't have picked him ahead of the others.

and the back up to Hulse was ? certainly none of those you mention. He bought 'players for the future' on Shelton and Fathi (approx £2.7mill) when he should have unsured he brought in an experienced back up. He had the money and he blew it

Obsesssion with Horsefield ? Not really but just pointing out Warnock was backed with cash and he wasted it

 

[LoughboroBlade]

and the back up to Hulse was ? certainly none of those you mention. He bought 'players for the future' on Shelton and Fathi (approx £2.7mill) when he should have unsured he brought in an experienced back up. He had the money and he blew it

Obsesssion with Horsefield ? Not really but just pointing out Warnock was backed with cash and he wasted it

It would be extremely interesting to find out what the wages we offered Stephen Warnock that January were compared to what we ended up paying Gary Naysmith. Would have been a great addition, and we didn't offer him what Blackburn did in the end. I suspect he'd have been on less than Beattie was if not Naysmith.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

and the back up to Hulse was ? certainly none of those you mention. He bought 'players for the future' on Shelton and Fathi (approx £2.7mill) when he should have unsured he brought in an experienced back up. He had the money and he blew it

Obsesssion with Horsefield ? Not really but just pointing out Warnock was backed with cash and he wasted it

The back up to Hulse was obviously Stead and Nade.
Stead actually stepped up to plate well and scored 3 in the last 6 matches.
How many experienced Premiership strikers do you think would be happy to sit on our bench earning Championship money waiting for Hulse to get injured?

Fathi, Shelton, Stead and Nade were the type of players we could persuade to do that on the wages we were offering, just like the rest of the squad. Some gambles paid off, some didn't. But it's too easy to say why didn't Warnock just buy somebody like Beattie instead. I'm sure he would have but wasn't allowed to compete on wages as with the Stephen Warnock example.

 

[bartman]

The back up to Hulse was obviously Stead and Nade.
Stead actually stepped up to plate well and scored 3 in the last 6 matches.

Stead played along side Hulse and was a different type of player to Hulse. Nade was awful which most fans could see from the first game he played for us. Once again,the experienced replacement was Horsefield but due to Warnock's mis-management and ego,he didn't insert a recall clause in Horsefield's loan agreement.

No one has said we had to buy Beattie but I am sure he could have found an experienced back up in the Championship or on the bench at a premier league club. I wonder how much Henderson would have cost from Watford at that time ?or Steve Howard ?

He had money to spend in that JTW. Why spend £2.7million on Shelton and Fathi (over £3million if you include signing on fees and wages) when he could have used the money to ensure we stayed up? It is a myth to say that he had no money to spend it is just that he wasted a lot of what he was given by poor decision making

The fallacy of what Warnock did was there for the world to see after the Chelsea game.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

Henderson played 41 games for Watford in the Premiership that season and scored 3 goals.
Howard played about 20 games for Derby in the Premiership the following season and scored 1 goal.
Horsfield as I've said scored 4 in 28 matches on loan in the Championship.
There is nothing to indicate that playing those instead would have saved us.
Stead and Nade both scored more in fewer appearances.

Ideally, Warnock would have signed a proven Premiership striker who played just the same way as Hulse.
But how would he persuade such a player to sit on our bench?
Or should he have signed one and dropped Hulse?
Or played two target men up front together?

The truth is we didn't sign one proven Premiership player that season.
All our signings were from either the Championship or abroad.
That can only be down to the wages we were prepared to offer.

It's so noticeable that almost all Robson's signings were from the Premiership.
It's no secret either that we increased our wage budget vastly to sign them.
We also signed them on contracts which expired two seasons after the money ran out.

What I would liked to have seen is Warnock offered the same wage budget as Robson.
On the understanding that he signed players young enough to re-sell and only on three year contracts.
That would have given us a better chance of staying up, or at least of bouncing back and in the worse case scenario no players left on unaffordable contracts.

