Lundstram,Leonard,Holmes.

[Currieisgod]

I kind of agree with the arguments on both sides! Goes to show just how difficult managing a football club is these days.

I think we can't underestimate the shock to the system Leonard and Holmes have had moving "up north" in the middle of the coldest winter for donkeys years. Any surprise it's Evans who has settled in the quicker?

That being said, I tend to agree with the view that long term the overall strategy of cherry picking from the lower leagues will only get you so far and long term will actually be detrimental. You have to get very lucky very often playing that game and let's face it, CW doesn't always get it right in the transfer market.

This summer is going to be crucial for the next 5-10 years of this football club.

I too agree that any long term strategy of cherry picking from the lower leagues would be counter productive in the longer term,

I always remember back in the 70s when we played away at Old Trafford in the old 2nd Division, Man Utd had been relegated (Yes - Relegated) and our side comprised of aging stars with a sprinkling of newer blood to stem the downward spiral of our club,

We got beat 5-1 or 0 i think but more memorable was the after match statement from Tommy Docherty which included the comment "If you buy 3rd division players - Thats where you eventually end up" -

Never a truer word looking back.

[boltonblade]

Without a cheque for £10-£15 million being placed in the hands of Chris wilder this summer we can forget it. We will be further away next season without it. Someone mentioned earlier we don't need to spend the money as it isn't guaranteed success. Well what is guaranteed is that without championship/premiership quality then you wont get to the promised land. The competition has improved immensely. We need to get on board quickly or will be left behind. We obviously have an average championship team playing beyond themselves this season. ALL down to the leadership of Chris Wilder. We must do EVERYTHING to keep him here and back him.

[Chips1889]

Without a cheque for £10-£15 million being placed in the hands of Chris wilder this summer we can forget it. We will be further away next season without it. Someone mentioned earlier we don't need to spend the money as it isn't guaranteed success. Well what is guaranteed is that without championship/premiership quality then you wont get to the promised land. The competition has improved immensely. We need to get on board quickly or will be left behind. We obviously have an average championship team playing beyond themselves this season. ALL down to the leadership of Chris Wilder. We must do EVERYTHING to keep him here and back him.

So, to recap, we have third tear players actual holding their own in the second tier.....makes them 2nd teir players then (or most of them and, perhaps just a few capable of higher). I really like the cherry-picking, a bit like Spurs did to us a few years ago....and Leeds
and Everton etc.

What I do not want is for us to go into huge debt to buy, say, 3 x £5m players just for the rest of the team to demand pay to match or
stop the current levels of work-rate if they don't get it etc etc.

I'd love us to buy Championship players but 'parachute payments' are the worst rule contrived by man and makes this league the
most difficult to escape upwards. Patience must be the key and spending what our owners can afford to add to the £5m shared by the Championship teams.

I hope CW stays but even if he does we have a limited time to more upwards before the inevitable and the crowd change and get on the backs of the team. Might be only one more season after this before the idiots around me in the SS (never mind the Kop) start to voice their opinions.

Even in the early part of the last Prem promotion season some called for Warnock's head. It never ceases to amaze and upset me
the some snowflakes just can't get behind the team.

All of this is my opinion based on years of watching the Blades and the fact that where this is sport then tears are close behind.

Enjoy the season for what it is.

UTCB

[Twirlo70]

So, to recap, we have third tear players actual holding their own in the second tier.....makes them 2nd teir players then (or most of them and, perhaps just a few capable of higher). I really like the cherry-picking, a bit like Spurs did to us a few years ago....and Leeds
and Everton etc.

What I do not want is for us to go into huge debt to buy, say, 3 x £5m players just for the rest of the team to demand pay to match or
stop the current levels of work-rate if they don't get it etc etc.

I'd love us to buy Championship players but 'parachute payments' are the worst rule contrived by man and makes this league the
most difficult to escape upwards. Patience must be the key and spending what our owners can afford to add to the £5m shared by the Championship teams.

