We Are Safe

[snb69]

We are still a few points off the point I'm going to use the s-word, the 13 year cycle still haunts me

 

[Grizzly blade]

Shakes head to clear it. Only remaining question for me is, do we go full out for Cup or concentrate on Champions League or Europa. Relegation, give me a break, and I'm still haunted by our early 90s Chelsea away loss

I think realistically we are safe.
We won’t get less than 10 points from now until the end of the season. You just can’t see this side going on a long run of defeats, they’ve got too much about them mentally.

I feel we are at our best when we have consistency in selection, and we need to give the cup a big go for me. So we go for 5th place or above and we go for the cup.
Plus, we need to finish the season in form to carry that into next season...the fabled “second season” where teams are at greater risk.

 

[VictoryBlade]

What second season? Wilder will be going for the bloody title!

 

[Hamburg Blade]

He was certainly at the Leeds match when the crowd record was set. And he was a bit young to have got to the 1925 Final.
On your last question, we are all different, and shaped by our experiences and our nature, I guess. I am by nature an optimist, and positive in difficult circumstances (I have been lucky to have had relatively few things to deal with in life). The only areas I find it useful to have the protection of low expectations is politics, where I am invariably on the losing side, and football. I don't only see failures on the horizon, but it is as well to be aware that failure can happen. I was talking today to a Man City fan (a convert about 10 years ago), and he is absolutely fed up with watching them this season. It is as well to bear in mind that there is only one league champion, cup winner and league cup winner each year. If the expectation is a trophy, most fans are going to be disappointed every year. If the hope is to avoid relegation (and to enjoy watching the matches), then you have a chance of 'success'. I wouldn't want that to be the attitude of the manager or the players, but for my entertainment/leisure time, a sense of constant disappointment is not worth it. Setting my sights low makes sense to me, but of course it is each to their own.
I did take your post as humour. And the pessimism/realism around at the moment is largely self-mocking, offering a little self-protection just in case. After all, it is 13 years since... No, I won't go there...

You're not converting me I get that failure can happen and that it is as well to be aware of it, as you say. This is really not what is going on. I'm aware that planes crash when I get on one. People around me wouldn't think it was perfectly reasonable to remind them of it throughout the flight, continually telling them until we land not to count their chickens. Same with crossing the road. Same with getting in a car. Same with eating peanuts. We've probably reached the point of being less likely to go down than dying in all of those situations yet there's this Blade thing that people feel they have to do. In the years of pain/struggle/living in the wilderness, it's understandable, justified even, but these days it just sounds pathetic.
We had it last season with people claiming Wednesday were going to make it to the playoffs and then play us and beat us to go up. We had it from some until it was "mathematically" impossible. We've had a lot of pain over the years, why is it that some fans have to live in more pain before it happens - when it won't even happen?
This season we've people talking about relegation places and looking over their shoulder at the last three places when even the media are talking about us going for a CL place.
No one likes miserable people, negative people, people who moan when they've no reason to. We've not had reason to for 4 years. We'll end up with a reputation of having a massive chip on our shoulders and it will be hard to shift - because it will be justified.
We're in danger of becoming the Scots of the PL.

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

You're not converting me I get that failure can happen and that it is as well to be aware of it, as you say. This is really not what is going on. I'm aware that planes crash when I get on one. People around me wouldn't think it was perfectly reasonable to remind them of it throughout the flight, continually telling them until we land not to count their chickens. Same with crossing the road. Same with getting in a car. Same with eating peanuts. We've probably reached the point of being less likely to go down than dying in all of those situations yet there's this Blade thing that people feel they have to do. In the years of pain/struggle/living in the wilderness, it's understandable, justified even, but these days it just sounds pathetic.
We had it last season with people claiming Wednesday were going to make it to the playoffs and then play us and beat us to go up. We had it from some until it was "mathematically" impossible. We've had a lot of pain over the years, why is it that some fans have to live in more pain before it happens - when it won't even happen?
This season we've people talking about relegation places and looking over their shoulder at the last three places when even the media are talking about us going for a CL place.
No one likes miserable people, negative people, people who moan when they've no reason to. We've not had reason to for 4 years. We'll end up with a reputation of having a massive chip on our shoulders and it will be hard to shift - because it will be justified.
We're in danger of becoming the Scots of the PL.

