Dont get carried away

[Casper]

Ok, yep, we are on a decent little run and the last few games have brought us some much needed points. However, dont lose sight of where we actually are as a football club. At the end of last season we lost a half decent keeper, quality full back and good utility player (Halford). Blackwell spent over £4m bringing other players into the team. He chose to strengthen other areas of the playing staff. We have gone from a team a whisker away from automatic promotion to a team who imo will finish between 6th and 9th. That my fellow blades is not progress. If we dont get promoted this season (and of course that is very likely) sticking with Blackwell could see us turning into one of the also ran clubs, who had a chance and blew it big time. We would go back to being a mid table, workmanlike average championship team with little hope of ever hitting the big time again for many years.

This January will be crucial. Blackwell has some massive choices to make. If we are not in the top 6 come March (top two is now way beyond us btw) then it surely has to be bye bye Blackwell and somebody else given the season end and whole summer to try and push us forward.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

This January will be crucial. Blackwell has some massive choices to make. If we are not in the top 6 come March (top two is now way beyond us btw) then it surely has to be bye bye Blackwell and somebody else given the season end and whole summer to try and push us forward.

So if we are 7th in March Blackwell has to go?

I wish people would stop talking absolute shite.

 

[Casper]

So if we are 7th in March Blackwell has to go?

I wish people would stop talking absolute shite.

It depends. Of course its not black and white. How many points behind, how many number of teams around us etc etc. Ok lets put it better... if we are not 'around' 6th by March. Which direction do you think we are going in?

 

[SwissBlade]

And who's getting carried away? I know a few have done when we had a bad run, but nobody seems to be thinking this decent few results is league winning form.

This January has to have a huge focus on the Club. Will Blackie be given money to compete and BUY players with the quality to build a decent sized squad to cope with injuries? My hope is that we've learnt from the gamble of loaning too many.

And how is the team supposed to progress when we lost a number of players from last season and had to cut costs?

If there is money available to spend, then I hope its spent evenly.

My concern since the summer sales is that we'll be settling for midtable medicrity until we build a Championship squad again.

 

[alcoblade]

I hope we sack him before any money is invested. I have no faith in his management or judgement of players. Let's gain enough points to guarantee safety and then sack him. I'll bare my arse on the town hall steps every day for a month if we get promoted this season.

UTB

 

[Santos]

So if we are 7th in March Blackwell has to go?

I wish people would stop talking absolute shite.

I wish for world peace mate!

 

[Casper]

I hope we sack him before any money is invested. I have no faith in his management or judgement of players. Let's gain enough points to guarantee safety and then sack him. I'll bare my arse on the town hall steps every day for a month if we get promoted this season.

UTB

lol, perhaps i have just a tad more faith than you do. However, only the blind cant see that Blackwell is taking us backwards. You never know, perhaps this is the year we will finally spozz summat, but i doubt it very much. Its much more likely that we will be playing catch up for the rest of the season and ultimately fail. Pass me them razor blades mate.........

 

[Torrix1889]

Looking at things long-term, no matter how much the transfer budget is in January or next summer come to that and no matter how much Sir Trevor of the Birch changes things behind the scenes can anyone realistically see us being any further on this time next year than we are now with Blackwell in charge?

I certainly can't.

 

[Worksop II]

So if we are 7th in March Blackwell has to go?

I wish people would stop talking absolute shite.

Absolutely right, he has only had 2 goes at this, it took Warnock 6 attempts, and we are not due to go back up for 8 years, so calm down

 

[grafikhaus]

Well my tuppenorth, as somebody who has been going since 1962 is this.

I sit in the paid-for seats (shareholders etc.) and the numbers are dwindling by the game. In front of me, I see Sam Ellis and Robinson snoozing through another 90 minutes of crap. On the touchline, I see Blackwell and Speed raging at the fourth official in some pantomime-style effort to deflect from the utter ineptity of what is going on on the pitch.

Tuesday night was appalling. After 15 minutes, I felt like going home. It was sub-standard fare from two shocking teams.

If I was McCabe (or Strapon. or any other big-hitter in charge of a football team including Forest, Middlesbro etc etc) I'd be asking 'What exactly does a manager do?' You've got a fitness coach, a goalkeeping coach, a midfield coach etc. You've patently got the ability to turn a player with a known ability to turn it on for other teams (Evans, Sharp etc) into non-entitities, so what am I paying your million pounds a year for?

