Smells like team spirit

[jodman]

Before this season began I didn’t expect us to be able to compete with half the teams in the league, from the outside looking in the premiership looks like a massive step up from the championship.

The bottom line is that we are getting better with every game and the only teams that we have come up against that have been substantially better then us are Man Utd and Chelsea (I have only been to 5 away games this season so am only taking home form into account really).

I have come to the conclusion that the reason for this is down to the fact that every staff member at Bramall lane wants the club to do well, defeats hurt our boys like it hurts us fans. Do you think that the likes of Mido and Chimbonda lost any sleep at all following the defeat for spurs at the weekend?

If a player is being paid 20k + a week then, in my opinion, their primary motivation has to be the money in most cases. Mido and Chimbonda will both be getting paid tens of thousands of pounds regardless of the result and each knows that they can move on to other clubs if success isn’t forthcoming at spurs.

I guess my point is that we have a group of players and staff that really want the club to succeed and I think that is what is giving us something extra, how else can you explain how players that were written off as championship class have made the step up with ease?

I’m proud of the lads and wouldn’t swap our squad for spurs right now, I love everything about the way were are playing and I love the fact that it is a majority of British personnel that have taken us this far. I just hope that if we reach our goals and stay in the premiership we don’t splash out on paycheque players who will not sweat blood for the cause like the current crop do.

It’s a great time to be a blade and long may it continue.

 

[Foxy]

Great post!

Do you think that the likes of Mido and Chimbonda lost any sleep at all following the defeat for spurs at the weekend?

As he was coming off the pitch Warnock shook Mido's hand and said something to him, Mido was then grinning and looking happy as larry. For me, after a loss like that, i'd want my players to be so gutted they couldn't even raise a smirk.

 

[silverfox]

Indeed a good post.

I'm just glad we never had, what I expected, a real collapse by the team at an away match with it ending 6/7 nil.

I think even when we have been losing that team spirit has shown through and made it easier for the fans to stay behind the team.

We, the fans, must do all we can now to show the team we are right behind them.

As you say, long may it continue.

 

[S64 Blade]

Great post that!

I agree the team spirit here is fantastic and thats why we WILL stay up. 5 years time this club will have progressed even further as long as we dont do nothing daft!

Id add Reading to the list of teams that have caused us problems. But they are a club that we can compete with and better i think. Sheffield deserves a big club again and we are going to be that team.

Up The Blades!

 

[jodman]

Id add Reading to the list of teams that have caused us problems.

Agreed, they have been the best team we have played over 2 games so far this season and i would say they are the closest to us in terms of team spirit.

But I still hate them

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

Word of caution and wisdom from misery old git!

Those words 'team spirit' are the ones that were used extensively about Wigan and West Ham last season. Over-used and over-hyped phenomenon in sport in general and especially in football is 'team spirit' and the benefits are at best short term and most of the time non-existent.

If we stay up this season, put that down in a major way to unfamiliarity! Don't underestimate the PL in any way because next season we could well find ourselves in the same position as West Ham, a full season of reports, dossier and analysis in the armoury of the opposition. Hopefully we will be more Bolton than West Ham

 

[jodman]

I hear what you are saying, but i think that the clubs you mentioned have made the mistakes that i said i hoped we would not...heavily invested in overseas / paycheque players who arguably are not prepared to fight tooth and nail for the club.

My hope is that any incoming players will care about the plight of the club at least as much as the amount of money they are being paid. Young and hungry players are the way forward in my opinion, bit of talent would be good too

 

[Jack & Helga]

Maybe Warnock gets them together and says something like this?

I don't know what to say really.
Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives all comes down to today.
Either we heal as a team or we are going to crumble.
Inch by inch play by play till we're finished.
We are in hell right now, gentlemen believe me and we can stay here and get the shit kicked out of us or we can fight our way back into the light.
We can climb out of hell. One inch, at a time.

Now I can't do it for you.
I'm too old. I look around and I see these young faces and I think I mean I made every wrong choice a middle age man could make.
I uh....
I pissed away all my money believe it or not.
I chased off anyone who has ever loved me.
And lately, I can't even stand the face I see in the mirror.

You know when you get old in life things get taken from you.
That's, that's part of life.
But, you only learn that when you start losing stuff.
You find out that life is just a game of inches.
So is football.
Because in either game life or football the margin for error is so small.
I mean one half step too late or to early you don't quite make it.
One half second too slow or too fast and you don't quite catch it.
The inches we need are everywhere around us.
They are in ever break of the game every minute, every second.

On this team, we fight for that inch
On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us
to pieces for that inch.
We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch.
Cause we know when we add up all those inches that's going to make the fucking difference between WINNING and LOSING, between LIVING and DYING.

I'll tell you this
In any fight it is the guy who is willing to die who is going to win that inch.
And I know if I am going to have any life anymore it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch because that is what LIVING is.
The six inches in front of your face.

Now I can't make you do it.
You gotta look at the guy next to you.
Look into his eyes.
Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you.
You are going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows when it comes down to it, you are gonna do the same thing for him.

That's a team, gentlemen and either we heal now, as a team, or we will die as individuals.
That's football guys.
That's all it is.
Now, whattaya gonna do?

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

I hear what you are saying, but i think that the clubs you mentioned have made the mistakes that i said i hoped we would not...heavily invested in overseas / paycheque players who arguably are not prepared to fight tooth and nail for the club.

My hope is that any incoming players will care about the plight of the club at least as much as the amount of money they are being paid. Young and hungry players are the way forward in my opinion, bit of talent would be good too

Nope, nope and nope again. Ask the locals at West Ham and they are trashing the ones that came up with them. Harewood, Reo-Coker, Mullins, Zamora, Hetherington are the ones getting the treatment not the new signings. It is all to do with attitude and the notion that they had arrived as big premier league players and didn't need to continue to develop and adapt, which is the point that really needs flagging up at BDTBL.

 

[jodman]

I think the poor performance of west ham is down to the massive amount of changes that have taken place at the club. That includes the sacking of Pardew, the take over of Magnusson, the arrival of the Argentineans, the recent transfer window activity that has seen mediocre players join on massive wages and the massive pressure applied by west ham fans with illusions of grandeur.

Are you suggesting that it is down solely to players like Bobby Zamora thinking he is the finished article? Nope, nope and nope again