There's a trend starting here...

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

There's sumat strange happening here. Prompted by Roygbiv 's latest pre-match view from Palace (stellar work) and aided by his tireless gathering of opinions over these past three crazy years, in my opinion, I've noticed a bit of a trend.

Others have voiced similar observations on here before now, so can probably capture this far more articulately than I can. But here goes:

The League One promotion season:
Largely balanced and respectful comments from most of League One. Admiration, recognition and compliments for our emerging playing style. The odd "they ought to go up, they've got Billy Sharp in League One, how much are they spending?" thrown in. General opinion: Wilder's system is revolutionary, they deserve to go up, but you can never play that way in the Championship.

Recognised by a few of the better, on the ball pundits. Level of Premier League attention? Minimal to nil.

The Championship years and promotion to the Premier League:
We start with comments of they'll do well to survive and the infamous La Liga attitudes of the Pigs, and narratives of how we'll never compete. Tuftyball and the system was almost humoured, seen as cutesy and adorable, the bigger clubs (and the pigs trying to include themselves in that bracket) either dismissed us entirely or suggested that we'd need to wise up quickly and spend much, much more. Some of the more basic pundits started to run off clichés about overlapping centre halves, in an attempt to make themselves appear in the know.

We start to surprise a few, adapt our system to that level and hold our own - the resentment from those clubs who considered us small fry started to grow and comments of expecting (hoping) we'll fade away began to rise, "they'll get figured out". A few who recognised how tactically astute our system was continued to share their respect.

Level of Premier League attention? Minimal and restricted to sound bites on occasional Football Focus features etc as the attention stayed with Leeds. Generic pundits churned out rehearsed scripts about our system, when asked. Colin Murray reigned as king of sincerity and insight into our system, having genuinely done his homework.

The start to the Premier League:
It's incredibly early days but comments of "they'll never go up, they'll need to adapt" have been replaced with "they'll never stay up, they'll need to adapt".

Almost all betting firms have us as favourites to go down and the pattern starting now is the complete opposite to the admiration, respect and plaudits from opposition fans from the League One years. Suddenly, those Premier League clubs that we were never on the radar of, seemingly the lower end sides moreso, turn their focus to how we'll never survive, and we're no longer seen as the cutesy or plucky band of brothers led by Wilder and more the "they need to grow up and take this seriously" crowd - written off before we've begun. Is it led by ignorance, or slight concern that we may be better than their ignorance initially allowed them to recognise, I'm not sure. The Palace view from is case in point. The trend captured in one thread - one or two that still give us plaudits and respect and note our humble nature, amidst the many who are now increasingly critical. It's all a bit Porky and La Liga, all over again. Let's hope that 'what comes next' is every bit as magical...

"We're on the march with Wilder's Army..."

 

[Ainsley Harriott]

Underdogs. Underappreciated. Under-researched as well. Rio Ferdinand has us down as a 'surprise package'. I like him anyway, but more so now.

I was surprised by Norwich result yesterday but at the same time I wasn't. Easy to be a pundit at times but they don't half talk shite at times.

 

[knowsnowt]

Thought this was gonna be about my late night alcohol and drug fuelled posts.

 

[Alwood]

Oh yeah. Much prefer the 'Underdog' tag to the plaudits. After 60-odd years of following the Blades I am much more comfortable (i.e. it's more normal) with everyone slagging off our style of play. Really looking forward to this season.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

There's sumat strange happening here. Prompted by Roygbiv 's latest pre-match view from Palace (stellar work) and aided by his tireless gathering of opinions over these past three crazy years, in my opinion, I've noticed a bit of a trend.

Others have voiced similar observations on here before now, so can probably capture this far more articulately than I can. But here goes:

The League One promotion season:
Largely balanced and respectful comments from most of League One. Admiration, recognition and compliments for our emerging playing style. The odd "they ought to go up, they've got Billy Sharp in League One, how much are they spending?" thrown in. General opinion: Wilder's system is revolutionary, they deserve to go up, but you can never play that way in the Championship.

Recognised by a few of the better, on the ball pundits. Level of Premier League attention? Minimal to nil.

