When will this bottom out?

[Bladesway]

OK, 4 years ago we were in the Premiership and sitting fairly comfortably. We were claased as another Bolton in so much as we were a well run club. We had a supposedly exceptionally astute chairmen who regularly appears in the top 100 richest people in football. Money was no issue. The ground had been redeveloped and we had a range of clubs across the globe to raise our profile. It was all pretty sweet. We went and won away at Wigan with a Hulse goal and while we weren't pretty to watch we were effective.

Wind forwards to today and we are a club in crisis. Our chairman clearly has lost interest since he didn't sell when he wanted to (when we were incidentally at our peak) and we are now dropping like a stone. Our first team is the most spineless, useless, talentless pile of money thieves I have known in my 35 years as a Blade.

You can blame West Ham, you can blame Tevez. You can blame Warnock, McCabe or Blackwell if you like it doesn't really matter. Fact is we are in freefall. We announced an £18m loss last year, our once impressive squad has been dismantled and is an empty void these days. The ground is going to start emptying at the same rate soon as well.

A few years ago, a Christmas gathering of fans from www.unitedite.co.uk would generate a cast of upwards of 20 people. It wasn't clappers V Knockers, we all got together and had a bloody good piss up. We had people up from London, Crawley, down from Leeds, we even had occasion to welcome visitors from Hong Kong and the US. It was a real feel good gathering no matter what the result. How many of those now attend? Pretty much none. They certainly don't get together in the same numbers. We used to bump from pub to pub and see various regulars and talk shite throughout the day. It was brilliant. I spoke with one of the regulars the other day my mate said he went from pub to pub and saw no one he knew from those days.

I think that pretty much reflects the state of where we are. Fragmented as a club, fragmented as a team. Sliding down the table into the bottom three any time soon. Where is it going to end? I don't think we are anywhere near the end of it. Our Manager who was has gone off to manage Wales after a staggering 4 months where he has hardly covered himself in glory. Speed couldn't get out of the place quickly enough. I'm guessing the board couldnt get rid of him quickly enough either. Nice fat cheque from the FAW to go into the black hole and never be seen again. Bonus for Super Blade that.

Now for christs sake McCabe, don't do the usual cheap thing and get some poor nodding dog in. Worse still don't (as I fear) promote from within and put the dream team of Pemberton and Morgan in charge. If you do you will consign us to our first season in the third tier of English football for the first time in over 20 years. Thing is, its very real. We could go down and we could end up playing Bristol Rovers again. Passed by the unclean into the bargain!

It couldn't be worse really could it? I don't see an end to this. I don't see leadership from the top and I don't see any signs that we are going to bite the bullet and get a good manager in rather than a make do and mend manager in.

If we do, League One may be our resting place for some time. Now go back 4 years, could anyone have imagined a worse scenario? Its the worst nightmare that happens to be reality. What the hell has happened?

 

[Pollingtonblade]

I was on Unitedite and am still a regular at the pub and games

 

[Bladesway]

I was on Unitedite and am still a regular at the pub and games

You poor bastard.

 

[Kev Gee]

I dont see us apointing from with-in as much as Birch has said as much on his interview on RS.

My moneys on SOD.

And it could have been worse... we could have been Charlton.

 

[sheffielder]

I think this will bottom out when we get the right man to take this club on. Yes there won't be much money to spend on players but McCabe I think will loosen abit if he gets the man he wants. It is a weird feeling that after a couple of days we don't know who our manager is. Robson, Blackwell and Speed were all appointed in a flash with varying (un)success. I don't want all this get the right man stuff to be a hoodwink though

 

[Grecian2000]

I was on Unitedite and am still a regular at the pub and games

Isn't that one of the reasons the rest of us aren't

 

[raul]

It ends in one of two ways.

The losses sustained by both football club and Blade Realty ( and I cant believe we wont be picking up some of that tab too ) are far too big for a club our size to ever trade out of now. Either McCabe sticks his hand up and bears responsibility for the failings of his policies and writes it off, leaving a debt free club to someone with the enthusiasm to give it some forward momentum again ( he can't - all the trust is gone) or we can trim away at the edges for years and years until we reach the Admin phase - by which time I suspect the Football world's policies will have got much stricter.

All I know is - in years to come McCabes name will be the one heading the Woolhouse, Hashimi list used so often by his defenders over the years. Not the legacy he would have wished to leave.

 

[Grecian2000]

If we do, League One may be our resting place for some time. Now go back 4 years, could anyone have imagined a worse scenario? Its the worst nightmare that happens to be reality. What the hell has happened?

Can't argue with anything in that whole post.

However, the quoted question shows how quickly we have fallen. To be fair it was the opening day at St Andrews in 2007/08 when I saw the writing being sprayed large on the wall. As soon as that negative mentality starts ON the field, it will eventually engulf the whole place.
What induced the loss of bollocks in Blackwell between his decent first campaign and that lurch to defensiveness in the second?

 

[SheepdipBlade]

Think Raul makes some really good points. The finances of the club will ultimately decide our future, and if the slide down continues we are likely to hit admin at a time when the rules have been tightened.

