Guesty
Well-Known Member
That's what we were told after poor games early on. So we're they now, what judgements can we make?
The Blades currently sit 11th in the league, obviously much lower than we were expected to finish at the start of the season and far below the 'favourites' tag we were given (although I think that was a nonsense from the start). That said it's early days yet and we are only two points behind Chesterfield who are sixth. We're five points off second and already a whopping nine behind Bristol, who are top. Most damningly, we have a negative goal difference. In the third fucking tier. A good win next weekend could rectify some of these early problems, mind. A win could see us sneak into the play-off spots and even push beyond the GD- 0 mark.
The GD issue is symptomatic of the problems plaguing the side. We're simply not scoring the goals needed to get out of the division. We've not blown anyone away this season. In the consensus best performance of the season so far, against Gillingham, we left it until deep in injury time to snatch even a win by a single goal. People have pointed to Charlton 1-0ing their way to promotion but I contend that no-one wins titles by solely winning tight games and we simply do not look capable of hammering anybody.
Several posters were of the opinion that by the start of the season, any lingering doubts about the Prince and the funds available to Clough would be extinguished. Well that certainly hasn't been the case. Whatever the economic realities of signing players on 'frees' (which I know cost money), the wisdom of waiting until we're in the Championship before splashing the cash (which I contend is a fucking joke), it's hard to argue that the business done was disappointing and underwhelming. Fan favourties were not secured in Coady and Brayford, for instance. Brayford is understandable, it was always a long shot. Coady is a bit harder to swallow. For all that Huddersfield are on the league above us, it doesn't seem hard to imagine we could prove more attractive to him - arguably a bigger club, and one where he had flourished already. And what was that bollocks about being quoted £1M for him? Was that untrue, or did whoever conduct our negotiations singularly fail at his job to haggle them down? I refuse to believe that Liverpool sold him to one club for far less than they had quoted another 'just because'. Elsewhere no signing set the pulses racing, although Campbell-Ryce seemed a good get to me and seems to be doing well so far. Higdon was less convincing, and so it has proved. He hasn't been a total failure so far here but hardly seems the man to fire us up.
I said at the start of the season that most fans expected to expect us to get promoted at the end of last year, by the time August rolled around they no longer expected it, by and large (and yes I know that reads like a Donald Rumsfeld briefing).
Nothing has been won and lost yet (although title hopes look shakier every week) and we have looked a class above on occasions. Unfortunately we've not really played well for an entire game yet and as past seasons have shown points dropped at the beginning of the season are as vital as points dropped at the end.
I don't see myself as a slasher particularly, jumping on the club and team at every opportunity, but I'm the first to admit I tend towards the pessimistic. Let me know what you think of the season so far and what the team will do from here.
The Blades currently sit 11th in the league, obviously much lower than we were expected to finish at the start of the season and far below the 'favourites' tag we were given (although I think that was a nonsense from the start). That said it's early days yet and we are only two points behind Chesterfield who are sixth. We're five points off second and already a whopping nine behind Bristol, who are top. Most damningly, we have a negative goal difference. In the third fucking tier. A good win next weekend could rectify some of these early problems, mind. A win could see us sneak into the play-off spots and even push beyond the GD- 0 mark.
The GD issue is symptomatic of the problems plaguing the side. We're simply not scoring the goals needed to get out of the division. We've not blown anyone away this season. In the consensus best performance of the season so far, against Gillingham, we left it until deep in injury time to snatch even a win by a single goal. People have pointed to Charlton 1-0ing their way to promotion but I contend that no-one wins titles by solely winning tight games and we simply do not look capable of hammering anybody.
Several posters were of the opinion that by the start of the season, any lingering doubts about the Prince and the funds available to Clough would be extinguished. Well that certainly hasn't been the case. Whatever the economic realities of signing players on 'frees' (which I know cost money), the wisdom of waiting until we're in the Championship before splashing the cash (which I contend is a fucking joke), it's hard to argue that the business done was disappointing and underwhelming. Fan favourties were not secured in Coady and Brayford, for instance. Brayford is understandable, it was always a long shot. Coady is a bit harder to swallow. For all that Huddersfield are on the league above us, it doesn't seem hard to imagine we could prove more attractive to him - arguably a bigger club, and one where he had flourished already. And what was that bollocks about being quoted £1M for him? Was that untrue, or did whoever conduct our negotiations singularly fail at his job to haggle them down? I refuse to believe that Liverpool sold him to one club for far less than they had quoted another 'just because'. Elsewhere no signing set the pulses racing, although Campbell-Ryce seemed a good get to me and seems to be doing well so far. Higdon was less convincing, and so it has proved. He hasn't been a total failure so far here but hardly seems the man to fire us up.
I said at the start of the season that most fans expected to expect us to get promoted at the end of last year, by the time August rolled around they no longer expected it, by and large (and yes I know that reads like a Donald Rumsfeld briefing).
Nothing has been won and lost yet (although title hopes look shakier every week) and we have looked a class above on occasions. Unfortunately we've not really played well for an entire game yet and as past seasons have shown points dropped at the beginning of the season are as vital as points dropped at the end.
I don't see myself as a slasher particularly, jumping on the club and team at every opportunity, but I'm the first to admit I tend towards the pessimistic. Let me know what you think of the season so far and what the team will do from here.