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

The fallacy of what Warnock did was there for the world to see after the Chelsea game.

I remember us sitting there with a feeling of foreboding as Hulse was being carried off.

Still, before the match we'd found that bar with that cracking barmaid hadn't we?

 

[Deleted member 875]

Henderson played 41 games for Watford in the Premiership that season and scored 3 goals.
Howard played about 20 games for Derby in the Premiership the following season and scored 1 goal.
Horsfield as I've said scored 4 in 28 matches on loan in the Championship.
There is nothing to indicate that playing those instead would have saved us.
Stead and Nade both scored more in fewer appearances.

Ideally, Warnock would have signed a proven Premiership striker who played just the same way as Hulse.
But how would he persuade such a player to sit on our bench?
Or should he have signed one and dropped Hulse?
Or played two target men up front together?

The truth is we didn't sign one proven Premiership player that season.
All our signings were from either the Championship or abroad.
That can only be down to the wages we were prepared to offer.

It's so noticeable that almost all Robson's signings were from the Premiership.
It's no secret either that we increased our wage budget vastly to sign them.
We also signed them on contracts which expired two seasons after the money ran out.

What I would liked to have seen is Warnock offered the same wage budget as Robson.
On the understanding that he signed players young enough to re-sell and only on three year contracts.
That would have given us a better chance of staying up, or at least of bouncing back and in the worse case scenario no players left on unaffordable contracts.

Think we can blame Terry Robinson for that particular master stroke.

 

[Deleted member 875]

Back to topic. I don't think there will be many seasons that will even come close to matching the 2002/03 season.

Reaching both semi-finals, finishing 3rd, some great matches, some even better goals and brilliant memories.

My personal favourite memory was Forest in the play offs. 2 down and looking like it was all over, a rousing comeback and whitehot atmosphere at the Lane. That night I didn't get to sleep until about 3 am because I was on such a high and the adrenaline was running through my blood.

A magical night

 

[bartman]

I remember us sitting there with a feeling of foreboding as Hulse was being carried off.

Still, before the match we'd found that bar with that cracking barmaid hadn't we?

Oh yes...remember that one. And you are riht. That innury and we both new that we would strule to stay up from that point

 

[bartman]

Howard played about 20 games for Derby in the Premiership the following season and scored 1 goal.
Hs.

How many did he score the year before thou in the league below ? remember we are talking back up to Hulse. I am sure I couild find more back up players but Hendo and Howard are just from memory

The point is(which you keep missing) is that Warnock did have money in that JTW and he blew it on some players that we did not need.

As BoSS has pointed out earlier,we knew at the Chelsea game that we would struggle to stay up once Hulse was carried off as we knew that we didn't have a back up central striker of Hulse's ilk

 

[metalblade]

What a season that was, Jagielka's goal against Leeds and a winner seconds later. Sunderland shown the door by a Murphy tap in and a towering header from the Chief. Tongey's goals to see off Liverpool, Brownies volley against the pigs. Leeds kicked out of the FA cup by Kabba, Arsenal battered at Old Trafford and only saved by Seaman wonder save and a G Poll assist, the Forest play off game great memories just a pity it all turned to shit in Cardiff.
Can't stand Colin but I must admit he gave us some of the best times of Blade watching in recent years, since he left no one has come close including the present incumbent.

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

What a season that was, Jagielka's goal against Leeds and a winner seconds later. Sunderland shown the door by a Murphy tap in and a towering header from the Chief. Tongey's goals to see off Liverpool, Brownies volley against the pigs. Leeds kicked out of the FA cup by Kabba, Arsenal battered at Old Trafford and only saved by Seaman wonder save and a G Poll assist, the Forest play off game great memories just a pity it all turned to shit in Cardiff.
Can't stand Colin but I must admit he gave us some of the best times of Blade watching in recent years, since he left no one has come close including the present incumbent.

Most sense you've ever spoken Metal!