Porter is an undoubted Blades Legend, not because he was prolific, not because he was the best player ever, but he epitomises what it means to be a Blade. Hard working, thick skinned, loyal, loves the blades and the lane and perhaps most of all a big heart.
Porter a Blades legend? Cult hero, legend is an absolute joke and we've probably had 4 or 5 'legends' max in the last 20 years max (Jags, Brown, Dane Whitehouse, Alan Kelly and maybe Chris Morgan).
Few points about loyalty, hard work and being a Blade
1. Hard work should be a minimum requirement
2. Dane Whitehouse and Billy Sharp showed proper love for by sacrificing financially to play for us as well as turning down the opportunity to play for a better team.
Billy wouldn't have dropped from the championship to play for anyone else. United try to force Whitehouse out the door but he refused better money and the chance to join a better team in Birmingham.
90% of these players mentioned as having 'passion' couldn't hold a candle to these two and didn't have better offers either.
3. It's easy to be hard working and 'loyal' when you're shit and never gonna have a better offer than playing for us.
I take the 'hard work' of talentless players with a pinch of salt. John Fleck, Michael Brown, Jagielka, Knockaert at Brighton, Alan Shearer, David Beckham. That's when you should praise work rate and passion, when someone has the talent to stroll around the pitch like Billy big bollox and barking out orders because it's easy for them, but they give everything they've got anyway, that's passion.
People seriously exaggerate how hard Porter actually worked as well, not even on the same planet as Monty or Matty Done when it comes to work rate. I saw plenty of games where he strolled around and contributed fuck all.
Same goes for Neill Collins, he had a stinking attitude half the time and blamed his team mates for his own failings every time he cost us a goal.
Confirmation bias, people just get it in their heads that a player has this magic 'passion' because they see a shit player have the odd game where they're really committed.
