Curious Outsider

[ccmblade]

G'day everyone!

I have followed the blades since 2008 after always been a rugby league supporter when they affiliated with my team Central Coast Mariners, the link has been good for the mariners landing a player like Nick Montgomery who helped us win the premiership last season, in saying that we've also received players like Nicky Travis and Wolry Wolfe lol. Things seemed a lot brighter for the blades back then during championship playoffs.

In the past couple of years I've taken a lot more interest in the blades, streaming games and reading this forum folloeing things from a fans point of view. Only to recently register, this is my first post. I'm planning a trip to Europe next year and can hopefully get to bramall lane and meet some of you's.

Ive been curious for sometime now on a few subjects;
Why does everyone seem to hate Kevin McCabe, does it go deeper than him not releasing money for transfers?
Why cant SUFC attract quality players and not just this season but in many seasons past?
What has caused such a fall from grace? From premiership to league one relegation scrap?
Why do they continue to persist with underachieving players, why not give the youth a go, Diego seems like a real talent, surely if he fails it will be no worse then Porter?
What is the story behind Ched Evans? I understand he is in jail for rape. Will he be returning to blades once his time is up or move on in his life?

I think that will just about do me lol
UTB

P.s can't wait for the cup replay, so unlucky last time stupid by Doyle! Can't wait hopefully get the win

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

I have followed the blades since 2008 after always been a rugby league supporter when they affiliated with my team Central Coast Mariners, the link has been good for the mariners landing a player like Nick Montgomery who helped us win the premiership last season

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

G'day everyone!

I have followed the blades since 2008 after always been a rugby league supporter when they affiliated with my team Central Coast Mariners, the link has been good for the mariners landing a player like Nick Montgomery who helped us win the premiership last season, in saying that we've also received players like Nicky Travis and Wolry Wolfe lol. Things seemed a lot brighter for the blades back then during championship playoffs.

In the past couple of years I've taken a lot more interest in the blades, streaming games and reading this forum folloeing things from a fans point of view. Only to recently register, this is my first post. I'm planning a trip to Europe next year and can hopefully get to bramall lane and meet some of you's.

Ive been curious for sometime now on a few subjects;
Why does everyone seem to hate Kevin McCabe, does it go deeper than him not releasing money for transfers?
Why cant SUFC attract quality players and not just this season but in many seasons past?
What has caused such a fall from grace? From premiership to league one relegation scrap?
Why do they continue to persist with underachieving players, why not give the youth a go, Diego seems like a real talent, surely if he fails it will be no worse then Porter?
What is the story behind Ched Evans? I understand he is in jail for rape. Will he be returning to blades once his time is up or move on in his life?

I think that will just about do me lol
UTB

P.s can't wait for the cup replay, so unlucky last time stupid by Doyle! Can't wait hopefully get the win

Welcome on board ccm.

First - don't tell us how well Monty's playing, we're missing him now big time and Pinchy will explode.

The rest of your questions will get the great debaters posting no doubt, could be a long runner this one?

 

[derfblade]

Welcome matey. I suppose the only way to answer all your questions in one would be to say that in football , most clubs go through a few seasons of turmoil due to bad management from the top and bad decision making in manager selection and player recruitment. We are now in that cycle and it's not nice being a supporter of The Blades at the moment and Saturdays result v Crewe was possibly the worst i have felt in 50 years as a Blade. The good times will return, i'm sure, but it may get worse before it gets better going on Saturdays performance so fingers crossed eh!

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

G'day everyone!

I have followed the blades since 2008 after always been a rugby league supporter when they affiliated with my team Central Coast Mariners, the link has been good for the mariners landing a player like Nick Montgomery who helped us win the premiership last season, in saying that we've also received players like Nicky Travis and Wolry Wolfe lol. Things seemed a lot brighter for the blades back then during championship playoffs.

In the past couple of years I've taken a lot more interest in the blades, streaming games and reading this forum folloeing things from a fans point of view. Only to recently register, this is my first post. I'm planning a trip to Europe next year and can hopefully get to bramall lane and meet some of you's.

Ive been curious for sometime now on a few subjects;
Why does everyone seem to hate Kevin McCabe, does it go deeper than him not releasing money for transfers?
Why cant SUFC attract quality players and not just this season but in many seasons past?
What has caused such a fall from grace? From premiership to league one relegation scrap?
Why do they continue to persist with underachieving players, why not give the youth a go, Diego seems like a real talent, surely if he fails it will be no worse then Porter?
What is the story behind Ched Evans? I understand he is in jail for rape. Will he be returning to blades once his time is up or move on in his life?

I think that will just about do me lol
UTB

P.s can't wait for the cup replay, so unlucky last time stupid by Doyle! Can't wait hopefully get the win

It's the Blades Way!

Welcome to the forum

 

[Balham]

G'day CCM!

[EDIT] I've just read through this - it's a bit of a monster. Sorry!

G'day everyone!

Why does everyone seem to hate Kevin McCabe, does it go deeper than him not releasing money for transfers?

There's a feeling (rightly or wrongly) that McCabe's decision making with regards the club has been for his own benefit. The facts of the matter are that United's ventures into foreign football and property were at best abject failures; Chengdu cost us somewhere in the region of £15m and all we got out of that was a match fixing scandal; the hotel cost United £5-£7m and is now owned by McCabe.

