BladesPod: 2013-14 Revisited - David Weir, the Prince arrives, Nigel Clough

[Beans]

Afternoon all, hope you're keeping well.

Delighted as I am that football is coming back in a few weeks, Roygbiv took one more dip into the past with another season retrospective, this time back to 2013/14. We look at:

• David Weir's arrival and the club's attempts to "modernise" itself
• the Prince coming in as joint-owner
• the end of Weir and the start of Nigel Clough's tenure
• the genuine threat of relegation to the fourth tier
• an incredible cup run, beating Fulham and Villa of the Premier League and Forest and Charlton of the Championship, before that epic FA Cup semifinal
• setting a new club record for clean sheets

This is probably the first one we've done where I had to fill in a lot of blanks of my own memory through research, so it was (personally) an interesting one to look at - a lot of players, games, goals I have absolutely no memory of prior to this (Aidy White?). Hope you enjoy - looking forward to talking about football that hasn't happened yet very soon.

Part 1:

Part 2:

And as always, available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your pods.

 

[Zipwire]

Thanks for these podcasts Beans. They've been a lifesaver during the long, soul destroying period without football.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Listened to Part 1 of this yesterday and it brought back some memories. I haven’t thought about the Weir era (Weira?) in detail for a while. A few things to add to what was an excellent look back at that by yourself and Roy:

• It was the summer of lots of people turning the job down as you said, and multiple clubs being formally approached making it look a bit embarrassing. Motherwell re: Macca. MK Dons re: Robinson. Before both though, the bookies favourite was actually one Chris Wilder of Oxford. I think this is also when Wilder said he’d previously been in with a shout.
• Largely forgotten at the time, but Weir was actually interviewed by Everton to succeed Moyes that summer before joining us!
• One thing to bear in mind about the Weira when considering the recruitment was that I believe this season was the first use of the Football Technical Committee. I’m sure this name will have been largely forgotten, but it was apparently during this period that John Stephenson was behind the vast majority, of not all of, the signings we made – including Johns, who was seemingly all but signed before Weir set through the door. He was obviously succeeded by Mal Brannigan, which brought its own issues ultimately
• There was a hilarious thread on here post-Crawley where Radio Sheffield had been targeted for anti-United bias. They’d had staff interviewing fans at half-time asking about Weir’s future and were seen to be “trying to create a story of discontent”, which was a remarkable claim given fan feeling at the time.
• The sacking of Weir at the time seemed to be a bit reluctant by Phipps in particular, and the suggestion was with just a few more points he’d have continued, and that Weir had continued to “impress” over the difficult period. I’m not sure whether that’s a genuinely held view, or given most of Phipps’ activity on twitter post 2016, a reflection that he had difficulty seeing just how bad people in the top job are performing. The 20 min interview between Walker & Phipps just after the sacking is still available:
• Mitch Ward’s views on Weir. I mentioned this the summer Weir joined as probably resulting from a dislike of each other, as it had cropped up in the Weir autobiography I read after he joined – yes, I know, what was I thinking of, but I read this and attempted to summarise it here. I think this was symptomatic of the weird excitement around his appointment among some of the fans, myself included. I’m blaming the scars of the previous season’s football...
  

 

[Revolution]

Never, ever appoint a rookie manager.

 

[Berkshire Blade]

Will be listening to part two later but of all the league one years this is the one I look back on with any fondness....until the last one!

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Will be listening to part two later but of all the league one years this is the one I look back on with any fondness....until the last one!

I’d forgotten that the early Clough period had actually been in the league fairly dire till Brayford et al joined. Some players, like Murphy & Flynn, were brought back into the fold but other potentially decent players like Lyle Taylor were quickly frozen out. I was at that Bristol City game – what felt like a precious 3 points at a time we were still struggling to pick up wins. While we were solid we looked awful going forward at that point.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Never, ever appoint a rookie manager.

 

[Beans]

Never, ever appoint a rookie manager.

But what happens when all the current ones pass away!

