A comment becoming frequently heard..

[Muttley]

" This is NOT the Blades we support and love"

McCabe has made our club like squatters in our hallowed ground.

I have very little if any feeling left for the current incarnation.

Where are MY BLADES??????

Where is MY SHEFFIELD UNITED?

 

[SteelCity Blade]

Football has changed muttley, so why should Sheffield United be any different? A big part of our problem is that in important aspects we haven't evolved with the game.

I dont like what the sport represents anymore, I think it has become elitist at the top and poorly adminstrated throughout (did I mention its littered with corruption and cheating). Sadly, if Sheffield United want to progress they have to get with the program.

The club has pretended to make an effort towards it but our dated ideals and methods hold us back. This "good old Sheffield United" or "I want my Blades back" attitude will get us nowhere. What we need is to change, but into something original and different that is in tune with the modern game. I wont hold my breath..........

 

[Muttley]

I agree, I know things have to move with the times. The Blades haven't done it, and how many of these players have any kind of affinity with the fans?
Football has changed far too quickly, maybe it's the bigger picture that I don't like. Football is now just about money, the sport seems to be a very poor second.

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

Football has changed and whilst we were happy to play along when we were in the Prem and spend the parachute money when we came down, the rapid decline over the last 2 years and subsequent relegation has only served to bring home the problems with football in general. We're not the first club to suffer and won't be the last.

Football hasn't been about the fans, loyalty or home grown players for some time. When a team is successful, these things are put to one side but unfortunately, when things decline and fans start to look at the reasons behind it, it brings it home.

 

[raul]

Didn't someone tell us that, hey, at least we've avoided the fates of Norwich and Charlton.?

Guess he was half right....

 

[Oreyt]

"....and how many of these players have any kind of affinity with the fans?"

Hasn't that been an unrealistic expectation for quite some time now?

 

[lenners]

The fact that football has changed is part of it.
But a bigger part for me is United's economy with the truth over the last couple of years.
I do not trust the club not to do more of the same over the coming weeks and I'd just feel a complete mug buying a season ticket in those circumstances.

 

[CopenhagenBlade]

Football has changed muttley, so why should Sheffield United be any different? A big part of our problem is that in important aspects we haven't evolved with the game.

I dont like what the sport represents anymore, I think it has become elitist at the top and poorly adminstrated throughout (did I mention its littered with corruption and cheating). Sadly, if Sheffield United want to progress they have to get with the program.

The club has pretended to make an effort towards it but our dated ideals and methods hold us back. This "good old Sheffield United" or "I want my Blades back" attitude will get us nowhere. What we need is to change, but into something original and different that is in tune with the modern game. I wont hold my breath..........

Although this will probably open the proverbial can or worms, I would say that the club did try to change and evolve with the times. Linking up with foreign clubs, building hotels, having diverse sources of income. Unfortunately we/McCabe were doing all of this jsut as the whole property market was about to collapse and what could have been a huge source of income and security gave us instead a dead weight hanging around our neck.

Now we can all turn round and say now that McCabe is this and that but I do believe that he had the right idea, it is just that his timing was wrong and it is SUFC that is suffering now.

This doesn't excuse the decisions that have been made or the selling of this player or that or the dross that the fans have been served up.

In the long term this could be a blessing for all those who want local lads brought up through the ranks as next year it seems as though that is all that will be left. Then all the fans will come streaming back as they can identify with these players who will only want to play for SUFC and are happy todo so for £5 and a bag of chips right...........?

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

Didn't someone tell us that, hey, at least we've avoided the fates of Norwich and Charlton.?

Guess he was half right....

This is where we are now though. Do we 'do' a Leeds or Norwich, or a Charlton, Southampton, Wendy and the rest.

Unless MA can get a squad together that clicks straight away next season, I am tending towards the latter. No doubt though that if we get on a roll the potential is there to do the former.

---------- Post added at 10:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:12 AM ----------

The fact that football has changed is part of it.
But a bigger part for me is United's economy with the truth over the last couple of years.
I do not trust the club not to do more of the same over the coming weeks and I'd just feel a complete mug buying a season ticket in those circumstances.

You can take or leave what the powers that be say most of the time, actions speak louder. More often than not it's what they don't say as much as what they do say.

As debated to death, they've blown ST sales for next season already so once again, they'll be hoping the team can do something in the first few months of the season and try and drag the missing fans back with half season tickets.

Would it honestly have made any difference, and what good would it have done if McCabe and Birch had come out and said, "Sorry, but we're having to cut costs this season, don't expect too much, hell, we might even struggle"

 

[lenners]

That's a very rosy view of what McCabe actually did Copenhagen.
The links with foreign clubs delivered virtually nothing but almost certainly helped open doors to various property markets for McCabe.
I'm struggling to see how any of it could have resulted in huge sources of income to SUFC.
The one that should have been relatively straightforward and sensible, albeit probably only a steady but reliable source of income long term, was the hotel.
And we know who now owns that.

