If Onlys

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What if we had signed Maradona, would he have made us great and built a dynasty or would we have ruined him 😅?
We had two Spanish speaking coaches in our staff at the time. Danny Bergara and Oscar Arce. Would it be enough for Diego to settle in Sheffield? The 1978-79 winter was very chilly, probably nothing like he experienced in Argentina.
 

If only……our normal penalty taker John Matthew’s hadn’t bottled it in the last minute of the final match at home to Walsall in 1981.
So up stepped Don Givens who tried the casual side footer, they look good when the keeper dives the wrong way but the keeper guess right and made an easy save.

We were relegated to div 4 for the 1st time ever.
However in retrospect it was one of the best seasons in our post war history.
We really were the Man Utd of that division and took 3K to 5K to every away match.
This was at a time when gates were very low, for many away games there was as many Blades in the ground as there was home fans.
 
If only Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos were massive Blades fans.

Actually, don't think that would sit at all well with the large socialist contingent of our fans who enjoy the struggle of the proletariat (Blades) against the bourgeoisie (anyone else who doesn't think like them and strives to be better). Success is something to be reached for by hard graft and toil but never achieved. To achieve it wouldn't be Bladey like and would be selling out to the corporate machine, signalling the death knell of the fans, the club and the little Sheffield identity.

Or summat....
I could stomach being owned by Bezos but I'd be done with the club if Musk got involved.
 
Too many too mention as a Blade in my time since 77 ..worryingly the ones that have been most impactful have been the play off final defeats ( other than 2003 as we were promoted a couple of seasons after ) which meant we lost a lot of our talent & had to rebuild which wasn’t a quick recovery . Probably our only saving grace this time has been the parachute payments which gives us another bite at the cherry for one more season
I really do think we could have built off that 1997 PO Final though as the Premier League was a different animal then ⚔️
 
We had two Spanish speaking coaches in our staff at the time. Danny Bergara and Oscar Arce. Would it be enough for Diego to settle in Sheffield? The 1978-79 winter was very chilly, probably nothing like he experienced in Argentina.
Begara arce has a nice cheek to it (bighairy arse).
 
What if we had signed Maradona, would he have made us great and built a dynasty or would we have ruined him 😅?

I've always been convinced that he would have become an industrious Nick Montgomery kind of player, with the odd fan saying: "There's a decent player in there".
 
If only……our normal penalty taker John Matthew’s hadn’t bottled it in the last minute of the final match at home to Walsall in 1981.
So up stepped Don Givens who tried the casual side footer, they look good when the keeper dives the wrong way but the keeper guess right and made an easy save.

We were relegated to div 4 for the 1st time ever.
However in retrospect it was one of the best seasons in our post war history.
We really were the Man Utd of that division and took 3K to 5K to every away match.
This was at a time when gates were very low, for many away games there was as many Blades in the ground as there was home fans.
If that hadn't happened, we'd not be one of an elite band of five clubs* to have won every tier of the Football League.

*Wolves (1988), Burnley (1992), Preston (1996), United (2017), Portsmouth (2017) in that order. Only United didn't complete the set with Division 4/League Two.
 
Flipping this on its head, what would have happened to United if McCabe hadn't swooped in to hire him away from accepting the Charlton job in 2016?

Do we just mill around the middle of League One for a few more years until someone vaguely competent manages to build a top-six squad? Do we then bounce around between divisions like Rotherham? Does Wilder's career look anything like it does today if he'd gone to Charlton under their slightly madcap owner at the time?
 
If only....

I'd been born on Avenue de Joan XXIII
or, Maine Road
or' Avenue Presidente Figueroa Alcorta 7597
or, or, or, or, the list goes on!

😁

Nah...

None on' 'ems a patch on Shoreham Street

;)
 
I'm sure I've read this somewhere but no idea how true it actually is, was Clough senior interviewed for the managers job in the early 70's ?
 

If only……our normal penalty taker John Matthew’s hadn’t bottled it in the last minute of the final match at home to Walsall in 1981.
So up stepped Don Givens who tried the casual side footer, they look good when the keeper dives the wrong way but the keeper guess right and made an easy save.

