Why did it go so wrong?

[Bruce Wayne]

We have been punching above our weight.
We have done far better and will finish far higher than i ever thought we would.
Unfortunately because we have been punching above our weight it now feels disappointing that we look like missing out on the play offs.
Next season will be even tougher and could be a real let down compared to this season.
We need at least 5 quality signings which will cost big money, and i think we all know deep down we won't have.

I hate that term 'punching above our weight' we are Sheffield United not fucking Burton. We (and the board) need to realise this.

 

[Nedski]

I hate that term 'punching above our weight' we are Sheffield United not fucking Burton. We (and the board) need to realise this.

I want to agree, but we've just spent 6 years in league one which means we were an established league one team (as bad as that sounds) and considering our current squad is largely based on last seasons squad, we have a league one squad currently sitting just outside the playoffs.

 

[GrayBlade]

I don’t think it went soooooo wrong TBH, the season has just caught up with us and in the end for various reasons, it only ended up better than most of us could ever have imagined but not mind blowing...unless we beat Boro on Tuesday and then get into the play-offs and win them in which case it will be mind blowing.

 

[Sean Thornton]

The board not properly supporting Wilder in transfer windows.

So do you think Wilder chased and signed players he'd been linked with for months because the board wouldn't fork out for his new - and unknown to us - targets or that he cut his cloth accordingly with the money that was available? Oh, and that he thought could do a job.

The consensus on here is that neither of our owners have the funds to take us forward. If that's the case where does the money come from to support Wilder "properly" in January ?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I want to agree, but we've just spent 6 years in league one which means we were an established league one team (as bad as that sounds) and considering our current squad is largely based on last seasons squad, we have a league one squad currently sitting just outside the playoffs.

Forget all that, think bigger.

 

[Sean Thornton]

It didn't "go wrong". We had previously been in the 3rd tier for 6 years. Survival was the brief this season, and any of us would have taken 21st place at the start of the season. A top half finish was unthinkable in August.

But we did way better than that. We stormed to the top of the league in our first season back, and only dropped out of the top 6 a few weeks ago. We secured survival around new year, got the biggest win against Them Lot in a generation, stuffed Dirty Leeds twice and generally had some bloody good results, all with a squad which on paper, should be struggling against relegation.

With 5 games to go, we are a few points off top 6, and though I don't think we'll make it, the fact we're even in that situation is a brilliant result. We have overacheived significantly. Yes, it's disappointing that we haven't kept up that superb early season form. But we shouldn't let that take anything away from what Sheffield United has acheived in the last 18 months. It has been nothing short of meteoric. Nothing has gone wrong, and more importantly, a LOT has gone right.

Great summary of the season so far. Those with yoyo expectations should read and inwardly digest rather than building their hopes up prematurely then blaming the club for letting them down.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Let me be the 94th to say Coutts

That's quite an achievement on post 29.

 

[Nicolaus_Copernicus]

Perhaps ever.

I respect your opinion EC, but I disagree. It's this kind of attitude that keeps us where we are; I doubt concerns about punching & weight were discussed at swansea, bournemouth, burnley, huddersfield, etc when they were on the way up. Nor are Millwall currently agonising about their over performance. They just get on with it. I agree with what our expectations should've been at season's start, mine were avoid relegation and two dickings by the pigs, but they dramatically altered between August & December and the board should've acted accordingly. Up to and including Coutts injury, it should have been apparent that the fates had conspired to give us a serious chance of promotion this season. Since then, the wheels have slowly fallen off and we are now faced with some uncomfortable questions/home truths going forward. By the look of it we peaked as a club in early December and there now has to be a rapid intervention both on & off the pitch to short the current malaise out. Because as it stands, we're totally out of form, it's relegation form and we are now losing to the crap of the division, 6 of the first 16 are 32 yrs old or over, Coutts might not be firing on all cylinders until 2019, we've gone for quantity over quality in our purchases (some of which are baffling), we have a squad the majority of which has little/no resale value and an ownership issue which appears to be heading for litigation. The result of which appears to be a choice between a kick in the balls or a poke in the eye. An owner without the money to invest or an owner that can't afford to buy the bricks & mortar. There is no brighter day on the horizon, there is no 'go again stronger next season', next season is shaping up to be one of shit & pain. We as a club do not learn, we do not take our opportunities when the are presented and we are now reliant of CW pulling some big fucking rabbits out of a very small hat in close season or squeezing the last remaining pips out of our current squad.

