Congratulations Nigel Clough

[Davie Blade]

There is not the even faintest of possibilities that we are paying Dean Hammond £17k per week.

Come on Sitters, you can do better than that.

Not in my experience!

 

[nopigfansintown]

Just because it's got "Blades" in the username doesn't make him a Blade.

There was one on BM who was similar, couldn't bare to see Clough's name abused and criticised.
Admitted when Clough got fired he was a "Clough Fan" and followed him wherever he went.

Do that on FB/twitter and you're a weirdo stalker.

Clough was sacked for non-football reasons... that's what Kevin McCabe said last week.
One decision he's got 100% right.

Bit ironic that he's basically insinuated that I'm a coward, defaming and slandering Clough, before doing the exact same to me. He obviously doesn't know the first thing about me.

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

Bit ironic that he's basically insinuated that I'm a coward, defaming and slandering Clough, before doing the exact same to me. He obviously doesn't know the first thing about me.

Take almighty pleasure knowing that you've hit a nerve.
I am...

 

[PeteBlade]

Not in my experience!

Who was it on here that tried to make out Adkins had spent £10.5 million on 5 players?

 

[bridgfordblade]

Wasn't me who said "non footballing reasons", so I'd appreciate an apology. I wanted Clough to have another season until I was told some of the details of his operational strategy by two former colleagues at United. I was at the first fans' forum asking a question - people on here who follow the threads know this. Some have even come up to me in person to comment on this. I'm hardly hiding behind a username (another apology would be appreciated). I'll be in the wetherspoons before the match next Saturday - early doors. I'll have my twelve year old brother with me. Come and have a word if you wish. Nigel Clough is not the worst person to govern SUFC, but I can understand Kev and the prince sacking him. Our history is full of bad people in senior positions. Btw some of your stuff about signings is wildly inaccurate.and you're hiding behind your keyboard when stating them. I wouldn't put anything litigious on a messageboard, nor anything inaccurate. I have never said NC broke the law - just that I understand the sacking "for non footballing reasons". His chronic waste of money was good enough reason to sign him, imo, but I dislike sacking manager after manager and would have let him go at the expiration of his contract in the summer, if he didn't get us up. My agenda is not anti Clough, its anti bad management of SUFC.

I bolded one part of your message when I quoted you.

The part where you said on VERY DODGY GROUND. That's the part I took offence to.

You didn't accuse him of breaking the law but you did say you hope the real non football reasons come to light and in view of what you and others wrote on the thread, a comment like that is easily taken out of context.

If you tell me which of my stuff is "wildy innacurate" if I'm wrong then I'll change it. I go on what I'm told, the same as you go on what you're told. I am capable of admitting if I've got something wrong.

Not sure what relevance your 12 year old brother has but when I looked at your profile it said you were 73 years old, hence my surprise at a couple of your posts, I would have thought at 73 years old you might be a little calmer over your football and your brother might be a bit older, fair play to your mum and dad for having a 61 year gap in between kids.

As for the other posts about begging for the book or touching a nerve, I won't give those the time of day as responses, I didn't hide behind my username on here or on BM, in fact on BM my first post told people I was a Clough "fan", I didn't have to "admit" it later.

I post on forums like this to add some balance so the over negative drivel, not the drivel questioning his management style or his tactics, just the drivel that takes things to a personal level. I do it from a position of knowledge having watched his career for 30 odd years. I did and do still take a bit of stick for that. Apologies if that gets my back up and makes some of my replies a little strong.

I'm off to celebrate a promotion, something I thought and hoped Blades fans would be doing as well. Something I believed yo'd be doing this season if Clough were still in charge and something I was fairly confident Adkins would achieve, with his track record. The fact it's gone so badly wrong isn't down to Clough he's not in charge anymore.

