It's a new world .

[SandyMcBlade]

We all know there are those that have their own agenda on here, but I do wonder how many of those who have stopped actually going to the Lane over the past few season now base their opinions on match reports and TV highlights.
The premier league has so many top class overseas players in it it's becoming more and more a European league and the fall out of English players into the Championship has now taken it up to the old first division standard.
And the first div we now play in is no longer anything like the old third we used to know in fact I would say the level of football in this division is now easily up to the old second division standard and why not, with the kind of wages on offer in football today it's a dam good career.. .
Anyone who thinks we should be thrashing teams in this division easily just because of their small time history's or lower attendances is going to be in for a shock because there are some very good teams and players in this division...
So we can all have a good moan whether we still go regularly or not,we always have and we're all Blades aren't we, but lets try to keep it real eh.

UTB

 

[Grecian2000]

I still go, but I think the level is just poor (and I include ourselves in that standard).

Teams are better organised to a degree, but the actual football is tedious, mechanical and, sometimes, downright boring. The ability to beat a man is rapidly diminishing (at all levels) and quality is now easily overshadowed by fitness, technique of less importance than stamina. Footballers care more about the colour of their boots and the size of their pay packets rather than improving their game. All in all, way less enjoyable than even 10 years ago.

 

[Lord Bos of Eckington.]

League 1 is a poor standard . The majority of clubs are in poor financial health with minimum support / money through the turnstiles. The surprise package this season is the Blades , but not in a promotion sense. We have not got the second season syndrome , as we are struggling to hit the ground running to get out of this god forsaken league , for the 4th season.

The last time i thought we had game changing investment is when we signed Colin Morris and Keith Edwards.

I have never been under the impression we would be thrashing teams , or it would be a walk in the park. We are ,were we are ,,which is a league 1 side , with league 1 financial support from the board.

A long way to go , but only just seeing green shoots , but lets hope the grass grows with Mr Clough and Mr Clough brother.

Top championship / premier league support which amazes me , how many of us turn up week in week out.

UTB

 

[Kenilworth]

OP = Tosh
We are third division bobbar in a third division league.
I base this on my own eyes and on the league table - cos as everyone knows - these things are relative and in relation to the other 92 professional league clubs we are 11th in the bobbar of the third division - and we deserve to be there.

The standards may have improved relatively speaking on diet and fitness and the influx of better players from abroad so the position we are in reflects that we have dropped our standards dramatically - relative to where we were. We have never been 5 seasons in Div 3 and the way things are looking we will be still here next season - cos we don't have enough quality in front of goal)

Don't go to as many games as I used to but then I am an exile and I have seen us live several times already this season.
Best performance from the one's I have witnessed first had was the one at West Ham away - but that was a typical cup match and we had backs to the wall for very long spells. McNuts and JCR were the outfield players that stood out and Howard was excellent that game as well.

You can keep on making lame excuses - no right to beat anyone - bigger club yadda yadda
Yes, you earn the right and we haven't.

That's reality - we're still bobbar

 

[Paulus]

I tend to agree with the OP, it is too easy to say that the league is poor but the reality is that the level of performance that the average L1 team is producing today would have sat them pretty comfortably in the Championship of even 10 years ago. The reasons for this is that the downward movement of the top British players has had a knock on effect down the leagues; the level of fitness, preparation and tactical awareness has improved massively; the availability of the loan market which sees some extremely talented youngsters playing in the league and finally the quality of football being played in L2 is an absolute mile above where it was when we graced Div 4 30 odd years ago due to automatic promotion from the conference. Some of the teams we played then were laughably bad, safe in the knowledge that they would all vote for each other and no-one would get thrown out of the league.

I think that the problem is that the entertainment value of the game has decreased as a result of some of these changes. Teams are now more difficult to break down and will often deliberately play for a break away from home. They are fitter and more tactically aware and can frustrate teams for the whole match whereas in the past it was pretty much a certainty that they would run out of legs or make mistakes at some point as the game went on and I think G2000 is right that fitness and athleticism stifles skill. There is no way that the likes of TC or Hudson or Marsh would have been able to play the game in the way they did in the current climate.
A solution? well, I do think that the football authorities need to look at it - maybe get rid of the draw result and award tied matches to the team with the highest number of shots on target? (I haven't really thought this through so there might be a blindingly obvious reason why this wouldn't work) but there needs to be more reward for attacking football.

 

[alcoblade]

We all know there are those that have their own agenda on here, but I do wonder how many of those who have stopped actually going to the Lane over the past few season now base their opinions on match reports and TV highlights.
The premier league has so many top class overseas players in it it's becoming more and more a European league and the fall out of English players into the Championship has now taken it up to the old first division standard.
And the first div we now play in is no longer anything like the old third we used to know in fact I would say the level of football in this division is now easily up to the old second division standard and why not, with the kind of wages on offer in football today it's a dam good career.. .
Anyone who thinks we should be thrashing teams in this division easily just because of their small time history's or lower attendances is going to be in for a shock because there are some very good teams and players in this division...
So we can all have a good moan whether we still go regularly or not,we always have and we're all Blades aren't we, but lets try to keep it real eh.

UTB

I've heard people suggest that the mess the club in can be attributed to the fact that fans are prepared to put up with such shit. I've always thought that daft, but posts like this really make me wonder.

We should be better than those around us because we should have far more resource to be. Nothing that has happened in the game has changed that, and we should continue to demand better.

I base these opinions on what I see from the kop and away terraces more or less every week.

UTB

 

[SandyMcBlade]

Can't fault that alco, and I think most fans are saying we should be better than we are, but then so are the fans of every other team in football,
I'm not saying we shouldn't be doing better, what I am sayings is football and the standard of play in the lower leagues has been altering over the last ten years at an ever increasing pace and there aren't any easy games anymore.
The difference between winning and losing is more of a fine line than it used to be, maybe that's down to the tactics and the players being better so the teams are canceling each other out, and maybe that's why some games seem boring,.
Or maybe it's just that the old days of blood and thunder have gone from this division and continental tippy tappy now rules the roost,...