 

[LJBlade]

Forget all that, think bigger.

Forget the facts?
Historically are we punching above our weight? Probably not, but recently? Of course we are.

If we had spent the first part of the season towards the bottom half of the league and only recently gone on a decent run which saw us within touching distance of the playoffs so you think there would have been as much negativity in here? I certainly don’t

 

[AWetFlannel]

I usually accept people will post trash after a loss but fucking hell this thread.

If the board 'backed' Wilder and we were ambitious we'd still be top? What if all football clubs had this startling revelation? Obviously Wolves have just decided to back the manager and have been ambitious, pure genius.

 

[LJBlade]

I respect your opinion EC, but I disagree. It's this kind of attitude that keeps us where we are; I doubt concerns about punching & weight were discussed at swansea, bournemouth, burnley, huddersfield, etc when they were on the way up. Nor are Millwall currently agonising about their over performance. They just get on with it. I agree with what our expectations should've been at season's start, mine were avoid relegation and two dickings by the pigs, but they dramatically altered between August & December and the board should've acted accordingly. Up to and including Coutts injury, it should have been apparent that the fates had conspired to give us a serious chance of promotion this season. Since then, the wheels have slowly fallen off and we are now faced with some uncomfortable questions/home truths going forward. By the look of it we peaked as a club in early December and there now has to be a rapid intervention both on & off the pitch to short the current malaise out. Because as it stands, we're totally out of form, it's relegation form and we are now losing to the crap of the division, 6 of the first 16 are 32 yrs old or over, Coutts might not be firing on all cylinders until 2019, we've gone for quantity over quality in our purchases (some of which are baffling), we have a squad the majority of which has little/no resale value and an ownership issue which appears to be heading for litigation. The result of which appears to be a choice between a kick in the balls or a poke in the eye. An owner without the money to invest or an owner that can't afford to buy the bricks & mortar. There is no brighter day on the horizon, there is no 'go again stronger next season', next season is shaping up to be one of shit & pain. We as a club do not learn, we do not take our opportunities when the are presented and we are now reliant of CW pulling some big fucking rabbits out of a very small hat in close season or squeezing the last remaining pips out of our current squad.

Your mistaking the fans for the people who run the club. You really don’t think the fans of those clubs you mention didn’t have the same conversations that we’re having now?

And I’ll also point out that there’s an element of realism that many are forgetting. How many clubs go from League 1 straight to the Premiership? I know it’s been done but it’s not like it happens every season

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Forget the facts?
Historically are we punching above our weight? Probably not, but recently? Of course we are.

If we had spent the first part of the season towards the bottom half of the league and only recently gone on a decent run which saw us within touching distance of the playoffs so you think there would have been as much negativity in here? I certainly don’t

If my aunt had a dick she'd be my uncle.

I don't care for what has happened only what is going to happen and this mentality of 'bless we did well' is BS.

 

[LJBlade]

If my aunt had a dick she'd be my uncle.

I don't care for what has happened only what is going to happen and this mentality of 'bless we did well' is BS.

But your aunt is your aunt, that’s a fact. It’s those same facts you seem to be trying to ignore. We’ve been a league 1 club for the past 6 seasons. We have done well. That’s another fact. We could have done better. Another fact. We haven’t. Stop crying about it. Have a sense of realism and think about how many teams have ever got back to back promotions from league 1 to the Premiership and then realise that the fact we (quite probably) won’t do it isn’t a cause for such concern.

Now, if we had spent the last 6 seasons in the Championship and still it made the playoffs you’d have a bit more to complain about.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

But your aunt is your aunt, that’s a fact. It’s those same facts you seem to be trying to ignore. We’ve been a league 1 club for the past 6 seasons. We have done well. That’s another fact. We could have done better. Another fact. We haven’t. Stop crying about it. Have a sense of realism and think about how many teams have ever got back to back promotions from league 1 to the Premiership and then realise that the fact we (quite probably) won’t do it isn’t a cause for such concern.

Now, if we had spent the last 6 seasons in the Championship and still it made the playoffs you’d have a bit more to complain about.