My narkiness isn't at the average fan, it's at the nastier end of the scale, it's at those fans who go to the Nigel Adkins (I've moved on 25 players) school of maths, the ones who hang on to the 43 man "first team" squad bollocks (ffs how many of those were kids and first year pros)

It isn't at the playing side of the club, I've been pretty clear that I wanted the Blades to get promoted, even after Clough got sacked, it is at the senior management who signed a confidentiality/non disclosure agreement when Clough was sacked, who seemed quite content with what he was doing and how he was doing while he was in charge, but who now seem happy to rubbish his work, to blame him for "ruining" this season and drip feed some of the allegedly "on very dodgy ground" issues to fans at Forums.

I don't have access to the clubs accounts so I may be wildly wrong here as well but I'd hazard a guess that the money he chronically wasted probably ties in with the money he generated through cup runs and the Maguire sale? Or did he waste more than that?

 

[1danewhitehouse]

I find it strange that people can have such polar opposite views on Clough and Adkins. Both failed with us. Clough amassed a few more points having built his own team. Neither has done vastly better than the other. Clough did a bit better with advantages that haven't been afforded to Adkins. Overall, our recruitment of players has not been good enough for a number of years. I'd say summer 2005 was our last good window in terms of transfer dealings (value for money etc.).

 

[TonyAgana]

So, how many of the plYers Clough signed will go on to better things?

After Murphy, not a single one. We can have our opinions. But the footballing world will judge objectively.

Relatively speaking, he's assembled the most expensive pile of shite since Bryan Robson.

UTB

How many of Bassett's team(s) went on to better things? Is it inconceivable that one measure of a good manager is getting a team to play as a whole above the sum of their parts? It's clear to me that is where Clough succeeded where Weir and Adkins failed. Your point regarding Robson's expensive pile of shit reinforces my point. Blackwell turned that shit into play-off contenders.

 

[BushBlade]

I bolded one part of your message when I quoted you.

The part where you said on VERY DODGY GROUND. That's the part I took offence to.

You didn't accuse him of breaking the law but you did say you hope the real non football reasons come to light and in view of what you and others wrote on the thread, a comment like that is easily taken out of context.

If you tell me which of my stuff is "wildy innacurate" if I'm wrong then I'll change it. I go on what I'm told, the same as you go on what you're told. I am capable of admitting if I've got something wrong.

Not sure what relevance your 12 year old brother has but when I looked at your profile it said you were 73 years old, hence my surprise at a couple of your posts, I would have thought at 73 years old you might be a little calmer over your football and your brother might be a bit older, fair play to your mum and dad for having a 61 year gap in between kids.

As for the other posts about begging for the book or touching a nerve, I won't give those the time of day as responses, I didn't hide behind my username on here or on BM, in fact on BM my first post told people I was a Clough "fan", I didn't have to "admit" it later.

I post on forums like this to add some balance so the over negative drivel, not the drivel questioning his management style or his tactics, just the drivel that takes things to a personal level. I do it from a position of knowledge having watched his career for 30 odd years. I did and do still take a bit of stick for that. Apologies if that gets my back up and makes some of my replies a little strong.

I'm off to celebrate a promotion, something I thought and hoped Blades fans would be doing as well. Something I believed yo'd be doing this season if Clough were still in charge and something I was fairly confident Adkins would achieve, with his track record. The fact it's gone so badly wrong isn't down to Clough he's not in charge anymore.

My narkiness isn't at the average fan, it's at the nastier end of the scale, it's at those fans who go to the Nigel Adkins (I've moved on 25 players) school of maths, the ones who hang on to the 43 man "first team" squad bollocks (ffs how many of those were kids and first year pros)

It isn't at the playing side of the club, I've been pretty clear that I wanted the Blades to get promoted, even after Clough got sacked, it is at the senior management who signed a confidentiality/non disclosure agreement when Clough was sacked, who seemed quite content with what he was doing and how he was doing while he was in charge, but who now seem happy to rubbish his work, to blame him for "ruining" this season and drip feed some of the allegedly "on very dodgy ground" issues to fans at Forums.

I don't have access to the clubs accounts so I may be wildly wrong here as well but I'd hazard a guess that the money he chronically wasted probably ties in with the money he generated through cup runs and the Maguire sale? Or did he waste more than that?

