Time to Stick or Twist???

[William Large]

I have been one of Blackwell's biggest critics this season (and last to be fair) and have had my fill of the dire football we have played at times, but is it time to get rid or to stick with him for another season?

There is massive re building to be done at the end of the season and would be an ideal time for a new manager to come in. I am also sick of hearing him come out with the same old excuses about injuries, players making debuts, loan signings etc, but he has got a point. We have been dessimated by injuries and players being sold - none of which were really Blackwell's doing.

Performances have been better of late but is it too little too late? I am sure that there will be thousands of Blades fans ( and I have been one) who want him out and now, but who realistically is going to come in and do a job? Is the time now to get behind him and show him our support?

He was the right man to come in when he did, was one game away from the premiership and has had his best players sold from under him with peanuts to replace them. Is this deja vu?

If Blackwell is to stay then we need to get right behind him and our players, not berate them at games. He really does want to succeed. I accept that he has no charisma and that he frustrates withhis negative tactics somtimes but who would be good enough? Look at what Warnock did in his time and look how many fans treated him? Do we have unrealistic expectations? Or is it time to clear the dead wood (including him) and get fresh staff, players and ideas in?

One thing for sure is that we need to hold on to Speed. Perhaps is is his time?

 

[Sean the Blade]

I think we should STICK the knife in and TWIST

 

[TonyAgana]

Can't disagree with anything there, man.

Despite never actually being particularly "pro-Blackwell" I seem to have been put in that camp, but you've pretty much summed up how I see it. I just believe that there isn't any point in discussing him getting the sack because it simply isn't going to happen any time soon for the simple and blindingly obvious reason that we cannot afford it. I would take it as far as to say that I think, had we not had Blackwell in charge this season, we could have utterly imploded and been in a relegation scrap quite easily. But really, that's as pro-Blackwell as I get.

 

[beightonblade]

i think we should stick the knife in and twist

+ 1 .......... :d

 

[mattbianco1]

I backed him and then backed him some more until the Scunthorpe home game then i said it is definately time for change.

Since then i've thought about it again, he's had such a rough ride this season. Been made to sell players, had to sign loan players had no consistency due to loan players and injuries etc.. Had to play Henderson unfit, Evans unfit, camara unfit, Ward unfit. gone are the days that we could just ease the injured players back in we've had to risk them straight away and look what happens (ward injured again!)

we've been so unlucky this season and i think it can't happen again to this scale. But to still be 10th in the league having not won away in like 14 matches is an incredible achievement. He must be a good manager/coach (whatever you want to call him.) He took over with us lingering above the relegation zone without a cat in hells chance of the playoffs. The final game of that season we were at Southampton and went 1 nil up. if the results had stayed the same at that point we'd have got into the playoffs.
The following season we had a sticky start then had an unbelievable away record and ended up at palace knowing that automatic promotion was a real posibility. Playoff final etc....

This season with all the bad luck we still finish mid-table with all the shit behind the scenes (selling players, injuries, cutting wage bill etc.) great season in my eyes.

Give him a level playing field and then judge him. If the squad we had fit vs Middlesborough in august had all still been here now and we'd had no injuries whatsoever do you really think we'd be 10th? More like top 4!

 

[davidpinder]

Think its time to twist. It would be the best time to bring in a new manager with so little players signed for next season. Unfortunately 1 candidate has gone to Bristol City but another is still sat waiting for the call (SoD). Let someone who knows how to get the best from what will still be a small budget and not waste money on poor players even if it isn't a lot of money spent or even frees there still on a wage. Taylor, Reid, france and yeates to name a few. Going to sit on the fence with Evans because i think a better style of play will suit him.

 

[Micalijo]

I backed him and then backed him some more until the Scunthorpe home game then i said it is definately time for change.

Since then i've thought about it again, he's had such a rough ride this season. Been made to sell players, had to sign loan players had no consistency due to loan players and injuries etc.. Had to play Henderson unfit, Evans unfit, camara unfit, Ward unfit. gone are the days that we could just ease the injured players back in we've had to risk them straight away and look what happens (ward injured again!)

we've been so unlucky this season and i think it can't happen again to this scale. But to still be 10th in the league having not won away in like 14 matches is an incredible achievement. He must be a good manager/coach (whatever you want to call him.) He took over with us lingering above the relegation zone without a cat in hells chance of the playoffs. The final game of that season we were at Southampton and went 1 nil up. if the results had stayed the same at that point we'd have got into the playoffs.
The following season we had a sticky start then had an unbelievable away record and ended up at palace knowing that automatic promotion was a real posibility. Playoff final etc....

This season with all the bad luck we still finish mid-table with all the shit behind the scenes (selling players, injuries, cutting wage bill etc.) great season in my eyes.

Give him a level playing field and then judge him. If the squad we had fit vs Middlesborough in august had all still been here now and we'd had no injuries whatsoever do you really think we'd be 10th? More like top 4!