I am crying about nothing. I just see the Blades as being a club capable of matching the likes of the mighty Bournemouth with a board that shows some ambition. January was hailed a success, no it fucking wasn't it was a cheap as chips L1 fodder window. Stop kidding yourself, we should be a big player but we have a small mindset that seems to have been embedded into minds like yours due to the '6 years in L1' bollocks (I know it's a fact, but it's still bollocks). Think bigger.

 

[Jehovah]

I think it was when I got cocky and started betting on us.

 

[djbaldken]

It didn't "go wrong". We had previously been in the 3rd tier for 6 years. Survival was the brief this season, and any of us would have taken 21st place at the start of the season. A top half finish was unthinkable in August.

But we did way better than that. We stormed to the top of the league in our first season back, and only dropped out of the top 6 a few weeks ago. We secured survival around new year, got the biggest win against Them Lot in a generation, stuffed Dirty Leeds twice and generally had some bloody good results, all with a squad which on paper, should be struggling against relegation.

With 5 games to go, we are a few points off top 6, and though I don't think we'll make it, the fact we're even in that situation is a brilliant result. We have overacheived significantly. Yes, it's disappointing that we haven't kept up that superb early season form. But we shouldn't let that take anything away from what Sheffield United has acheived in the last 18 months. It has been nothing short of meteoric. Nothing has gone wrong, and more importantly, a LOT has gone right.

Best post of the season !!

 

[Ainsley Harriott]

I simply blame the boards pitiful investment.

It’s akin to asking me to look the best at a wedding and giving me £20 of Prinark vouchers.

 

[Ainsley Harriott]

Best post of the season !!

Really?

If ‘survival was the brief’ is the aim for this football club then it really does need to sell up to someone who doesn’t see survival as an achievement. I am angered by fans who follow the “look at where we were” mantra. That’s a cop out. They don’t use it when they look at the table in November. That’s where we were. Use that as your yardstick. Not 2014 ffs. Aim higher.

 

[Ginger Gnome]

I am crying about nothing. I just see the Blades as being a club capable of matching the likes of the mighty Bournemouth with a board that shows some ambition. January was hailed a success, no it fucking wasn't it was a cheap as chips L1 fodder window. Stop kidding yourself, we should be a big player but we have a small mindset that seems to have been embedded into minds like yours due to the '6 years in L1' bollocks (I know it's a fact, but it's still bollocks). Think bigger.

Bournemouth are a bad example of a club to compete with as they're well-known Financial Fair Play cheats.

 

[Fulwood Blade]

Coutts is the main reason.

We would not have finished top 2 - but would have been 6,7 or 8 points better off than we are now and comfortable for the play offs.

Some call him the best player we had - personally think Fleck is the better player, but Coutts was the most important. He set the tempo by which the team played by.

UTB

PS: it's gone wrong, but we are still not out of it - never under estimate CW - there may still be something he can squeeze out of this squad, even at the 11th hour. The prize is too big to give up now.

 

[Fulwood Blade]

Really?

If ‘survival was the brief’ is the aim for this football club then it really does need to sell up to someone who doesn’t see survival as an achievement. I am angered by fans who follow the “look at where we were” mantra. That’s a cop out. They don’t use it when they look at the table in November. That’s where we were. Use that as your yardstick. Not 2014 ffs. Aim higher.

Nice post - agree totally.

UTB

 

[Ainsley Harriott]

Nice post - agree totally.

UTB

It pisses me off though. I see it all over social media. “Look where we were 2 years ago”. No!!! Look where we were before the transfer window and look where we are now!! We didn’t strengthen and push on!! Stop blaming everything fucking else other than the man at the top!!

Coutts? Played a part. Course it did. We signed a lad from Wolves. Not as influential by any stretch. Not the point. He wasn’t signed to be Paul Coutts.

Our aging front line has been shown up in the last few weeks. The chances we’ve missed are a result of that yard of pace missing from the 25 year old we need.

We are crying out for that million pound player. And in today’s market that is nothing it really isn’t. We’re not in league 1 now and somebody needs to tell the owners

 

[Blade82]

Getting done by fulham and Bristol city when going all out attack hurt us. Gave wilder something to think about and he held back after then in certain games.

