Arnold f'ks us off

[Sothall_Blade]

Thanks for the support Darren, Highbury and Rev.

For the record, I’m really not offended or upset and there’s no need for pinchy to apologise.

I’m assuming that nobody other than him believes that having a preference for attacking football makes me a neo-Nazi.

I’m quite happy to discuss football and/or politics later in my lunch hour.

 

[Coily]

I would go along with all this were it not or the stark fact that Bassett was on the interview panel. Arnold singles him out for mention. It's an obvious inference that it was him who was asking the silly, outdated questions.

It is quite impossible to justify this dinosaur having any role whatsoever at a club [admirably] seeking to re-profile in the way Winter suggests. He is, however, playing such a role. This particular circle can't be squared. He is an embarrassment and we are presently an international joke. Well done, DD.

Yes, he did point Bassett out for a mention, but it struck me as a convenient target based on his past style of play. There is no proof at all that Bassett being there means that SUFC will be a long ball outfit. As far as I am aware, he is simply part of the interview panel, not the Director of Football Strategy or whatever bollocks name we've come up with in this brave new world of ours.

Winter has refuted the claims of a bloke who is known to run his mouth off, I'm unsure as to why you feel the need to take Arnold's word as gospel. Is it simply to have a dig at Bassett? I've no wish to see us become hoof merchants, but he did a bloody good job for us back then and deserves better than to be labelled a dinosaur.

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

Yes, he did point Bassett out for a mention, but it struck me as a convenient target based on his past style of play. There is no proof at all that Bassett being there means that SUFC will be a long ball outfit. As far as I am aware, he is simply part of the interview panel, not the Director of Football Strategy or whatever bollocks name we've come up with in this brave new world of ours.

Winter has refuted the claims of a bloke who is known to run his mouth off, I'm unsure as to why you feel the need to take Arnold's word as gospel. Is it simply to have a dig at Bassett? I've no wish to see us become hoof merchants, but he did a bloody good job for us back then and deserves better than to be labelled a dinosaur.

Well said

 

[j j]

Letters #1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jun/04/the-fiver-jose-mourinho-chelsea

 

[blade too long]

His open demand for half a mill shows hes your typical Australian cultural attaché
Les needs to stop self promoting so much as it can lead to a sudden jolt

 

[Sothall_Blade]

Let’s just imagine for a minute that the two managers who are so despised by some fans have never managed United.
What exactly would we have achieved as a club in the last 35 years?

Well we've had zero years in the top division, we’ve never finished higher than 3rd in Division Two.
Just the one FA Cup Semi Final in 1998. No League Cup success at all.
In fact we’ve never been beyond the 4th round in either competition other than in that in one standout fantastic season.
We’ve never beaten Man Utd, Chelsea, Spurs or Everton.
We’ve hardly even played against most of the big clubs because we’ve never reached the top league or done well in the cup.
Never seen the likes of Ronaldo, Rooney, Gerrard, Van Persie, Lampard, Gascoigne, Lineker or other modern greats play at Bramall Lane.
We’ve never had our players represent England or the Republic of Ireland.

Still at least we’ve not had our good name dragged through the mud by those two incompetent old dinosaurs.
We’ve not got that horrible reputation of being honest battlers, hard to beat, fight until the end, cocky upstarts with ideas above their station.
In fact we don’t have any sort of reputation at all. Without those top-flight appearances and cup runs most of the World has never heard of us.
We’ve never been live on the BBC or ITV. We’ve been on Sky maybe 5 or 6 times a season at most.
We’ve been stuck in the lower divisions so long that we’re basically on a par with Bristol City or Barnsley, only without the good cup runs.

 

[sitwell]

Isnt the Bassett idea a hark back to Dooley being a football brain on the board ? I worked before.
I don't find Pinchy offensive ,just so so boring at the moment ,hes dug himself a hole he is unable to climb out of.

 

[Balham]

Let’s just imagine for a minute that the two managers who are so despised by some fans have never managed United.

With all due respect Sothall, that's a ridiculous post.

I can't speak for the Bassett era as it was before my time but who's to say that if we had appointed a different manager in December 1999, we wouldn't have gone up in 2000-01 as Division 1 champions, playing scintillating football before becoming a fixture in the Premier League?

Who knows? With one different appointment, we might have seen some of the players you mention playing at the Lane in a Blades shirt.

The Warnock era was average (1999-2002) - good (2002-03) - average (2003-05) - great (2005-06) - disappointing (2006-07). He should be remembered as one of United's better managers but that does not make him the right man to take the club forward.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

With all due respect Sothall, that's a ridiculous post.