 

[Niceguyeddie]

Great listen that ,didn't think id enjoy it as id got a bit out of the loop that season and genuinely several times early on I thought id put the wrong podcast on and that you are talking about different seasons my memory's are so muddled
Anyway did the whole 3 hours this afternoon while gardening and Really enjoyed it
I suppose being in.the position we are on now it makes it easier but how lucky we've been that wilder is a boyhood blade or god knows where wed be now
On a side note I've noticed in interviews with other people in the game ( mostly the relegation threatened teams ) that there seems to be so much negativity ,even when they are trying to be postive it just comes across as forced and I can't help but feel that pressure from their bosses is going to.backfire big time on them as we all know athletes pick.up on vibes and when you compare to wilder and sheff utds general positivity as a group (wetter it be towards the restart or just whatever challenges we face ) you can't help but notice the difference in out club now And then and other clubs who aren't as lucky as us
Anyway its just something that's stood out to me.during the lockdown
Great good lads

 

[Addison]

Listened to Part 1 of this yesterday and it brought back some memories. I haven’t thought about the Weir era (Weira?) in detail for a while. A few things to add to what was an excellent look back at that by yourself and Roy:

• It was the summer of lots of people turning the job down as you said, and multiple clubs being formally approached making it look a bit embarrassing. Motherwell re: Macca. MK Dons re: Robinson. Before both though, the bookies favourite was actually one Chris Wilder of Oxford. I think this is also when Wilder said he’d previously been in with a shout.
• Largely forgotten at the time, but Weir was actually interviewed by Everton to succeed Moyes that summer before joining us!
• One thing to bear in mind about the Weira when considering the recruitment was that I believe this season was the first use of the Football Technical Committee. I’m sure this name will have been largely forgotten, but it was apparently during this period that John Stephenson was behind the vast majority, of not all of, the signings we made – including Johns, who was seemingly all but signed before Weir set through the door. He was obviously succeeded by Mal Brannigan, which brought its own issues ultimately
• There was a hilarious thread on here post-Crawley where Radio Sheffield had been targeted for anti-United bias. They’d had staff interviewing fans at half-time asking about Weir’s future and were seen to be “trying to create a story of discontent”, which was a remarkable claim given fan feeling at the time.
• The sacking of Weir at the time seemed to be a bit reluctant by Phipps in particular, and the suggestion was with just a few more points he’d have continued, and that Weir had continued to “impress” over the difficult period. I’m not sure whether that’s a genuinely held view, or given most of Phipps’ activity on twitter post 2016, a reflection that he had difficulty seeing just how bad people in the top job are performing. The 20 min interview between Walker & Phipps just after the sacking is still available:
• Mitch Ward’s views on Weir. I mentioned this the summer Weir joined as probably resulting from a dislike of each other, as it had cropped up in the Weir autobiography I read after he joined – yes, I know, what was I thinking of, but I read this and attempted to summarise it here. I think this was symptomatic of the weird excitement around his appointment among some of the fans, myself included. I’m blaming the scars of the previous season’s football...

What a disaster that was allowing them to appoint the Manager when KM announced one of his many breaks from the Board. After 3/4 weeks of indecision where we saw off Gareth Southgate, never make a Manager that lad and Paul Ince he wants what! we looked close to bringing in Robinson. KM rides over the hill, as he told us in Fans Forums later, to save the day and make a decision and bring in the quality that was David Weir.

DW was a name Captain of that great football nation Scotland, Captain of Everton and had made the managers interview list at Everton. This was explained later when the Prince appeared on the horizon obviously Weir's name had more pulling power than Robinson .

As for KM we didn't know until years later he had spoken with Dave Bassett who told him he knew of a young up and coming Manager at a Championship side who'd had a difficult first season, was unhappy his best player was sold from underneath him. With little money to spend his team were the bookies favourite for getting relegated. KM obviously felt the name of DW was a better option. In any event it was only Shaun Dyche and he wouldn't amount to much. Save that he defied all the odds that season and got Burnley promoted to the Prem.