I hope CW stays but even if he does we have a limited time to more upwards before the inevitable and the crowd change and get on the backs of the team. Might be only one more season after this before the idiots around me in the SS (never mind the Kop) start to voice their opinions.

Even in the early part of the last Prem promotion season some called for Warnock's head. It never ceases to amaze and upset me
the some snowflakes just can't get behind the team.

All of this is my opinion based on years of watching the Blades and the fact that where this is sport then tears are close behind.

Enjoy the season for what it is.

UTCB

thing is ya buy 3rd division players they,ll perform for so long cause their at the very top of their game but over a season they,ll perform alright but not at the top of their game and they,ll fade away.just like this season is proving.yes they can HOLD THEIR OWN,but eventually their performances will drop and so will the team. we need more championship players of the calibre that when their performing below their absolute best its still good enough to keep us going forward. at the moment we havnt got that. it only takes 3 of our best players to drop below par and we lose. its a suprising first season and to be honest id take the same next season,but to move forward and upwards we need better players its as simple as that.

[shorehamoldboy]

i think chris could do a lot with 5mill i would say he will be looking to bring in at least 4 outfield players plus a goalkeeper in that to me would be 3 buys on permanents and a couple of young promising loan signings from prem clubs and i can see at least 6 or 7 of this squad being released which will also free some funds up for salaries the issue is will he get owt like 5 million personally i very much doubt it

[Chips1889]

thing is ya buy 3rd division players they,ll perform for so long cause their at the very top of their game but over a season they,ll perform alright but not at the top of their game and they,ll fade away.just like this season is proving.yes they can HOLD THEIR OWN,but eventually their performances will drop and so will the team. we need more championship players of the calibre that when their performing below their absolute best its still good enough to keep us going forward. at the moment we havnt got that. it only takes 3 of our best players to drop below par and we lose. its a suprising first season and to be honest id take the same next season,but to move forward and upwards we need better players its as simple as that.

Are you saying it is impossible for any lower league player to develope past his starting level ? This is clearly not correct.
I agree that we need Championship players but not in the Rhodes mold.

[bulmer1889]

It's not where they came from that matters it's what they can do ! Hammond came from the prem universally lauded as a great signing by pretty much everyone,we got fleck from the 3rd pretty much everyone thinks he could go to the higher level,yes I get the experience thing but it doesn't always work both Hammond and sammon were both vastly experienced at this level and above I doubt anyone would want them back but both could have been described as champ quality before we got them. Deli alli jumped from 3rd to prem with ease so did Jamie vardy,it's hard to keep pulling rabbits out of hats and I agree we need better quality in certain (most) areas but there are players playing in leagues below us that could operate comfortably at this level likewise there are plenty playing at this level that would struggle to play with our intensity,so what's the point of this post I hear you say,it's just to say it's not as easy as just bringing players in from this level they have to be right for us,we brought Evans in from a club at this level and TBH I'm yet to be convinced about him I know he needs to settle as do all the newbies but I'm not as struck on him as many on here and on social media to me he looks slow and ponderous lacks bite in the tackle and is found wanting positionally quite a lot (he wasn't on his own on sat all the midfield was the same) I'm only singling him out cos he came from a champ club,I trust chris to get the players needed to improve us and I agree the board need to increase investment but it really is no guarantee of success so patience is needed I know many will think this is negative thinking but it really is the sensible option spunking money to gamble is fine when it comes off but there's plenty more failures in this department than successes we fell a long way behind many clubs with our time in the wilderness and chris and his team have performed miracles to catch up how they have so soon I think we may have plateaued now and may need some time to move to the next level. Do I think we can reach the play offs ? It's possible but I very much doubt it we look a mid table side now and have done for a couple of months home games against boro,Cardiff and pne will be difficult playing as we are as will away trips to brizzle and Brentford do I consider this season a wasted opportunity,not really we've done better than I expected and I think there are better teams that will finish above us,it's not a failure imo have the board showed a lack of ambition I'm not totally sold on they have like I said earlier the lower leagues have been littered with big clubs that gambled and failed and paid the price us included,I'm happy for the board to carry on with the sensible approach although this disagreement needs sorting out quickly it's come at a bad time and doesn't help anybody

Sorry for the novel blame gray as he has sorted this infernal site out for me at last and I can get things off my chest cheers for that gray sorry to everyone else

UTB

[GrayBlade]

No probs Bully but I didn’t expect War and Peace 2 to follow. Some good points made though.