I can't speak for the Bassett era as it was before my time but who's to say that if we had appointed a different manager in December 1999, we wouldn't have gone up in 2000-01 as Division 1 champions, playing scintillating football before becoming a fixture in the Premier League?

Who knows? With one different appointment, we might have seen some of the players you mention playing at the Lane in a Blades shirt.

The Warnock era was average (1999-2002) - good (2002-03) - average (2003-05) - great (2005-06) - disappointing (2006-07). He should be remembered as one of United's better managers but that does not make him the right man to take the club forward.

The main point of my post is that our most successful two managers get abuse on a daily basis.
Blades quite rightly complain that we have underachieved as a club.
But everything good that United have achieved in most of our lifetimes was under those two managers.

Of course, you can suggest that we would have appointed different managers instead and they would have done even better. The plain fact is that we've had 14 other managers who didn't do anywhere near as well, despite having more resources in many cases.

Is there any other club forum in the country where the two most successful managers are so reviled and abused?
I'm not even talking about the current managerial vacancy, I just don't think they deserve the vitriol.

 

[Silent Blade]

Ghandi,

I am waiting for your answer to my question... who asked Arnold to apply for the SUFC manager job?

 

[metalblade]

That is not what you said. You said these "Hoof fans", which appears to be anyone who disagrees with you, are affiliated to the EDL. That is insulting, and should be retracted.

Hey what's the EDL done that is so bad ?

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

Isnt the Bassett idea a hark back to Dooley being a football brain on the board ? I worked before.
I don't find Pinchy offensive ,just so so boring at the moment ,hes dug himself a hole he is unable to climb out of.

The defence wasn't too bad last season, its an afflation to the EAL we need and both their right and left wing branches on board.

 

[Squire]

G'Day all.
Was interested in seeing what you guys made of all the kerfuffle over Arnies comments. However, seeing some of the attitudes here to the A League has forced me to comment. 1stly, the kiwi fella who has bagged out the A League. Maybe if you stopped watching Wellington and cast your eye over other matches you may have a different opinion. 2ndly, another person on here who bagged the league made a comment along the lines of 'in the 20 minutes of A league that I've seen'...yep, that would give you a position of authority to comment on the quality.

To be fair, we know we don't have the greatest of leagues, however, it certainly isn't as bad as some on here make out.
Montgomery is fucking useless and has been shown up as that whilst playing for the Mariners this season.
Heskey isn't much better. Scored a couple of goals early on however has done sweet fa since.

Even Del Pierro. Yes, a dead ball specialist and has moments of genius, however is far from the best player in the league. That would be a mix between Rojas, Hersi or Ono.

As for Arnie. The bloke has a habit of foot in mouth disease but is a good manager. One you could do with listening to your clubs struggles. Not dissimilar to the Mariners. The Mariners have no money and do not purchase big name players. They are all about Youth development, something which Arnie has proven to be quite astute at. He has won the Premiers plate and now championship with a squad that everyone thought would be cellar dwellers, and he seems to have an eye for id'ing talent. He does it year in, year out.

I can see a great pre season fixture.....Mariners versus Sheffield United. Hmmm.

I'm not saying he's your saviour, however, he is no plank.
He has managed Australia and was also Assistant to Guus Hiddink, played his career in Europe mainly and knows a thing or 2.

Anyway, good luck with your search.

PS, never give up on your club. During the bad times is when the real supporters stand up.

 

[FleaPitBlade]

Arnold has obviously done a very good job at CCM. He may well be able to spot talent, develop youth, keep players happy and gel them into a team which plays very nice football.

There is absolutely no evidence he's even remotely capable of applying those attributes at SUFC.

We are about 50th on the 'where I'd like to play my football' list that all English players have in there heads. We are from an unglamorous city in a rainy part of the UK not Australia's western coast where the pitches are always pristine and the sun always shines.

Whether the two leagues are comparative technically is irrelevant. SUFC are fishing in a much much bigger pond, in a totally different footballing world, and there is zero evidence that Graham Arnold has even the remotest idea of how to manage that.

The same could maybe be said about some of the other candidates but at least they have had the class to keep their gobs shut about it.

.

 

[Squire]

CCM is on the East Coast!

CCM is the smallest club in the league and have a known history of having trouble paying players (and tax bills!). They are certainly not a glamour club of the league. Players go there to develop under Arnie and win trophies. He is the attraction.

Gotta say though, he does give us supporters plenty of ammunition and the journos' headlines.

FWIW, I'm a Western Sydney Wanderers supporter.