Bladesway
Not a member of the reaction faction
Hi, I wrote this on Vital Sheffield United but as this place gets shedloads more traffic thought it might stimulate more debate on here. Load your guns!! 
Written before the season started by the way.
OK, we were all gutted by last seasons play off final defeat although I expect for many like myself it didn’t really come as a surprise. Lets be honest with ourselves, we never prosper in a final or when the heat is on. We got what we deserved (although we should have had one or perhaps two penalties which on another day would have changed things totally).
So we reach the new season at a crossroads for both fans and club alike. I have never in my 30+ years as a Blades fan seen so many people so dispirited. I include years in division 4 and many of the sad, sad years under Brearley in that as well. Why is this? Have we become so accustomed to success that we take a place in the play off final for granted these days? Its not like we are Man United is it? This got me thinking. Since we have been the biggest and best club in Sheffield (and taking bias aside, we are) our fans have actually started behaving more like spoiled brats than the supporters I remember. Whatever happened to the old mentality of us being the underdog and taking it to the opposition no matter what the odds? Whatever happened to the spirit that meant we were happy no matter who or what we signed (Christ, we even signed Peter Withe and Phil Thompson at one point things were that bad)? Whatever happened to us just being happy that we had a club to support?
This last sentence brings me to my point. A club to support is taken for granted these days by Blades fans. People laugh when you say “but if McCabe wasn’t so careful with the money we could end up like Leeds”. Is it just a myth perpetuated by “clappers” or is it for real? I think it’s a very real fact that while McCabe could well be charged with being “too careful” better this than frittering away money on massive wages bills and huge fees in a market that is utter madness in itself. For the sake of God since when was Glen Johnson worth £18m or moreover since when was a failing Arsenal Striker worth £25m+. Then there is our great mate Tevez. Runs about a lot but Sir Alex is rarely wrong. He said Tevez wasn’t worth that money and I think he is spot on as usual. At this rate Kazim Richards will be going for in excess of £10m! How does this apply to us I hear you cry. Well it filters down. Expectations grow. Especially when you bank in excess of £8m for a player who has played one full season and one who has played less than 20 games. This has to be the first season ever when we have paid £3m for a player and he has raised less than a ripple on the messageboards. THAT’S THREE MILLION QUID!!!! We only paid one million more for Beattie and look at the fuss and fanfare that received.
I’m afraid we all seem to have a bad case of swine flu, normally something reserved for the other side of town. We seem to think that we have a divine right to hold on to players like Kilgallon and that we always accept the first bid in for a player. That we are a selling club. Well lets get this straight. Outside of 4 clubs in the Premiership, everyone is a selling club. I happen to think that McCabe has steadied the ship and while he doesn’t often dip into his own pocket, his judgements financially have been spot on. In a recession you batten down the hatches. Football could go one of two ways right now and if McCabe is right then it could be that the bubble is about to burst. Either way, speculating that everything is going to be alright and splashing all your money around is not very wise right now. Even those who were the very template of how a club should be run 5 years ago (Charlton) are in the brown stuff up to their necks. You can point their capitulation back to the day Curbishley knocked it on the head. Its been a spectacular fall from grace, spending not a little money on some distinctly average players and average managers, but look at them now. Southampton have become a joke of a club yet they appeared in a cup final not so long ago. Newcastle have taken one mother of a fall from grace, showing us that no one should take their club for granted.
Football could very easily chuck itself over the edge in the coming couple of seasons. McCabes caution is wise indeed. We might not propel ourselves to the sun Icarus like, but we all know what happened to him don’t we?
So I will sum ay, be cautiously optimistic this new season. We have a decent team and a decent if unspectacular manager. I know he isn’t the total football manager we all perhaps crave but in the non Championship Manager world of real football he is probably the right man in the right place to serve us through these hard times. Blackwell was probably chosen because McCabe knew he wouldn’t waste a penny of the money given to him. Chosen because he wouldn’t give the chairman too much hassle. Lets be fair he was just pleased to be here. In spite of his accent he is one of us, a Blade. He loves, lives and breathes the club.
I hear some people go on about how we are exactly where we were 20 or so years ago, stuck in the 2nd tier of English football. But that is perhaps one hell of an achievement because when you look around, the ground is one of the best in the country. We have an academy that is starting to work and produce talent that is paying the bills. We have a network of other clubs that in the next few seasons could give SUFC a big advantage. Players who won’t have to get work permits for instance. The hotel, the business centre and so much more. I know they aren’t traditional reasons to praise the chairman or the club but with the revenue they generate our chairman has put us in an exceptional position to face the future.