Isn't it time you moved on? You're not a Blade, you've never been a Blade and Clough has left. He will not be returning.
Best of luck to the Brewers, just as good a story as Leicester in its own way.

 

[bridgfordblade]

Isn't it time you moved on? You're not a Blade, you've never been a Blade and Clough has left. He will not be returning.
Best of luck to the Brewers, just as good a story as Leicester in its own way.

I've made 40 posts in a year and a half. Some of them even seem to go down quite well..

I don't think I'm guilty of bombarding the forum with narky nasty posts, Christ there are posters on here who are "massive" Blades who criticise more often than I do. Other posters who spend their life winding others up. Others who just spout nasty bile and call anyone and everyone a cunt.

Time I moved on? Move on? Just cos I've got a different view point?

I'm a football fan, I STILL watch Blades games, Blade or not, some of my favourite players still play for your club.

If Brayford, Coutts, Flynn and Sharp get sold, then I'll probably move on. If posters stop blaming Clough for everything from poor performance, to robbing the club blind, to getting jobs for "half of his family" to global warming, then you won't hear a peep from me anyway.

I don't think there's any real reason to move on at all, unless I get banned of course.

 

[BushBlade]

I've made 40 posts in a year and a half. Some of them even seem to go down quite well..

I don't think I'm guilty of bombarding the forum with narky nasty posts, Christ there are posters on here who are "massive" Blades who criticise more often than I do. Other posters who spend their life winding others up. Others who just spout nasty bile and call anyone and everyone a cunt.

Time I moved on? Move on? Just cos I've got a different view point?

I'm a football fan, I STILL watch Blades games, Blade or not, some of my favourite players still play for your club.

If Brayford, Coutts, Flynn and Sharp get sold, then I'll probably move on. If posters stop blaming Clough for everything from poor performance, to robbing the club blind, to getting jobs for "half of his family" to global warming, then you won't hear a peep from me anyway.

I don't think there's any real reason to move on at all, unless I get banned of course.

You're not a Blade. You've just jumped on a bandwagon. You certainly don't hurt as much as real Blades do right now.
So I'm not interested in who your favourite players are.
You can post where you want but don't be surprised when some of the responses are far more vitriolic than mine. I'll just treat you like I treat other wind up merchants, I'll just ignore you.

 

[northsomersetblade]

I've made 40 posts in a year and a half. Some of them even seem to go down quite well..

I don't think I'm guilty of bombarding the forum with narky nasty posts, Christ there are posters on here who are "massive" Blades who criticise more often than I do. Other posters who spend their life winding others up. Others who just spout nasty bile and call anyone and everyone a cunt.

Time I moved on? Move on? Just cos I've got a different view point?

I'm a football fan, I STILL watch Blades games, Blade or not, some of my favourite players still play for your club.

If Brayford, Coutts, Flynn and Sharp get sold, then I'll probably move on. If posters stop blaming Clough for everything from poor performance, to robbing the club blind, to getting jobs for "half of his family" to global warming, then you won't hear a peep from me anyway.

I don't think there's any real reason to move on at all, unless I get banned of course.

Best of luck but you need a thick skin to support our lot matey.

The consensus on Clough junior on here seems pretty clear and I agree with it. Privately my opinion is a lot worse, he has clearly accumulated a lot of garbage, he takes no blame for his own actions and he does cliques to a fine art but - his old man was one of my football heroes so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for the future.

A tip though - if you want to get some free money, bet your mortgage on Burton to crash and burn next season.

 

[Lane Ender]

Best of luck but you need a thick skin to support our lot matey.

The consensus on Clough junior on here seems pretty clear and I agree with it. Privately my opinion is a lot worse, he has clearly accumulated a lot of garbage, he takes no blame for his own actions and he does cliques to a fine art but - his old man was one of my football heroes so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for the future.

A tip though - if you want to get some free money, bet your mortgage on Burton to crash and burn next season.

They wont even do as well as Yeovil.

 

[bridgfordblade]

Best of luck but you need a thick skin to support our lot matey.

