Joe Ashton in The Star

[1889]

Why not get rid of Wednesday and just have Utd and Utd reserves?

 

[Bladesman]

They are the ones that need a merge considering the team have to use a boat to get round the ground.

 

[travellingblade]

For me the key sentence is:-

"............ I think the majority of Sheffielders would get behind one team. "

This may be true, but a vast number of supporters of both teams are no longer "Sheffielders". It is a fact that the ONLY time I now go to Sheffield is to support MY team, Sheffield United, and if there was a merger, unless it was played at Bramall Lane, in a kit of RED & WHITE stripes, and under the name of Sheffield United, I would not attend, nor would I suggest the majority of people on this web site.

I would suggest that the merged team, playing at Hillsborough, would get very few more supporters than each of the current clubs, and where would he see the money coming from?

As he says both current chairmen are wanting to bale out, so would the city council step in? .... no way.

Absolute nonsense, the whole idea, in my opinion.

 

[Silent Blade]

Surely if you merge the two teams together then it should be called Sheffield United.

We will always support Sheffield United, not an united Sheffield

 

[Patrick Suffaux]

It is all down to success on the pitch and how the club are marketed.

Pretty much yes. The only difference between United and the Pigs is that we have never really stuck our neck out as a club and gone for it. We have had a few half hearted attempts but never wanted to do more than dip our toe into the water.

The other lot went for it big time but made some absolutely shocking decisions in the process. I know people think McCabe made mistakes with managers and signings but it doesn't remotely compare to some of the S6 cock ups.

 

[felix]

I was only kidding, folks. Living in Sheffield means you have to like one team more than the other and for what it's worth, since my house is in Woodseats and because I don't like Hillsborough, I prefer the Blades. Having made my choice, I wouldn't support the Owls even if they were in the Champions League, which isn't likely to happen in any of our lifetimes.

Funny thought though (stop me if I have said this before) but if Wednesday had chosen Bramall Lane rather than Olive Grove there would have been no need for another team, in which case there would be no Sheffield United FC and probably no other Uniteds either. There would be a team called Wednesday wearing blue and white stripes, nicknamed the Blades and playing at the Lane. Imagine that!

 

[wardonia_blade]

Let it happen. Give me the excuse to stop going that I have been looking for for the past 50 seasons

 

[CG Blade]

Oh and Joe Ashton... Met him twice- Not a likeable chap.[/quote]
He is related to my ex wife, horrible little man, turns out the ex wife was a horrible little woman. Must be a family thing.
He has nothing better to do, just wants the publicity. Arse

 

[Karaoke Blade]

What a cunt

 

[blade too long]

Joe Ashton is obviously oblivious to our champions league by 2018 plan under Clough

 

[boo radley]

Who want to go to a football match in Wellies? I see the suggestion as pure Pig Swill.

 

[Dnblade]

It is ridiculous and the logic is flawed.

The intention of creating one professional club in Sheffield would obviously result in three. FC Sheffield United and FC Sheffield Wednesday would be created by die hard fans who would not support the new club and then therre would be whatever the combined entity is called. So the result would be precisely the opposite of what was set out to achieve.

And where is the logic in.... much smaller places have successful premiership teams but we as a big city can't potentially sustain two Mr Ashton?

It's not for me,but I agree that United and Wendy would reinvent themselves at the bottom of the pyramid,and as the likes of Wimbledon have proved...one or both could be back in the FL before a merged club could have established itself in League terms,and also in terms of growing a Fanbase.
Then like Eskimo says,you end up with 3 teams which defeats the purpose of a merged team.

 

[United Aren't Back.]

For me, exiled in Leeds since 1969, there would be nothing to come home for any more so it would be goodbye Sheffield for me.

I'd probably go and watch Guiseley

You may as well do it now. Save a lot of cash..though how you live in Leeds is something i can`t grasp. I lived there and the football arrogance of their" Loids" morons makes me cringe.

 

[grafikhaus]

They are the ones that need a merge considering the team have to use a boat to get round the ground.

Many a true word etc. Funny how this 'merger' talk always re-surfaces when the Pigs are heading for deep shit. Don't recall any such talk in the early '90s.

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

You may as well do it now. Save a lot of cash..though how you live in Leeds is something i can`t grasp. I lived there and the football arrogance of their" Loids" morons makes me cringe.

