Simon Jordan - "Wendies Bigger club than Sheffield Utd"

[Sheffsteel]

That’s a bad miss by Campbell…he created his chance well but that should be 0-4.

.

 

[Sheffsteel]

H-T Leicester 0 Blades 3

The instant observation is playing style.

Leicester are playing a patient sideways passing style but it’s all very slow….almost identical to how we played under Selles.

United are clearly comfident and it’s noticeable we’re much more direct.
It’s suits us that the Leicester defenders are trying to push up to the half way line so there’s loads of space behind their defence.
Their players look lost like they’re instruction is to keep possession….for some reason they aren’t showing much intention to score,

In many ways it’s reminded me of the 2md half of the Sheff Wed match.
Leicester look rubbish and don’t even seem to be showing effort….it really looks like their players want their manager sacked.

We’re 3-0 up and it’s probably fair….we’ve had 2 other great chances..so could be 5-0 up.
Cooper hasn’t had a save to make and not even touched the ball.

The only potential,concern is the match has been too easy…shockingly easy.
Let’s hope the players stay focused and don’t switch off thinking the game is won.

 

[Brussblade]

Of course Wednesday are bigger if you base it on fanbase, that is just demographics. United are the biggest team in their territory. Wednesday the biggest in south Barnsley and all the places in between. But whomever buys the club has to turn a big fanbase from south yorkshire pit villages into performances on the pitch.

 

[GymClassHero]

Could not give less of a fuck what that clown says.

We have regularly finished above Wednesday the majority of this century, fact.

We have a smaller but far superior stadium, fact.

We were sold for circa £100m, Wednesday are likely to go for £20m, fact

Our squad is worth many times more than theirs, it's not even close, fact.

Anyone born this century will not give a toss that Wednesday had one good spell towards the end of 20th century, fact.

The bloke talks out his arse. Probably as he dislikes Wilder.

Let Wednesday think they're bigger, it's hilarious.

 

[Lupa The Noa]

I'm not saying I agree with this, but let's be honest many people share his view that Wednesday are a bigger club.

Maybe it's less important to me as I've not lived in Sheffield for 45 years, but who cares who is "bigger" anyway?

You can change the criteria to suit an argument one way or another, so it's meaningless in my vThese are absolutely my thoughts. So many cretins arguing over who's bigger, who's best, like a couple of 12 year olds arguing who's better, Ronaldo or Messi. I mean we're both fairly large clubs that are well supported, but have been shafted by terrible owners. Despite this, it seems to take up an incredibly high percentage of posts on here- mainly by people obsessing over the pigs whilst claiming that they're obsessed with us.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Of course Wednesday are bigger if you base it on fanbase, that is just demographics. United are the biggest team in their territory. Wednesday the biggest in south Barnsley and all the places in between. But whomever buys the club has to turn a big fanbase from south yorkshire pit villages into performances on the pitch.

How do you determine the size of a fanbase?

Surely a big fanbase has large attendances however the statistics show that SWFC are one of the few clubs in English that has never had an average attendance close to their stadium capacity and they’ve rarely had a home sell out in their history.

Their best ever season was in 2017 when they were in the play-offs all season and had their best support since the early 90’s when they averaged 27,129. ( a figure we’ve beaten for the past 6 consecutive seasons and we will again this season). In 2017 their working max capacity was 33,800.

So they managed to have their ground 80.2% full for a season….their highest ever.

Compare this to us….we’ve had our ground at least 90% full every season for the past 6 years.

 

[Alex Cheeseright]

Wednesday's name IS longer...thread closed

 

[ben1987]

He once had the opinion this was a great haircut.


View attachment 226496

Check mate, baby.

I agree with him it’s a great hair cut.

It lets everyone know he’s a cunt before he opens his mouth and frames the ugly piggy face beautifully

 

[Danetheblade]

To be fair. They are a club with a big potential.
And right now you could get them at a good price if you are willing to plough in 10s of millions and be patient. You can possibly realistically see them have a bright future. How good, who knows. They are not part of England footballs elite as some of them may think though.
And look at how tough it's been for Leeds to get "back to where they belong"

Are they bigger than us? Completely depends on what metric you want to use.
Ultimately it's down to individual perception. I would say that most fans/followers of English football who are older than 30 years plus they would mostly say yes.
Younger fans and people from outside of England possibly would say us.

What I would say is, they were the bigger club undoubtedly for a long while through the 80-90s. And that our fanbase has quite markedly increased on average overall since 2000. At least the fans that consistently go have. We have also built on infrastructure better. (Although way more to do still)

At the end of the day It doesn't matter really.

I'd class us as much bigger than Brentford and Bournemouth as a club. And similar to Fulham, Palace and Brighton.
None of them care diddly as to if we are bigger or similar size to them.