 

[raul]

This is where we are now though. Do we 'do' a Leeds or Norwich, or a Charlton, Southampton, Wendy and the rest.

Unless MA can get a squad together that clicks straight away next season, I am tending towards the latter. No doubt though that if we get on a roll the potential is there to do the former.

Although Leeds haven't in fact done a "Leeds or Norwich" as it's taken a while, one thing they do have in common that differentiates them from the others is strong leadership that has chosen it's management well, the others have struggled with both.

 

[CopenhagenBlade]

That's a very rosy view of what McCabe actually did Copenhagen.
The links with foreign clubs delivered virtually nothing but almost certainly helped open doors to various property markets for McCabe.
I'm struggling to see how any of it could have resulted in huge sources of income to SUFC.
The one that should have been relatively straightforward and sensible, albeit probably only a steady but reliable source of income long term, was the hotel.
And we know who now owns that.

Maybe rosy Len but I certainly thought that it was a good idea to link up with Chengdu, especially if we had stayed in the Premier League. Live on tv every week, with links to a Chinese club could have resulted in a huge stream of Asian cash or sponsors willing to attach themselves to us.

I would like to think that not all McCabe did was just for the benefit of McCabe because a strong and successful SUFC is also in his interests. Maybe I am being totally naive but I believe that he is a fan and is not happy seeing the club where it is.

That none of this worked and we are where we are now is not for this thread. We all know where we are and it is not good....

 

[lenners]

This is where we are now though. Do we 'do' a Leeds or Norwich, or a Charlton, Southampton, Wendy and the rest.

Unless MA can get a squad together that clicks straight away next season, I am tending towards the latter. No doubt though that if we get on a roll the potential is there to do the former.

---------- Post added at 10:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:12 AM ----------



You can take or leave what the powers that be say most of the time, actions speak louder. More often than not it's what they don't say as much as what they do say.

As debated to death, they've blown ST sales for next season already so once again, they'll be hoping the team can do something in the first few months of the season and try and drag the missing fans back with half season tickets.

Would it honestly have made any difference, and what good would it have done if McCabe and Birch had come out and said, "Sorry, but we're having to cut costs this season, don't expect too much, hell, we might even struggle"

Fleets, it's way beyond them stating the obvious though that would surely be a start.
It's a team full of players I have no affinity to that changes each time I go to the Lane despite what the hierarchy said 12 months ago.
It's continually dire, spiritless, numbing football.
And most of all, for me, it was the sale of the two best young players for a generation. I could see what was coming, the damage it would do to the fabric of the club, the sheer stupidity of the short-term thinking.
I think it's quite likely they'll do something similar if someone like Maguire turns out to be half-decent. And so it goes.
Until there's a genuine commitment to run our club in a way that engages with supporters, I think there are going to be many thousands who remain missing from the Lane.
Every major decision they get wrong - right down to an insulting season ticket campaign that trumpets the single most stupid approach to selling match day tickets any club that's going to be relegated could ever have brought in.
One too many slaps in the face.

 

[bladeinspaceandtime]

Fleets, it's way beyond them stating the obvious though that would surely be a start.
It's a team full of players I have no affinity to that changes each time I go to the Lane despite what the hierarchy said 12 months ago.
It's continually dire, spiritless, numbing football.
And most of all, for me, it was the sale of the two best young players for a generation. I could see what was coming, the damage it would do to the fabric of the club, the sheer stupidity of the short-term thinking.
I think it's quite likely they'll do something similar if someone like Maguire turns out to be half-decent. And so it goes.
Until there's a genuine commitment to run our club in a way that engages with supporters, I think there are going to be many thousands who remain missing from the Lane.
Every major decision they get wrong - right down to an insulting season ticket campaign that trumpets the single most stupid approach to selling match day tickets any club that's going to be relegated could ever have brought in.
One too many slaps in the face.

Absolutely, and it will only get worse with the fall in revenue next season. I fear we will fall further unless there is a serious change in intent from those running the club.

 

[parisblade]

The links with foreign clubs delivered virtually nothing but almost certainly helped open doors to various property markets for McCabe.

Do we actually have hard proof of this Len? Does someone have proof that the Scarborough Group's (or whoever they are now) accounts have been positively affected by the link-up with these other clubs? Does anyone have proof that deals were clinched because of them?

 

[Muttley]

Muttley in "I agree with Len" shock!!

