Billy "past his best" Sharp

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Woodwardfan said:
Lala la la la la, we've got Billy Sharp, we've got Billy Sharp.

Anybody who likes a bit of history read the 45 pages on Billy Sharp above. Some fans don't know a player when they grow up with him!!

Sorry this post has no class!
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If only the previous three managers and fans had the patience and foresight to see that in his third spell it would all come good

Anyway ,don't want to come across like I don't like the lad I do and he is a very good player at this level
Can't see how people can't start acting all pompous and told you so when the lad has struggled so badly in his previous spells at a higher level
 
Fanny magnet said:
If only the previous three managers and fans had the patience and foresight to see that in his third spell it would all come good

Anyway ,don't want to come across like I don't like the lad I do and he is a very good player at this level
Can't see how people can't start acting all pompous and told you so when the lad has struggled so badly in his previous spells at a higher level
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"Struggled so badly" - hardly that but the point you make is fairly made. Having said that, if Sharp had been in our team throughout his career don't you think we would have done a lot better and saved us bucket loads of cash if we had developed a way of playing to his strengths? We are not even doing that now and look at him at this level.

We've (wife and I ) watched young lads come through the club since the 1960's including all the 'legends'. Believe me, Sharp was as good as any from 11 year old through to the first team and then our manager didn't take to him when he came of an age. A decade before his time he would have had every chance of establishing himself but the game had changed ( for the worse as far as we are concerned). We had 'functional managers' who didn't recognise his talents.

Reed might well slip away before long just the same.
 
I think he is past his best. Has to be doesnt he? Anyone over 30 can tell you it's not as good as being 25 in terms of what you can do fitness wise and few footballers careers go get past their mid thirties and most are at the peak of their game in mid to late 20's.

But he's at his best in terms of scoring goals in our first team - that's the important thing.
 
Cerberus Blade said:
I think he is past his best. Has to be doesnt he? Anyone over 30 can tell you it's not as good as being 25 in terms of what you can do fitness wise and few footballers careers go get past their mid thirties and most are at the peak of their game in mid to late 20's.
.
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Depends on the style of the striker.

Most strikers rely on on pace.eg Michael Owen
But some slower strikers lacking pace have a clever all round game e.g. Ibrahamovich or Sherringham.
Then theres the Neil Shipperly types that so slow but ended up being better players as they got older.

Sharps never been a speed merchant so isn't as afffected as some strikers he gets older.
Agree he's lost a bit of sharpness in the box based on the number of times his shots have been blocked this season.
 
Well according to someone on Porktalk
Huddersfield scouts watched him for the 2nd time yesterday. The piggy doesn't thinks he's good enough for La Liga sorry championship but he would be cheap so it would probably be worth the risk.
And another piggy says he's on £15,000 a week.
It's funny reading about us on Porktalk there is a 257 page thread about us with so much knowledge about us it's unbelievable. Some nuggets include
EEL is going back in January.
We are a one man team (Sharp being the one man).
The pub league is the worst it's been for years.(so much easier than when they were in it)
And this classic "We only seem to be playing teams in the bottom six".
 
seanbeenstattoo said:
That's a bit of a classic too.
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That was written three years ago when McNulty (12 Blades starts, 10 goals) looked to be settling in nicely. Eoin Doyle scored 30 goals that season. O'Grady would have been a good signing, one that Clough will regret he couldn't sign..

Sharp at that point had scored 2 goals from August-December for Leeds. 6 the entire previous season. I was concerned his physical decline had started, and couldn't see him being the right type of striker to play up front on his own in a Clough team - that we were still hopeful could be playing in the Championship half a season later. I didn't envisage him taking a pay cut, nor us remaining a third tier club for three more seasons.

Since signing Sharp has shown that his physique is better than before. Leaner, fitter, still as motivated and more driven than in his first two spells here, he's done well overall. He has been helped by two successive managers being very keen on him, very much wanting the team to work with Sharp leading the line. They both switched their "preferred" formations to allow him to play with a partner. I could not see Clough making that sacrifice, and in a 4-5-1 set up already short on pace and height/strength he was not really the missing piece of the jigsaw. It's a different jigsaw now, one that Sharp fits into. A team that has a bit more ability than most, with work rate and tactics matching, there's room for a poacher, a goal getter.