John Stephenson's book on the art of recruiting footballers is available on Amazon. Wonder if Brandy, Johns etc are included.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scouting-Recruitment-Professional-Footballers-Service/dp/1477470344

 

[raul]

Lyn, idea for a new feature. Karen Sends For The Manager. Carlton Blade appraises the stats in an aggressive Blackpool Grime stylee.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

John Stephenson's book on the art of recruiting footballers is available on Amazon. Wonder if Brandy, Johns etc are included.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scouting-Recruitment-Professional-Footballers-Service/dp/1477470344

That’s a remarkable find. Released in 2012, the Amazon title calls it “Volume 1”. The follow-up is yet to materialise.

Description
Product Description
Signing players in a professional football club is the single most important business activity that the club will undertake. Get it right and success will follow and revenues will increase. Get it wrong and disaster both on and off the pitch looms closer.

Can’t disagree with him there...

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Penalty-Perfect Porter incidentally was indeed taking what should have been the decisive 5th penalty to take us up to the Championship – Williamson, Collins, Lowton, Taylor, Porter was the 5. Two full-backs clearly making more sense than our 6th taker and regular set-piece taker, Stephen Quinn.

The Charlton video Beans I don't think I’ve seen, any chance of adding it here?

 

[ucandomagic]

Brilliant listen as ever - time flew by.

A few of my memories -

You briefly mentioned Stephen McGinn, but didn’t mention that he is John McGinn’s big bro. In May at the end of that season we all got excited as our ITK’ers said we had signed John, who was Scotland’s next big thing. Bid apparently accepted and then rejected.

Baxter was amazing at the end of that cup run. I think he won the ball in the 120th minute v Fulham - took the corner that resulted and dropped it perfectly on Harry’s head for the goal. Of course, as you said, he played a perfect ball in for Flynn v Charlton and scored the first v Hull.

Finally, as you said, we got our 10th win in a row v Carlisle and at the end Sinclair played The Perfect 10. Another enjoyable moment.

I agree that the Charlton atmosphere was the best at the Lane for years, and as I said on another thread, we should play the singing from that game - especially GCB over the PA before both halves in our behind closed door home games.

 

[Beans]

Brilliant listen as ever - time flew by.

A few of my memories -

You briefly mentioned Stephen McGinn, but didn’t mention that he is John McGinn’s big bro. In May at the end of that season we all got excited as our ITK’ers said we had signed John, who was Scotland’s next big thing. Bid apparently accepted and then rejected.

did not know this! Cheers

 

[Addison]

Penalty-Perfect Porter incidentally was indeed taking what should have been the decisive 5th penalty to take us up to the Championship – Williamson, Collins, Lowton, Taylor, Porter was the 5. Two full-backs clearly making more sense than our 6th taker and regular set-piece taker, Stephen Quinn.

The Charlton video Beans I don't think I’ve seen, any chance of adding it here?

Rumour has it Wilson changed the penalty takers at the last moment bringing Andy woeful Taylor on and relegating Quinn to sixth. Quinn apparently went ballistic at the end of the game. He was shipped out next season to Hull for a paltry £2,000 per game for the first 50. He went on to help Hull up into the Prem the same season. Another genius transfer ploy on our part as apparently we couldn't afford to pay his wages. What a bleak time this was being a Blade.

 

[Mack]

Rarely post on here but just wanted to say thank you for all the fantastic pods, they've been the sort of content thats been keeping me sane over the past couple of months.

I think you did an excellent job of summising my feelings about this season, in particular the cup run and run of games from early February to late March when people like Brayford, Scougall, Harris etc. came into the team and the likes of Murphy, Coady and Baxter really rose to prominence. I was more than happy to see the back of Clough after his second year and thought that overall he was a poor manager for us, but if nothing else I will always be extremely grateful to him for giving us so many fantastic memories in the 2nd half of this season. In honesty I am probably one of those people that is slightly guilty of letting what came after tarnish my opinion on people like Clough and Brayford, because listening to this made me remember just how happy/grateful I was at the time that 1) we had something to get genuinely excited about for the first time in ages and 2) we had some people playing for us that were both good at football and visibly gave a shit.