I can only assume you hade a mega session on the ale yesterday.

Blackwell has no idea how to pick a player and no idea how to improve a player. This is the skill we need the most now. Blackwell needs eveything on a plate. Yes, there have been a few difficulties but every club has em. Our wage bill is still huge in CCC terms and he had relative to others in CCC loads of money to spend last summer and wasted it on Evans and Taylor. On the whole, his signings have been diabolically poor.

Even you could have got results out of the squad he had immediately post Robson.

 

[mattbianco1]

Even you could have got results out of the squad he had immediately post Robson.

So why couldn't Robson?

 

[Micalijo]

So why couldn't Robson?

Blackwell is a better manager than Robson. So what? I assume you agree that every manager in CCC is a better manager than Robson?

Do you think that means Blackwell should stay? Who cares what he has done before with huge budgets.

What is important now is his ability to build a team friom scratch and get players signed for nowt playing above em sens at hopefully the top end of the CCC. I don't think he is capable of doing it. He's had his chance at BDTBL and messed up pathetically at Wembley and again this season.

He aint going anywhere so I'm wasting my breath but this talk that he's actually doing well is beyond my comprehension

 

[Toronto Blade]

It looks like he is staying Coppell going to Bristol good move for them there's one we would have been interested in.

 

[Torrix1889]

Twist for me as I just can't see any long-term improvement under Blackwell. If we lost 6 of the first 10 next season he'd be gone anyway and we would be further back than we are now.

it's a golden opportunity for fresh ideas to come in and build a team of their own with a few of the solid performers from this season, (Morgan, Cressy) still around.

BLACKWELL OUT!

 

[Grecian2000]

I can't believe anyone would sit through the appalling, negative shite he has forced upon us this last TWO (it wasn't just this season!!!!) seasons and still want him to be manager.

Get rid NOW.

Keep him on and we are sleepwalking into a relegation scrap.

 

[TonyAgana]

Keep him on and we are sleepwalking into a relegation scrap.

I think we're more likely to if we get rid.

 

[Wards]

Yep so do I.

STICK!

 

[sheffielder]

I am sorry, but I think yesterday must be playing tricks with people if they wants Blackwell to stay.

He just can't sign anyone decent bar Willilamson who is injury prone. If they do keep him they need someone to take charge of the signings as90% are purely awful and needed a bit more homework. France seems like a signing just to piss the pigs off. They would probably already be relegated if they had him now!


Evans
Yeates
Harper
Fortune
Taylor
Reid
France

 

[Worksop II]

I am sorry, but I think yesterday must be playing tricks with people if they wants Blackwell to stay.

He just can't sign anyone decent bar Willilamson who is injury prone. If they do keep him they need someone to take charge of the signings as90% are purely awful and needed a bit more homework. France seems like a signing just to piss the pigs off. They would probably already be relegated if they had him now!


Evans
Yeates
Harper
Fortune
Taylor
Reid
France

Yep, there aint no Brian Deane, Tony Agana or Michael Brown amongst that lot ........ my last away game for the season yesterday, 4 defeats 2 draws

 

[SwissBlade]

Well first of all, credit to Blackwell for the Derby, I was hoping for a win prematch, but I expected that the pigs would somehow turn us over after they went ahead. We did what we had to do to save face at least in the Derbies...

For me its time to twist. And it all boils down to where the club are heading next season.

It took me a while to come around to it this season, but unfortunately Blackies not doing it anymore, yeah there's short bursts, but theres no longer the consistency we had at the back end of last season. I thought McCabe was right to keep him after the Play Off's last season because he knew the squad and none of the bottlers from Wembley could hide. But despite getting rid of many of the bottlers, he's also not seemed to have shown the backbone with the board on player sales. He's become a puppet.

I reneged quite a few games ago on my preseason statement of give him "one more full season". It became painful and my mind was made up, he had to go. So could he have changed my mind again if he'd turned it around on the field in the last 10 games? Possibly. But it would've meant an unbeaten run playing excellent football. Unfortunately that never materialised.

I'll be listening in with interest to the Forum's at the weekend. Part of the reason I was also holding off getting rid of Blackie previously was because of Birch's Q&A farce with Radio Sheffield. Birch painted a very gloomy picture and gave no indication that we were/ are a stable club. I believe thats what the Forum's this week are for. To dispell the myths, that ironically through lack of information, Birch and McCabe have created and its probably kept Blackie in a job.

So why can't Blackie do it? I think he's proved that he needs a big squad to get results. We don't have that now and we won't have it next season. Regardless of how you see the way we play, Blackie always states that he likes high tempo, high energy football. For this you need fast, fit and physical players. Based upon the small squad we have now we've inevitably got lots of injuries to these players. We can't play this way with a small squad.

