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Great stuff, cheers fellas. I’ll be really disappointed if Hecky doesn't get a brilliant reception. A really good gaffer and exactly what our club needed at that period of our ownership and league standing. Not many managers have blooded a Blades goat contender, taken us to the top tier, and to Wembley.

Obviously I hope we batter them on Saturday, but I wish him all the best with Preston

Women’s team situation really sucks. Hope you find time for a discussion on one of your pods at some point, Ben, as I don’t think many are across it, and it is interesting, even if it is a bit shit.

Cheers for the pod. UTB
 

Cappy said:
Women’s team situation really sucks. Hope you find time for a discussion on one of your pods at some point, Ben, as I don’t think many are across it, and it is interesting, even if it is a bit shit.
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I'm not 'across it' for the simple reason, that I'm not remotely interested.

It's a free pod and I'm very grateful that Roygbiv and Beans do it, so if they stick in a bit about the women, I'll suck it up, but it really doesn't interest me (nor anyone I know, inlcuding the missus, daughter and other female friends).
 
I should coco said:
I'm not 'across it' for the simple reason, that I'm not remotely interested.

It's a free pod and I'm very grateful that Roygbiv and Beans do it, so if they stick in a bit about the women, I'll suck it up, but it really doesn't interest me (nor anyone I know, inlcuding the missus, daughter and other female friends).
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Therefore nobody must be interested!!!!
 
I should coco said:
I'm not 'across it' for the simple reason, that I'm not remotely interested.

It's a free pod and I'm very grateful that Roygbiv and Beans do it, so if they stick in a bit about the women, I'll suck it up, but it really doesn't interest me (nor anyone I know, inlcuding the missus, daughter and other female friends).
Click to expand...

Ben did a double-pod a while back, where the first half was him and Roy doing the usual, then the second half was Ben and Anna Kent, talking about the Women's team.

I think that format worked really well, as it catered for the likes of me who know a bit, but nowhere near as much as Ben or Anna, and caters for those not interested at all, as you can turn off after the first half.

Edit: or indeed, you can turn on after the first half 🤣
 
Wright1889 said:
Therefore nobody must be interested!!!!
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Not at all and I didn't say that. I simply said that I'm not interested, nor any women I know. Admittedly that is not a statistical sample size, so I made no further point, other than I wouldn't listen to it in the Bladespod.

Why did you did you do the keyboard warrior thing and immediately jump on my post, before thinking that other views may be available?
 
Beans said:
Afternoon S2, new episode here with Roygbiv talking QPR and the return of Paul Heckingbottom on Saturday. Cheers for listening!

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I am well disposed to Heckingbottom on balance, and he did great work in his season and a bit in the Championship, but I think he did a poor job in the PL even with the paucity of resources. Plus, as I have said probably too many times, dismissing the Newcastle drubbing as just one of those things, and only making one change for the next game, was one of the pivotal moments of the season, as it served to make the team's display ok. It was very much not ok.
 
Revolution said:
I am well disposed to Heckingbottom on balance, and he did great work in his season and a bit in the Championship, but I think he did a poor job in the PL even with the paucity of resources. Plus, as I have said probably too many times, dismissing the Newcastle drubbing as just one of those things, and only making one change for the next game, was one of the pivotal moments of the season, as it served to make the team's display ok. It was very much not ok.
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The biggest issue with the Newcastle game was the changes at HT when we were 0 3 down. We should have just taken the beating and limited the damage All in hindsight though.
 
KiwiBlabe said:
The biggest issue with the Newcastle game was the changes at HT when we were 0 3 down. We should have just taken the beating and limited the damage All in hindsight though.
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Hecky said after the game that he wanted it to be an open game. Given the disparity between the teams, that was incredibly risky.

In hindsight he should have been sacked after that (I didn’t think so at the time). But it would have been harsh on a good man and wouldn’t have made much difference to the season. We all know he was a dead man walking from July.
 
Revolution said:
I am well disposed to Heckingbottom on balance, and he did great work in his season and a bit in the Championship, but I think he did a poor job in the PL even with the paucity of resources. Plus, as I have said probably too many times, dismissing the Newcastle drubbing as just one of those things, and only making one change for the next game, was one of the pivotal moments of the season, as it served to make the team's display ok. It was very much not ok.
Click to expand...

Re: poor job with paucity of resources, what do you think he should / could have done differently? Not trying to be confrontational here, I am genuinely interested as I'd become very fatalistic about how that season was going to go as soon as Ndiaye was sold.

I actually think that if anything we started the season ok despite 1 point from 5 games (!). Palace was a write-off, Forest we were fairly game IIRC with Souza and Hamer finally signed, Man City was at least a more competitive game than the FA Cup semi had been (yes, we could easily have been hammered, but we at least had a few moments ourselves), and we were unlucky not to beat Everton. Spurs we were minutes / normal injury time laws away from a perfect smash-and-grab which I think would've been talked about as a great backs-to-the-wall performance as we weren't carved open until the death.

