Who Are We???

[SheepdipBlade]

Who do we think we are?? How do we see Sheff Utd?? Are we -

A team that is ready to take it's place in the top flight - a club that is more than capable of holding it's own against the likes of Bolton, Sunderland, Fulham etc

or are we -

Battling underdogs fighting the fight against the big teams with the big money - a club of honest Northern grafters who play with pride in the shirt and our hearts on our sleeves

Are these two incompatible? - or do you see us as something else??

Not really a question about who we really are - or what we should/could be - Just a question about how we see ourselves.

 

[beightonblade]

Pisspot United thats who we are ...... always have been ...always will be ..
but i luv em

 

[SwissBlade]

Option 2, thats how I see us, thats how I want us to be.

 

[Torrix1889]

I think we see ourselves as working class heroes. But the truth is we are beginning to turn into a grubby little club.

The kind of club that likes to think it can hang out with all the big boys and talk-the talk but when it comes down to it we would run away crying like a spineless little cretin blaming everyone else when we should be looking in the mirror.

This club is rotten, we might have a shiny new stadium but peel back the cheap paint and it's a stinking foul mess inside.

"Europe in 5 years" was the quote wasn't it?

Bollocks.

 

[broomhillblade]

'This club is rotten, we might have a shiny new stadium but peel back the cheap paint and it's a stinking foul mess inside.'

If that's how you see it, why don't you take yourself off and support some other club that's more to you're liking?

 

[lenners]

We can only be battling underdogs if we're in the Prem in the first place.
We can't ever be battling underdogs in this division because we're always going to be one of the bigger boys.
I wouldn't equate massive under-achievement to somehow being underdogs.

 

[broomhillblade]

OOPS!
'If that's how you see it, why don't you take yourself off and support some other club that's more to you're liking?'

'your' - not 'you're'. I should know better!

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

We are a building a Premier League club but unfortunately, it seems as though the playing side can't keep up.

We are close, and this is not a criticism of Blackwell and what he is trying to do but I'm not sure we have the man to take us to that next level. McCabe has done a great job but I get the feeling we will be where we are now until a new man is at the helm and with him, a new manager with a new mentality.

Some will say they prefer us to be battling underdogs and prefer to be a big fish in a little pond but we have the structure to be competing with the likes of Bolton, Blackburn, safe in the prem looking to go the next step and that's what we should be aiming for.

 

[Coily]

To my mind we are a club that are uncomfortable with expectation with a fanbase that is desperate to believe in the club but feels it's chance to progress passed in May 2007.

Attendance in so many appears to be out of duty rather than pleasure and every bad result is not taken in isolation but instead adds to the ever growing sense of frustration that we, Sheffield United, should be doing so much better than we are given the greatly improved intrastructure of the club.

 

[lenners]

To my mind we are a club that are uncomfortable with expectation with a fanbase that is desperate to believe in the club but feels it's chance to progress passed in May 2007.

Attendance in so many appears to be out of duty rather than pleasure and every bad result is not taken in isolation but instead adds to the ever growing sense of frustration that we, Sheffield United, should be doing so much better than we are given the greatly improved intrastructure of the club.

Indeed. This is what the heart of the matter is - not a pointless sideshow about booing.
You can't create a better club off the pitch and gear it for success and then conveniently avoid what that means in terms of expectation.
McCabe himself seems to have got a bit confused by appointing Blackwell and espousing the Blades Way which we all know means scuffling away when at the same time he's putting everything else in place to secure much more than that on the pitch.
If things don't improve, he will have to consider appointing a manager with a bigger character to do what's necessary on the playing side.
Or, he can come clean and say we're reprofiling our expectations.
But it still seems to me that he feels like it's a job half done and he does genuinely want us back in the Prem.
I think the confusion about what we're about is, in some ways, creating a bit of a mess on the playing side.

 

[Micalijo]

To my mind we are a club that are uncomfortable with expectation with a fanbase that is desperate to believe in the club but feels it's chance to progress passed in May 2007.

Attendance in so many appears to be out of duty rather than pleasure and every bad result is not taken in isolation but instead adds to the ever growing sense of frustration that we, Sheffield United, should be doing so much better than we are given the greatly improved intrastructure of the club.

Great stuff Coily. Very, very true.

I get the impression that Blackwell would love to be able to play the underdog card more. I think he would be more comfortable managing a club with no expectations and zero finance, but unfortunately for him it just isn't possible for a CCC club to routinely get crowds in excess of 25k and for those supporters to accept what is being served up

 

[SwissBlade]

"Europe in 5 years" was the quote wasn't it?

Bollocks.

We played at Swansea last week

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

If things don't improve, he will have to consider appointing a manager with a bigger character to do what's necessary on the playing side.

There have been 2 key moments when we could have got a different kind of manager in, when we got promoted and when we came down. I think our Neil was too set in his ways to adapt to what was needed in the Prem although he did, of course, almost pull it off. I do wonder what would have happened had we stayed up that season. I don't begrudge him his chance that season either, and am not saying he should have been replaced when we went up.

He did the right thing standing down when we got relegated and McCabe did the right thing by looking for a different type of manager, one with a decent reputation and different approach. Add to that the money he was prepared to throw at it and we had every chance of making a change and bouncing back. Needless to say he went for the wrong man and that 6 month period has put us where we are now.