On a sidenote, it didn't get brought up but I do feel like this bit of first-class graphic design from this season is worthy of a mention, it's always one of the first things that comes to my mind whenever someone mentions the Weir era:

I find it beyond unfathomable that this got OK'd to go out as our official kit launch! It really is unbelievable how far we've progressed in the last few years, both on and off the pitch.

 

[Roygbiv]

Rumour has it Wilson changed the penalty takers at the last moment bringing Andy woeful Taylor on and relegating Quinn to sixth. Quinn apparently went ballistic at the end of the game. He was shipped out next season to Hull for a paltry £2,000 per game for the first 50. He went on to help Hull up into the Prem the same season. Another genius transfer ploy on our part as apparently we couldn't afford to pay his wages. What a bleak time this was being a Blade.

Was Quinn still on the pitch for the pens?

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Was Quinn still on the pitch for the pens?

He scored our 6th. Flynn, Cresswell, and Monty were the ones to come off who’d started.

 

[Roygbiv]

He scored our 6th. Flynn, Cresswell, and Monty were the ones to come off who’d started.

I don't remember that pen at all and there isn't a chance I'll be looking for it

 

[Blend-it-like-Harris]

I'll never forget how my heart sank to an all-time Blades historical low when I saw David Weir's very 1st interview after his 1st game in charge. I can't remember word for word what I said as I turned in abject misery to my wife, but guessing what future we had with this guy it was along the lines of, "Can you imagine how this nondescript can possibly motivate his players; he's made me depressed just listening to him and watching his sad face".

 

[Beans]

The Charlton video Beans I don't think I’ve seen, any chance of adding it here?

Here ya go!

 

[LoughboroBlade]

I'll never forget how my heart sank to an all-time Blades historical low when I saw David Weir's very 1st interview after his 1st game in charge. I can't remember word for word what I said as I turned in abject misery to my wife, but guessing what future we had with this guy it was along the lines of, "Can you imagine how this nondescript can possibly motivate his players; he's made me depressed just listening to him and watching his sad face".

A few more Weir-related links:
Weir a day after joining

Julian Winter on the appointment:

Weir’s interview after his last League game vs Crawley, where at the end there is the infamous moment where Walker asks if he will be given the time:

 

[Throap]

Thanks for all the Podcasts during lockdown lads, they've been brilliant.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

Michael Doyle interview after the Charlton game.

2:34



The bloke was nearly crying.

 

[ZoneManWilf]

Enjoyed these 2 again, thanks lads. Didn't think I would but reliving the cup run was great, and it's nice to compare us now to life in the everlasting league one years, so much forgettable stuff and false dawns.

By the way everyone, get voting:

 

[S64 Blade]

I know you spoke against it, but the perverse side of me wants you to do a 2010/11 recap podcast.

 

[JohnDenver]

Afternoon all, hope you're keeping well.

Delighted as I am that football is coming back in a few weeks, Roygbiv took one more dip into the past with another season retrospective, this time back to 2013/14. We look at:

• David Weir's arrival and the club's attempts to "modernise" itself
• the Prince coming in as joint-owner
• the end of Weir and the start of Nigel Clough's tenure
• the genuine threat of relegation to the fourth tier
• an incredible cup run, beating Fulham and Villa of the Premier League and Forest and Charlton of the Championship, before that epic FA Cup semifinal
• setting a new club record for clean sheets

This is probably the first one we've done where I had to fill in a lot of blanks of my own memory through research, so it was (personally) an interesting one to look at - a lot of players, games, goals I have absolutely no memory of prior to this (Aidy White?). Hope you enjoy - looking forward to talking about football that hasn't happened yet very soon.

Part 1:

Part 2:

And as always, available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your pods.

Just listening to the chat about the Charlton FA Cup game, and was reminded that Wednesday’s official Twitter account responded heralding a Sheffield derby before they’d won their replay. Charlton tweeted reminding them they have a game first. And after that game, Powell did his gymnastics...