We’ve over achieved overall but have lacked that crucial bit of quality in defence and attack to be serious challengers but hopefully we sign more quality for next season and we kick on

 

[Ainsley Harriott]

And the music in the shakey is wank

 

[metalblade]

I am crying about nothing. I just see the Blades as being a club capable of matching the likes of the mighty Bournemouth with a board that shows some ambition. January was hailed a success, no it fucking wasn't it was a cheap as chips L1 fodder window. Stop kidding yourself, we should be a big player but we have a small mindset that seems to have been embedded into minds like yours due to the '6 years in L1' bollocks (I know it's a fact, but it's still bollocks). Think bigger.

The small mindset has been embedded a lot longer than the six years in league one. It was alive and well in the early 70's where we had a team as good as any in the country all we needed was a few players in reserve like others had. After over 50 seasons supporting the Blades all you can really say is same owd same owd. It is never going to change the clubs history is littered with missed opportunities this seasons missed opportunity just another to add to the long list. There is a reason why we have won fuck all for the last 90+ years recognise that and you are a long way to answering where it all went wrong.

 

[grafikhaus]

It didn't "go wrong". We had previously been in the 3rd tier for 6 years. Survival was the brief this season, and any of us would have taken 21st place at the start of the season. A top half finish was unthinkable in August.

But we did way better than that. We stormed to the top of the league in our first season back, and only dropped out of the top 6 a few weeks ago. We secured survival around new year, got the biggest win against Them Lot in a generation, stuffed Dirty Leeds twice and generally had some bloody good results, all with a squad which on paper, should be struggling against relegation.

With 5 games to go, we are a few points off top 6, and though I don't think we'll make it, the fact we're even in that situation is a brilliant result. We have overacheived significantly. Yes, it's disappointing that we haven't kept up that superb early season form. But we shouldn't let that take anything away from what Sheffield United has acheived in the last 18 months. It has been nothing short of meteoric. Nothing has gone wrong, and more importantly, a LOT has gone right.

Reminds me of the old George Best joke - 'Where did it all go wrong?'

Damski has got it spot on. Our brief (one game!) spell at the top of the table seems to have gone to some people's heads. After yesterday's disappointing result at Barnsley, some are saying that 'Wilder has taken this squad as far as he can' yet choose to ignore one of our best performances (if not result) of the season against Cardiff less than a week ago.

But suppose the critics of the board are right? Has McCabe's parsimony in the JTW cost us promotion? Surely if we'd have splashed the cash, promotion to the PL would have been assured? Well - thankfully - football doesn't work like that. So we spend money that we don't have, get into the PL and are in a season-long relegation scrap, because all of these 'riches' that getting to the PL bestows goes on over-priced players and their agents. We get relegated and some people blame McCabe for 'not spending enough in the JTW...and repeat.

This has been a fine season of consolidation after 6 years in Division One. I've no doubt that some players will be looking over their shoulders after yesterday as their performances were unacceptable. Some seem to be 'on the beach' already and may have forgotten the hard graft and bloody-mindedness that has taken us so far - after all, that's all teams like Barnsley have to offer. But I refuse to think that 'it has gone so wrong'. Now teams like Hull and Sunderland, that's where it's gone wrong - in the PL very recently, crowds evaporating and on a downward slide. Or a team not a million miles from Barnsley who have 'bought the farm', overspent and are left with an unshiftable bunch of mercenaries and a tip of a ground held together with rust and tarpaulin.

If they weren't so delusional, they'd realise that it's at Hillsborough - not Bramall Lane - where the season has gone so wrong.

I hate that term 'punching above our weight' we are Sheffield United not fucking Burton. We (and the board) need to realise this.

And your comparison with 'little' teams like Bournemouth is as out-dated as our supposed attitude to 'giving the manager the funding'. Teams like Bournemouth, Stoke, Palace etc. have money men behind them that make McCabe look a pauper.

 

[Bellypork]

Reminds me of the old George Best joke - 'Where did it all go wrong?'

Damski has got it spot on. Our brief (one game!) spell at the top of the table seems to have gone to some people's heads. After yesterday's disappointing result at Barnsley, some are saying that 'Wilder has taken this squad as far as he can' yet choose to ignore one of our best performances (if not result) of the season against Cardiff less than a week ago.

But suppose the critics of the board are right? Has McCabe's parsimony in the JTW cost us promotion? Surely if we'd have splashed the cash, promotion to the PL would have been assured? Well - thankfully - football doesn't work like that. So we spend money that we don't have, get into the PL and are in a season-long relegation scrap, because all of these 'riches' that getting to the PL bestows goes on over-priced players and their agents. We get relegated and some people blame McCabe for 'not spending enough in the JTW...and repeat.

