Sometimes we need a bit of reality ⁹

[Tarqs]

I never thought we'd stay up pretty much the day we got promoted last season, as Hecky had one set of tactics and one set of tactics only. If plan A doesn't work, stick with plan A, but bring on some baffling subs and take off the wrong players and it will definitely work now. That cemented it for me that Hecky was not the man to keep us up. It's why I raised the question should we sack him when we nearly blew a huge lead over Boro and let them get within touching distance when we went on that awful winless run. I knew Hecky wasn't cut for the Premier League. Football is a ruthless business.

Next came the rumours of him only getting £20mil to spend, the same amount Warnock was given back in 2007 when the league was nowhere near as rich as it is now, and that was considered a joke amount back then. This sadly proved true as we only spent bigger after Berge and Ndiaye were sold. Add to this tbe new contracts to Norwood, Fleck and Basham and things weren't shaping up well. On top of that Hecky was fighting tooth and nail for Sharp who, legend as he is, was largely insignificant in our promotion season and a failure over our two seasons in the Premier League. Sorry, but that's the truth. No disrespect intended to Billy.

The recruitment was poor and slow with lame excuse after lame excuse. The pre-season was horrendous with us resembling an amateur team who didn't know what they were doing.

Oh, and then injury after injury after injury wracking up as Hecky's reputation as some kind of serial maimer of players continued, not helped by his ridiculous rushing back into action of Norrington-Davies and Brewster, resulting in instant lengthy injuries.

Everything was gearing up wrong and relegation for me was all but confirmed before a ball was kicked.

Did the idea of relegation bother me? No.

What bothered me was the manner in which we got relegated. Goal after goal after goal after goal after goal conceded from set pieces from the first game to now, constantly from players going unmarked in the box. Was it Mark Hudson as we've continued with this long after he was dismissed?

What bothered me was the number of players who were putting in minimal to no effort in some games.

What bothered me was the way in which we'd often compete and look to be trying in games then as soon as we went behind the players just gave up. They just didn't care and they allowed teams to batter them.

What bothered me is that Bramall Lane became a guaranteed place to come and get 3 points as we were quite happy to roll over and give the win without a fight in our OWN FUCKING GROUND.

What bothered me was no culpability or statement from our coward of an owner who conned thousands of hard working fans out of hundreds of pounds for season tickets, knowing full well that the plan was to not even try to stay up. Reduce the ticket prices then.

My dose of reality is that I always expected us to get relegated. What I didn't expect was for us to lose our identity, our pride, our reputation and in many games our home fans by half time as we'd already been battered by then.

What's my dose of reality for next season?

Who knows. All I know is that I want to have some pride back and for us to play some bloody football for 90 minutes, win, lose or draw, because being honest, we haven't done that for two seasons as the majority of last season's matches were awful to watch. As Deadbat would often critique, we played well for a 20 minute patch where we'd batter teams, then for the rest we had no apparent or obvious style of play or recognisable tactics other than give it to Ndiaye.

I just want Sheffield United back.

Sums up my thoughts perfectly.

 

[cahill]

The PL now is becoming a flawed product , other than the 3 different clubs coming up do you see the table changing much . City will win it again with ease .. then a few overhyped wannabes chasing 3 CL places ... and Bournemouth , Fulham , Forest , Brentford & Palace in with 3 newbies st the other end .
Boring & predictable now & the gaps will widen with points deductions replaced by fines as the PL shuts itself about a European / Saudi Sponsored Super League

Pity the door on the Super Six wasn’t closed when they flirted with the so called European Super League, at least bringing a bit more competition to the top flight of the English League.

 

[Woodhouseblades]

I never thought we'd stay up pretty much the day we got promoted last season, as Hecky had one set of tactics and one set of tactics only. If plan A doesn't work, stick with plan A, but bring on some baffling subs and take off the wrong players and it will definitely work now. That cemented it for me that Hecky was not the man to keep us up. It's why I raised the question should we sack him when we nearly blew a huge lead over Boro and let them get within touching distance when we went on that awful winless run. I knew Hecky wasn't cut for the Premier League. Football is a ruthless business.

