What the fuck are people expecting?

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pommpey

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Forty, maybe fifty years. Some of it spent at the top level, most of it struggling to get there. For much of that we have seen decent players come - Deane, Currie, JAF, Jags ... even Beattie. And we have also seen them go ... all of them but include the Kyles, Browny, Edwards and more.

We've had decent gate receipts, been able to upgrade our ground for modest cost, kept the baliffs away, avoided administration, had some good attempts at cup-runs and fucked up in the playoffs too many times.

That's our existence in a nutshell. We have a real belief we should be bigger than we are. We have this because we deserve it. Faith in one of the nations two teams from the third biggest city, with a population of nearly 700,000 to bring into the stadium if they choose.

What we don't deserve is the deal we have regarding the serial shower of dickheads who run the club and make the executive decisions. Since we dropped unceremoniously out of the top flight (our brief stay at fault in parts to poor team management and failure to build, both for the challenge and after injury) we have suffered badly from inexcusable flogging of our talent, awarding of the team manger's job to incompetents and failure to recognise where our weaknesses lie. We have relied on loanees, past-its and shown patience with obvious 'well-above-their-fighting-weights' like Montgomery, Flynn, Porter ... journeymen pay-chequers like Cresswell and Beattie #2 and this current lot, who still seemingly have terminal failure-cancer and put in performances against teams like Brentford and Colchester ... at one time teams regarded as dead and buried ... to reinforce our abject shitness.

And we have sold our best player ... a man who has to be honest ... turned in about a dozen or so credible performances and five goals for Sheffield United in seventy seven games - set against a team during that particular time that has been a fag-paper just above wank, and won fuck all. We think this is a disaster and something outrageously out-of-the-ordinary. I say it isn't and we should just accept it that McCabe ... like others before him and his boardroom colleagues ... have some sort of business plan that involves us underachieving and staying where we are. Forget the £700k. Forget bringing anyone in. Just set yourself ready for 'situation normal' for this season and many more to come. There clearly is no other explanation for it. He will leave Weir and Carsley to field the brickbats and face the fans. He has better shit to be dealing with than Sheffield United, who unfortunately has become a burdensome liability for him and his 'investors'.

pommpey
 



Problem is Pompers, carry on like this and gates will dwindle and costs will have to be reduced as will player's wages and so on and so forth....

The only hope we have is that DWII can turn it round on the crumbs he has available and that he stays the full term of his contract.

I couldn't go today and I realised this evening that I hadn't missed going...
 
Oh, I fully agree, BoSS. That is a given. It may be simplistic to figure things out in such a manner, but I feel it's the only way.

If you want success in football, you have to invest in your squad - shift on the fuck-ups and failures, grow your own promise and buy-in the rest. It doesn't take much maths to work out that performances like today will increase the gate revenue. It seems to me there is a strange kind of conspiracy to flatten our club. Sell our reasonable players keep the dogshit and hope the blind, faithful Bladesmen will roll through the turnstiles, whatever happens. Seems to be working.

pommpey
 
1st L.Orient (4,414)
2nd Peterborough (6,184)
4th Walsall (4,295)
5th Colchester (3,201)
6th Brentford (7,316)
7th Rotherham (8,454)
8th MK Dons (6,911)
9th Bradford (13,641)
10th Crawley (3,110)
11th Crewe (4,720)
12th Port Vale (6,552)
13th Sheff Utd (17,167)

Latest Home League Attendance in brackets

What was your point again?
 
£10 a ticket and we can only muster 17,000 fans, yeah right the faithful Bladesmen seem to be voting with their feet already Pompey. We were promised a new of doing things pre season and Weir was the man to make the changes, maybe he is maybe he isn't time will tell. We can't get on his back or on the players backs they are doing their best even if in some cases their best is clearly not good enough. The next few weeks will be very interesting and we will soon see if there really is a change of outlook down at the lane, either way it will take time and patience. But if Weir is not allowed to spend the money received from the sale of McDonald to bring in some new faces we will know it is business as usual and McCabe and his cronies should get ready to face a very nasty fans backlash the likes of which the self proclaimed "biggest Blade" can't imagine ......................................... then again are the fans now so dumbed down by mediocrity that everyone is past caring anymore ?
 
Ken you missed out No 3.

Not sure that is allowed in the interests of objectivity. Kinda cheating in a way.

We are not alone.
 
Problem is always going to be how much every extra 1000 fans through the gate cost McCabe. Reduce wage costs Spend fuck all and don't worry about where we finish we can still get 17,000 through the gate. Invest a load of cash and the income does not go up in proportion. Hovering around the play offs in league 1 could be a lot more financially viable than struggling in the championship when looking at the cost to income. Even worse get to the premiership and see how much that costs you :-(

We like to assume he is looking at it from a fans point of view but he has his business mans view. Worse case club folds you lose a lot less and have a lot less debt in league 1. Ground would probably mean he comes out on top. Master plan could be to head to league 2 as we would still pull a decent crowd but expenditure would be a lot less.
 
