Should We............

[SUFC Handsworth]

The biggest indictment of the current regime is that this is turning out to be the second worse season in our history (80-81 being the worst), remember Adkins has taken virtually the same team that made two semi-finals and the play-offs to mid-table none entities, who have been dreadful most of the season.

For my money he should be sacked before he can do any more damage.

 

[Silent Blade]

Not that well. Got them promoted, then relegated and subsequent stagnation. I thought he was more of an Aidy Boothroyd type one season wonder.

Luton had very low attendances and he made good signings. Admit it, you had higher hopes at the time he was appointed as our new manager especially after 505151. It is easy to say afterwards that he was a poor manager for us

 

[Treeton Blade]

Have made Cec Coldwell as First Team manager instead of appointing Harry Haslam in January 1978?

Still keeps me awake at nights

 

[BushBlade]

Luton had very low attendances and he made good signings. Admit it, you had higher hopes at the time he was appointed as our new manager especially after 505151. It is easy to say afterwards that he was a poor manager for us

I can barely remember it. I'm not that old.

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

Another quote from back in the day...

"Forget Peters & Lee, it's Peters & Me"

"Happy" sure was a comedian.

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

Sheffield United 1979-80
​

 

[Silent Blade]

Sheffield United 1979-80
​

I had left school (near Newbury), decided to buy a season ticket but my dad decided against having one for himself. I was shocked at the new kit and found it hard to like it. Was excited at the signings of another Argentinian in Pedro Verde and of the Dutch midfielder Leendert De Goey. Was the above photo taken before the season started? If so, why wasnt Ian Benjamin in it? If the photo was taken just after Benjamin left for WBA at end of August then why wasnt Sabella in it? Am trying to remember the reason for Sabella's delayed start to the season, what was it?

Not long after buying my season ticket I had decided to play football regularly on Saturdays so my dad used my season ticket when there was a home game I couldnt go to. It meant I had become a part time Blade and didnt become a Lane regular again until Bassett became our manager.

We were at the top of the league on Xmas Day and Wendy were around mid table but the BDM changed everything as we won only 4 games after that, finishing in mid-table and Wendy went up with Grimsby and Blackburn

 

[SUFC Handsworth]

Sheffield United 1979-80
​

That lot still keeps me awake at night ... with horror!

Silent, seem to recall something from the Sabella book about him going back to Argentina that summer, might have been for personal reasons but with the club's blessings. My step-Dad used to be a taxi driver in those days and taxied Sabella a few times. Sabella didn't speak much English, so he'd have been baffled with a taxi driver talking to him in a broad Barnsley accent!

In 80-81 I'm sure the club did two photo shoots (one in the summer and one in the winter) and possibly did two in 78-79, could they have done the same in 79-80?

As for Haslam, you never know how it will pan-out with a new manager (look at Adkins for a good example, who'd have thought we'd have had a season like this with a manager with 3 promotions from this division on his cv), but the alarm bells should have been ringing in the boardroom (I'd say enough to sack him) once we were relegated to the 3rd division for the first time in 1979. Haslam had had 1/2 a season to look at the team and instil his ideas and players he wanted for the start of 78/79. We ended up being dreadful and relegated, with most of the crop of decent young players being sold and replaced by aged has-beens who would have been on considerably more money. My biggest worry now is that there's a lot of (too many) similarities between the current lot and the Haslam era.

 

[ZoneManWilf]

Sheffield United 1979-80
​

This was the team my Dad took me to watch for my first match when I was 3.

Thanks Dad.

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

Adkins is indeed showing similar 'qualities' in ditching all the youngsters and signing old farts. As much as i'd like to believe his line of signing fast young hungry players, where is the evidence?

I think Adkins brief this season is to survive and not make the playoffs.

Close season will see the big clear out and he can then rebuild.

There was never going to be any evidence this season, very disappointing I know but this thinking does give you a light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[Jostein's Bandage]

Yes, he's a very bad man.

The way he has 'ditched' Adams, Whiteman, Reed and Calvert Lewis this season is shocking.

I could just as easily reel off a load of young players he has ditched. And yes, i'm counting on loan as ditched, because they aren't playing for us. McNulty, Scougall, Freeman, DiMaio. The players you can mention have played about 10 games between them all season! Adams spent long periods not in the team, same with Reed, Calvert-Lewin was thought of so highly he was shipped off to division 4 and Whiteman has played about 15 minutes. Whereas the only players Adkins has brought in have a combined age of about 200.