Next came the rumours of him only getting £20mil to spend, the same amount Warnock was given back in 2007 when the league was nowhere near as rich as it is now, and that was considered a joke amount back then. This sadly proved true as we only spent bigger after Berge and Ndiaye were sold. Add to this tbe new contracts to Norwood, Fleck and Basham and things weren't shaping up well. On top of that Hecky was fighting tooth and nail for Sharp who, legend as he is, was largely insignificant in our promotion season and a failure over our two seasons in the Premier League. Sorry, but that's the truth. No disrespect intended to Billy.

The recruitment was poor and slow with lame excuse after lame excuse. The pre-season was horrendous with us resembling an amateur team who didn't know what they were doing.

Oh, and then injury after injury after injury wracking up as Hecky's reputation as some kind of serial maimer of players continued, not helped by his ridiculous rushing back into action of Norrington-Davies and Brewster, resulting in instant lengthy injuries.

Everything was gearing up wrong and relegation for me was all but confirmed before a ball was kicked.

Did the idea of relegation bother me? No.

What bothered me was the manner in which we got relegated. Goal after goal after goal after goal after goal conceded from set pieces from the first game to now, constantly from players going unmarked in the box. Was it Mark Hudson as we've continued with this long after he was dismissed?

What bothered me was the number of players who were putting in minimal to no effort in some games.

What bothered me was the way in which we'd often compete and look to be trying in games then as soon as we went behind the players just gave up. They just didn't care and they allowed teams to batter them.

What bothered me is that Bramall Lane became a guaranteed place to come and get 3 points as we were quite happy to roll over and give the win without a fight in our OWN FUCKING GROUND.

What bothered me was no culpability or statement from our coward of an owner who conned thousands of hard working fans out of hundreds of pounds for season tickets, knowing full well that the plan was to not even try to stay up. Reduce the ticket prices then.

My dose of reality is that I always expected us to get relegated. What I didn't expect was for us to lose our identity, our pride, our reputation and in many games our home fans by half time as we'd already been battered by then.

What's my dose of reality for next season?

Who knows. All I know is that I want to have some pride back and for us to play some bloody football for 90 minutes, win, lose or draw, because being honest, we haven't done that for two seasons as the majority of last season's matches were awful to watch. As Deadbat would often critique, we played well for a 20 minute patch where we'd batter teams, then for the rest we had no apparent or obvious style of play or recognisable tactics other than give it to Ndiaye.

I just want Sheffield United back.

This 100%

 

[John Street West Terrace]

It’s gonna be without a doubt our biggest pre-season in years with so many out of contract players ( that in itself was poor management by the way ) .
In truthfulness I’m shitting bricks ... this could be such a pivotal time around the clubs future.
I have serious doubts around CW being the man to take us forward & even more serious doubts about the war chest he’ll be given by the owner... I hope I’m wrong on both scores & add to that our recent transfer purchase history & im reaching for the Imodium Extra .
As I said before I wish we’d took a change of direction & gone for the likes of Mark Robins .. a fresh start , new approach and unlike the situation when we brought Slav in a chance to bring in their own players & not be hamstrung with current incumbents .
Be were are where we are ... and i’ll back whoever’s in the seat
Fingers toes & everything crossed as the last pre-season was one of the worst I’d known & that was on the back of a promotion !
He’s hoping ... watch this space .. UTB

 

[John Street West Terrace]

Pity the door on the Super Six wasn’t closed when they flirted with the so called European Super League, at least bringing a bit more competition to the top flight of the English League.

100%

 

[jt64]

What does the little 9 mean?