Well done Kevs 1 & 2. Up the Blades and here we go for 09/10.
Written before the season started by the way.
OK, we were all gutted by last seasons play off final defeat although I expect for many like myself it didn’t really come as a surprise. Lets be honest with ourselves, we never prosper in a final or when the heat is on. We got what we deserved (although we should have had one or perhaps two penalties which on another day would have changed things totally).
So we reach the new season at a crossroads for both fans and club alike. I have never in my 30+ years as a Blades fan seen so many people so dispirited. I include years in division 4 and many of the sad, sad years under Brearley in that as well. Why is this? Have we become so accustomed to success that we take a place in the play off final for granted these days? Its not like we are Man United is it? This got me thinking. Since we have been the biggest and best club in Sheffield (and taking bias aside, we are) our fans have actually started behaving more like spoiled brats than the supporters I remember. Whatever happened to the old mentality of us being the underdog and taking it to the opposition no matter what the odds? Whatever happened to the spirit that meant we were happy no matter who or what we signed (Christ, we even signed Peter Withe and Phil Thompson at one point things were that bad)? Whatever happened to us just being happy that we had a club to support?
This last sentence brings me to my point. A club to support is taken for granted these days by Blades fans. People laugh when you say “but if McCabe wasn’t so careful with the money we could end up like Leeds”. Is it just a myth perpetuated by “clappers” or is it for real? I think it’s a very real fact that while McCabe could well be charged with being “too careful” better this than frittering away money on massive wages bills and huge fees in a market that is utter madness in itself. For the sake of God since when was Glen Johnson worth £18m or moreover since when was a failing Arsenal Striker worth £25m+. Then there is our great mate Tevez. Runs about a lot but Sir Alex is rarely wrong. He said Tevez wasn’t worth that money and I think he is spot on as usual. At this rate Kazim Richards will be going for in excess of £10m! How does this apply to us I hear you cry. Well it filters down. Expectations grow. Especially when you bank in excess of £8m for a player who has played one full season and one who has played less than 20 games. This has to be the first season ever when we have paid £3m for a player and he has raised less than a ripple on the messageboards. THAT’S THREE MILLION QUID!!!! We only paid one million more for Beattie and look at the fuss and fanfare that received.
I’m afraid we all seem to have a bad case of swine flu, normally something reserved for the other side of town. We seem to think that we have a divine right to hold on to players like Kilgallon and that we always accept the first bid in for a player. That we are a selling club. Well lets get this straight. Outside of 4 clubs in the Premiership, everyone is a selling club. I happen to think that McCabe has steadied the ship and while he doesn’t often dip into his own pocket, his judgements financially have been spot on. In a recession you batten down the hatches. Football could go one of two ways right now and if McCabe is right then it could be that the bubble is about to burst. Either way, speculating that everything is going to be alright and splashing all your money around is not very wise right now. Even those who were the very template of how a club should be run 5 years ago (Charlton) are in the brown stuff up to their necks. You can point their capitulation back to the day Curbishley knocked it on the head. Its been a spectacular fall from grace, spending not a little money on some distinctly average players and average managers, but look at them now. Southampton have become a joke of a club yet they appeared in a cup final not so long ago. Newcastle have taken one mother of a fall from grace, showing us that no one should take their club for granted.
Football could very easily chuck itself over the edge in the coming couple of seasons. McCabes caution is wise indeed. We might not propel ourselves to the sun Icarus like, but we all know what happened to him don’t we?
So I will sum ay, be cautiously optimistic this new season. We have a decent team and a decent if unspectacular manager. I know he isn’t the total football manager we all perhaps crave but in the non Championship Manager world of real football he is probably the right man in the right place to serve us through these hard times. Blackwell was probably chosen because McCabe knew he wouldn’t waste a penny of the money given to him. Chosen because he wouldn’t give the chairman too much hassle. Lets be fair he was just pleased to be here. In spite of his accent he is one of us, a Blade. He loves, lives and breathes the club.
I hear some people go on about how we are exactly where we were 20 or so years ago, stuck in the 2nd tier of English football. But that is perhaps one hell of an achievement because when you look around, the ground is one of the best in the country. We have an academy that is starting to work and produce talent that is paying the bills. We have a network of other clubs that in the next few seasons could give SUFC a big advantage. Players who won’t have to get work permits for instance. The hotel, the business centre and so much more. I know they aren’t traditional reasons to praise the chairman or the club but with the revenue they generate our chairman has put us in an exceptional position to face the future.
Well done Kevs 1 & 2. Up the Blades and here we go for 09/10.