The consensus on Clough junior on here seems pretty clear and I agree with it. Privately my opinion is a lot worse, he has clearly accumulated a lot of garbage, he takes no blame for his own actions and he does cliques to a fine art but - his old man was one of my football heroes so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for the future.

A tip though - if you want to get some free money, bet your mortgage on Burton to crash and burn next season.

Fair enough North.

Your views are your views pal. I can see why you'd have them.

I fully expect Burton to get relegated, whoever is in charge next season, you'd have to be a mad man to bet against anything else. If they finish anywhere other than cast adrift in 24th I'll be amazed.

Now if it's ok with posters like Bush Blade, i'll still keep on liking your club but strongly disliking your chairman, it goes back to the reception you gave BC in his final game in charge. I thought it was quality and spoke volumes about a club with proper traditions and proper fans (the majority).

 

[Grecian2000]

They wont even do as well as Yeovil.

and why should they?

They are in unchartered water. They have surpassed their expectations by a country mile (i.e. just like Yeovil). They will be the poorest supported and financed (probably) club in the division and should expect to be relegated. Only on here will that be seen as a huge failure for Clough.

 

[Lane Ender]

and why should they?

They are in unchartered water. They have surpassed their expectations by a country mile (i.e. just like Yeovil). They will be the poorest supported and financed (probably) club in the division and should expect to be relegated. Only on here will that be seen as a huge failure for Clough.

Im as bitter as fuck at the moment give me till the end of the month i,ll be sound

 

[BushBlade]

Im as bitter as fuck at the moment give me till the end of the month i,ll be sound

Aye, 'til end of August. Then we'll be pissed off again.

 

[alcoblade]

How many of Bassett's team(s) went on to better things? Is it inconceivable that one measure of a good manager is getting a team to play as a whole above the sum of their parts? It's clear to me that is where Clough succeeded where Weir and Adkins failed. Your point regarding Robson's expensive pile of shit reinforces my point. Blackwell turned that shit into play-off contenders.

Unlike like Basset, who bought players from beneath where we were, Clough has expensively bought from above and around (Coutts, Brayford, Freeman, Done, Basham, Harris) so the comparison doesn't hold. But even if it did, where's the Deane, Agana, Kelly, ward?

It takes a special kind of incompetence to bring in so many players who, almost if not totally to a man, will move on to poorer pastures. I bet it has never happened in our history.

UTB

 

[TonyAgana]

Unlike like Basset, who bought players from beneath where we were, Clough has expensively bought from above and around (Coutts, Brayford, Freeman, Done, Basham, Harris) so the comparison doesn't hold. But even if it did, where's the Deane, Agana, Kelly, ward?

It takes a special kind of incompetence to bring in so many players who, almost if not totally to a man, will move on to poorer pastures. I bet it has never happened in our history.

UTB

That wasn't really my point. I'm asking, essentially, does it matter what they do after they've been with us? It's not as good a measure of management, in my eyes, as how two different managers get the same group of players to perform.

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

 

[alcoblade]

That wasn't really my point. I'm asking, essentially, does it matter what they do after they've been with us? It's not as good a measure of management, in my eyes, as how two different managers get the same group of players to perform.

It matters for two reasons;

The economic damage it does to the club, money that can't later be spent elsewhere.

It's a measure of the tools left for the next man. It's impacting directly on Adkins, who's likely to get the sack as a result of it, amongst other things.

It's credibly important. You're free to think otherwise.

UTB

 

[Tyler Durden]

Name one Clough signing that has left us for richer pastures?
How many of Clough's signings are playing for clubs below where we finished this season?
Clough's full season was the worst i've seen in football, skill/entertainment in 40+ years of watching SUFC.

Adkins has failed to deliver this season. The playing squad he was left with, barring one signing and one left over from Clough's era, has been dismal.

Clough deserves all the abuse, if not more, for the way, he left this club.
No one can convince me otherwise.
Congratulating Clough... what for?

Sick and tired of "congratulating" ex-managers who don't give a fuck about Sheffield United.
Sheffield United. Our Club.
Fuck him...