[boltonblade]

It's not where they came from that matters it's what they can do ! Hammond came from the prem universally lauded as a great signing by pretty much everyone,we got fleck from the 3rd pretty much everyone thinks he could go to the higher level,yes I get the experience thing but it doesn't always work both Hammond and sammon were both vastly experienced at this level and above I doubt anyone would want them back but both could have been described as champ quality before we got them. Deli alli jumped from 3rd to prem with ease so did Jamie vardy,it's hard to keep pulling rabbits out of hats and I agree we need better quality in certain (most) areas but there are players playing in leagues below us that could operate comfortably at this level likewise there are plenty playing at this level that would struggle to play with our intensity,so what's the point of this post I hear you say,it's just to say it's not as easy as just bringing players in from this level they have to be right for us,we brought Evans in from a club at this level and TBH I'm yet to be convinced about him I know he needs to settle as do all the newbies but I'm not as struck on him as many on here and on social media to me he looks slow and ponderous lacks bite in the tackle and is found wanting positionally quite a lot (he wasn't on his own on sat all the midfield was the same) I'm only singling him out cos he came from a champ club,I trust chris to get the players needed to improve us and I agree the board need to increase investment but it really is no guarantee of success so patience is needed I know many will think this is negative thinking but it really is the sensible option spunking money to gamble is fine when it comes off but there's plenty more failures in this department than successes we fell a long way behind many clubs with our time in the wilderness and chris and his team have performed miracles to catch up how they have so soon I think we may have plateaued now and may need some time to move to the next level. Do I think we can reach the play offs ? It's possible but I very much doubt it we look a mid table side now and have done for a couple of months home games against boro,Cardiff and pne will be difficult playing as we are as will away trips to brizzle and Brentford do I consider this season a wasted opportunity,not really we've done better than I expected and I think there are better teams that will finish above us,it's not a failure imo have the board showed a lack of ambition I'm not totally sold on they have like I said earlier the lower leagues have been littered with big clubs that gambled and failed and paid the price us included,I'm happy for the board to carry on with the sensible approach although this disagreement needs sorting out quickly it's come at a bad time and doesn't help anybody

Sorry for the novel blame gray as he has sorted this infernal site out for me at last and I can get things off my chest cheers for that gray sorry to everyone else

UTB

Lee Evans lacks bite in the tackle? We must be watching a different player because he's been lucky to stay on the pitch a few times since his arrival. He is one that with the right coaching and guidance could develop and improve. He wasn't right for wolves as they can splash £16 million on Neves THATS why he was let go. He is learning and has shown enough to gamble on i think. Not saying he's been perfect though.

[bulmer1889]

Being lucky to stay on the pitch doesn't necessarily equate to good or strong tackling it's usually an indication of illtimed or poor tackling technique but we can all have our opinions,he may improve in fact I bloody hope he does,something I noticed on sat that had me screaming at our midfield was a number of times a player of ours was stranded with 3 or 4 opposition players around him and not a player of ours in support anywhere to be seen they were obviously relieved of the ball and the opposition set off in pursuit of our goal,now early season this was what we were doing to good effect but now teams seem to be doing it to us regularly,so the question is why have we stopped doing this have we burnt ourselves out ? Regardless of how you're playing I thought it was a minimum that we moved about the pitch and fought for possession,it didn't happen Saturday and hasn't for a while if I'm honest