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

Fleets, it's way beyond them stating the obvious though that would surely be a start.
It's a team full of players I have no affinity to that changes each time I go to the Lane despite what the hierarchy said 12 months ago.
It's continually dire, spiritless, numbing football.
And most of all, for me, it was the sale of the two best young players for a generation. I could see what was coming, the damage it would do to the fabric of the club, the sheer stupidity of the short-term thinking.
I think it's quite likely they'll do something similar if someone like Maguire turns out to be half-decent. And so it goes.
Until there's a genuine commitment to run our club in a way that engages with supporters, I think there are going to be many thousands who remain missing from the Lane.
Every major decision they get wrong - right down to an insulting season ticket campaign that trumpets the single most stupid approach to selling match day tickets any club that's going to be relegated could ever have brought in.
One too many slaps in the face.

Which is why I said a few months ago that going down might be a blessing in disguise. Build next season's team around the likes of Lowton, Maguire, Morgs, even Squinny and Monty, people who will fight for the club and are not just here because they're not wanted at their own clubs. We'll have no choice to build the kind of team I think the fans are more likely to take to. You only have to look at the reaction in the 2nd half on Tuesday when Maguire came on.

 

[SteelCity Blade]

Although this will probably open the proverbial can or worms, I would say that the club did try to change and evolve with the times. Linking up with foreign clubs, building hotels, having diverse sources of income. Unfortunately we/McCabe were doing all of this jsut as the whole property market was about to collapse and what could have been a huge source of income and security gave us instead a dead weight hanging around our neck.

Now we can all turn round and say now that McCabe is this and that but I do believe that he had the right idea, it is just that his timing was wrong and it is SUFC that is suffering now.

This doesn't excuse the decisions that have been made or the selling of this player or that or the dross that the fans have been served up.

In the long term this could be a blessing for all those who want local lads brought up through the ranks as next year it seems as though that is all that will be left. Then all the fans will come streaming back as they can identify with these players who will only want to play for SUFC and are happy todo so for £5 and a bag of chips right...........?

I would venture that given the circumstances we are left with, its a bold indication that McCabe didnt have the right idea at all.....far from it! Yes it may have all seemed like a good idea at the time and I'm not calling McCabe anything. I happen to think he's a decent man that had the interests of SUFC at heart. But that doesnt compensate for the poor decisions that have been made. Its ok blaming it on timing but good business is about using foresight.

A man of his experience and business acumen should have seen the problems ahead (with the property market as one example). A lot of average Joe's (myself included) saw that the bubble was going to burst a long time ago. So why did he stake so much on it?! I wont even start on the foreign clubs because theyre not even worth speaking of. At the end of the day these were poor errors in judgment but it wasnt just McCabe that took his eye off the ball. Almost everyone at the club did. For a lot of fans its only just hit home now!!!!!

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

McCabe will feel justified in that we have a club relatively debt free (apart from what's owed to him) following a world-wide financial crisis which has already affected many clubs. The fact it's been at a cost to Chumpionship status and all the revenue that entails has to be seen as a failure. He may have saved us several millions in one pot but cost us many more from another.

 

[Oreyt]

He may have saved us several millions in one pot but cost us many more from another.

Nicely put.

He\we have fucked up royaly though, aint no getting round that. I personally look forward to the next few months of intense finger pointing and 'Told-You-So-ing' on here. Thouroughly life-affirming.

 

[raul]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMAU0EaH1Bk

 

[lenners]

Which is why I said a few months ago that going down might be a blessing in disguise. Build next season's team around the likes of Lowton, Maguire, Morgs, even Squinny and Monty, people who will fight for the club and are not just here because they're not wanted at their own clubs. We'll have no choice to build the kind of team I think the fans are more likely to take to. You only have to look at the reaction in the 2nd half on Tuesday when Maguire came on.

And if Lowton or Maguire progress, I would, as it stands, expect them to be sold.
Going down is a financial disaster for the club and in terms of McCabe's decision-making this is the only outcome that counts.
We are nowhere near debt-free and those debts are about to escalate to a point where McCabe is going to have to think hard about what he does.
The losses over this season and next are likely to be in the region of £10m to £15m, with the potential for more losses to come.
Even for McCabe, that is a substantial amount to loan the club.

 

[bladeinspaceandtime]

And if Lowton or Maguire progress, I would, as it stands, expect them to be sold.
Going down is a financial disaster for the club and in terms of McCabe's decision-making this is the only outcome that counts.
We are nowhere near debt-free and those debts are about to escalate to a point where McCabe is going to have to think hard about what he does.
The losses over this season and next are likely to be in the region of £10m to £15m, with the potential for more losses to come.
Even for McCabe, that is a substantial amount to loan the club.

What do you think the likelyhood is of McCabe liquidating the club? (Given the fact administration wouldn't benefit him). Up to £15m required just to tread water I think will be a sum that he won't (or maybe can't) afford.

 

[Tuns]

McCabe's companies do business in China. He'd have been pretty stupid not to have used 'his ownership' of a local football team to meet and mix with people from the business community to the benefit of both the club and his business interests.