Big potential... After spending 100m/200m to get them to an average Championship set up aye..

 

[FATTYFOULKE]

How can anyone doubt how big they are. We all know how they’re going to average 30,000 until the end of the season because that’s what Warnock and the administrators told us would happen and was needed.

Here’s today’s attendance of 30,000 inside Hillsborough.

 

[Sheffsteel]

To be fair. They are a club with a big potential.
And right now you could get them at a good price if you are willing to plough in 10s of millions and be patient. You can possibly realistically see them have a bright future. How good, who knows. They are not part of England footballs elite as some of them may think though.
And look at how tough it's been for Leeds to get "back to where they belong"

Are they bigger than us? Completely depends on what metric you want to use.
Ultimately it's down to individual perception. I would say that most fans/followers of English football who are older than 30 years plus they would mostly say yes.
Younger fans and people from outside of England possibly would say us.

What I would say is, they were the bigger club undoubtedly for a long while through the 80-90s. And that our fanbase has quite markedly increased on average overall since 2000. At least the fans that consistently go have. We have also built on infrastructure better. (Although way more to do still)

At the end of the day It doesn't matter really.

I'd class us as much bigger than Brentford and Bournemouth as a club. And similar to Fulham, Palace and Brighton.
None of them care diddly as to if we are bigger or similar size to them.

Kind of disagree…..the size of a club isn’t down to perception….as anyone could say anything.
I could say Plymouth are one of the biggest clubs in England having the population of Devon and Cornwall on their doorstep.

When deciding size of a club it’s always best to use facts….the normal big club metrics are
Trophies won, Historical average attendances, seasons in the top flight, top 10 finishes, seasons in Europe, stadium size, finances/ infrastructure.
Then you have to factor of a weighting towards more recent history being recent history is more meaningful.
Most of our impressive big club stats relate to pre-war.

Of course we’re historically bigger than Brentford and AFC Bournemouth.
In fact I’d argue (based on statistical data/ facts) that Doncaster Rovers are historically bigger than Bournemouth.
Bournmouth have spent almost their entire history at 3rd tier level
And currently hold the record for spending the most seasons (69) at league 1 level.

Also historically we’re a far bigger club than Brighton, Fulham and Crystal Palace

We have a lot more trophies than those 3….much bigger historical average attendances.
Also we’ve spent most of our history in the top flight (62 seasons)

Where as Brighton have been in the top flight 12 seasons, Fulham 30 seasons and Palace 25 seasons.

However as already said….Bournmouth have proven you don’t need to be a big club to have success in the PL and you only have to look at Leeds United…one of the bigger clubs in England with big financial backing, yet they’re really struggling to establish themselves in the top flight.

 

[Tuns25]

We may not be truly massive but we do play ourselves and our potential down sometimes in a kind of reversal of pig ideology. Maybe that has become a bit self fulfilling.

We're a bigger club than Palace, Brighton and Fulham.

 

[originaltrueblade]

What rubbish Simon Jordan talks!

Incorrect Simon….Blades much the bigger club ….only 22,000 at swillsborough today..can’t blame Chansari now

 

[Koh Samui Blade]

Incorrect Simon….Blades much the bigger club ….only 22,000 at swillsborough today..can’t blame Chansari now

How many from Preston

 

[Numpty's Dusty Ruts.]

Of course Wednesday are bigger if you base it on fanbase, that is just demographics. United are the biggest team in their territory. Wednesday the biggest in south Barnsley and all the places in between. But whomever buys the club has to turn a big fanbase from south yorkshire pit villages into performances on the pitch.

I live in "real Barnsley" and can categorically state that outside Penistone/Wortley (which tend to class themselves as Sheffield anyway), Wendies tend to be a very rare species indeed.

 

[Paulus]

We may not be truly massive but we do play ourselves and our potential down sometimes in a kind of reversal of pig ideology. Maybe that has become a bit self fulfilling.

We're a bigger club than Palace, Brighton and Fulham.

On the same basis as us being a bigger team than Midweek ie current indications, we really are not a bigger team than either Palace, BHA or Fulham.

 

[Hanauer]

I actually think Hillsborough itself is what gives them this idea of "massiveness". But let's be right, it's not the size it is (was) because of Wednesday, it's because the FA at some point saw fit to invest in it for the purposes of semi-finals, Euros etc. The average attendance numbers prove they can't consistently fill it. Sure, on occasions, they get up to c35k, but I hazard a guess that if we, or other teams in similarly sized cities, had big stand out games, we'd get similar numbers.

Spot on. Too many clowns have equated the size of the ground with the support. has never been near it. One of the great grounds but the %age attending has always been pathetic.