In the shorter term I believe so much rests (as usual) on the expectations we have. As Bladesway has clearly pointed out - we're not the force we were a few years ago - and the appointment of the next manager needs to reflect our present reality, not out dreams. The way out of this hole begins with KMcC appointing an experienced manager from the lower leagues with a proven track record of succeeding with limited resources. Not in appointing another "Big Name" or taking the "easy" option of appointing from within.

 

[parisblade]

From Birch "We need someone who is calm under fire and cool in a crisis but, most importantly, someone who is filled with pride at taking this position."

Micky Adams surely?

 

[Revolution]

All I know is - in years to come McCabes name will be the one heading the Woolhouse, Hashimi list used so often by his defenders over the years. Not the legacy he would have wished to leave.

My favourite comment in an excellent thread. His closest comparison, and I can't believe I'm saying this, is Mike McDonald - big investment, half a job done, give up.

Another thing that will haunt him - and us - is what he said to many people, including some posters on here, after the Palace game at the end of the promotion season. He said we'd never celebrate promotion to the PL again. He may be right, but not for the reason he thought at the time. We certainly won't go up there again under his stewardship.

I wonder what McCabe would have said 4 years ago if he'd been told how things were going to turn out. Someone who has done business with him told me yestyerday that he's been incredibly lucky how things have gone for him business wise in the last 5 years. I replied that this was not the case with United. He's been very unlucky, but also made some terrible decisions, Robson chief among them.

This managerial guessing game is arguably irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, unless we somehow appoint an excellent one. With football as it is today, unless the taps are turned on again we are down this year and we are certainly not coming straight back.

To be fair it was the opening day at St Andrews in 2007/08 when I saw the writing being sprayed large on the wall. As soon as that negative mentality starts ON the field, it will eventually engulf the whole place.

2008/9, but I agree wholeheartedly with this. All that pussyfooting around a mediocre side there for the taking who pipped us for promotion by virtue of the points they took off us...arguably a bigger screw up tactically than Wembley was.

 

[SteelCity Blade]

From Birch "We need someone who is calm under fire and cool in a crisis but, most importantly, someone who is filled with pride at taking this position."

Micky Adams surely?

Although he is my preferred choice I dont think Adams is who they have in mind. Birch also said they want someone who can continue the work of changing the way the club is viewed in terms of playing style.

Without being disrespectful to Micky Adams he adopts a more direct approach than Speed, which is probably more in line with the Warnock approach (i.e. lots of wing play and getting the ball into good areas quickly / using the channels).

I think they're talking about SOD personally, judging from the criteria they've outlined.

 

[Micalijo]

All I know is - in years to come McCabes name will be the one heading the Woolhouse, Hashimi list used so often by his defenders over the years. Not the legacy he would have wished to leave.

My favourite comment in an excellent thread. His closest comparison, and I can't believe I'm saying this, is Mike McDonald - big investment, half a job done, give up.

Another thing that will haunt him - and us - is what he said to many people, including some posters on here, after the Palace game at the end of the promotion season. He said we'd never celebrate promotion to the PL again. He may be right, but not for the reason he thought at the time. We certainly won't go up there again under his stewardship.

I wonder what McCabe would have said 4 years ago if he'd been told how things were going to turn out. Someone who has done business with him told me yestyerday that he's been incredibly lucky how things have gone for him business wise in the last 5 years. I replied that this was not the case with United. He's been very unlucky, but also made some terrible decisions, Robson chief among them.

This managerial guessing game is arguably irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, unless we somehow appoint an excellent one. With football as it is today, unless the taps are turned on again we are down this year and we are certainly not coming straight back.

To be fair it was the opening day at St Andrews in 2007/08 when I saw the writing being sprayed large on the wall. As soon as that negative mentality starts ON the field, it will eventually engulf the whole place.

2008/9, but I agree wholeheartedly with this. All that pussyfooting around a mediocre side there for the taking who pipped us for promotion by virtue of the points they took off us...arguably a bigger screw up tactically than Wembley was.

Interesting stuff Rev.

I have a massive contempt for McCabe regarding his property/football links but like you say he was incredibly unlucky with United - we basically stayed up. He could have probably sold up and moved on to enjoy his wealthy retirement and very good chance we'd still be in Prem now. Without Tevez, his comments might have been fair enough now. I can't stand the comments blaming warnock for relegation - 38 points I'd have taken anyday walking out of Craven Cottage when things looked very bleak but we battled brilliantly and got robbed. That's another stroy and people massively disgaree I know.

He was a genius/very lucky to sell to Valad but has had to work incredibly hard to get cash out if em and I still aint sure he's got what he sold it for. There's a classic picture of the Valad directors shaking hands with Macca in front of Sydney Harbour Bridge and the look on his face is brilliant. Unfortunately can't copy it at the moment. There's also some good comments on the web from circa 2006 about McCabe saying property market over heated and due a correction etc etc which is before the big plunge with the hotel and Realty.

 

[JJ Sefton]

When I was doing my United history I called it Triumph and Disaster because that, it seems to me anyway, is the story of this club.

Time and again we have been on the verge of establishing ourselves and kicking on, early 1960's, early 1970's, early 1990's, early 2000's, but we always cock it up. Something my great grandad used to say was that United were "Too big for the Second Division but no big enough for the First". I guess he was right.

Ultimately this is where we are; in the woods, our gear smoked and Jack Nicholson dead. "We blew it".