View From 20.8.16

Following on from a recent episode of Bladespod where the discussion centered on the 2016/17 season, I was inundated with requests (I got 5 requests) asking me to do a View From Blades Fans from 20th August ,2016. This was the date when Millwall beat The Blades to send them bottom of League One and leaving new manager Chris Wilder still without a win.

With comments taken from the popular United forum www.s24su.com, here is snapshot of how Blades fans were feeling on that dark August evening. You may laugh at the quotes but just remember, you were likely thinking the same…..

“So we lost again, but in fact a last min defeat to a pen and we scored from midfield mean I feel more optimistic about our relegation battle tonight.
How far we have fallen……..”

“Every season that goes by in this division we lose a bit more quality, on the pitch and off it. We are where we belong. We are a well established 3rd division team now and we are behaving like it. We have become what wehave strived to escape. We deserve to be here and we are now accepting our fate by fillingthe team with 3rd division “Average Joe” type players, having tacky logo’s on our shirts fromtuppence Ha’penny local rag-tag sponsors and replacing quality with cheap tack on thefield and throughout the club.
Pains me to admit it, but at our peak in 1971, when Alan Ball (then of Arsenal), described Sheffield United as “a glorified 3rd divisionclub), he was right.
Premiership potential – 3rd division mentality”

“Liquidate the club. The club is a pile of ‘outside a nightclub pile of sick ‘
Does anyone actually look forward to match days anymore,,,?
Start afresh and get the shithouse away from Sheffield utd. Can’t see any light at the minute.”

“It doesn’t feel like Sheffield United and hasn’t for a while.”

“At the moment it looks like we will go down.
It’s not just the results it’s that we don’t even look like getting close to winning games, and the tactics seem all over the place.
We honestly looked a better side under both Adams and Weir than we do now.”

“We are just about South Yorkshire’s equivalent of Notts County not long to go now just need another relegation”

“If we go down this time there no way back in my lifetime”

“Solihull Moors and Dover Athletic could be getting promoted to the football league next season. Two new away days for me!”

“My senses aren’t being filled up; they’re being numbed.”

“I hope that our attendances drop as it might give the board something to think about. I would want paying to go and sit through this dross…seen more talent in sunday league, honestly”.

“this club is shambles from top to bottom. Ran like a non-league outfit with no clear planning, vision or direction from the boardroom. We don’t even have a fully functioning or updated website, can’t even get the small things right.”

“Think Liverpool………in the mid-eighties after a few years of being abandoned by the government”

“we are in for a torrid time in September. Gillingham are likely to beat us at their place, Wimbledon are down in the shit with us so will be looking to get off the mark. Peterborough and Scunthorpe have shown that they are capable of scoring for fun whilst we huff and puff to achieve nothing.
This could be painful.”

” I said when we sacked Adkins that Billy’s worth to us would drop massively as a result. He was Adkins’ talisman. He’s got the best out of him at lots of clubs. He’s struggled under a few other managers and that was always a danger here.”

“Sharp strikes me as being single minded and selfish. Which is a good thing for a proven goal scorer. His mind set as much as his talent has contributed to what has been a broadly successful career.
But a team captain ?
Not for me.”

“He dropped a clanger giving Billy the armband and that decision needs rectifying.”

“So, with the transfer deadline a week today, we are 4 games into a season having not won a game. We’ve got rid of the two better players we had in Adams and Brayford (yes he didn’t perform first 3 games) and there’s absoluteley no sign of any new QUALITY coming in”

“Our players are now not good enough to compete at this level. They are possibly now League Two, possibly lower.
Our manager is one of a long line of fall-guys lured into the role and he’s just starting to know why his predecessors failed so badly.”

“I am a bit concerned at some of CW’s judgements on players so far – not just the signings but the fact he opted to retain Brayford and Long and then 2 weeks into the season he is looking to shift both on.”

“I can say in all honesty that I have never seen anything like this club in my life.
CW seems to have a right old chuckle when he signs a player we have never heard of. Wilson, O’Connell, Chapman, Hussey, Moore, Wright.
I am not laughing though. Any match day joy has gone, any pleasure has gone. All I am left with is a feeling of fear.”

“The players brought in so far by Wilder have shown to be very poor and i would not trust him to bring in anyone who would improve things after the abysmal showing so far.
Sometimes you get the feeling that “This aint going to work” and Wilder should be binned before anymore damage is done.
Is he out of his depth? Sadly i think he is. “

“Should have kept Jay McEveley as a squad member for cover on the left and centre half and also kept either Flynn or JCR, we are now short on the wings.”

“Wilder is the latest ‘drowning not waving’ candidate who changes his mind on a game-to-game basis. Freeman and Coutts? One week, ‘not good enough’. Now he sees these two as the way forward.
It really isn’t rocket science. We’re now at the stage where we’ve got used to this level of football and you’d have to be blind not to see who stands out for the opposition, but we dither until these players suddenly move to rivals or become financially unavailable to us. I’m thinking Clucas and Morsey. Rob Jones when he was a rock at the Lane for Donnie. Have we nobody at the club capable of spotting talent when they see it?”

“I’m not sure if the pressure of the job has got to Wilder after just 4 games!?! Rumours circulating about him wanting shut of Sharp too, I think he’s losing the plot a bit.”

“Wilder is only here because he was a cheaper option and he will work on a lower budget no questions asked. The only way out of this division is by going down. Sad but true”

“Can someone at the club stop allowing Wilder to do interviews as he’s coming over as he’s clueless”

“Just heard the interview on radio Sheffield. He sounds like a broken man already.
Feel for him cause he is clearly in shock at just how bad it’s going.
I think his tactics have been poor and we aren’t getting the best out of the players available but the fact remains we’ve a back 4 that simply can’t defend. I don’t know how you legislate for that as a manager”

“he looks dreadful, ill almost.
Now seriously concerned that those who said this job was too big for him may have been correct”

“He comes over less and less confident week by week, its clear that this club and job is not what he thought it would be, as for straight talking said a lot and not lived up to everything he as said”

“I will say this….we can moan about his signings….how much was spent….but we should have stuck with Clough.”

” I’m sorry but Wilder isn’t showing anything in either thought or deed that shows him as an improvement over Adkins. At the current time Adkins did a better job than Wilder, Clough was a quantum leap ahead of both.”

“being realistic as of now we’ve still got a long season ahead imo, I know its only been 3 games but words can’t describe how dire the performances have been so far therefore there is a hell of a lot of hard work the players and CW have ahead of them if we are to drastically improve, because that’s what its going to take.”

“#BringBackNige”

“Well that was the shortest season on record for me. I can’t be arsed with the relegation scrap so I’ll look forward to starting again next season, whatever league we’re in. Thanks Wilder”