Footballs great, ambition is great, but what next?

[Toto]

So, we progress to the promised land, whatever way. We win a few, loose a few, manage to stay up. What's next to keep every Blade wanting the next game, wanting a win, needing the buzz, where do we go? How would you like the next stage to be set? Big money owners, beating the best, europe, the world?
Or back in the old 4th, Hartlepool away, for those that can remember, probably the best days for me back then, the best thrills.
How do you enjoy being a Blade?
Just a late night thought after decades of going. Has the thrill gone for you?

 

[nige]

Great question! Personally don’t care what league we are in. I’ve been going for 60 years, come what may, can’t see it changing until they carry me off in a box

 

[Bath Blade]

So, we progress to the promised land, whatever way. We win a few, loose a few, manage to stay up. What's next to keep every Blade wanting the next game, wanting a win, needing the buzz, where do we go? How would you like the next stage to be set? Big money owners, beating the best, europe, the world?
Or back in the old 4th, Hartlepool away, for those that can remember, probably the best days for me back then, the best thrills.
How do you enjoy being a Blade?
Just a late night thought after decades of going. Has the thrill gone for you?

It’s an interesting question. I’ve been watching United 35+ years and seen some good times and a lot of bad times. The 100 point season was amazing, and the Mickey Adams and Nigel Adkins seasons were the worst, but I’ve enjoyed it most when we’ve over performed as an underdog, whether that’s Wilder’s 19/20 season as an extreme example, Warnock’s 2002/03, the Bassett years in general, or Clough‘s cup runs.

I think what I’m saying (and this will probably make no sense in the morning as I’m just home from a session in the pub) is that I’d jack it all in if we got taken over by a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund and I’m happiest when we’re largely rubbish (or just below average) with the relative highs feeling even higher.

 

[Cassius Kray]

Six years ago we finished comfortably above Aston Villa as we achieved automatic promotion and they had to settle for the playoffs. Five years ago we again finished comfortably above them as we almost qualified for Europe and they struggled to fend off relegation.

What I'm saying is in six years I'd like to see United in the CL knock-out stages. Hopefully we can go one better and knock out PSG.

 

[NAP]

So, we progress to the promised land, whatever way. We win a few, loose a few, manage to stay up. What's next to keep every Blade wanting the next game, wanting a win, needing the buzz, where do we go? How would you like the next stage to be set? Big money owners, beating the best, europe, the world?
Or back in the old 4th, Hartlepool away, for those that can remember, probably the best days for me back then, the best thrills.
How do you enjoy being a Blade?
Just a late night thought after decades of going. Has the thrill gone for you?

Good post. I suppose if you have been an ardent fan for so long you have probably seen the best and worst it is ever going to get. The middle ground becomes a bit meh, for me the way I used to feel is slowly dissolving. Having said that, as a day out, a Wembley win would excite me even if it led to a miserable season in the Premier League. Don’t see us winning a Cup anytime soon.

 

[redandwhitewizard]

It's a strange time for football. It seems not financially viable to just be a top championship club but next to impossible to go beyond that. I will always follow the club but I don't really know where we go from here (and not just us either, most of the teams currently outside of the Premier league have the same problem).
I never used to like the idea of a super league but if they came up with tv rights deals that made the championship more viable then maybe that would be the way to go.
I also find it weird and kinda dull that the vast majority of teams play pretty much the same system now. Seems like tactics are not as important as they used to be.

 

[Nick Jansky]

Good post. I suppose if you have been an ardent fan for so long you have probably seen the best and worst it is ever going to get. The middle ground becomes a bit meh, for me the way I used to feel is slowly dissolving. Having said that, as a day out, a Wembley win would excite me even if it led to a miserable season in the Premier League. Don’t see us winning a Cup anytime soon.

I find it helps to try to enjoy the journey and forget about the destination, in all walks of life. Experience has taught me that focusing too much on something in the future is generally doomed to disappointment because even the best planning can be rapidly derailed by unknown events and the future is rarely ever what we expected it to be. The present moment is the only thing we actually have, ever, and I’m looking forward to the lifelong ritual of heading down to the Lane in a couple of hours, catching up with friends & watching a game of football. This would be the case whatever the league we were in or our position in that league. The result will matter for a few hours, no more. Then there will be another game. The future will take care of itself, whatever it is.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

The meaning of life is 42.

 

[Gimli]

Six years ago we finished comfortably above Aston Villa as we achieved automatic promotion and they had to settle for the playoffs. Five years ago we again finished comfortably above them as we almost qualified for Europe and they struggled to fend off relegation.

What I'm saying is in six years I'd like to see United in the CL knock-out stages. Hopefully we can go one better and knock out PSG.