This management game is all about percentages. Forest have strung a couple of good results together and Billy Davies has looked liked the greatest thing since sliced bread. As we saw on Tuesday, they are crap, despite having - on paper - a good squad. Ditto Leicester.

So please, Mr McCabe, stop being blinded by these amateurs who 'have all the badges' and realise what long-term damage they're doing to the team.

At half time on Tuesday, I returned to my seat and found the two (previously empty) seats next to me had been occupied by a dad and his 10-year-old daughter. She asked 'Is it always as crap as this?'.

Couldn't have put it better myself.

 

[super_pig]

once the hoo hah has died down about results and what have you the bottom line is this.. football is an entertainment industry.. we played better football in the old div. 4 under porterfield than this rubbish..
i have a secret to admit.. i seriously considered not going on tuesday

 

[SwissBlade]

once the hoo hah has died down about results and what have you the bottom line is this.. football is an entertainment industry.. we played better football in the old div. 4 under porterfield than this rubbish..
i have a secret to admit.. i seriously considered not going on tuesday

Since when has football been entertainment. Yes it certainly can be entertaining but its not an entertainment industry.

Its competitive sport, therefore its a results industry.

If it was entertainment you'd get points for artistic merit and crowd pleasability. As it is you get points for a win, points for a draw and nowt for a loss.

 

[mattbianco1]

I wish people would stop talking absolute shite.

Quality response.

 

[Grecian2000]

Since when has football been entertainment. Yes it certainly can be entertaining but its not an entertainment industry.

Its competitive sport, therefore its a results industry.

If it was entertainment you'd get points for artistic merit and crowd pleasability. As it is you get points for a win, points for a draw and nowt for a loss.

That's made a right cock of my expenses form that has.

I was all set to put taking some customers down to the Lane as Entertainment and now I see it can't be. I'll get straight onto accounts and get a "Reults based activities" on the form. Any idea what the Prozzies are going to come under?

 

[raul]

Answers are plentiful, but isn't it usually Ashley Cole. Are you stil hosting those parties?

 

[Worksop II]

once the hoo hah has died down about results and what have you the bottom line is this.. football is an entertainment industry.. we played better football in the old div. 4 under porterfield than this rubbish..
i have a secret to admit.. i seriously considered not going on tuesday

No, No, No, Never, I always wait till I sit down in my seat, then I seriously consider what I am doing there .......

 

[davidpinder]

we,ve started with the argument again should he stay or go, so to all you who want him to stay please name me a game this season where we have played well for the full 90 mins? Just want 1 game not asking a lot out of the 21 played. This team will not move forward with blackwell in charge.

 

[DazBlade88]

Since when has football been entertainment. Yes it certainly can be entertaining but its not an entertainment industry.

Its competitive sport, therefore its a results industry.

If it was entertainment you'd get points for artistic merit and crowd pleasability. As it is you get points for a win, points for a draw and nowt for a loss.

These days, it's a results AND entertainment business.

With the ridiculous prices to go and watch football, (I dread to think how much I must have spent over the last 6 years) it simply has to be entertaining if people are expected to carry on paying that kind of money. You can tell with the atmosphere at the Lane these days that fans are not entertained by what they're seeing.

 

[SwissBlade]

These days, it's a results AND entertainment business.

With the ridiculous prices to go and watch football, (I dread to think how much I must have spent over the last 6 years) it simply has to be entertaining if people are expected to carry on paying that kind of money. You can tell with the atmosphere at the Lane these days that fans are not entertained by what they're seeing.

Ridiculous prices? 20 odd quid isn't if you pay each match on the day?

As for entertainment, how much would you pay for WWE or Take that on ice factor at the arena!

 

[Fiery Blade]

So if we are 7th in March Blackwell has to go?

I wish people would stop talking absolute shite.

What people are alluding to is about finishing outside the top 6 wether its 7th or 17th it doesn't matter it's failure.
After finishing second in the play off final and re-profiling the team Blackwells mission (or job description) this season was to better last season.
Personally I would rather see him go tomorrow but, unfortunately the last run of results will see him stick it out until the end of the season.