I went to teacher training college in Leeds in 1969 and married in 1975. At that time Leeds was a dump but we had a good social life with fiends who all came to Leeds for College or Uni.

Since then Leeds has become a fantastic city to live and work in, great restaurants, good facilities.

Nothing to make me leave really I guess

 

[kingston RAWW]

I am surprised that nobody has bought Sheffield FC as a brand, and bought Sheffield arena.
If AFC Wimbledon can do it, in what 9 years?
I can see it "Sheffield F.C. Sheffield's second favourite football team".

 

[Bladesman]

I went to teacher training college in Leeds in 1969 and married in 1975. At that time Leeds was a dump but we had a good social life with fiends who all came to Leeds for College or Uni.

Since then Leeds has become a fantastic city to live and work in, great restaurants, good facilities.

Nothing to make me leave really I guess

Just the downside is you have to put up with L**ds fans?

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

Just the downside is you have to put up with L**ds fans?

Mrs BoSS is a Leeds fan - most of our local friends are as well.

Good banter - just can't wait to start thrashing them again!

 

[SandyMcBlade]

It's an obvious fact that both or either club with any kind of success could easily have 20 to 30,000 supporters.
We all know the support is there already, it's the lack of investment, ambition and leadership from the directors that's the problem, and I can't see that being any different with one club than it is with the present two.
All we would do is lose the very thing that keeps football in this City alive, the rivalry between the Blades and the Owls

 

[shorehamview]

In theory it's a fucking brilliant plan but practically it's bollocks. Like these berks that keep inventing flying cars without giving even a nanosecond of thought to what will happen when the skies are full of flying cars piloted with the same skill levels as many currently driving and crashing everywhere. It's a great idea that's had the same amount of thought applied to it as a monkey gives to where it will scratch next.

Amalgamate the two clubs and get the city unified. Yes Joe, but not in the way you imagine. In fact Joe, totally the opposite - your dream of a merged club will only result in unifying the two sets of supporters vehemently against the plan. I reckon that if this goes ahead the new super-club will get around 500 deluded souls from the current sets of fans and will have to start basically from scratch. Meanwhile the dispossessed former followers of United and Wednesday will be forming their own new clubs, or maybe they'll be watching others - Sheffield FC and Stocksbridge Park Steels perhaps.

I'd rather watch Sheffield FC than Sheffield City, or whatever Mr. Ashton would have this new super-club called. And which division will they start in? Unibond Division Five, or whatever the lowest on the rung is.

It'll be a great derby match. FC United of Sheffield v Sheffield City? Welcome to New Bramall Lane, Joe. You can call it"hell" though, because for you it will be just that.

 

[JohnDenver]

I reckon that if this goes ahead the new super-club will get around 500 deluded souls from the current sets of fans

They'll be overwhelmingly made up of glory seeking Wendy fans. After all, you'd have to be prize bellend to begin with.

 

[metalblade]

I went to teacher training college in Leeds in 1969 and married in 1975. At that time Leeds was a dump but we had a good social life with fiends who all came to Leeds for College or Uni.

Since then Leeds has become a fantastic city to live and work in, great restaurants, good facilities.

Nothing to make me leave really I guess

Strange I thought it was an open prison, on my last visit to the shithole called Leeds I noticed most houses had iron bars at the doors and windows, is that to keep the residents in or the burglars out surely it can't be for decoration ................... makes Page Hall look an up market area.

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

Strange I thought it was an open prison, on my last visit to the shithole called Leeds I noticed most houses had iron bars at the doors and windows, is that to keep the residents in or the burglars out surely it can't be for decoration ................... makes Page Hall look an up market area.

Well, they wouldn't let you in the decent areas would they?

 

[Gavlar]

Indeed. It's amazing the power of sentiment. Bristol is an even more stark example. Here we have the 7th biggest city in England with 2 teams who between them have only had 4 years in the top flight (City 1976-80) in the last 80ish years and where neither team has ever won anything. Common sense would suggest the city should have just one club, but I bet the City and Rovers fans say exactly what United and Wednesday fans say whenever the talk of merger comes up.

Totally agree Darren, Rovers being my 2nd team adopted when I arrived here, neither the blue or red half of Bristol wants it to happen, and I cant see it happening in Sheffield either.