Time was when Sheffield United were a football club with a heart, and with a soul. Ever the gutsy underdogs, they weren't the most skilful team in the league by a long chalk, but they ground out results because the players never gave up. They played to the whistle, they gave their all, and they were willing to run through a brick wall for the manager and the team.
As a fan, if you were talking to someone and football came up, there was always a grudging respect when it came out that you were a Blade. They might not have been everyone's cup of tea, but there was an appreciation there that this was a team who commanded loyalty from the fans and gave it back, that this was a team who never knew when they were beaten and wouldn't capitulate against foes from the league above, and that this was a team where a sense of unity ran like a lifeblood from the roots of the grass upwards. Nah nah nah nah, we were Blades, and we were Blades.
The team was exactly that: a group of players who weren't the most skilful, or the most talented, or the best at anything, really. What made the team so good was that together, they were far more than the sum of their parts. The football wasn't always pretty, it wasn't even always effective, but it was rare indeed that you'd come away from watching us play and say that the players on the pitch hadn't tried their hardest.
Fast forward to 2009. What's happened? Where once there was a team with a heart, there's a private company with a balance sheet. Where once there were gutsy underdogs, there are petulant prima-donnas who, it would seem, care little for the contract that binds them to the club. Results are still ground out, but instead of 90 minute battles, there are often 45 minutes or more of dissonant, unstructured running around, entirely without tactic or shape, followed by a period in which some genuinely attractive football is played and goals are scored as a consequence.
As a fan, if you're talking to someone and football comes up, the grudging respect for the club and its acolytes is all but gone. No longer a band of plucky, rag-tag soldiers, the club are disliked by many, with events such as the so-called 'Tevezgate', the incident in which the club's captain fractured the skull of an opponent, and the more recent controversy of the club's first-choice goalkeeper being caught with ephedrine in his bloodstream sapping a lot of the goodwill that was previously extended by true football fans.
Nor is it any longer a case of 'we're all Blades together'. Schisms and splits in rank have caused Blade to rise up against Blade. Simplistic analysis puts the typical Blade into one of two camps: clapper or moaner. Inaccurate as this is, it is still used as a weapon by people who supposedly support the same club to beat their fellow fans.
Criticism of the club is shouted down by a group of ultimately well-meaning but blinkered individuals who cannot separate criticism from loathing. 'Get yourself to Hillsborough' is an oft-repeated epithet aimed at anyone who dares to question the regime; another tired cliché trotted out is that the current leaders of the club are the best we've ever had, so complaining about them is not allowed.
That's not to say that those on the other side of the fence are any better. There are an equal number of fans who dismiss anything positive that is said as propoganda, as mere 'happy clapping', as unrealistic toeing of the party line.
The moderate fan stands somewhere inbetween, often put off from stating their opinions for fear of being shouted down by the more obnoxious members of the two warring factions. A civil war of sorts is taking place: the discord on the pitch translated and amplified into the terraces and the messageboards. Where did it all go so wrong?
Is it that there are more people with easier access to a soap-box, thanks to the internet? Is it that the Blades lost their heart and soul when they got to the promised land of the Premiership? Is it that football is changing massively, and what's happening to the Blades and the fanbase is symptomatic of a wider malaise with Sky and the corporate world of advertising revenue at its dark heart? Or has it always been like this, and my perception's changing as I get older?
I'd be genuinely interested in hearing what people think. Thanks for taking the time to read this - I know it's a long one, but I feel better for writing it down.
As a fan, if you were talking to someone and football came up, there was always a grudging respect when it came out that you were a Blade. They might not have been everyone's cup of tea, but there was an appreciation there that this was a team who commanded loyalty from the fans and gave it back, that this was a team who never knew when they were beaten and wouldn't capitulate against foes from the league above, and that this was a team where a sense of unity ran like a lifeblood from the roots of the grass upwards. Nah nah nah nah, we were Blades, and we were Blades.
The team was exactly that: a group of players who weren't the most skilful, or the most talented, or the best at anything, really. What made the team so good was that together, they were far more than the sum of their parts. The football wasn't always pretty, it wasn't even always effective, but it was rare indeed that you'd come away from watching us play and say that the players on the pitch hadn't tried their hardest.
Fast forward to 2009. What's happened? Where once there was a team with a heart, there's a private company with a balance sheet. Where once there were gutsy underdogs, there are petulant prima-donnas who, it would seem, care little for the contract that binds them to the club. Results are still ground out, but instead of 90 minute battles, there are often 45 minutes or more of dissonant, unstructured running around, entirely without tactic or shape, followed by a period in which some genuinely attractive football is played and goals are scored as a consequence.
As a fan, if you're talking to someone and football comes up, the grudging respect for the club and its acolytes is all but gone. No longer a band of plucky, rag-tag soldiers, the club are disliked by many, with events such as the so-called 'Tevezgate', the incident in which the club's captain fractured the skull of an opponent, and the more recent controversy of the club's first-choice goalkeeper being caught with ephedrine in his bloodstream sapping a lot of the goodwill that was previously extended by true football fans.
Nor is it any longer a case of 'we're all Blades together'. Schisms and splits in rank have caused Blade to rise up against Blade. Simplistic analysis puts the typical Blade into one of two camps: clapper or moaner. Inaccurate as this is, it is still used as a weapon by people who supposedly support the same club to beat their fellow fans.
Criticism of the club is shouted down by a group of ultimately well-meaning but blinkered individuals who cannot separate criticism from loathing. 'Get yourself to Hillsborough' is an oft-repeated epithet aimed at anyone who dares to question the regime; another tired cliché trotted out is that the current leaders of the club are the best we've ever had, so complaining about them is not allowed.
That's not to say that those on the other side of the fence are any better. There are an equal number of fans who dismiss anything positive that is said as propoganda, as mere 'happy clapping', as unrealistic toeing of the party line.
The moderate fan stands somewhere inbetween, often put off from stating their opinions for fear of being shouted down by the more obnoxious members of the two warring factions. A civil war of sorts is taking place: the discord on the pitch translated and amplified into the terraces and the messageboards. Where did it all go so wrong?
Is it that there are more people with easier access to a soap-box, thanks to the internet? Is it that the Blades lost their heart and soul when they got to the promised land of the Premiership? Is it that football is changing massively, and what's happening to the Blades and the fanbase is symptomatic of a wider malaise with Sky and the corporate world of advertising revenue at its dark heart? Or has it always been like this, and my perception's changing as I get older?
I'd be genuinely interested in hearing what people think. Thanks for taking the time to read this - I know it's a long one, but I feel better for writing it down.