Still, we need him to be at his best. At the start of the season I think he suffered from a bit of a hangover from last season. Having scored 20 goals, he must have been really disappointed the way the season ended for us. Early doors the partnership between him and Clarke looked ineffective, and Sharp didn't start playing well until October.

Regarding McNulty, he has definitely not developed as hoped, with mental strength being the main difference between him and Sharp.
 
Bergen Blade said:
That was written three years ago when McNulty (12 Blades starts, 10 goals) looked to be settling in nicely. Eoin Doyle scored 30 goals that season. O'Grady would have been a good signing, one that Clough will regret he couldn't sign..

Sharp at that point had scored 2 goals from August-December for Leeds. 6 the entire previous season. I was concerned his physical decline had started, and couldn't see him being the right type of striker to play up front on his own in a Clough team - that we were still hopeful could be playing in the Championship half a season later. I didn't envisage him taking a pay cut, nor us remaining a third tier club for three more seasons.

Since signing Sharp has shown that his physique is better than before. Leaner, fitter, still as motivated and more driven than in his first two spells here, he's done well overall. He has been helped by two successive managers being very keen on him, very much wanting the team to work with Sharp leading the line. They both switched their "preferred" formations to allow him to play with a partner. I could not see Clough making that sacrifice, and in a 4-5-1 set up already short on pace and height/strength he was not really the missing piece of the jigsaw. It's a different jigsaw now, one that Sharp fits into. A team that has a bit more ability than most, with work rate and tactics matching, there's room for a poacher, a goal getter.

Still, we need him to be at his best. At the start of the season I think he suffered from a bit of a hangover from last season. Having scored 20 goals, he must have been really disappointed the way the season ended for us. Early doors the partnership between him and Clarke looked ineffective, and Sharp didn't start playing well until October.

Regarding McNulty, he has definitely not developed as hoped, with mental strength being the main difference between him and Sharp.
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I posted that with my tongue in cheek. Just shows how all of us can get things we see as right,wrong in the long run.
I agree with what you say about his rehabilitation and physical condition.
 
Bergen Blade said:
O'Grady would have been a good signing, one that Clough will regret he couldn't sign.
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Indeed, O'Grady was exactly what we needed at that time and we never really recovered that season from his return to Brighton. Someone that didn't score very many goals himself but his role alongside those around him helped the team as a whole score more – which sounds very current. Funnily enough one of the founding members of the Chris O'Grady fan club was none other than Pinchy himself as I recall...
 
Woodwardfan said:
I said on a forum many years ago that we should keep Sharp, play to his strengths and build a side round him and sink or swim, believing we would swim.

I was against Warnock selling him for £100k despite him scoring hatfuls of goals throughout his career with us and Scunthorpe.

McCabe bought him back and Robson never fancied him, what bigger endorsement would any club want?

Not big enough for Blackwell, he was blinded by Beattie.

Billy Sharp is S2 through and through and is one hell of a player as well. Agree we need a team to play to his strengths but so do Messi, Bale, Ronaldo and Ibrahimovich. .

What our club needed to do was build on the strengths and commitment of the Sharps of this world.

He and a few others could have taken us where Southampton are, Bournemouth, Boro and Watford, Leicester and Stoke.

Now it's too late for all that. We have to build brick by brick and one step at a time. No way will our young players stay with us for long if they are any good. Sharp was in the last era of players wanting to play for their club and their supporters, regardless of cash.
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I think you've got a very distorted view on Sharp's history with this club. For a start, it is rubbish to suggest that Robson didn't fancy him. It was Robson who signed him and he gave him a fair crack of the whip in the short time he was in charge. He also publicly praised him to high heaven on many occasions. So where on earth you've got that from I do not know? I mean, Robson was diabolical, but let's not try and blame him for the one thing he did well, bringing Billy Sharp back!

Sharp had endless chances to impress previously under 3 different managers. He didn't cut it under any of them. I don't think you can build a team around any one player - I know people talk about it - it's like one of these phrases that leave people's mouths without them thinking - but that isn't the way you build teams I'm afraid. Least of all, you wouldn't build a team around one player that hasn't done it under 3 different managers. Even the best team we've ever had, the one with TC in it, wasn't "built around TC", it was a combination of some very skillful players, amongst whom TC stood out for his exceptional dribbling and passing skills in particular.