Why cant SUFC attract quality players and not just this season but in many seasons past?

The problem is that we've got a reputation as a scuffling team going back to the Warnock days but exacerbated by Blackwell. I read an interview with Mark Randall, who played central midfield for Arsenal when their youth team beat us 6-0 in the League Cup (think it was 2008?) who said that Blackwell had asked to take some of that Arsenal side on loan only to be turned down flat.

The other issue is that we haven't seemed prepared to take the risk on younger players, instead choosing to 'invest' in established players. We've binned millions on players like Henderson, Beattie, Naysmith, Ehiogu, Nosworthy, Hendrie, Sun Jihai while some talented players have been unable to make the breakthrough from the academy. Now I'm not saying for a minute that some of the players I've named haven't been successful but it's all relative - those players were almost all on £1m per year or more and none of them was that good other than perhaps Beattie.

What has caused such a fall from grace? From premiership to league one relegation scrap?

The fall from the Premiership was caused, in my view, equally by Warnock's tactics away from home and in the crunch game against Wigan and West Ham's cheating. A shocking series of managerial appointments since then has acted to kick us while we're down - appointing Bryan Robson was a move I don't think I'll ever understand and then allowing him to piss our parachute payments up the wall just put the icing on the cake.

Why do they continue to persist with underachieving players, why not give the youth a go, Diego seems like a real talent, surely if he fails it will be no worse then Porter?

I think it's a case of better the devil you know. We've had too many conservative managers in a row now; my main complaint with Wilson was a lack of faith in the academy players - signing Barry Robson when we had potential in the younger squad members was the final straw for me. Diego also plays a completely different role to Porter - he'd be better off in the supporting role currently occupied by Baxter.

The good news is that Clough came in from Derby with a real reputation for building up younger players' careers. I'm hopeful that the 5 Academy players who signed pro deals earlier this season (Reed, Khan, Dimaio, Whiteman and Calvert-Lewin) and De Girolamo can call become key members of the squad in the next 18 months.

As an example - while he was stupid to tweet about the Evans case (see below), Connor Brown looked a decent right back when he played at the Lane for Oldham. Is McMahon better? Possibly. Is McMahon earning more? Almost certainly. Why, then did we release Brown the same summer as we signed McMahon? The only reason is that Wilson wasn't prepared to take the risk on the younger player.

What is the story behind Ched Evans? I understand he is in jail for rape. Will he be returning to blades once his time is up or move on in his life?

There's pages and pages on Evans on this forum. The facts of the matter are that he's in jail until October this year and then will be released on licence. There's history of players serving time then rebuilding their careers (Lee Hughes, Marlon King) but whether Evans will be able to do so remains to be seen.

As for whether he returns I don't know. My personal view is that once he's served his sentence then his debt to society is cleared and he should be allowed to carry on with his life. If that involves playing for United and that benefits the team then I'd be happy to see him back but I wouldn't want us to sign him out of some misplaced sense of duty.

 

[pommpey]

Why does everyone seem to hate Kevin McCabe, does it go deeper than him not releasing money for transfers?

Because he has, seemingly been the consistent common denominator which has underlined our fall from a position of moderate strength. The manager has lots to do with the results (and he has employed some prize choppers) but resourcing the team is his bag. The crowning turd in the water closet was the predictable false dawn of a Saudi based investor whom in other clubs has seen squad rebuilds but in this club has resulted in dick-all. McCabe has pumped cash into the club – including the £18m we managed to claw back from the cheating Argentine bastard fiasco, but it has all resulted in fuck-all.

Why cant SUFC attract quality players and not just this season but in many seasons past?

See above – if you pay peanuts, you get chimps and baboons. We have, however wasted good cash on paying wankers such as Beattie who on the face of it came back for a swansong payoff, getting himself dismissed in key games, seasoned professional that he is. Anyone submitting any whiff of gambling corrupt(THE REST OF THIS MESSAGE WAS REDATED ON ADVICE FROM OUR LAWYERS) and he also authorized the sacking and employment of some wonderfully inept and sometimes permanently drunk people to manage the club.

What has caused such a fall from grace? From premiership to league one relegation scrap?

1. Selling of key players
2. Replacing key players with underachievers
3. Sacking a good manager, because he wanted the best for the club and that costs money
4. Employing string of inept managers
5. Selling more key players
6. Replacing … etc – you get the picture
Anyone cynical would think there was some underlying plan to drive the club into admin(THE REST OF THIS MESSAGE WAS REDATED ON ADVICE FROM OUR LAWYERS)

Why do they continue to persist with underachieving players, why not give the youth a go, Diego seems like a real talent, surely if he fails it will be no worse then Porter?

Because despite all statements that we have a credible youth strategy, the truth is that what we do produce we sell PDQ if it is any good, the remainder fester into their contract expiry in the development team whilst Shetland Ponies such as McMahon and Doyle get an automatic pick for every game

What is the story behind Ched Evans? I understand he is in jail for rape. Will he be returning to blades once his time is up or move on in his life?

He’s inside, convicted and found guilty of rape will be released and it won’t be much good business for the club if he pulls on a Blades shirt again, despite his prolific goal-rate in the third division. We have severed all ties with him and it’s best Sheffield United move on. No doubt he’ll be signed by some fourth division outfit next season and will smash in a hat-trick against us, just for good measure.

pommpey