I'm sure many football club chairmen in the UK do exactly the same. You buy in to the local business community in a way that could take forever by other means especially when expanding into another country. And in other ways their ineterests and the club's, rightly or wrongly become interlinked one way or another - look at McCabe and the Enterprise Centre and the hotel.

The main things re McCabe and China is that the driving force behind the link up was for the good of Sheffield United and his business interests were a nice bonus, that the millions we spent on the failed venture was purely about the football side of things and at no time was spent pursuing any other interests. In other words be nice to have some transparency and an apology that ultimatley he got it wrong.

As far as ST sales go I hope that McCabe still cares enough to swallow some pride and relaunch STs at a vastly reduced rate. He needs to wipe the slate clean with fans, apologise for the mess (some of his own making and some unlucky) and make a fantastic ST offer so that we can really keep and attract fans or the club faces a very sad next 5 or 10 or 15 years till we fluke a promotion back to the Prem.

Relegation gives the club the perfect excuse to relaunch STs - I really hope for the future of the club we take it.

 

[Oreyt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMAU0EaH1Bk

Nice slutty fringe.

 

[lenners]

What do you think the likelyhood is of McCabe liquidating the club? (Given the fact administration wouldn't benefit him). Up to £15m required just to tread water I think will be a sum that he won't (or maybe can't) afford.

I don't think he'll liquidate the club but I think the cost-cutting medicine might be so severe it'll come close to killing the club anyway.
The other danger for fans to look out for is McCabe doing what he's not, rightly, done so far and that is offloading the club to someone he shouldn't.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

A man of his experience and business acumen should have seen the problems ahead (with the property market as one example). A lot of average Joe's (myself included) saw that the bubble was going to burst a long time ago. So why did he stake so much on it?!

http://www.propertyweek.com/news/keeping-it-in-the-family/3092768.article

McCabe DID know the UK Property market had peaked. He said so in August 2007 when he sold his property company to Valad for £250M.
The question is, why didn't he cash in on United's Property Assets at the same time?

 

[lenners]

http://www.propertyweek.com/news/keeping-it-in-the-family/3092768.article

McCabe DID know the UK Property market had peaked. He said so in August 2007 when he sold his property company to Valad for £250M.
The question is, why didn't he cash in on United's Property Assets at the same time?

What actually were United's property assets at the time though?

 

[mall]

Football has changed muttley, so why should Sheffield United be any different? A big part of our problem is that in important aspects we haven't evolved with the game.

I dont like what the sport represents anymore, I think it has become elitist at the top and poorly adminstrated throughout (did I mention its littered with corruption and cheating). Sadly, if Sheffield United want to progress they have to get with the program.

The club has pretended to make an effort towards it but our dated ideals and methods hold us back. This "good old Sheffield United" or "I want my Blades back" attitude will get us nowhere. What we need is to change, but into something original and different that is in tune with the modern game. I wont hold my breath..........

Absolutely right.
They haven't adjusted to the maximum wage rules yet.
Jimmy hill wasn't it?

---------- Post added at 12:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:38 PM ----------

The fact that football has changed is part of it.
But a bigger part for me is United's economy with the truth over the last couple of years.
I do not trust the club not to do more of the same over the coming weeks and I'd just feel a complete mug buying a season ticket in those circumstances.

I have renewed my season ticket, but I'm no mug.
I need to see the crap before I write in criticising.

 

[CopenhagenBlade]

I would venture that given the circumstances we are left with, its a bold indication that McCabe didnt have the right idea at all.....far from it! Yes it may have all seemed like a good idea at the time and I'm not calling McCabe anything. I happen to think he's a decent man that had the interests of SUFC at heart. But that doesnt compensate for the poor decisions that have been made. Its ok blaming it on timing but good business is about using foresight.

A man of his experience and business acumen should have seen the problems ahead (with the property market as one example). A lot of average Joe's (myself included) saw that the bubble was going to burst a long time ago. So why did he stake so much on it?! I wont even start on the foreign clubs because theyre not even worth speaking of. At the end of the day these were poor errors in judgment but it wasnt just McCabe that took his eye off the ball. Almost everyone at the club did. For a lot of fans its only just hit home now!!!!!

I think that we pretty much agree SCB. No one here believes that McCabe is saying to himself, 'great, I always wanted us to be palying division 1 football' he has made some bad decisions that have hit him and consequently us hard. The reality is what does he do now to get us out of the mess. I think that most would be in agreement that we get rid of the wage heavy players, the loans and the dross. We keep a core of experienced players, Morgan being one of those and build a team around the youth and players that have proved themselves in division 1/2 that are looking for at SUFC as a step up in terms of size. Whatever some think we will still be seen as a big club in Division 1 and attractive to come to. If we get it right next season could be a good one with a team which could be 50% SUFC produced. I will be supporting that