It definitely spiralled after that leading up to Newcastle and in retrospect the writing was on the wall in 60-foot letters from there. How he reacted to that was almost certainly a mistake but I have a lot of sympathy and can imagine he was reeling emotionally. It was after that Spurs game that serious rumours started about Wilder being brought in to replace him, too, which seemed insane at the time but probably can't have helped him.
 
Beans said:
Re: poor job with paucity of resources, what do you think he should / could have done differently? Not trying to be confrontational here, I am genuinely interested as I'd become very fatalistic about how that season was going to go as soon as Ndiaye was sold.

I actually think that if anything we started the season ok despite 1 point from 5 games (!). Palace was a write-off, Forest we were fairly game IIRC with Souza and Hamer finally signed, Man City was at least a more competitive game than the FA Cup semi had been (yes, we could easily have been hammered, but we at least had a few moments ourselves), and we were unlucky not to beat Everton. Spurs we were minutes / normal injury time laws away from a perfect smash-and-grab which I think would've been talked about as a great backs-to-the-wall performance as we weren't carved open until the death.

It definitely spiralled after that leading up to Newcastle and in retrospect the writing was on the wall in 60-foot letters from there. How he reacted to that was almost certainly a mistake but I have a lot of sympathy and can imagine he was reeling emotionally. It was after that Spurs game that serious rumours started about Wilder being brought in to replace him, too, which seemed insane at the time but probably can't have helped him.
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I’d agree with you re the first 5 games, where we were undone by unforced errors or rotten luck (although it might have helped at Spurs to stop Foderingham pissing about so much, which was the indirect cause of the defeat) but aside from what I said above there’s:

- the team’s lack of fitness, which was a huge problem. They may not be good but you can at least get them to run and compete.

- baffling selection decisions. Norwood and Fleck were both done at that level, to give just one example.

- I don’t know how involved he was in transfers, but Hamer excepted, it was a shambles. Small players, many injury prone. 4 left backs, none of them any good.

- the team quit during Newcastle and got away with it. They faced no repercussions. They did it again at Burnley, sealing his fate. These were embarrassing performances. Burnley had lost every home game before we came along. McBurnie was sent off at Spurs because of ill discipline. Did it again at Burnley. That’s partly on the manager.

- tactics. The only bright bit prior to Heckingbottom’s sacking was beating Wolves deservedly and then getting a good point at Brighton the week after thanks in part to them going down to 10 men. Sets it up nicely for Bournemouth at home, not too far up in the table. What do we get? A cowardly defensive set up. We sat back and let them pick us apart. Everyone (including you guys) was furious about this and rightly so. Conversely, there was a complete inability to shut up shop late on.

- this is on Wilder too, but we never learned anything. Trusty is my favourite example. Same basic positioning errors all season. Souza also always in the wrong place. Don’t they teach them anything?

That team conceded more goals than any team in 60 years. That is really hard to do without incompetent leadership. There should have been lessons learned from Newcastle. There were none learned.

Against all that it is true he was a dead man walking. A friend of Wilder’s told me in mid November that wilder had been actively lobbying for the job for over a month. But that’s no excuse.
 
Afternoon S2, Roygbiv and I try to pick ourselves up from feeling a bit glum after the Bristol City draw - it's all because of who we play next, isn't it? Anyway, we talk about that, them, and Preston here, including Tyrese Campbell's continued excellence and a good first start from Rob Holding:



Thanks for listening, hopefully back next week...
 
Agree….my anger wasn’t about conceding in the last minute.
It was more about the frustration regards the performance as this indicates what lies ahead.

Against Bristol City you can see we clearly had better individual players however they played like such a well drilled/ well coached team.
Often we play like the players met up last week and are finding their feet.

This season Sheff Utd remind me of the England team under Southgate in tournament football.
Remember the criticism from the pundits on TV, we’d manage to win from a piece of brilliant play
But the pundits could never understand Southgate’s tactics and why he was playing players out of position.
Also at times England were being outplayed and hanging on against the likes of Slovakia etc….but even tho we never convinced we still managed to win.

Against Bristol City we were really poor 1st half, looked so disjointed then when Hamer came on we clicked and looked a top quality side for 10 minutes, so it is possible. We deservedly scored with a touch of class from Campbell….then in the last 25 minutes we sat deeper and deeper.
The goal was coming as Bristol City totally dominated but lacked cutting edge. They score and I accepted it was more of a fair scoreline.

What is quite weird is that during our promotion run from league 1 to the PL….we lacked top quality individuals but looked so well drilled where everyone knew what to do, where to pass, where to run. Where as this season we’ve generally looked poor in long spells, don’t look well drilled but our players are of such high quality,
we can score a goal from nothing and this has what’s helped us out in many matches, also the attitude is great and we know how to grind out results.

My big fear is that when we are leading we are so quick to give up possession and boot it clear inviting more pressure.
Wilder needs to address this because how can this tactic stand a chance in the Premier league?
 
