How things can change all of a sudden.

[JJBlade]

The only thing that changes is clubs like Leicester and numerous others occasionally have their day.
No matter how bad things get for them they can always relate back to the good times and look forward to them returning. Incidentally they still don't actually turn up to support the club through these bad times in spite of something amazing happening only a few short years earlier.

It's just a matter of time before every medium sized club get things right and have something to REALLY cheer about...........well every medium sized club except for one of course.

I'll have anybody a bet right now.
During the next 30 years (my optimistic rest of life expectancy) I will donate £1,000 to their chosen charity for every full week we spend at the top of the Premier League.
I will also do the same for a major cup win, (not the Johnstons Paint Trophy)

The taker can donate £10 per season to mine for every season that this doesn't happen.
I'll let them off the first two seasons of course to give us a chance to get back to the Premier League........ha ha

 

[MiserableBlader]

In the 70's I used to regard Leicester and Stoke as similar clubs to us.

How times have changed. This weekend both Leicester and Stoke looked like world beaters. Still, I suppose, if they can do it - so can we.

:?

In the seventies (and until recently) they were much smaller clubs than us!
although they did win the odd cup FFS !

 

[MiserableBlader]

Judge,

If I remember right

Every year it's always been said "this is the worse league 1 ever".
Surely Englsih football can't be on such a continuous decline.

Most of us who've been around a bit think this IS the case.
FFS - they can't defend in the Prem!
and haven't been able to do so for years.

 

[Sirius]

I remember losing against wigan and being relegated from the prem
Walked home and went straight to bed

But woke up this morning and everythings hunky fucking dory
Mid table in the worst league one ever
And only been here 5 years

Judge, in the grand scheme of things, five years is bugger all. You have your whole life in front of you;long enough for the Blades to return to the Prem. If I have learned but one thing, it is to be happy with what I do not have ,and to blame my father, and his father for ensuring that the words BLADES would be coursing through my body like Blackpool rock.

 

[Toledo Blade]

An ex-neighbour of mine is a Leicester fan and when we lived next door we used to chat football a fair bit but we were both busy with our careers, families etc.

Since we moved away we have kept in touch by Xmas Cards as per usual, but we bumped into each other a few years ago and revived our football chat in retirement ( well he's semi-retired but he loves to talk about Leicester since they were taken over - smiley for fingers in the throat puke not offered!!!).

Point of this O.P. is to point out how much things can change overnight.

Middle of last season Pearson was anathema, didn't have a clue, naive, thick, slow witted. By the end of last season he was the Messiah, never mind his journalist abuse, opposition player assault etc.etc.etc.,couldn't put a foot wrong. I said he wouldn't last the summer but was poo-pooed out of court.

In the summer my pal was disconsolate over the appointment of Ranieri - end of the world. The Thais hadn't a clue, who was advising them?

These days my pal is almost unbearable. He sends me long copy articles from here there and everywhere about Vardy ( great story to read about), the Foxes, this , that and absolutely everything about them being top of the Prem. After all that he always finds a few lines to say " shame about the United result, thought Adkins was the man, it's a long way to go" and all that sort of stuff.

Simple lesson: Things can change in football overnight.

I wish things could change overnight, but I'm afraid to say that football has become money driven you only have to look at the teams promoted end up being relegated or fighting to stay in the division, go no further than last season MK Dons,Preston, and Bristol all are looking doomed so far. The reason is no money to buy new players and wages are higher. I could just see the current Blades players trying to win a game in a higher tier. We are along way off ever getting back to the top flight, may never happen and if it does just like last time a one season wonder.

 

[Hunkerby]

I wish things could change overnight, but I'm afraid to say that football has become money driven you only have to look at the teams promoted end up being relegated or fighting to stay in the division, go no further than last season MK Dons,Preston, and Bristol all are looking doomed so far. The reason is no money to buy new players and wages are higher. I could just see the current Blades players trying to win a game in a higher tier. We are along way off ever getting back to the top flight, may never happen and if it does just like last time a one season wonder.

25 Million was the cost for Bournemouth to get into the prem.
I'm sure McCabe and the Prince could afford this between them.

 

[Woodwardfan]

I wish things could change overnight, but I'm afraid to say that football has become money driven you only have to look at the teams promoted end up being relegated or fighting to stay in the division, go no further than last season MK Dons,Preston, and Bristol all are looking doomed so far. The reason is no money to buy new players and wages are higher. I could just see the current Blades players trying to win a game in a higher tier. We are along way off ever getting back to the top flight, may never happen and if it does just like last time a one season wonder.

Hard to disagree with that and maybe the truth is that somebody has got to get a hold of United and "break the mould".

"Game-changing investment" could be part of that, but even then the impetus has to come from an inspirational manager who is a big enough man (or woman) who is capable of wholesale change.

The ability to take a club by it's bootstraps, drive culture change and create an environment of dramatic improvement and achievement takes an exceptional leader. Looking at Eddie Howe, he might just be "the real deal" and at Bournemouth he has a high level of financial back-up, though not a ridiculous amount. Howe was not outstanding at Burnley but maybe Dyche benefited from his groundwork soon after.

Managers like Ferguson, Shankly, Clough senior don't come along very often and I'm afraid that's what we need.

Some managers succeed in their first appointments, flatter to deceive at one club and fail at the next e.g. Coyle, Lambert. It appears to me that circumstances can bring a situation and an inspirational manager together to make real strides forward but the environment at a second club can be immovable. The pressure to move on to a "bigger club" is immense but the very combination of factors that make a manager successful at one club are never the same and maybe never will be.

I stray from the point so I'll get back to it!

What we need at Bramall Lane is a manager who is as big as those famous men above, men who can alter the history of a club over a long period. We have to find him (or her), help him create the inspirational environment, provide appropriate investment and then keep him and fuel the development of the club.

Personally I think the new owner had all that in mind for Clough and gave him unprecedented power within the club plus a good budget. He was not a big enough man and not surprisingly, this is a massive job, it needs the calibre of individual who comes along maybe once a decade or even longer.

I think the Board appointed Adkins with the same hopes. Is Adkins big enough? Could he be a Shankly or a Howe in our S2 environment? Too early to judge, but for me there are insufficient indicators to suggest he is, I'm sorry to say. If he "turns the tanker" and gets things moving would he stay with us anyway? My hunch is that he is the type of bloke who would, but who knows?

The first stage is to "slow the tanker and get it to alter it's course" and I suppose we can worry about which captain is at the bridge at different stages of the journey. However my gut feeling is that this is a 10 year job at least and the chances of it all coming together couldn't be more remote. Finding the "new Shankly" is not very easy.