This has been a fine season of consolidation after 6 years in Division One. I've no doubt that some players will be looking over their shoulders after yesterday as their performances were unacceptable. Some seem to be 'on the beach' already and may have forgotten the hard graft and bloody-mindedness that has taken us so far - after all, that's all teams like Barnsley have to offer. But I refuse to think that 'it has gone so wrong'. Now teams like Hull and Sunderland, that's where it's gone wrong - in the PL very recently, crowds evaporating and on a downward slide. Or a team not a million miles from Barnsley who have 'bought the farm', overspent and are left with an unshiftable bunch of mercenaries and a tip of a ground held together with rust and tarpaulin.

If they weren't so delusional, they'd realise that it's at Hillsborough - not Bramall Lane - where the season has gone so wrong.



And your comparison with 'little' teams like Bournemouth is as out-dated as our supposed attitude to 'giving the manager the funding'. Teams like Bournemouth, Stoke, Palace etc. have money men behind them that make McCabe look a pauper.

Yes, I'd agree with most of that.
It's about perspective, and expectations.
If you're losing and manage to equalize in injury time it feels like victory. If you're winning and the opposition equalize in injury time it feels like defeat.
Last year Leeds were a mid-table team which Monk got to seventh. Because they'd spent a lot of time in the play-off positions during the season, Leeds fans deemed it failure, even though in reality the team was 5 places higher than it should have been, based on playing staff.
If United miss out on the play-offs, it won't be the worst thing in the world. I've seen the home games, and of late they're not at it in both boxes. Morale has played a big part in this season, so the last thing the club needs is the hangover from a play-off defeat.

1. As for Wednesday, the season did indeed go wrong. But even there things can be looked at in two ways.
2. Top two was never realistic, even under a new coach and with a fully-fit squad, but that's what lots of Owls fans expected.
3. Once Carlos was retained, the season was a write-off because no manager could survive Huddersfield.
4. Yet the club survived with the majority of its best players absent, and new players have been given a chance.

 

[wavy-blade]

Courts Fleck Duffy , these three are immense together, with these three together the rest of the team just feeds off the play that and chances they create, when one goes missing it's like a car with a cylinder misfiring .

 

[Foody]

You've got to take the positives out of this season. Surely 90% off us would've been happy with a top half finish at the start of the season. If Millwall now miss out on the play offs, it'll still be a great season for them. Only difference is our fantastic run came early on in the season. We were full of confidence and having a go at everyone.

The other thing that I don't think we've mentioned is other teams tactics. Early on in the season teams came to the lane thinking they could beat us, by November they set up to contain us. We've really struggled to break teams down when they sit back. Also teams have learnt to deal with the wing back and centre half overlapping tactic.

Our ageing squad hasn't helped . For me a big factor has been the fitness of Mark Duffy. Due to injury and lack of fitness he's been really in and out this season, he's a big player for us. Duffy is one of the only players capable of unlocking a defence when a team has men back.

The main positive is we've proven that we are good enough to compete in this division. We need to strengthen in a few key areas: 1. Striker , younger and energetic. 2. Keeper, Moore ain't good enough, 3. Centre back for competition/cover . 4. Left back for competition/cover. And maybe competition for Duffy, if Holmes and Brooks can't fill that void.


I think potentially we only need to replace 2 of the starting 11 (Keeper and Striker) and have better competition for 2.

 

[steve26272]

why is it that when it goes well we have a brilliant manager and players, yet when it goes a bit wrong we have shit owners?
has to be some balance really....
JTW - could we have invested more?
Wilder - seems to have lost the midas touch?
Players - promotion adrenalin ran out?

i believe all the above have a part to play.
it's easy to blame the board, and yes it would have been nice to see us spend £6mil on a stricker, but what would it have done to dressing room harmony when he's on £50k a week?
Coutts was important, but he's no Ronaldo in the Portugal line up, we should be able to cover 1 player been out. That's Wilders job to sort out.
and 5 wins from 17 since December i believe, WTF?! That's relegation form, not good enough from a team that were top 2 in November.
not one of the 3 can be absolved of blame, let's get behind them and whatever happens it's been a good season

BTW - 1 more point required to guarantee our status as the highest placed Sheffield/South Barnsley team
UTB - FTP