Right.
Here goes.
I like Jim. I engaged with him briefly about 12 months ago and was impressed. As many confirm, his commitment to the cause is absolute and passionate. He is a good guy with UTDs best interest at heart.
I have HUGE reservations about his willingness to engage freely with supporters via social media, and I told him so. While the intentions on his part will always be good, the way in which this good intention will be interpreted by its target audience will frequently and widely vary. Many will take a genuinely positive point made as negative. That is the risk of non verbal communications. It's easier to misinterpret.
Now, and with this in mind, and also in the hope that Jim just might tune in to this forum from time to time, I would like to take him up and other forum members on one particular sentence in his statement.
Specifically "the diabolical nature of the competition in L1".
Really. Do you and the board really believe this ?
It's further qualified later in the statement by confirming how much money has been made available to the 1st team squad and amplified further with confirmation it's one of the biggest budgets in the division.
It comes across as arrogance of the very highest order.
It comes across as do you know who we are ? We are Sheffield Utd.
It comes across as being we are bigger richer and better than our L1 counterparts, who should bow to our vastness and superiority.
Which gets me to wondering if this arrogance is also present on the playing side and management team.
We have absolutely no right to positive results. They need to be earned. This starts with hard graft in training.
if the standard of football in this division is so diabolical, why aren't we running away with it then ??
Truth is, the standard is far from diabolical. It's the best standard of division 3 football that I can certainly remember.
Statements like Jims, in this context, are not at all helpful. It is a swipe at managers and players in that it is felt they are not doing enough. Ironically, I reckon Jims intention was more to rally the fans rather than rattle the players.
To finish, it's not going to be easy getting out of this division, wether by Auto or via Play Offs. Throwing shitloads of money at it is no guarantee of success. Jim and the board would do well to remember this.
All this of course IMHO and only that !!!!!!!
UTB