It's a Benie Traore batsignal

 

[biggiesablade]

It's a Benie Traore batsignal

Can imagine him wearing bat man pj's

 

[GrayBlade]

Yes poor old Sheffield United. Let's just accept our place and on the brief occasions that we do get to mingle with the upper echelon of English football, let's just doff our caps to the bigger and better clubs like Wolves and Palace and not stink the place out too long so that the likes of Leicester and Southampton can regain their rightful top tier status.
Why are we Blades so accepting, why shouldn't we be at least competitive at the top level? How do other similar sized and smaller clubs manage to have decent periods in the top tier and why do their fans expect nothing less while we expect (and usually get) our backside kicked right back out of the league post haste? Sure it's about money, how you spend it and good management and ownership, but why doesn't with somebody with those skills and attributes ever seem to come our way? I think it goes beyond mere chance, for some reason nobody with any ambition to improve us will go anywhere near us.
But there you go, it's been like it most of my life so let's just accept our fate. Poor old United. Normally we're upper Championship at best with an occasional futile forage into the top tier. Why should we Blades expect our lot get any better?

Sorry if I sound a bit more pissed off than usual lads and lasses, but this season we've been like a tramp at a banquet and the current incumbents have really grated my gears.

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

It wasn't the money we spent last time that kept us up as only McBurnie started regularly and he only scored 6 goals.

Momentum, a unique system, fitness and the players giving their all until the last minute, along with a solid defence and unbelievable goalkeeper kept us up.

We spent all that money and didn't really strengthen the team, we strengthened the bench and that was our ultimate downfall.

Our first eleven pretty much all season was the same eleven from the season before with the addition of McBurnie, Lundstram and occassions Mousset.

The following season we did the same only we had to replace Henderson. We signed bench warmers again instead of first teamers. When our formerly reliable and consistent players lost form, some of whom did so after the restart (ergo Fleck and Stevens), then we had no decent to call up, when we should have been forcing the likes of Fleck and Stevens to the bench with replacements and calling Fleck and Stevens from the bench. It was a recipe for disaster.

On top of that we finished 9th having scored 39 goals in 38 games, a worrying statistic, more so when we scored 2 or more goals on 9 occasions.

After I saw our "best transfer window ever" I predicted relegation as we hadn't signed anyone to strengthen the first team expect for Ramsdale and an expensive punt on Brewster.

The money we wasted over two seasons last time on the best part of around 15+ players who rarely played or were plain shite was diabolical. The fact our fans still trust Wilder to sign players this summer after those two windows and now Grbic blows my mind.

This clubs needs a director of football. I've said it since the season we finished 9th and I've said it every season since. But we won't because we're Sheffield United and we won't do things unless it's the Sheffield United Way, and that means doing what we always do because we don't like change. Hell, we brought in Jokanovic to rock the boat and bring a modern twist to our football, but then didn't back him in the transfer window in order to allow him to do it. We then panic signed players after he publicly slated the owner for lying to him about being able to sign players.

I'm not saying Jokanovic was great but we didn't exactly give him the best chance and pulled the rug out from under his feet before he could get going, having convinced him to come under false pretences. As for that shambles of a pre-season, don't even get me started.

Rant over......

..... sorry, what was the question again!

Exactly this. Great post Sir.

To not just exist, but thrive in the PL in 2024 you need to have a fully functioning sporting infrastructure and eco-system around the club. We are absolutely no where near that. If you compare the issues Man Utd are having with similar structural issues - they've shown over the past 10 years, it doesn't matter what manager you have and/or how much you spend on players, without a Sporting infrastructure, you don't stand a chance. Compare them post-Ferguson with Arsenal post-Wenger. The biggest difference is Arsenal hired an entire Mgt staff to put in place and infrastructure to modernise the club. I'd argue Edu as Technical Director has been their most important signing.

But going back to us, we need to think more like a high performance sporting programme instead of a football team. Get a Dave Brailsford/Clive Woodward type in as a consultant. Someone who knows what good looks like from a performance and output perspective. Rather than appointing his drinking mates, I really hope Wilder would bring in someone who could overhaul our entire conditioning programme. Go get someone from the NFL or cycling who can advise us what the cutting edge developments are in peak performance.