Sleeping Giants? - Blades "catatonic"

[Alfreton14Blade]

According to this analysis anyway, which whittles down the Sleeping Giants of English football to just three teams - us, pigs & Dirty Leeds.

Pigs come off slightly better than us - they're merely "comatose"...

http://footysphere.com/post/857841932/sleeping-giants-english-football

But "Eighty-five years since winning anything of note"... & counting. Stark. As we, the original United, prepare to meet an actual giant.

 

[Barney]

Putting aside everything else to compare where we are with where we should be, it's shameful.

 

[blade too long]

winning trophies no we havent

but over the years weve won more bread and butter league games than 86 of the 92

http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/all-time-table
and weve spent all but 11 seasons in the top 2 tiers

and its quite amazing weve reached 5 cup semi finals as a club outside the top tier
better than a lot of prem teams

 

[Alfreton14Blade]

Putting aside everything else to compare where we are with where we should be, it's shameful.

It is. Especially as the criteria they use - clubs outside the prem who are (i) among the twenty most successful historically; & (ii) among the twenty best supported historically - are pretty fair.

 

[Rodley]

It is. Especially as the criteria they use - clubs outside the prem who are (i) among the twenty most successful historically; & (ii) among the twenty best supported historically - are pretty fair.

Isn't it from a Unitedite's blog?

 

[Alfreton14Blade]

Isn't it from a Unitedite's blog?

Not sure, mate. May well be - I came across it through clicking on a link on NewsNow, which was to a photo of Bobby Atkins being carried aloft after hitting that last minute winner at Rotherham back in the eighties (the game when the wall collapsed if I remember right?). The Sleeping Giants article is another one from the same site (footysphere).

Here's the photo. A classic -

 

[HighfieldBlade]

...So for the first part of our analysis we will only look at clubs that are currently outside the Premiership and who have won both the English top flight title and the FA Cup. Here they are ranked by the number of trophies won ..

• Nottingham Forest - 9
• Sheffield Wednesday - 8
• Leeds United - 7
• Sheffield United - 5
• Huddersfield Town - 4
• Portsmouth - 4
• Preston North End - 4
• Burnley - 3
• Derby County - 3
• Ipswich Town - 3

No Wolves in the list, I'm surprised at that.

 

[mattbianco1]

According to this analysis anyway, which whittles down the Sleeping Giants of English football to just three teams - us, pigs & Dirty Leeds.

Pigs come off slightly better than us - they're merely "comatose"...

http://footysphere.com/post/857841932/sleeping-giants-english-football

But "Eighty-five years since winning anything of note"... & counting. Stark. As we, the original United, prepare to meet an actual giant.

Haha. They missed off the piggies league cup success as their most recent win.

Also, Forest should top that list based on success alone.

 

[metalblade]

I don't know about catatonic, more like a corpse.

 

[WhiteHawk]

Also, Forest should top that list based on success alone.

They do, and it looks like they aren't including the European Cup wins. It's got them nowhere on the attendances though.

 

[blade too long]

surely newcastle fall into this bracket
one also rans fairs cup win in the sixties
55000 gates
but nowt much to polish since Bill Hayley was number one
yo yoing in and out of the top


Leeds won the title in the nineties and got to the cl semis under o really

cant see what they are in there for

 

[coaxingstar71]

No Wolves in the list, I'm surprised at that.

It's a good call Maz, but it may be that the article came out sometime between 2009 and 2012, when Wolves were in the top flight.

Surely our illustrious neighbours should be in a list all of their own titled 'What defines a MASSIVE club?'

 

[mattbianco1]

surely newcastle fall into this bracketr

Not classed as "sleeping" as they're still in the top flight

 

[bartman]

Not sure, mate. May well be - I came across it through clicking on a link on NewsNow, which was to a photo of Bobby Atkins being carried aloft after hitting that last minute winner at Rotherham back in the eighties (the game when the wall collapsed if I remember right?). The Sleeping Giants article is another one from the same site (footysphere).

Here's the photo. A classic -

The 'wall collapse ' game was in 1979 I think. We won two one.( Butlin and Bourne ? )The Pigs went there the week after and the wall collapsed again

 

[JonnyRed(WCFC)]

Royal Engineers, Old Etonians and The Wanderers had all that success in the early years after the Football League began, sleeping dinosaurs!!

