pommpey
THE FUTURE ... AS IT USED TO BE
- Thread starter
- Banned
- #91
Yes we would be a top 10 Championship club. But I'd like folk's views on what has changed so much since 1976. Our history before this had mainly been mid-table 1st tier, with the occasional better season, and then a shite season to get relegated. A couple of years in Tier 2, then we'd expect to be promoted. Until 1978, we had never finished below 11th in the 2nd Tier. Looking at this, http://alltimeleaguetable.co.uk/ , we rank 18th in the all-time League positions. And this is skewed lower because of our big downturn since 1976. All the original clubs are still there that were there in 1976. And it's not as if our position has been pushed down by the likes of Barcelona, Real, Bayern, Juventus, Ajax, Benfica, Dortmund etc. joining our League is it?
So what's changed to make us so much worse since '76?
The collapse of 'Sheffield', itself. The city has always sat beneath the bright lights, big-city feel of Leeds and Manchester, and whereas Leeds has recovered enough from it's milling trade, Manchester from a similar line, the demise of heavy industry has never rebounded to bestow great fortune upon our great metropolis. Sheffield has always struggled. It has never properly gentrified itself even enough to rise to the great middle class resurgence, and that is the fault of legions of incompetent socialist administrations running the city as some bargain, discount fiefdom. Leeds on the other hand, even having less kudos, has managed to effectively stand itself up as 'the Capital of Yorkshire'. All of this mirrors wonderfully with the cities' football teams. Both Leeds and Man City have, in the past twenty years, been where we have been. Man United - possibly one of the biggest clubs on the planet - are in a real, running-sore crisis since Ferguson left and can't confidently say that in any given season they will have silverware in their cabinet ... when twenty years ago they were winning trophies just for shits and giggles. But still they get investment and glamour, even when they are getting trunked by Watford. Us and the pigs ... even that lot still hold more affection in the public eye ... are seen as Timmy Try Hards, from that city where the Human League and Joe Cocker (and sometimes the Monkeys, if we are lucky) and after that, the conversation about the sixth biggest city in Britain ends abruptly. Since 1976, what have 'we' ... (I say this figuratively as an exile of 41 years) ... United, Pigs and Sheffield itself actually done to blow the country away save for produce a few notable bands, some sports people and the Miner's Strike? As much as I love the place, no one wants to invest, no one wants to build and no one wants to be that bothered, particularly since the mid seventies ... crippling unionisation ... eighties ... horrific Thatcherism and the polarity of the city as a socialist nirvana and nineties when everything Madchester stole the show and Sheffield practically disappeared off the map. We've never punched our weight, have us Sheffielders, despite the place having such potential some great personalities and intent and maybe people living inside the boundaries have trouble seeing that. Living 220 miles away I see it clearly, and its a fucking shame. When it comes to either club living and existing in the top flight it's never a case of if we get dumped back down, but when. If we get an investor in our club it's never a case of endless riches and signings which make your bowels loosen with anticipation. Its more a case of Wikipediaing them and then hoping to fuck there's a player in there who will deliver the goods. If we even get a manger like Wilder most of us are wondering when his sphincter will give way and he shits himself down his leg. Wolves last season two minutes in was that very moment for me. Up to first lockdown did anyone - REALLY - think, 'fuck me, we've made it here. We're in the PL for decades now. Bring it on!' or did people think, 'this won't fucking last'. We are always found out and there's never a solution, a plan B or a safety net to catch us. We say 'It'll be reyt' but we know it won't be. We are always that plucky also rans instead of someone like Leicester City who despite their inherent crises, manage to confound us all and win the fucking Premier League in someone's lifetime and stay in the top flight longer than one or two seasons.
Us? Fucking dream on. Bright lights and big city? Never.
Its the Sheffield United Way.
pommpey