Everybody has different expectancy levels, Liverpool,Arsenal and Man City expect a top 4 Premier League place, I expect to be strongly challenging for the CCC title obviously Ndlovu, Swiss, Come and away, Boo and Matt Bianco are quite happy to be middle of the table CCC side along with the Dingles and Donny:thumbdown:
The Blades are better than the Dingles, Donny, Scunthorpe and Pigs of the football world I want them where they belong in the Premier League:thumbup:
Unfortunately with Blackwell in charge the chances are very slim

 

[Fiery Blade]

we,ve started with the argument again should he stay or go, so to all you who want him to stay please name me a game this season where we have played well for the full 90 mins? Just want 1 game not asking a lot out of the 21 played. This team will not move forward with blackwell in charge.

Well said DP :thumbup:

 

[beightonblade]

sack the two hat ......... sooner the better.

 

[SwissBlade]

What people are alluding to is about finishing outside the top 6 wether its 7th or 17th it doesn't matter it's failure.
After finishing second in the play off final and re-profiling the team Blackwells mission (or job description) this season was to better last season.
Personally I would rather see him go tomorrow but, unfortunately the last run of results will see him stick it out until the end of the season.

Everybody has different expectancy levels, Liverpool,Arsenal and Man City expect a top 4 Premier League place, I expect to be strongly challenging for the CCC title obviously Ndlovu, Swiss, Come and away, Boo and Matt Bianco are quite happy to be middle of the table CCC side along with the Dingles and Donny:thumbdown:
The Blades are better than the Dingles, Donny, Scunthorpe and Pigs of the football world I want them where they belong in the Premier League:thumbup:
Unfortunately with Blackwell in charge the chances are very slim

I'm not happy with midtable but sadly I never thought this season would be challenging the top 2 with or without Blackie. What I think is that Blackie was the best man for the job and changing the manager part way through the season won't help just because of a dip in form.

My expectation for this season was always going to be realistically low following the summer clear out - which I also thought was necessary.

 

[DazBlade88]

Ridiculous prices? 20 odd quid isn't if you pay each match on the day?

As for entertainment, how much would you pay for WWE or Take that on ice factor at the arena!

Yeah, something like that. I don't know though, I have a season ticket. It's not just that you have to think about, there's all other things that you pay for on a matchday too.

I've spent about £650 on away games alone this season, on top of my season ticket (£330?), around £15 of spending before each home game (one round and a programme), and £20 in cup tickets so far. That equates to just over £1,100 in jsut under half a season. I wouldn't mind seeing some entertainment when I'm paying that much money. I think I've seen 4 good games out of 22 so far (WBA, Ipswich, Cardiff and Bristol City).

And I wouldn't class either of them as entertainment, so you could give me a free ticket and I wouldn't take it

 

[Fiery Blade]

I'm not happy with midtable but sadly I never thought this season would be challenging the top 2 with or without Blackie. What I think is that Blackie was the best man for the job and changing the manager part way through the season won't help just because of a dip in form.

My expectation for this season was always going to be realistically low following the summer clear out - which I also thought was necessary.

Hi Swiss,
Back from my hols, tanned up and Blades four points better off than when I went:thumbup:
Can't really understand your thought process that the Blades would not be challenging - McCabe said he would back Blackwell bought in Evans, Treacey, Reid, Little,Harper Walker back etc why shouldn't they be challenging Its a poor division
If they had played as they did against PNE Play Off semis they would have walked this division.
The honest truth is that we have had a bad run of injuries which Blackwell could do nothing about, but we have too many loanees, bad signings, bad sales, bad and one dimensional tactics and poor man management all which I firmly put at Blackwells door and thats the reasons we won't go up this season!

 

[SwissBlade]

Yeah, something like that. I don't know though, I have a season ticket. It's not just that you have to think about, there's all other things that you pay for on a matchday too.

I've spent about £650 on away games alone this season, on top of my season ticket (£330?), around £15 of spending before each home game (one round and a programme), and £20 in cup tickets so far. That equates to just over £1,100 in jsut under half a season. I wouldn't mind seeing some entertainment when I'm paying that much money. I think I've seen 4 good games out of 22 so far (WBA, Ipswich, Cardiff and Bristol City).

And I wouldn't class either of them as entertainment, so you could give me a free ticket and I wouldn't take it

I know what you mean, but do you really spend all that money and expect to be entertained? Winning is great, but I'd still go to games even if I knew we'd lose everyone (although I've not seen us lose at the lane this season) as i'm sure you would too!