Football is so unstable now financially so I hope that the club uses this as an opportunity to clear the decks and start rebuilding the 'Blades Way'. I think bringing Pembo in is a got starting point, but he'll need time to settle. We can argue on Blackie's replacement, but I think we need a Senior Football man on the Board (not a dual role with an accountant) a Derek Dooley type figure with a love for football and the club, not money. We need a manager that can work with a budget and get the best out of young players, get us playing better football but maintain the Blades physical reputation.

 

[DuncDisorderly]

Evans
Yeates
Harper
Taylor

Decent enough. Though not yet flourishing

Fortune, a solid experienced pro. handy to have around the squad
Reid, the only way we could get Hendrie off the wage bill
France, pissed Wednesday off.

You're also forgetting those other massive failures that Blackwell has brought to the club, either bought or as loans.

Cresswell
Ward
Henderson
Camara
Connelly (decent enough, and may stay on)
Nosworthy
Simondsen
Little

and from earlier in the season, Treacy.

Managers bring players in. Some work out well and some are crap. This is the way of football...

 

[beightonblade]

The whole fookin management team want clearing out !

dont blame cheap as chips he's just the tea boy

 

[H. Metal Blade]

i'm happy to stick my neck out and say keep him. Any blade with commom sense can see that if we'd not have had such a strange season for injuries and not relied on temporary staff for the best part of it, we'd have challenged for automatic. You only have to look at the two runs in the season where were weren't affected by injuries.

Now, as injuries have clearly been such a definning part of the season you then have to look reflectively at why. First is our depth (or lack therof), this is a problem caused higher up by the selling of players that seemed to us common fans suprising - i'm not talking about teh likes of the kyles but more Bromby at the beginning of the season...he could play anywhere on defecnse as a great squad player and we lost a lot of depth when he went. Second, i'd be taking a very strong look at the physio set-up and the warm up routines when considering our most common reccuring injuires.

 

[William Large]

Decent enough. Though not yet flourishing

Fortune, a solid experienced pro. handy to have around the squad
Reid, the only way we could get Hendrie off the wage bill
France, pissed Wednesday off.

You're also forgetting those other massive failures that Blackwell has brought to the club, either bought or as loans.

Cresswell
Ward
Henderson
Camara
Connelly (decent enough, and may stay on)
Nosworthy
Simondsen
Little

and from earlier in the season, Treacy.

Managers bring players in. Some work out well and some are crap. This is the way of football...

Am i missing the joke here?

I thought Cresswell had done well?
Simondsen definately has
Ward is the only one with any pace, is direct and has also been a good buy in my opinion.
Jury out on Little as he does not play enough.

As for Fortune - He is fucking awful!

I surely must have missed some irony or a joke here?

 

[judge]

id go for a new manager ,not because i think blackwell has done a bad job but to to see who is the first to start slagging the new man off and then relentleslly post a 100 times a day saying how much they hate him and would rather we lost to wednesday than keep him in a job

 

[mr glossop]

results wise blackwell has done ok over the past two years and although i don't expect champagne football at the lane some passing would be nice.time for a change as basically the style of play is shocking.

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

So why couldn't Robson?

Cus he's a wanker

 

[Greg]

In a word: twist. We need change, desperately.

 

[DuncDisorderly]

Am i missing the joke here?

No, I don't think that you are. I am simply pointing out that the original post listed players to support the argument that 'Blackwell buys shit players'. However, you really have to look at the list as a whole and consider the ones that have worked out OK as well as the ones that haven't.

I do think that some of his player recruitment has been pretty good, bearing in mind he had had to rummage through the bargain bins and the jumble sales, but yes we have got a few clonkers in as well...

 

[Kev Gee]

Its a tough one. I feel like giving him till Christmas. But then i think its better to start with a clean slate.

So i say Twist.

However i think the club will stick with him. Till Xmas at least.

 

[William Large]

Its a tough one. I feel like giving him till Christmas. But then i think its better to start with a clean slate.

So i say Twist.

However i think the club will stick with him. Till Xmas at least.

Yeah I think that will be the case. if so then we really need to get behind him and particularly the team while he is here. If we aren't there ot therabouts by Xmas then I agree that he will go / get sacked. It will be interesting to hear what McCabe come out with at the weekend although we could probably all write his spiel for him "tough economic times......... other clubs in dire straits......Portsmouth..... wage bill.... blah blah blah. What we need to hear are his plans for us, money available etc. If none then why at least show some transparency. Then again i he says we have fuck all to spend, then season ticket sales will suffer so we know what he is likely to come out with.

Going off on a tangent a bit but if he stays then we need to get behind him. I will probably be made to eat my words tho....

 

[Grecian2000]

It will be interesting to hear what McCabe come out with at the weekend although we could probably all write his spiel for him "tough economic times......... other clubs in dire straits......Portsmouth..... wage bill.... blah blah blah.

Don't forget those Pesky Agents, that always goes down well.