The Championship years and promotion to the Premier League:
We start with comments of they'll do well to survive and the infamous La Liga attitudes of the Pigs, and narratives of how we'll never compete. Tuftyball and the system was almost humoured, seen as cutesy and adorable, the bigger clubs (and the pigs trying to include themselves in that bracket) either dismissed us entirely or suggested that we'd need to wise up quickly and spend much, much more. Some of the more basic pundits started to run off clichés about overlapping centre halves, in an attempt to make themselves appear in the know.

We start to surprise a few, adapt our system to that level and hold our own - the resentment from those clubs who considered us small fry started to grow and comments of expecting (hoping) we'll fade away began to rise, "they'll get figured out". A few who recognised how tactically astute our system was continued to share their respect.

Level of Premier League attention? Minimal and restricted to sound bites on occasional Football Focus features etc as the attention stayed with Leeds. Generic pundits churned out rehearsed scripts about our system, when asked. Colin Murray reigned as king of sincerity and insight into our system, having genuinely done his homework.

The start to the Premier League:
It's incredibly early days but comments of "they'll never go up, they'll need to adapt" have been replaced with "they'll never stay up, they'll need to adapt".

Almost all betting firms have us as favourites to go down and the pattern starting now is the complete opposite to the admiration, respect and plaudits from opposition fans from the League One years. Suddenly, those Premier League clubs that we were never on the radar of, seemingly the lower end sides moreso, turn their focus to how we'll never survive, and we're no longer seen as the cutesy or plucky band of brothers led by Wilder and more the "they need to grow up and take this seriously" crowd - written off before we've begun. Is it led by ignorance, or slight concern that we may be better than their ignorance initially allowed them to recognise, I'm not sure. The Palace view from is case in point. The trend captured in one thread - one or two that still give us plaudits and respect and note our humble nature, amidst the many who are now increasingly critical. It's all a bit Porky and La Liga, all over again. Let's hope that 'what comes next' is every bit as magical...

"We're on the march with Wilder's Army..."

Wonder what the Barca fans will make of it next season.

 

[Sheffsteel]

There's sumat strange happening here. Prompted by Roygbiv 's latest pre-match view from Palace (stellar work) and aided by his tireless gathering of opinions over these past three crazy years, in my opinion, I've noticed a bit of a trend.

Others have voiced similar observations on here before now, so can probably capture this far more articulately than I can. But here goes:

The League One promotion season:
Largely balanced and respectful comments from most of League One. Admiration, recognition and compliments for our emerging playing style. The odd "they ought to go up, they've got Billy Sharp in League One, how much are they spending?" thrown in. General opinion: Wilder's system is revolutionary, they deserve to go up, but you can never play that way in the Championship.

Recognised by a few of the better, on the ball pundits. Level of Premier League attention? Minimal to nil.

The Championship years and promotion to the Premier League:
We start with comments of they'll do well to survive and the infamous La Liga attitudes of the Pigs, and narratives of how we'll never compete. Tuftyball and the system was almost humoured, seen as cutesy and adorable, the bigger clubs (and the pigs trying to include themselves in that bracket) either dismissed us entirely or suggested that we'd need to wise up quickly and spend much, much more. Some of the more basic pundits started to run off clichés about overlapping centre halves, in an attempt to make themselves appear in the know.

We start to surprise a few, adapt our system to that level and hold our own - the resentment from those clubs who considered us small fry started to grow and comments of expecting (hoping) we'll fade away began to rise, "they'll get figured out". A few who recognised how tactically astute our system was continued to share their respect.

Level of Premier League attention? Minimal and restricted to sound bites on occasional Football Focus features etc as the attention stayed with Leeds. Generic pundits churned out rehearsed scripts about our system, when asked. Colin Murray reigned as king of sincerity and insight into our system, having genuinely done his homework.

The start to the Premier League:
It's incredibly early days but comments of "they'll never go up, they'll need to adapt" have been replaced with "they'll never stay up, they'll need to adapt".

Almost all betting firms have us as favourites to go down and the pattern starting now is the complete opposite to the admiration, respect and plaudits from opposition fans from the League One years. Suddenly, those Premier League clubs that we were never on the radar of, seemingly the lower end sides moreso, turn their focus to how we'll never survive, and we're no longer seen as the cutesy or plucky band of brothers led by Wilder and more the "they need to grow up and take this seriously" crowd - written off before we've begun. Is it led by ignorance, or slight concern that we may be better than their ignorance initially allowed them to recognise, I'm not sure. The Palace view from is case in point. The trend captured in one thread - one or two that still give us plaudits and respect and note our humble nature, amidst the many who are now increasingly critical. It's all a bit Porky and La Liga, all over again. Let's hope that 'what comes next' is every bit as magical...