I'm not trying to convert you, just explaining where I'm coming from. All the things you list in the first paragraph, I'm optimistic about - they are real life. Football is not - it is Shankley's 'football is more important than life', which he knew it wasn't. Being realistic that failure is statistically likely protects you from losing your love of football when it all goes wrong. What could be worse than Walsall in 1981? Guess what - the season in Division 4 was brilliant, thoroughly enjoyable. A great goal or a brilliant save is enjoyable, whatever the level, it's the game that matters. Doing it this year at the top level has been terrific, but I am confident that if we lost the next 13 games and got relegated (which I am not expecting to happen), I will go to the Lane in August looking forward to the first match. Probably pretending that I am proud that we are the first team ever to have done that.

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

Jeg sætter pris på de følelser af åbningen post, og denne sæson er intet mindre end usædvanlige. Vi konkurrerer i den øverste division, blot at være her er noget, jeg ikke tror, jeg ville se i nogen tid. For så at være i den øverste halvdel, jeg troede ville have taget års bygning. Ledelsen er magisk.

Når det er sagt, er jeg ikke at komme foran mig selv. Før en bold blev sparket, håbede jeg, at vi ville holde vores egen, men ikke forventningsfulde.

 

[Hamburg Blade]

I'm not trying to convert you, just explaining where I'm coming from. All the things you list in the first paragraph, I'm optimistic about - they are real life. Football is not - it is Shankley's 'football is more important than life', which he knew it wasn't. Being realistic that failure is statistically likely protects you from losing your love of football when it all goes wrong. What could be worse than Walsall in 1981? Guess what - the season in Division 4 was brilliant, thoroughly enjoyable. A great goal or a brilliant save is enjoyable, whatever the level, it's the game that matters. Doing it this year at the top level has been terrific, but I am confident that if we lost the next 13 games and got relegated (which I am not expecting to happen), I will go to the Lane in August looking forward to the first match. Probably pretending that I am proud that we are the first team ever to have done that.

Isn't that the point though? Football is full of ups and downs. You've only touched on a fraction of what we've experienced, the older you are, the more of a roller-coaster you've had. I sometimes wonder at how boring it must be to be, say, an Everton fan. But precisely because of what we've experienced, I don't understand those fans who, when the good times arrive, can't leave off the negativity and tales of caution. It's not like they then balance that with words of hope and tales of the good times around the corner when the dire times arrive, is it?
My opinion is just that it is time for a change in the way Blades see these things.

 

[blade too long]

Job will be done when we're mathematically safe from relegation

Statistically 39 points should be 100 per cent safe this season with the top clubs getting so many points.you only need 38 points or more when the top 2 only finish on 88 to 85 points. Liverpool will probably get over 100 so that's far less points going to the bottom clubs. Anyhow we are 13 games left how many really believe we can't get 0.5 points pr game giving us 6 and 42 which in itself would be a catastrophic fall from our current form

 

[blade too long]

We havent lost to any team below 13th a wilder gimme
Our next 3 are home games v 3 of them

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Isn't that the point though? Football is full of ups and downs. You've only touched on a fraction of what we've experienced, the older you are, the more of a roller-coaster you've had. I sometimes wonder at how boring it must be to be, say, an Everton fan. But precisely because of what we've experienced, I don't understand those fans who, when the good times arrive, can't leave off the negativity and tales of caution. It's not like they then balance that with words of hope and tales of the good times around the corner when the dire times arrive, is it?
My opinion is just that it is time for a change in the way Blades see these things.

I am close to being persuaded. But it will take a few more years of success to actually change my mindset. The last 3 years have been special, but I still don’t feel secure. And I hope we never become like the Arsenal fan on a 5Live phone-in a few years back saying that the club was affecting his mental health- they had not won a trophy for 2 years.

 

[BladeByChoice]

When I originally posted it was out of frustration that a few Blades fans refused to get in the boat and ride on the wave of euphoria that most of us were enjoying.

Little did I know just what lengths the footballing gods would go to, to hold back the Blades. After failing to stop us with storm Ciara they realised that we were unstoppable so released a world wide pandemic to disable our opponents.

We were taken by surprise by this tactic, but I’m confident that as soon as things return to normal, supreme being CW will be delivering a swift kick in the bollocks to the footballing gods and telling them to get fucked.

Apologies to the pessimists, something did happen to try and spoil our season, but this just a short delay, you cannot stop the inevitable. We are going to Europe and we are going to Wembley,

Always the optimist, stay safe, UTB .⚔.

 

[bongleblade]

Why must people taunt the football gods?