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Had a look at the "2 home games in a week" for us, Burnley and Leeds to see if there was any evidence to support the "you don`t often win both" - turns out there is (ish) - indeed we've done it 3/5 times this season, Leeds 3/3, and Burnley haven`t managed it in 3 games - so 6 times in 11 attempts us, or the other promotion chasing teams have managed to get the full set of points from "2 games in a week" at home

Burnley

Tue 01 Oct 2024 Burnley Plymouth Argyle 1 0​
Sat 05 Oct 2024 Burnley Preston North End 0 0​
​
4 points​
​
Fri 06 Dec 2024 Burnley Middlesbrough 1 1​
Tue 10 Dec 2024 Burnley Derby County 0 0​
​
2 points​
​
Sat 08 Mar 2025 Burnley Luton Town 4 0​
Tue 11 Mar 2025 Burnley West Bromwich Albion 1 1​
​
4 points​

Leeds

Fri 18 Oct 2024 Leeds United Sheffield United 2 0​
Tue 22 Oct 2024 Leeds United Watford 2 1​
​
6 points​
​
Sat 07 Dec 2024 Leeds United Derby County 2 0​
Tue 10 Dec 2024 Leeds United Middlesbrough 3 1​
​
6 Points​
​
Sun 19 Jan 2025 Leeds United Sheffield Wednesday 3 0​
Wed 22 Jan 2025 Leeds United Norwich City 2 0​
​
6 points​

Blades

Wed 02 Oct 2024 Sheffield United Swansea City 1 0​
Sat 05 Oct 2024 Sheffield United Luton Town 2 0​
​
6 points​
​
Tue 26 Nov 2024 Sheffield United Oxford United 3 0​
Fri 29 Nov 2024 Sheffield United Sunderland 1 0​
​
6 points​
​
Thu 26 Dec 2024 Sheffield United Burnley 0 2​
Sun 29 Dec 2024 Sheffield United West Bromwich Albion 1 1​
​
1 point​
​
Sat 08 Feb 2025 Sheffield United Portsmouth 2 1​
Wed 12 Feb 2025 Sheffield United Middlesbrough 3 1​
​
6 points​
​
Sat 08 Mar 2025 Sheffield United Preston North End 1 0​
Tue 11 Mar 2025 Sheffield United Bristol City 1 1​
​
4 points​
 
Been away for a few days and busy so tonight was the first chance I'd had to listen to the pre derby game AFTER we've beaten them. Quite amusing how down you two Beans and Roygbiv were on our chances.
Oh ye of little faith!

This is where Blades fans differ from them. They seem to genuinely believe they should win every game their beloved team play and Bannan is the reincarnation of Bobby Charlton.
 
coaxingstar71 said:
Been away for a few days and busy so tonight was the first chance I'd had to listen to the pre derby game AFTER we've beaten them. Quite amusing how down you two Beans and Roygbiv were on our chances.
Oh ye of little faith!

This is where Blades fans differ from them. They seem to genuinely believe they should win every game their beloved team play and Bannan is the reincarnation of Bobby Charlton.
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I at least was confident we wouldn't lose 😆

Next pod should be tomorrow btw, all being well.
 

Yes really looking forward to your pod. I think you showed too much respect to the pigs in your last pod. There a lower mid table championship team that punches above there weight sometimes. Like last week. However overall there not a good side. We just needed to give a solid performance against them to get a result. Which we did.
 
Antonb said:
Yes really looking forward to your pod. I think you showed too much respect to the pigs in your last pod. There a lower mid table championship team that punches above there weight sometimes. Like last week. However overall there not a good side. We just needed to give a solid performance against them to get a result. Which we did.
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I think that's fair. I was concerned all week about how their hoof ball style would cause us the issues we faced against Luton but as soon as I actually saw their team I realised I'd over hyped them in my mind
 
On your point about knowing it was a goal before it went in, I beleive my internal monologue went something like.

  • Go on Ty
  • Must be a Goal
  • No wait, he must be offside
  • No, he can`t be
  • Yes, he's put it in
  • Maybe it is offside
  • Shit, I bet VAR finds something
  • Wait, no VAR
Then my external monologue took over....
 
Selly said:
On your point about knowing it was a goal before it went in, I beleive my internal monologue went something like.

  • Go on Ty
  • Must be a Goal
  • No wait, he must be offside
  • No, he can`t be
  • Yes, he's put it in
  • Maybe it is offside
  • Shit, I bet VAR finds something
  • Wait, no VAR
Then my external monologue took over....
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Same. The Sky cameras focussed straight onto the players celebrating, but I was convinced the linesman was just out of shot with his flag up. I pretty much didn't dare cheer until the pigs kicked off again.
 
Beans said:
Afternoon all, as promised, new pod is out:



Roygbiv and I savouring a derby double, strong performances from Seriki and Peck, Rhian Brewster grabbing the headlines, Wilder's post-match interview and plenty more. Cheers for listening and UTB!
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I can’t wait to hear this. Been a hell of a week work wise so I haven’t had as much time to gloat as I wanted.

I did do the usual at work though: told my people that if they had any bad news, any mistakes or negligence to report, or problems to bring up, Monday was the day to do it, as nothing could upset me!

I also confused a lot of people by wearing my Blades tie in meetings.
 

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