 

[Rochdaleblade]

I'd love to see us playing well in the top flight, but I can't see that happening without owners willing to put in ridiculous sums.
Favourite season for me was probably 88-89 in the third division. I expected us to constantly attack teams and score shitloads of goals every week and was seldom disappointed. Brian Deane and Tony Agana wibbly wobbly woo.

 

[knowsnowt]

I'm really deflated atm, despite suffering the 4th division days. In fact I'm only on here now as I popped in to see the result. Couldn't even be arsed to watch or tune in on the radio.
I was actually prepping meat and veg for home made pasties throughout the match.

 

[nopigfansintown]

You need about 350 million to have a chance of consolidating in the Prem. Being a yo yo team is about the best we can hope for unless the owners are willing and able to chuck mega money at it. They'd also have to be shrewd/borderline geniuses as chucking huge money offers no guarantees. As that's very unlikely I'm happy to support the yo-yo approach. Back the board/managers that have us competing top end Champ, and support them after the inevitable Prem relegations. Hopefully the infrastructure can improve to put us in a better place longer term.

 

[AdamSufc1997]

IF/When we go up in prem in future, i'd like us to spend some to compete but we don't know with the new owners

 

[Working Class Hero]

I'm now in my late 30s, and have never really witnessed us survive a Premier League season, so that would be nice. That's pathetic for a club of our size though.

I don't think we'll ever win anything in my lifetime, and I've never expected that as a Sheffield United fan, so the pinnacle would be European football for me.

We did probably earn that right in 2019/20, but it was robbed from us which makes me feel like I'll never see it now. And even if I did, I don't think I'd enjoy it as much as I would have back then.

 

[Toto]

I'm really deflated atm, despite suffering the 4th division days. In fact I'm only on here now as I popped in to see the result. Couldn't even be arsed to watch or tune in on the radio.
I was actually prepping meat and veg for home made pasties throughout the match..i

Some good thoughts here but know what you are feeling, our lass usually does the pasties though when I'm out fishing and forget the radio.
It's the feeling like we are never favourites to win anything, always second best. That's being a Blade and probably what the likes of Sheffield folk have always expected.
We did have Seb Coe and Jessica and not forgetting the brilliant Dave Leigh and Joe Root today. We knew they were always favourites.
I'm looking forward to a playoff win, wouldn't that give us a thrill, the only final win in our/my lifetime but could still go down to the last game for automatic so like always we could miss out, you never know.
Great expectations being a Blade is all we have. In 65 years of going, that'll do for me, always sumat to look forward to.

 

[Alex Cheeseright]

Just wanting to have a chance of winning at kickoff. Knowing that you are going to lose week in week out is soul destroying. Just to put a competitive team every game is, crazy talk coming, the least I would hope to expect. Last season was a joke, a not even funny joke. This season at least we have a chance to win every game. But then it is the manner in which we win or draw or lose. Winning ugly leaves a bad taste when we should win easily. Losing when we should win is also distasteful. But when we've played great and didn't get the result, I am okay with that. This season we rarely win, lose or draw and have played well. Probably count them on a three fingered hand.
So next season would like to getting back to watching a team that is competitive and can dominate for long periods.(Premier league, short periods would be okayish) Get that playing through a brick wall mentality back. Have a style that gets punters off their seats. Maybe asking for too much and should be happy to be third and heading for the playoffs.....again

 

[jono_t2000]

A nice start for me would be to exclude Premier League teams from the EFL Cup/Carabao Cup.. whatever you want to call it.

At least then teams outside the closed shop still have a chance at winning some silverware each season.

 

[SUFCinks]

My favourite times were the rise from L1 under Wilder. Exciting football. I don’t really care what league we’re in as long as we can watch attacking football. Ideally the higher up the pyramid the better but i’d rather watch us playing sexy stuff in L1/champ than getting pumped in the prem. For me the result is less important and the enjoyment and pride I have when I see us play with swagger is much more fulfilling than a negative 1-0 win.

 

[Bennyand the Blades]

To be honest I don't think it's the game that's changed but me. Still hurts when we lose and love it when we win, and though I never was a chuck me dinner on the fire back type if we lost , I'm definatly more laid back about it now.
In fact I think the thing I miss most about football now is me mates and the piss up we had afterwards.... .

 

[The Bear]

Some good thoughts here but know what you are feeling, our lass usually does the pasties though when I'm out fishing and forget the radio.
It's the feeling like we are never favourites to win anything, always second best. That's being a Blade and probably what the likes of Sheffield folk have always expected.
We did have Seb Coe and Jessica and not forgetting the brilliant Dave Leigh and Joe Root today. We knew they were always favourites.
I'm looking forward to a playoff win, wouldn't that give us a thrill, the only final win in our/my lifetime but could still go down to the last game for automatic so like always we could miss out, you never know.
Great expectations being a Blade is all we have. In 65 years of going, that'll do for me, always sumat to look forward to.

Hold the line?