I think the decision to let Sharp go was correct for him and us at the time. He's having the most successful period of his Sheffield United career with us now and it's great to have him back. But that doesn't mean it was wrong to let him go in the first place.

You have raised a really important point though in your last sentence when you say that "Sharp was in the last era of players wanting to play for their club and their supporters". I think loyalty from club to player and player to club, went out the window in the 1970's. But I think it could return - if we put a cap on player salaries and ensure more even distribution of money throughout the entire Football League.
 
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Cerberus Blade said:
I think you've got a very distorted view on Sharp's history with this club. For a start, it is rubbish to suggest that Robson didn't fancy him. It was Robson who signed him and he gave him a fair crack of the whip in the short time he was in charge. He also publicly praised him to high heaven on many occasions. So where on earth you've got that from I do not know? I mean, Robson was diabolical, but let's not try and blame him for the one thing he did well, bringing Billy Sharp back!
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He didn't.

McCabe / Robinson brought him back and he was presented to Mogadon Man as a fait accompli, Did you not notice how he kept sticking him on the wing or anywhere but centre forward?
 
Cerberus Blade said:
I think you've got a very distorted view on Sharp's history with this club. For a start, it is rubbish to suggest that Robson didn't fancy him. It was Robson who signed him and he gave him a fair crack of the whip in the short time he was in charge. He also publicly praised him to high heaven on many occasions. So where on earth you've got that from I do not know? I mean, Robson was diabolical, but let's not try and blame him for the one thing he did well, bringing Billy Sharp back!

Sharp had endless chances to impress previously under 3 different managers. He didn't cut it under any of them. I don't think you can build a team around any one player - I know people talk about it - it's like one of these phrases that leave people's mouths without them thinking - but that isn't the way you build teams I'm afraid. Least of all, you wouldn't build a team around one player that hasn't done it under 3 different managers. Even the best team we've ever had, the one with TC in it, wasn't "built around TC", it was a combination of some very skillful players, amongst whom TC stood out for his exceptional dribbling and passing skills in particular.

I think the decision to let Sharp go was correct for him and us at the time. He's having the most successful period of his Sheffield United career with us now and it's great to have him back. But that doesn't mean it was wrong to let him go in the first place.

You have raised a really important point though in your last sentence when you say that "Sharp was in the last era of players wanting to play for their club and their supporters". I think loyalty from club to player and player to club, went out the window in the 1970's. But I think it could return - if we put a cap on player salaries and ensure more even distribution of money throughout the entire Football League.
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Good post.

Actually the sequence of events leading up to Robson's appointment meant McCabe had negotiated the signing of Sharp by the time the new manager took the job.

I agree Sharp had a reasonable run under Robson but in a role which totally wasted his attributes and had him doing all the things that Done does for him now. Sharp is not effective chasing long balls into the channels and certainly it's a waste when his co-striker assumes all the best positions in attacks and Sharp has to play around the fringes picking up scraps.

"Building a team round one player" was not intended literally in the sense you've taken it, rather play a style and system which brings Sharp into the game at the right times. For example, I think he would have excelled in that 'false No.9 role ' which Baxter played in Clough's 4-5-1. He would have come short for the ball to feet, laid it off and then arrived in the opposition penalty area to rejoin the attack. I've seen few players as aware in the box as Sharp with the ability to create assists as well as score goals. Play the ball to his feet in there and he will deliver. He has a good touch, a quick turn and a hard shot with fast delivery.

A further ingredient in "buiding a team around him" is to have a Duffy type playmaker and other teammates who can pick him out to his feet. A further factor is having the type of players to fit the system rather than the other way round and of course the squad would have to cover Sharp's absences.

Anyway all that is water under the bridge and you agree the game has changed. You think it can revert back but I don't, let's hope you are right.
 