 

[blade too long]

Not classed as "sleeping" as they're still in the top flight

till May

 

[vorpal blade]

the Old Etonians are still doing very nicely thank you JonnyRed

 

[blade too long]

Ive played for the Royal Engineers, when I was in it , played against the Marines at Fratton Park

 

[vorpal blade]

& I played for Hampstead Heathens -

you basterds beat us in the 1872 quarter final

 

[SwissBlade]

Putting aside everything else to compare where we are with where we should be, it's shameful.

The position of the last 5 years is probably below where we've been most of our life as a club

 

[Bladesway]

According to this analysis anyway, which whittles down the Sleeping Giants of English football to just three teams - us, pigs & Dirty Leeds.

Pigs come off slightly better than us - they're merely "comatose"...

http://footysphere.com/post/857841932/sleeping-giants-english-football

But "Eighty-five years since winning anything of note"... & counting. Stark. As we, the original United, prepare to meet an actual giant.

Great analysis apparently missed by most judging by the responses. BTL still thinks its great, but I guess he is the sort of bloke who would be happy having a shower in a concentration camp.

For me this shows several things. What fantastic long term support we have as a club. The fact that there are two clubs failing in the same City (could only happen in Sheffield) actually shows what solid support both sides have and combined how loyal Sheffield people are to their football teams. Admirable.

On the downside it shows how fucking shit we are at managing our team, what shit boards we have had to put up with, how money has been pissed down the can in spite of crowds being amongst the biggest in the country. It shows contemptible mismanagement at the top of the business in recent years and even now we apparently have money (not sure how much, when and where) we cannot put a coherent bunch of people together to manage, play and run the club.

The fans take all the credit in this.

 

[Silent Blade]

Royal Engineers, Old Etonians and The Wanderers had all that success in the early years before the Football League began, sleeping dinosaurs!!

Fixed it for you!

 

[Bladesince59]

winning trophies no we havent

but over the years weve won more bread and butter league games than 86 of the 92

http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/all-time-table
and weve spent all but 11 seasons in the top 2 tiers

and its quite amazing weve reached 5 cup semi finals as a club outside the top tier
better than a lot of prem teams

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

Giant?

Let's not get too drunk on a term that's used and abused on many a footballer and club.

We've NEVER been a Giant, nor will we ever will be, not in this lifetime.

 

[FATTYFOULKE]

Giant?

Let's not get too drunk on a term that's used and abused on many a footballer and club.

We've NEVER been a Giant, nor will we ever will be, not in this lifetime.

We're giants compared to some minnows. In this division for example.

 

[Old Skool]

Lydon has a point based on our recent history. However, we USED to be.........the important thing is to work out how the hell we can at least get back to where a club of our size should be......cue argument and debate about where that should be........

 

[FATTYFOULKE]

Lydon has a point based on our recent history. However, we USED to be.........the important thing is to work out how the hell we can at least get back to where a club of our size should be......cue argument and debate about where that should be........

Top division, no debate. It's only since the 70's we've become 2nd rate. Might seem a lifetime to some but up until then we had a history to compare with all today's top clubs.

It can only be put down to mismanagement combined with a lack of ambition and belief. We have the potential to be a top club. Sadly under the current set up I don't think we'll ever achieve it.

We need a single owner wit the balls, money and determination to see our potential and snap us up. I don't care what anybody says, United could be a top top club if we found someone like that.

 

[Grappler]

I remember Warnock's team getting relegated from the Premiership, which became Blackwell's team. We hovered around the top 10 for a few seasons and then one year we finished 8th or something like that, then sank like the proverbial stone, how I wish we were still in that position!

 

[Old Skool]

Oh when the Blades.......go marching in....Oh when the Blades go marching in.........I wanna be...in that number....Oh when the Blades go marching in !!!!

 

[bornablade]

Lydon has a point based on our recent history. However, we USED to be.........the important thing is to work out how the hell we can at least get back to where a club of our size should be......cue argument and debate about where that should be........

'...where should we be'. This all depends upon each individual supporters circumstances.

I started going to BDTBL in 1964. In the next 12 seasons I watched us play in the top flight in 9 of those 12 seasons. From 1976 - present (35 seasons) we have only been in the top flight for 5 seasons.

1964 - 1976 were my formative years. Because of 'where we were' in those years I cannot think of us as anything else other than a top flight club.

For those supporters who say started going from say post 1994 may well see us as a 2nd or 3rd division club.

(I have deliberately used the term 'top flight' because I do find it difficult in recognising us as a Premier League Club).