I never understand this thought that because you travel hundreds of miles or spend hundreds that you then demand entertainment etc.

Are you saying that you don't enjoy following the Blades? Or that you pay too much and don't get enough entertainment. Perhaps if you had to pay 100 less for your season ticket you'd get a better balance of cost/ entertainment value for the same brand of football

 

[Micalijo]

Swiss - if you read the report in the accounts our esteemed Chairman says that we still have a massive budget in CCC terms. OK money aint everything in football but it does follow that if McCabe is right we must have a poor manager. You must be expecting relegation next term because the standard of our signings suggests things are only going to get worse.

When you say Blackwell 'was' the right man do you mean he no longer is the right man. Why not get rid now - he'll get paid off so don't worry about him.

And I don't get your argument either which suggests that winning football means long ball shite and attractive football means losing.

 

[shorehamview]

As for entertainment, how much would you pay for WWE or Take that on ice factor at the arena!

You be lucky to get a whole pound out of me. Even if you had a gun.

I've spent ......just over £1,100 in just under half a season.

I saw you in Wetherspoons at Woodseats after we'd beaten the pigs. You looked like you'd had at least a hundred quid's worth that night, you drunken monkey.

 

[SwissBlade]

Hi Swiss,
Back from my hols, tanned up and Blades four points better off than when I went:thumbup:
Can't really understand your thought process that the Blades would not be challenging - McCabe said he would back Blackwell bought in Evans, Treacey, Reid, Little,Harper Walker back etc why shouldn't they be challenging Its a poor division
If they had played as they did against PNE Play Off semis they would have walked this division.
The honest truth is that we have had a bad run of injuries which Blackwell could do nothing about, but we have too many loanees, bad signings, bad sales, bad and one dimensional tactics and poor man management all which I firmly put at Blackwells door and thats the reasons we won't go up this season!

Alright Fiery, Good hols then!

The Playoff final showed we needed a clear out, so we did that. We brought in players but each needed to settle and gel (cliched but its true). We lost a lot of players, some of which had been treading water, but despite their failings we haven't rebuilt the squad with the same quality and the loan system has back fired. For me the number of loans wasn't Blackies fault.

To be honest I think we're better off than I expected this season, but we've had horrendous injuries added with a poor run of form and results. You're right though, this div is poor this season so we're about where I would have imagined.

After the Jan window I expect things to settle and click, the players that we don't want and the ones that want to leave will go. All contract talks should be finished and things will no doubt start to click again.

We've done well to get back on track and although the performances aren't consistent enough we're on our way slowly towards the 6th place.

I'll give it a few weeks, but I may be looking to adjust my 6th place prediction. Theres nowhere near enough experience around 3rd to 8th place.

 

[DazBlade88]

I know what you mean, but do you really spend all that money and expect to be entertained? Winning is great, but I'd still go to games even if I knew we'd lose everyone (although I've not seen us lose at the lane this season) as i'm sure you would too!

I never understand this thought that because you travel hundreds of miles or spend hundreds that you then demand entertainment etc.

Are you saying that you don't enjoy following the Blades? Or that you pay too much and don't get enough entertainment. Perhaps if you had to pay 100 less for your season ticket you'd get a better balance of cost/ entertainment value for the same brand of football

I don't expect to be entertained every game, and I don't expect to win every game. It's hard to explain my feelings about it at the minute. I'm not used to feeling negative about United, so it's strange for me.

I don't demand entertainment in every game, I'm quite realistic about it. There's always bad games whatever team it is. I get frustrated though, because we don't seem to try and attack teams as often as we could. The last half hour against Forest was much more like what I'd want to see, but we never try and do it from the outset. We seem more worried about the opposition, instead of making them worry about us. In this league, there's very few teams to worry about, so I think we can afford to be a bit more adventurous than we are.

It's not that I don't enjoy following the Blades. I've missed 3 games in 6 years now (apologies if it sounds like I'm getting on my high horse or something), but I've never enjoyed it as little as I do at the moment. It's still a good day out with mates etc. regardless, but it's got to the point recently where the match is normally the worst part of the day, even when we win!

Well, they do say you get what you pay for. If it was cheaper it'd make it alot easier to watch