Bladesway said:
Fanny, you are new around here, please meet Woodwardfan. He's undergone a subtle change recently following a self enforced sabbatical. It's so subtle you might not notice it.
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Careful Bladesway, I think I remember what you said about Sharp before he joined us.:eek:
 
Woodwardfan said:
Careful Bladesway, I think I remember what you said about Sharp before he joined us.:eek:
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And what are you going to do? Tell everyone? Off you trot then. At the time I think I said he struggled previously with the pressure of playing for his boyhood team. It's probably there if you go hunting. It really is more important to you that you benchmark right over good open and fluid debate isn't it? I post a lot. I am wrong a lot. I talk shit on many occasions. I make points that in hindsight prove to be the wrong ones. I swear, I drink, I look at women in the street.

If anyone of the above becomes a hanging offence be sure to let me know. Because I would rather be all of those than someone who mistakes his opinion to be somehow more relevant than others.
 
Bladesway said:
I talk shit on many occasions. I make points that in hindsight prove to be the wrong ones. I swear, I drink, I look at women in the street.
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So do I, especially the last bit. What's your missus' reaction, mine elbows me in the ribs? Hurts like fuck when she catches me unawares.
 
Bladesway said:
And what are you going to do? Tell everyone? Off you trot then. At the time I think I said he struggled previously with the pressure of playing for his boyhood team. It's probably there if you go hunting. It really is more important to you that you benchmark right over good open and fluid debate isn't it? I post a lot. I am wrong a lot. I talk shit on many occasions. I make points that in hindsight prove to be the wrong ones. I swear, I drink, I look at women in the street.

If anyone of the above becomes a hanging offence be sure to let me know. Because I would rather be all of those than someone who mistakes his opinion to be somehow more relevant than others.
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Fair enough, what reminded me was when you said Sharp's first goal was only "good" not great and that it was the keeper's fault.

I agree you are not perfect Bladesway. Just me and Wilder I guess:)
 
Woodwardfan said:
Fair enough, what reminded me was when you said Sharp's first goal was only "good" not great and that it was the keeper's fault.

I agree you are not perfect Bladesway. Just me and Wilder I guess:)
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As the song goes 2 out of 3 ain't bad.
 
Sheffsteel said:
Sharp is the best finisher in league 1, always puts in a good shift too and due to his Blades ties will be influential in the dressing room and on the pitch.

But he's not the quickest or the sharpest. Not great in the air, not a target man and doesnt create chances for himself or score goals from nothing. Also he doesn't look comfortable with penalties, often going for power over accuracy.

So play to Sharps strengths and set him up and he's a great asset. However in a struggling team I think he'd be pretty ineffective.

It's all about styles and knowing how a player fits into a team.
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How many did he score last season for a struggling team?
 
Cerberus Blade said:
I think you've got a very distorted view on Sharp's history with this club. For a start, it is rubbish to suggest that Robson didn't fancy him. It was Robson who signed him and he gave him a fair crack of the whip in the short time he was in charge. He also publicly praised him to high heaven on many occasions. So where on earth you've got that from I do not know? I mean, Robson was diabolical, but let's not try and blame him for the one thing he did well, bringing Billy Sharp back!

Sharp had endless chances to impress previously under 3 different managers. He didn't cut it under any of them. I don't think you can build a team around any one player - I know people talk about it - it's like one of these phrases that leave people's mouths without them thinking - but that isn't the way you build teams I'm afraid. Least of all, you wouldn't build a team around one player that hasn't done it under 3 different managers. Even the best team we've ever had, the one with TC in it, wasn't "built around TC", it was a combination of some very skillful players, amongst whom TC stood out for his exceptional dribbling and passing skills in particular.

I think the decision to let Sharp go was correct for him and us at the time. He's having the most successful period of his Sheffield United career with us now and it's great to have him back. But that doesn't mean it was wrong to let him go in the first place.

You have raised a really important point though in your last sentence when you say that "Sharp was in the last era of players wanting to play for their club and their supporters". I think loyalty from club to player and player to club, went out the window in the 1970's. But I think it could return - if we put a cap on player salaries and ensure more even distribution of money throughout the entire Football League.
Click to expand...

It's truly amazing the effect that can be had on a players fortunes when the are partnered effectively . Sharp plays alongside Done and he's the leagues highest scorer .

long may it continue .
 
Great video of Billy circulating on facebook from Boxing Day - absolutely smashed and loving life singing "I'm the world's greatest" - EEL in the background dancing surrounded by girls. Great characters.
 



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