We were relegated to div 4 for the 1st time ever.
However in retrospect it was one of the best seasons in our post war history.
We really were the Man Utd of that division and took 3K to 5K to every away match.
This was at a time when gates were very low, for many away games there was as many Blades in the ground as there was home fans.
In retrospect it was probably a blessing in disguise, new chairmen , management & new faces who turned the club around .
4th Division Championship season was the first success I’d seen & I can still remember most of the games only missed 2 games home & away all that campaign.
It’s a pity Brearley’s business fortunes turned sour as he was a good chairman for us in that era , he and Porterfield played a big part in our recovery of time , sadly Porterfield became a victim of his earlier successes ⚔️
 
Or just covid in general.

I'd have fancied us to get points or wins away at Villa, Old Trafford, St James' park at the time. We were still in good form, albeit keeping things tight and taking our chances.

When we came back post covid we weren't playing at the same level. And of course O'Connell picked up the career ending injury (Although we didn't know it then)

I also think in front of a big crowd I would have fancied us vs Arsenal in the quarter finals too.

This is the only answer really init?

What if lockdown never happened?

We'll never actually know, but we'd probably have had European football for the first time in our history and those celebrations would have been something special when we achieved it. Jack O'Connell would never have got injured and would have played for England, taking his value up to at least £30m. The money from those two things could have allowed us to stabilize as a Premier League club.

We were also about to play an FA Cup quarter final at home to a lower placed team. I think there was a very good chance we also saw our first FA Cup Final in most people's living memory.

The timing of that pandemic probably cost us our only chance of ever achieving anything while I'm alive. And we'd have done it with a Blade manager and Blade captain.

Sod's law.
 
This is the only answer really init?

What if lockdown never happened?

We'll never actually know, but we'd probably have had European football for the first time in our history and those celebrations would have been something special when we achieved it. Jack O'Connell would never have got injured and would have played for England, taking his value up to at least £30m. The money from those two things could have allowed us to stabilize as a Premier League club.

We were also about to play an FA Cup quarter final at home to a lower placed team. I think there was a very good chance we also saw our first FA Cup Final in most people's living memory.

The timing of that pandemic probably cost us our only chance of ever achieving anything while I'm alive. And we'd have done it with a Blade manager and Blade captain.

Sod's law.

I am absolutely convinced we would have beat Arsenal in that quarter final with a full house.

All the football played between March that year and crowds back shouldn't count as football games
 
If only it had been a competent referee in charge when Morgan didn't touch Gerrard instead of that starfucker Rob Styles
This incident was mentioned the other night, think it was the France/Germany u21 game. One of the French lads try to con the referee and the commentator immediately mentioned the Gerrard incident at the Lane.
 
Flipping this on its head, what would have happened to United if McCabe hadn't swooped in to hire him away from accepting the Charlton job in 2016?

Do we just mill around the middle of League One for a few more years until someone vaguely competent manages to build a top-six squad? Do we then bounce around between divisions like Rotherham? Does Wilder's career look anything like it does today if he'd gone to Charlton under their slightly madcap owner at the time?
Another alternative what-if: what if any of the previous managers - Wilson, Weir, Clough, Adkins, take your pick - had got us promoted from League One before we reached the low point at which Wilder was brought in? Would we have had any of the recent highs, or would we have just yo-yoed around between the second and third tiers like the pigs have, without ever bothering the top flight?
 
If only……our normal penalty taker John Matthew’s hadn’t bottled it in the last minute of the final match at home to Walsall in 1981.
So up stepped Don Givens who tried the casual side footer, they look good when the keeper dives the wrong way but the keeper guess right and made an easy save.

We were relegated to div 4 for the 1st time ever.
However in retrospect it was one of the best seasons in our post war history.
We really were the Man Utd of that division and took 3K to 5K to every away match.
This was at a time when gates were very low, for many away games there was as many Blades in the ground as there was home fans.
Darlington one of my best Blades days
 
If only Rob Styles had sent off Chris Kirkland for handling outside the area at Anfield? Liverpool had used all their subs and we would have had a free kick with a red hot Michael Brown taking it.

If only Rob Styles hadn't given Liverpool a penalty for intent? We'd have stayed up two points clear of relegation.

If only Neil Warnock hadn't publicly criticised Rob Styles for not sending off Chris Kirkland for handling outside the area, then he might not have given Liverpool a penalty for intent against us.
 

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