this month is vital

[Big Mart]

How on earth you can accuse anyone of having a diva fit when you're spouting such bollocks is a joke in itself. We're all Blades on here mate, just that some of us can accept what's happening and some can't.

Keep knocking on the doors, keep smiling, and ffs remember when we kick off in a lower division next season that things weren't as bad as some of us said they were

Right now we're 4 points off 4th bottom, even if we don't get a single point in Feb (which, call me a clapper but i don't see happening) we won't be 10 points adrift, we'll still be in touching distance of the bottom end clubs, because like I said, Feb is a month for a few surprises.

We're in the bottom 3 because we're shit and because we don't have the resource to be any higher. I wouldn't call you a clapper, I'd call you completely dillusional if you honestly think that we have any chance of survival.

 

[SwissBlade]

How on earth you can accuse anyone of having a diva fit when you're spouting such bollocks is a joke in itself. We're all Blades on here mate, just that some of us can accept what's happening and some can't.

Keep knocking on the doors, keep smiling, and ffs remember when we kick off in a lower division next season that things weren't as bad as some of us said they were



We're in the bottom 3 because we're shit and because we don't have the resource to be any higher. I wouldn't call you a clapper, I'd call you completely dillusional if you honestly think that we have any chance of survival.

Give over Horace, I've never said that we're not struggling. Why would I, winless in 10 games tells me that. But making a sweeping statement that we're in the shit because were shit and because we don't have the resource to be any higher is extremely blinkered as to what has happened this year.

I only accused you of having a Diva fit because, well, you're having a diva fit

Plenty of teams above us with lesser resources than us, but they use them more wisely. Look at that in whichever way you want, but stamping your feet and having a tantrum because I don't agree with your point of view (whatever that was - oh yeah its because we're completely fucked) isn't exactly putting much of an argument across. You threw your criticisms of my comments at me, I responded with what I think. What I think is that instead of panicking with more than a third of the season left, we need to look at how we can get out of the shite we're in.

I suppose you were one of the ones jumping up and down at Kozzy and Willo the other day for losing their heads, whilst not realising that you were losing yours too. Breath slowly and deeply and think of your happy place.

 

[oldblade]

OK...

If February is so vital, then presumably people saw it coming, but nobody mentioned how vital it would be in Jan did they. No they waited until we were touching cloth then said "i'm going shit my pants.... oops too late".

February is vital because of what has happened during the rest of the season. For every bad month we have, the next month becomes more important. And the importance grows as the number of remaining games diminishes, because there is less and less time to turn things around.

February is quite obviously a very, very important month. There are a lot of games this month for a start, and several of them are a lot more 'winnable' than those in March. (notwithstanding that we've already lost two of them).

Realistically, if we don't get a good haul of points from the remaining matches in this month it won't matter what happens in March or April. We'll be as good as down.

Yes, February is a vital month in the context of the season so far. The fact that it wasn't mentioned in January doesn't diminish it's importance. Noone could know how important it was going to be until we our did so poorly over Christmas and in January. Our points per game ratio has fallen off badly over this period, and that is what makes these more winnable games so vital. If we can't get a good return from these games it really is over.

 

[grafikhaus]

Got to agree with all that, OB. While we all (well most of us...) like to remain positive and hope that MA and the squad do likewise, suggesting that February is not vital is pure, ostrich-head-in-sand, fingers-in-ears, Titanic 'I see no icebergs...' delusional behaviour.

As OB states, our form has been such so far that, even if we have a 'good' February it may well be a false dawn (similar to us being 10 points clear of trouble in 2007 and some fans, some players and possibly Warnock thinking that the hard work was done).

Also references to having 'been down to the 4th and climbing back up' are ridiculous. Make no mistake, getting relegated from this most average division would mark one of the biggest 'falls from grace' in the modern game. In less than 4 years we would have gone from the PL to the third tier, and lost 50% of our paying customers - so far - along the way.

Watching Cardiff on Sunday shows where we've gone wrong. After narrowly missing out last season, did Cardiff panic and decimate a promising squad? No they kept the 'big' performers such as Bothryd, Chopra, Olifinjana etc. and supplemented him with a genuine star at this level, Bellamy, and look where our 'prudence' has got us! In fact, our performance just about mirrors that of UK plc. When the sun was shining for us in the PL, did we embark upon a steady process of strengthening such as Stoke, Wigan, Birmingham etc have done? Did we balls, unless the likes of Fahti, Shelton etc. count.

So if we go down, we can't even say we 'gave it our best shot' or 'went for it'. At least Blackpool have tried but their naivety and penny-pinching will see them relegated either this year or next. We haven't even tried.

 

[Grecian2000]

Got to agree with all that, OB. While we all (well most of us...) like to remain positive and hope that MA and the squad do likewise, suggesting that February is not vital is pure, ostrich-head-in-sand, fingers-in-ears, Titanic 'I see no icebergs...' delusional behaviour.

How is Dunc?

 

[Revolution]

Swiss, along with disagreeing about how vital February is, do you still think we had a good summer on the transfer front?