Agree with your overall sentiments Pommpey. Actually I can go past Currie to Jones and Birchenall who were sold under our noses with the inevitable result, relegation. Twas ever thus. Not sure about the 3rd biggest city and a population of 700,000 but I take your point. In some respects I wish our support would reduce considerably If only to ensure that McCabe can't ignore it. He clearly loves the kudos of being boss of a football club and the business doors it opens for him so he can effect a posh accent despite coming from inner city Sheffield. Our support is astonishing considering the rubbish we have to watch. Yesterday on the train back to Barnsley it was packed with Blades of all ages from the Elsecar and Wombwell areas. Such faith and loyalty deserves a bit of success, that or the loony bin.
 
... Not sure about the 3rd biggest city and a population of 700,000 ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_districts_by_population

https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/your-c...pulation-and-health/population-estimates.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_urban_area

Given outlying areas beyond the district, borough and regional boundaries, that's still a lot of people. More than Manchester, Liverpool, Southampton, Norwich, Sunderland, Cardiff. These cities have football teams currently playing in the PL.

The reason we are not as successful as them is investment, wisdom and belief.

pommpey
 
Bit tenuous i think.
I'm not sure about that list Pommpey, that bustling conurbation Cornwall follows Sheffield on it.........
I always thought we were about 6 or 7th in terms of city populations. However, this one has us as 5th and higher than Manchester - which I struggle to believe tbh.

www.ukcities.co.uk/populations/

But I take your sentiment.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_districts_by_population

https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/your-c...pulation-and-health/population-estimates.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_urban_area

Given outlying areas beyond the district, borough and regional boundaries, that's still a lot of people. More than Manchester, Liverpool, Southampton, Norwich, Sunderland, Cardiff. These cities have football teams currently playing in the PL.

The reason we are not as successful as them is investment, wisdom and belief.

pommpey

If you're using the List of English Districts by Population as a measure of how important or big a city is then you're on a sticky wicket straightaway. Where's London in that list?


If you're only including the city of Manchester in Manchester population count, then you can't include Manchester United as one of the premier league clubs that's in Manchester, since they're based in Trafford.

The greater Manchester Area dwarfs the size of the Sheffield Urban Area.
 
colchester won 2 and drawn with us, they have improved, we are adjusting to a new system , have we lost 3, look at Carlisle , were a threat 24 months ago ,collapsed completely, Orient took 24 months to improve , what are some giving Weir ; 3 weeks, Im sure they were starting a new job theyd love to criticised after less than a month , and what for , losing at Brentford , one of the sides expected to be up there, just cant fathom some out.
 
Problem is Pompers, carry on like this and gates will dwindle and costs will have to be reduced as will player's wages and so on and so forth....

The only hope we have is that DWII can turn it round on the crumbs he has available and that he stays the full term of his contract.

I couldn't go today and I realised this evening that I hadn't missed going...


I missed you though ;)
 
pommpey said:
What the fuck are people expecting?

Judging from the rampant optimism on here before the season it seems a lot of people were expecting us to piss the league by about 20 points.

The basis for that was because, erm, David Weir is friends with David Moyes. And erm, David Moyes is the manager of Manchester United who are the biggest club in the world!
 



Agree with the sentiments expressed, but please remember we are three games in, that's it.

I'm not going into the DW Mk I reign, but this is the problem with firing a manager on a short-term whim. Once you set that pattern that a few bad results is bad enough, then people expect the boss to be sacked and replaced by someone who just happens to be better (why didn't we employ said better manager before?).

Three games in, and we're starting to panic? C'mon people, where's the long term thinking?
 
Judging from the rampant optimism on here before the season it seems a lot of people were expecting us to piss the league by about 20 points.

The basis for that was because, erm, David Weir is friends with David Moyes. And erm, David Moyes is the manager of Manchester United who are the biggest club in the world!


Also there's that oddity that many think you're only a proper fan if your expectations for the season are wildly optimistic and that anyone who reckons 'actually, we're not all that' is either a wrist slitting miserablist or a Wednesday fan in disguise.
 
Judging from the rampant optimism on here before the season it seems a lot of people were expecting us to piss the league by about 20 points.

The basis for that was because, erm, David Weir is friends with David Moyes. And erm, David Moyes is the manager of Manchester United who are the biggest club in the world!

Must have missed those posts over the whole summer. Plenty were optimistic, but I don't think even the most optimistic of those fans had us definitely top 2, let alone expecting 'to piss the league by about 20 points'.

Also, people have made a judgement on Weir's potential on who he's worked for in his career, not who he 'is friends with'. He's a manager that's learning - and probably has a lot to learn, and a need to do that quickly. He has had 3 games as a professional football manager in what is hardly built up as a particularly easy job. I really hope fans don't jump to their default negative knee-jerk reaction.
 
Must have missed those posts over the whole summer. Plenty were optimistic, but I don't think even the most optimistic of those fans had us definitely top 2, let alone expecting 'to piss the league by about 20 points'.