THIS ^^^^

Post of the thread.

 

[alcoblade]

That wasn't really my point. I'm asking, essentially, does it matter what they do after they've been with us? It's not as good a measure of management, in my eyes, as how two different managers get the same group of players to perform.

Further to my reply above, to be successful by your criteria you could spend £100,000,000 on fourth division players, get them to perform at third division standard, and consider that a success. It doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

UTB

 

[baggie192]

Those who are sticking up for Clough and saying he'd have got us in the playoffs, how do you think he'll go on next year when he can put his own stamp on things in the Championship?

If I can get even money for Burton to finish bottom I'm lumping on.

This is the same Nigel Clough that kept Derby a stable Championship team, despite mismanagement of their Parachute Payments. Clough may have been naff for you, but he knows the Championship. Forest, QPR, Reading and Blackburn are running foul FFP. Plus The Vile are a basketcase of a club (proposed losses of £84million) It looks like they'll sink. It doesn't look like a prudent bet

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

If Clough "knows the Championship", then Burton Albion have nothing to fear next season.
I expect them to be never in danger of relegation but not in contention for promotion either.

 

[BushBlade]

If Clough "knows the Championship", then Burton Albion have nothing to fear next season.
I expect them to be never in danger of relegation but not in contention for promotion either.

Which would be perfect for them. I've said before I think Clough is probably a better manager when he's on a tight budget.

 

[Lane Ender]

Which would be perfect for them. I've said before I think Clough is probably a better manager when he's on a tight budget.[/QUOTE
Only Burton would have taken him back apart from them he is now unemployable.

 

[baggie192]

If Clough "knows the Championship", then Burton Albion have nothing to fear next season.
I expect them to be never in danger of relegation but not in contention for promotion either.

Which would be perfect for them. I've said before I think Clough is probably a better manager when he's on a tight budget.

As Bush says it's better to come up on a small budget than a failing Club with a crippling one. Lambert walked out of Blackburn because their budget. Reading also screwed by dodgy owners, not helped by us poaching Nick Hammond. Villa look like another Bolton. Realistic target for Burton 17th. It's do-able. I understand and can relate to the fact that Clough was naff for you, but, to say "Put the mortgage on them getting relegated" I'm not so sure

 

[TonyAgana]

Further to my reply above, to be successful by your criteria you could spend £100,000,000 on fourth division players, get them to perform at third division standard, and consider that a success. It doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

UTB

Extreme scrutiny, no. Keep it sensible, at least. We've never operated in terms of £100m and are never likely to. We're talking about investing a generous but not ridiculous League One budget to get promoted where the budget can then be increased for the following season.

Every season, a budget is set. Everything else is a bonus that is supposedly injected straight back into first team investment; cup runs, academy cash-ins, player sales. The board accepts that unless promotion is achieved (we're told every year that that is the number one aim), then that budget is written off and they have to reach into their own pockets again. It's not the job of a manager to leave a nest-egg for his successor. If the board want to abandon their plan less than halfway into the period they said a manager would get, then they have to reconcile with that decision.

My point was, and remains still, it matters far more what a manager can achieve with a team than what the next manager can sell them on for. In my opinion.

 

[northsomersetblade]

Fair enough North.

Your views are your views pal. I can see why you'd have them.

I fully expect Burton to get relegated, whoever is in charge next season, you'd have to be a mad man to bet against anything else. If they finish anywhere other than cast adrift in 24th I'll be amazed.

Now if it's ok with posters like Bush Blade, i'll still keep on liking your club but strongly disliking your chairman, it goes back to the reception you gave BC in his final game in charge. I thought it was quality and spoke volumes about a club with proper traditions and proper fans (the majority).

You are very welcome to keep liking the club and strongly disliking the chairman merely shows very good judgement

 

[Roygbiv]

Which would be perfect for them. I've said before I think Clough is probably a better manager when he's on a tight budget.

That's a good point to be fair. We gave quite a substantial amount of money to a man who's never had money to spend throughout his career.