 

[Houston_Blade]

A nice start for me would be to exclude Premier League teams from the EFL Cup/Carabao Cup.. whatever you want to call it.

At least then teams outside the closed shop still have a chance at winning some silverware each season.

May as well just expand the other EFL trophy

 

[jono_t2000]

May as well just expand the other EFL trophy

Potentially, but then you have the clubs in lower leagues with exact same issue of not being able to win silverware.

 

[georgebernardshaw]

David Niven was a great friend of Errol Flynn’s, and he summed up the friendship this way.

“You always knew where you stood with Errol because he always let you down”

After 65 years of following United…..well, you know the rest.

Dem Blades.

 

[Bennyand the Blades]

David Niven was a great friend of Errol Flynn’s, and he summed up the friendship this way.

“You always knew where you stood with Errol because he always let you down”

After 65 years of following United…..well, you know the rest.

Dem Blades.

Accept that and your half way to being a football fan.....

 

[Alan Birchenall's hair]

So, we progress to the promised land, whatever way. We win a few, loose a few, manage to stay up. What's next to keep every Blade wanting the next game, wanting a win, needing the buzz, where do we go? How would you like the next stage to be set? Big money owners, beating the best, europe, the world?
Or back in the old 4th, Hartlepool away, for those that can remember, probably the best days for me back then, the best thrills.
How do you enjoy being a Blade?
Just a late night thought after decades of going. Has the thrill gone for you?

Well I'm 67 now and look back to the Hartlepool away days as great fun. Saw a million league grounds on our trawl through the 4th and 3rd divisions in the early 80s. But I was early 20s then. Getting up at 6:00 a.m. to get the 1st train to get to wherever, in time for a full day on the piss with my mates regardless of the result was great every other Saturday. But in my older years, I can't do it as well anymore, although I still piss it up every home game. It's probably best to ask blokes in their early 20s what they'd prefer to do. Hartlepool away or Villa/Everton/Norwich/Southampton etc away. I think you know the answer to that........

 

[raul]

Came pretty late to the party really, first full season was under HK when we came so close to promotion back in an era when gates of 20/25000 would sustain a PL club. The feeling we had the potential to do so ebbed away following Black Thursday and was re-inforced by the gaps in our half of OT in the semi- final v Newcastle.
By the time Port Vale came around, the aftermath and ownership wrangles, we were down at 10/12k and I recall the famous " merger no, acquisition yes" Dave Richards quote .
We were in trouble back then until the three match ticket offer for Weds/PNE/Blackburn that December when gates of 25k re-awakened a sense of potential culminating in regular 20k plus attendences thereafter, which took us away from the choppy post- ITV Digital waters.
Since then, even in Weir/Adkins times, I've always believed we had potential to be PL regular, but now even with 30000 as an average, that puts you well down the attendance league and as commerce and wealth concentration in the South has been accelerated deliberately, our growth has not kept pace with that of the PL . Simply put, our commercial revenue can never match even the likes of Bournemouth now.

Aug 2016 to Covid were unbelievable times and if they never come back then it is what it is. At 60 and tiring of the efforts you need to make as a travelling fan I can't see my ambition being realised now.

 

[Bladesman101]

So, we progress to the promised land, whatever way. We win a few, loose a few, manage to stay up. What's next to keep every Blade wanting the next game, wanting a win, needing the buzz, where do we go? How would you like the next stage to be set? Big money owners, beating the best, europe, the world?
Or back in the old 4th, Hartlepool away, for those that can remember, probably the best days for me back then, the best thrills.
How do you enjoy being a Blade?
Just a late night thought after decades of going. Has the thrill gone for you?

Great question, and for me football is just moments. For me it doesn’t get better than the league 1 promotion season so it is all perspective.

 

[nopigfansintown]

Potentially, but then you have the clubs in lower leagues with exact same issue of not being able to win silverware.

Unfortunately you make a great point. Making a cup quarter final is now an incredible achievement for a none consolidated Prem club. It's probably the equivalent of a semi or final twenty or so years ago. It makes it more boring if nothing else. A top end Premier League round robin zzzzzzzzz.

 

[Greasy Chap Butty]

So, we progress to the promised land, whatever way. We win a few, loose a few, manage to stay up. What's next to keep every Blade wanting the next game, wanting a win, needing the buzz, where do we go? How would you like the next stage to be set? Big money owners, beating the best, europe, the world?
Or back in the old 4th, Hartlepool away, for those that can remember, probably the best days for me back then, the best thrills.
How do you enjoy being a Blade?
Just a late night thought after decades of going. Has the thrill gone for you?

Whatever it is, there needs to be the buzz and jeopardy if winning and kissing. Consent bottom 3rd of PL would be too dull.
I'd say either:
Good enough PL to push for some European games.
Or
Yoyo from PL to championship, without the PL hammerings. Don't mind a relegation dogfight (not a Southampton or us last time). Then a promotion season.