 

[DerbyDave]

As a Derby supporter, I like to think I can be objective
I quite like Simon , I feel he talks a lot of sense on many subjects
But I'm scratching my head at his apparent love of Wednesday..he bangs on about them regularly
As someone who enjoys the stats of games , I know full well Sheff Utd have consistently averaged bigger crowds over many years now , and have been present in the Premier league several times these last 20 years..

Quite how he comes to the conclusion Wednesday are a " much bigger club "is a mystery, I can only assume he has an ulterior motive for promoting them at every opportunity

 

[Sheffsteel]

How many from Preston

2,376 Preston fans
20,276 Wednesday fans
Total crowd 22,652

They have 19K season ticket holders that are auto counted in the attendance whether they attend or not.
So in there hours of need….with cheap ticket deals….they’ve managed to shift probably less than 1000 tickets.

 

[Sheffsteel]

On the same basis as us being a bigger team than Midweek ie current indications, we really are not a bigger team than either Palace, BHA or Fulham.

When people say “bigger”….it needs to be pre-fixed by either “currently” or “historically”.
Agree every club in the Premier is currently bigger than us but of course AFC Bournemouth are historically a really small club….factually smaller than Barnsley.

Looking at all the data…of course we’re currently factually bigger than SW in every stat….apart from debt.
Even historically over recent history (the last 25 years)….comparing the data…again we are factually bigger than SW.

However historically from 1890 to 2025….then comparing the data….Wednesday are factually bigger than us….but the stats are very close.
Also subjectively there should a weighting towards recent history (especially the here and now) as living memory is what counts regards reputation.

For example
Major trophies won: Sheff Wed 8 Sheff Utd 5
Historical average attendance: Sheff Wed 21.5K, Sheff Utd 19.5K
Seasons in the top flight: Sheff Wed 66, Sheff Utd 63
Seasons in Europe: Sheff Wed 2, Sheff Utd 0
A stat we win is the historical head to head matches…..we’re about 6 wins in front.

 

[Hanauer]

Apart from the seasons 1948/54 when they averaged 40000+ the rest of the time the attendances have been around 1700 difference. Apart from those seasons they have averaged above 30K 7 times in 150+ years, 10 times in all, same as us. The size of the ground and the massive away fans area has also helped. But in my mind one of the main factors have been the grounds themselves. Pigs had for many years a vast, super stadium, that's why they got semi finals and International games. We had a 3 sided bit of a dump. All in all if the records were reversed we would be miles in front support wise.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Good points and also you need to factor in their success.

In the early 60’s and early 90’s for 2 seasons each decade they had one of the best teams in the league that were genuine contenders for the title. The early 90’s team had plenty of stars and internationals playing really entertaining football too. This what Simon Jordan remembers. They also appeared in cup finals in 66, 92 and 93 twice. Also even in recent history won 2 play-off finals.

You sense most of their fans only support them because they expect to see success.

We must have one of the best fan bases in Europe. No success for over 100 years, since the war no cup final appearances, no Europe, not even a playoff final win. Yet we still pull close to 30K most weeks.

You certainly can’t class any living Blade as a “glory hunter”.

However it could be worse, at least it’s never boring being a Blade. We’ve had plenty of good cup runs in the FA cup, however we’re currently on a run of failing to win our last 8 FA cup semi finals . Spent most of our history in the top flight and at 2nd tier level have a remarkable record of nearly always (66% of the time) being involved in a promotion push back to the too flight. In fact when outside the top flight we so often seem to be involved in and around the promotion battle, it’s normal.

 

[wadblade]

They will be even bigger after we buy them

 

[diode_blade]

He's a knob

 

[Rob86]

It’s all quite subjective really until we are battling for against each other for something significant in the same division. I have no idea what the attendance average was for each club during that League 1 season where we were fighting it out for the autos.

If both teams were in the Premier League, fighting it out in the Champions League places, ticket prices were the same, we’d both got new 50k seater stadiums - they maybe get 5k more.

Based on what is needed to more accurately measure it, which won’t ever happen, there’s little point in worrying about it

 

[calcalcal]

Jordan spouting self interested nonsense here. Pigs were an establishment club in the 90s but have done nothing for 2 decades.

Leeds > us > oinkers
Clearly in that order

Things that happened 30 years ago aren't relevant any more. There's an Italian side who won serie a 7 times but nobody's heard of them. Napoli have won 2 or 3 - are they bigger than napoli? Hell no

 

[steve26272]

There is no set metric, so any club can claim to be bigger in different ways

Bournemouth will claim to be bigger than both Sheffield teams by looking at players and value of the club, manager, league position and been an established EPL side.
But they get 12k and ain’t won anything?!

For me it’s cyclical, right now us and Man City are on top, 25 years ago it was pigs and Man U

Them claiming to be the bigger club is because they know right now their way below us, so claim any owd bollox to massage their scruff egos