"We're on the march with Wilder's Army..."

Agree.....and this probably explains many Blades inner confidence, which is a first because most Blades over the decades have normally been pessimistic and expect the worse. The difference for me as that all the pundits and PL fans are expecting us to be similar to Cardiff when we are much nearer Wolves in playing style.

Can’t wait for the plaudits when we play some of these PL teams off the park.....no doubt opposition fans will be saying it’s their worse performance in years.
Even last week.....the general comments from the Bournmouth fans were how poor they played....this is going to become a pattern.

 

[You Fill Up My Senses]

When we do well our system will be described as revolutionary, when we get hammered it will be described as naïve. All these pundits are just looking for bandwagons to jump onto.
Watched plenty of Premier League football over the last few years and the pundits all kiss the arses of the top few sides and slag off the rest no matter what they do. Park the bus and you are boring and negative, go toe to toe with City and Scallys and you are tactically flawed. You can't win and as such I have very little respect for any of the so called experts, half of them aren't even sure of the fucking rules.
I'm happy to see us do it our way even when we get a few beatings, we will be good enough to take points off most middle and bottom half teams and nothing big ears and his cronies say will make a difference to our results. Us against the world suits us fine.

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

Agree.....and this probably explains many Blades inner confidence, which is a first because most Blades over the decades have normally been pessimistic and expect the worse. The difference for me as that all the pundits and PL fans are expecting us to be similar to Cardiff when we are much nearer Wolves in playing style.

Can’t wait for the plaudits when we play some of these PL teams off the park.....no doubt opposition fans will be saying it’s their worse performance in years.
Even last week.....the general comments from the Bournmouth fans were how poor they played....this is going to become a pattern.

Excellent points mate, the latter point about our system being viewed as the other side having and off day is one I'd forgotten!

As Ainsley Harriott says, under researched but that's the way we like it!

 

[PokerBlade]

I've said it before; if you predict failure then eventually you'll be right. If someone had been pessimistically predicting, year after year, that Man U would never keep it up then they could be celebrating their keen intuition over the last few seasons while completely forgetting the years of dominance and all the trophies lifted along the way.

We aren't daft. We know there's a chance of failure this season. But we also know that since Wilder came in the prediction of collapse has been thrown at us. Oh, they'll never go the distance against Scunthorpe and Bolton. Where are they now? Oh, they'll never hack it in the Championship. Oh, they're nowhere near as good as Leeds and West Brom. Oh, there's no way they'll make it in the Prem.

Unless people give me some good reasons for their predictions, I'm fucking tired of them.

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

I've said it before; if you predict failure then eventually you'll be right. If someone had been pessimistically predicting, year after year, that Man U would never keep it up then they could be celebrating their keen intuition over the last few seasons while completely forgetting the years of dominance and all the trophies lifted along the way.

We aren't daft. We know there's a chance of failure this season. But we also know that since Wilder came in the prediction of collapse has been thrown at us. Oh, they'll never go the distance against Scunthorpe and Bolton. Where are they now? Oh, they'll never hack it in the Championship. Oh, they're nowhere near as good as Leeds and West Brom. Oh, there's no way they'll make it in the Prem.

Unless people give me some good reasons for their predictions, I'm fucking tired of them.

Excellent post.

We are the least wealthiest club in the top flight.
We have signed almost exclusively players from the EFL.
We do have the least number of household names in our squad.
And we probably have the least number of PL caps in any of the sides in the division.

It's an obvious choice to make, "United are the favourites to go down". But like you say, even a broken clock is right twice a day. And you just know that, should we struggle this year, that there'll be many out the woodwork to say "told you so, told you your lot were no good. Told you Wilder needed to wise up, knew you'd get found out".

We'll, let's be honest. If that does happen, we've put it off for long enough, haven't we? Whilst we've kept upsetting the odds.

We're the easy choice for relegation. A more informed, bolder, knowledgeable argument to make is to try and argue why we'd stay up. Use a bit of nous.

It's the spite emerging from opposition fans now, that seems to be growing.