 

[Micalijo]

Got to agree with all that, OB. While we all (well most of us...) like to remain positive and hope that MA and the squad do likewise, suggesting that February is not vital is pure, ostrich-head-in-sand, fingers-in-ears, Titanic 'I see no icebergs...' delusional behaviour.

As OB states, our form has been such so far that, even if we have a 'good' February it may well be a false dawn (similar to us being 10 points clear of trouble in 2007 and some fans, some players and possibly Warnock thinking that the hard work was done).

Also references to having 'been down to the 4th and climbing back up' are ridiculous. Make no mistake, getting relegated from this most average division would mark one of the biggest 'falls from grace' in the modern game. In less than 4 years we would have gone from the PL to the third tier, and lost 50% of our paying customers - so far - along the way.

Watching Cardiff on Sunday shows where we've gone wrong. After narrowly missing out last season, did Cardiff panic and decimate a promising squad? No they kept the 'big' performers such as Bothryd, Chopra, Olifinjana etc. and supplemented him with a genuine star at this level, Bellamy, and look where our 'prudence' has got us! In fact, our performance just about mirrors that of UK plc. When the sun was shining for us in the PL, did we embark upon a steady process of strengthening such as Stoke, Wigan, Birmingham etc have done? Did we balls, unless the likes of Fahti, Shelton etc. count.

So if we go down, we can't even say we 'gave it our best shot' or 'went for it'. At least Blackpool have tried but their naivety and penny-pinching will see them relegated either this year or next. We haven't even tried.

I agree with alot of what you say there Graf, especially about this being potentially one of biggest falls from graces in modern game, but to say that we didn't try is I think a bit harsh. We got 38 points. Hull stayed up with 34 I believe off the top, quite possible Blackpool (or Wigan etc etc) could stay up with 36 or 37 points this season. I know what you are saying and very probably one established player would have got us one more point but we didn't subside without a fight in Prem imo. Also the fiscal circumstances at Cardiff were slightly different to ours, especially the ones leading to Bellamy's signing weren't they?

 

[grafikhaus]

I agree with alot of what you say there Graf, especially about this being potentially one of biggest falls from graces in modern game, but to say that we didn't try is I think a bit harsh. We got 38 points. Hull stayed up with 34 I believe off the top, quite possible Blackpool (or Wigan etc etc) could stay up with 36 or 37 points this season.

Not so much questioning our relegation from the PL, Mic. We were fiddled, we all know that. It's how we've (mis) handled it since. To break up that defensive line-up from Wembley when they all played well, the 2 Kyles, Killa, Morgs and, yes, Monty was an act of sheer cowardice.

I know what you are saying and very probably one established player would have got us one more point but we didn't subside without a fight in Prem imo. Also the fiscal circumstances at Cardiff were slightly different to ours, especially the ones leading to Bellamy's signing weren't they?

Well Beattie was our 'one established player' and we weren't prepared to pay his wages (but quite happily continue to pay the wages of several pretty mediocre players who's total would equal what we were paying Beattie.)

As for the 'fiscal circumstances' at Cardiff, aren't we in danger of playing too much by the rule book? They're only like Leicester, Portsmouth, West Ham, Leeds and of course Wednesday in playing fast and loose with their finances. Nice guys finish last.

As for Bellamy, Citeh simply didn't want him playing for another PL team. What are our highly-paid, behind-the-scenes staff doing if not sniffing out deals like this? And getting Citeh to pay most of his wages? Ditto Bullard at Ipswich. We really are being left standing.

Oh, and Mic. A good, reasoned response compared to some on this increasingly-fractious board.:hello:

 

[Revolution]

Watching Cardiff on Sunday shows where we've gone wrong. After narrowly missing out last season, did Cardiff panic and decimate a promising squad? No they kept the 'big' performers such as Bothryd, Chopra, Olifinjana etc. and supplemented him with a genuine star at this level, Bellamy, and look where our 'prudence' has got us! In fact, our performance just about mirrors that of UK plc. When the sun was shining for us in the PL, did we embark upon a steady process of strengthening such as Stoke, Wigan, Birmingham etc have done? Did we balls, unless the likes of Fahti, Shelton etc. count.

So if we go down, we can't even say we 'gave it our best shot' or 'went for it'. At least Blackpool have tried but their naivety and penny-pinching will see them relegated either this year or next. We haven't even tried.

United's biggest problem in the post division 4 years is captured very well here. We have had a succession of administrations who've left a job half done: in addition to wasting a good position in the PL season, the dismantling of two play off final sides and the weakening of a third are other glaring examples. You need to push on, not give up, in that position.

 

[SwissBlade]

Swiss, along with disagreeing about how vital February is, do you still think we had a good summer on the transfer front?

Revoultion, I said at the time, I've said since, I thought that we had a reasonable summer in terms of preparation, not just transfers. But as for transfers, at the time I thought that the moves we made were positive ones.

But that was all considering the manager that we had at the time. Things have moved on considerably since then, we've had 3 other managers!

Is that/ your question relevant to this thread?

 

[Worksop II]

How is Dunc?

It must be a top notch Straight Jacket