Blackwell was a stop gap, a return to Neil's philosophy in order to get us battling and out of trouble and it worked. We'll never know whether KB was always in the frame barring a disaster but McCabe knew what he was getting, a man who would do what he wanted, get us battling again and not make too many waves.

So here we are, the fans can see the great strides off the pitch yet we have been relegated, missed out in the play-offs again and seem to be heading back to 4 or 5 years ago on the pitch.

 

[Darren]

We played at Swansea last week

I thought we played in Europe every week...

 

[mall]

I believe that McCabe for all his corporate thinking would do well to concentrate on the football side for a good few months.
That's what Dave Whelan does at Wigan and boy does it show.
We are beginning to be all fur and no knickers...I've worked with companies like that, but what we need to encourage is a little thing called streetwise...that's what Wigan are.

 

[Muttley]

Or, he can come clean and say we're reprofiling our expectations.






That's what I think. They still try to tell us we have Premiership ambition when all we see is regression.....

Just give us some honesty!!!!!!!! It might be hard to take, but at least fans will respect it.

 

[DuncDisorderly]

I think we see ourselves as working class heroes. But the truth is we are beginning to turn into a grubby little club.

The kind of club that likes to think it can hang out with all the big boys and talk-the talk but when it comes down to it we would run away crying like a spineless little cretin blaming everyone else when we should be looking in the mirror.

This club is rotten, we might have a shiny new stadium but peel back the cheap paint and it's a stinking foul mess inside.

"Europe in 5 years" was the quote wasn't it?

Bollocks.

I take it the last bit of your post refers to the remainder of your post..?

 

[Torrix1889]

Wish I could be a happy clapper like you ladies...................but unfortunately I can see beyond the hype.

 

[shorehamview]

We're certainly not the underdogs any more, but we're not the big bulldog to be feared by the other dogs in our league that we once were either. Now we seem to be the big scary-looking dog of the division that runs away at the first sight of the rolled-up newspaper of reality. We need to learn how to bite again, and not just sniff the crotch of expectation then piss on the settee of hope. The postman's arse of destiny needs savaging once more.

Can we become the scary dog again, with the kennel the other mongrels didn't want to go near? Or will we finally turn into the little terrier with the annoying bark that rolls over for the vet to whip it's bollocks off without even a local anesthetic? Then licks it's own bum.....

Grrrr, woof woof, arooo arooo, or just a little yip yip?

 

[alcoblade]

Wish I could be a happy clapper like you ladies...................but unfortunately I can see beyond the hype.

so once you've failed to make your point, you label those that disagree "happy clappers"? Must try harder, my lady.

UTB

 

[Fiery Blade]

Unfortunately in the wider world we are a very disliked club- Long ball by Bassett, Outragious comments by Warnock, Legal action by McCabe, Sacking the revered Bryan Robson (Capt Courageous) all have contributed into a dislike by the media and subsequently other football fans.
Whenever we fail the world enjoys it!

 

[judge]

Unfortunately in the wider world we are a very disliked club- Long ball by Bassett, Outragious comments by Warnock, Legal action by McCabe, Sacking the revered Bryan Robson (Capt Courageous) all have contributed into a dislike by the media and subsequently other football fans.
Whenever we fail the world enjoys it!

pig alert pig alert pig alert

 

[Fiery Blade]

pig alert pig alert pig alert

PARDON Please explain yourself

 

[judge]

PARDON Please explain yourself

pretty self explanatory

 

[shorehamview]

pretty self explanatory

There's a big saddleback just walked through your bedsit? A Gloucester Old Spot sat on the sofabed?

 

[Fiery Blade]

pretty self explanatory

No wonder you come out withgarbage when you can't detect irony

 

[SheepdipBlade]

Unfortunately in the wider world we are a very disliked club- Long ball by Bassett, Outragious comments by Warnock, Legal action by McCabe, Sacking the revered Bryan Robson (Capt Courageous) all have contributed into a dislike by the media and subsequently other football fans.
Whenever we fail the world enjoys it!

Yet once upon a time we were the underdogs who neutrals would back in a derby.

All of the things you mention (with the possible exception of Robson - I think his credibility was largely shot before he even arrived at BDTBL) certainly did our reputation no good in the wider footballing world - but the good luck wishes we got before the play final show that many fans don't have too bad an impression of us.

The real point for me though - is how do we view ourselves? This is absolutely key when it comes to the expectations we have - and therefore how we respond to both set-backs and successes.

 

[shorehamview]

No wonder you come out withgarbage when you can't detect irony

That's what my wife does of a Friday night. Irony. Trousers, blouses, Small SV's schooliforms, but not pants. Irony pants is a waste of time. And she doesn't do mine. I do my own irony. Lovely. Have a fish.:fishbowl:

 

[alcoblade]

Unfortunately in the wider world we are a very disliked club- Long ball by Bassett, Outragious comments by Warnock, Legal action by McCabe, Sacking the revered Bryan Robson (Capt Courageous) all have contributed into a dislike by the media and subsequently other football fans.
Whenever we fail the world enjoys it!

other than any effects that has on matchday officials, I couldn't give a fuck how the wider world thinks of us. In fact, I'd much rather be hated than ignored, which is the case with 95% of other clubs.

UTB

 

[shorehamview]

I couldn't give a fuck how the wider world thinks of us.

And that is the Post Of The Week.

Fuck the rest of the world. I'm a Blade.