Also, people have made a judgement on Weir's potential on who he's worked for in his career, not who he 'is friends with'. He's a manager that's learning - and probably has a lot to learn, and a need to do that quickly. He has had 3 games as a professional football manager in what is hardly built up as a particularly easy job. I really hope fans don't jump to their default negative knee-jerk reaction.


There were certainly a couple who had us down for automatic.

I can't blame Weir though, the squad is absolutely abysmal with no real hope of changing it significantly. He may be able to imprint his style and slowly build the team into playing the way he wants, and I hope he learns his own role quickly. Given time he may turn us into a decent side. But predictions of automatic promotion this season with this team are the rantings of madmen!
 
Was that a sonic boom over Sheffield yesterday or just the sound of 26 fools coming down to Earth with a bump ?
 
Pommpey, support for a club doesn't just come from the town or city where they are based. Greater Manchester dwarfs Sheffield and South Yorkshire in population terms. Leeds has a bigger population than Sheffield and only one football club. The populations of Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire are bigger than Sheffield and they support Florist and Lesta respectively. The county of Norfolk has a bigger population than Sheffield with only Narich to support and so on. I can't imagine many people support United outside the Sheffield post code area. We do alright but making out we have a HUGE population demographic to call upon for support is simply delusional otherwise Leyton Orient, Charlton and Brentford would have 80,000 + attendances
 

Thanks, hadn't seen those results. The majority thought we would not win the league, but a plurality certainly did. If that wasn't crazy in itself, I am absolutely amazed that a majority thought we would finish top two. I would have said that was optimistic last year, when we had arguably a stronger team in certainly a weaker division. Utter madness.
 
I'd prefer to say it's a majority of people who could be arsed to vote.

I'm with perhaps most people who can't be arsed to predict as we have seen it all before.

Despite one of my favourite sayings from the late 60's being "we are shit get used to it" I'm called a clapper and quite often blamed for our downfall. Why??

Because I still attend matches after all these years.

I didn't vote though so perhaps I can't have a nurse!

:)
 
Pommpey, support for a club doesn't just come from the town or city where they are based. Greater Manchester dwarfs Sheffield and South Yorkshire in population terms. Leeds has a bigger population than Sheffield and only one football club. The populations of Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire are bigger than Sheffield and they support Florist and Lesta respectively. The county of Norfolk has a bigger population than Sheffield with only Narich to support and so on. I can't imagine many people support United outside the Sheffield post code area. We do alright but making out we have a HUGE population demographic to call upon for support is simply delusional otherwise Leyton Orient, Charlton and Brentford would have 80,000 + attendances

Not including Notts County and Mansfield then?
 
Im sticking with my prediction of 8th, although from what i've heard, that would be seen as very optimistic at the moment. The phrase my friends and family use most is 'nothing in the final third'. If there is any money from the mcdonald transfer, it needs to be spent on something up top
 



Pommpey, support for a club doesn't just come from the town or city where they are based. Greater Manchester dwarfs Sheffield and South Yorkshire in population terms. Leeds has a bigger population than Sheffield and only one football club. The populations of Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire are bigger than Sheffield and they support Florist and Lesta respectively. The county of Norfolk has a bigger population than Sheffield with only Narich to support and so on. I can't imagine many people support United outside the Sheffield post code area. We do alright but making out we have a HUGE population demographic to call upon for support is simply delusional otherwise Leyton Orient, Charlton and Brentford would have 80,000 + attendances

A few seasons ago, we were pulling in 20k+ gates - in fact for five recent consecutive seasons, our average league gate was above 25k. Now I'd say, with 550k in the city boundary and another 200k in the regional, that conurbation would have fed that gate significantly. Why do you think we have the highest gates this season of any club in our division so far at home (and last season, in fact?) The Pigs before that. It doesn't come from nowhere. How many supporters have you heard (now be honest ... ) say after another embarrassing home-game fuck-up where we have slumped to defeat whilst bemused minnow opposition slap each other on the back ... how many supporters have you heard utter these words, "Rubbish. They haven't got a fucking clue. I'll be fucked if I'm wasting my money on that shower of shit until they sort it out." And so it goes.

It matters not a fuck about London clubs regarding gates and followings to be honest. London is a conurbation of boroughs, as is Manchester to a large extent. Wigan is part of Greater Manchester, as is Oldham and Bolton. Our city has two football clubs, one in the city centre and one in the northern region. Both clubs have a possible following of 700,000 people and an achievable on of 25-30k each given the recent trend. Comparing that with London with 13 clubs within the boundary of the M25 and eight times the surface area is a bit wrong, especially when you factor in the statistical wealth of some of the clubs.

The bottom line is (and the point I am trying to make) 'play shit football (and fail to invest to correct it), and no matter how big your target audience, the gates and relative financial wealth will plummet.' I'm pretty sure McCabe and his team of bonobo chimpanzees are fully aware of that, and the fact that no matter what he does, he won't get his money back until the club goes bust and the chattels are flogged off in a liquidation sale. Ooops! Cat Out Of Bag moment, there.

pommpey
 

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