Is there anyone on BLADESmad

[rodcurrie]

Other than me that thinks we've done well this season,whether we mek the play offs(Highly unlikely) or not? Cos all we seem to get is negativety on here.I've enjoyed this season in the main,yes after the wonderful start we had our form's dropped but i still think we've had a good season and played some luvly football.I await the, Your a thick clapper responces wi baited breath.UTCB

[Ayamonteblade]

Me Rod...but I'm away with the fairies 😛

[shorehamoldboy]

been a great season no doubt about it i think the slight dissapointment is that we couldnt maintain our early season form but dont forget were a work in process imo just hope chris gets the backing he deserves this summer

[FatherKnowsBest]

Other than me that thinks we've done well this season,whether we mek the play offs(Highly unlikely) or not? Cos all we seem to get is negativety on here.I've enjoyed this season in the main,yes after the wonderful start we had our form's dropped but i still think we've had a good season and played some luvly football.I await the, Your a thick clapper responces wi baited breath.UTCB

Life is all about the 'if-only' isn't it Rod? I've enjoyed us overall. We've always got a mistake in us, and we haven't been as effective as a team since November, but overall, its been a great achievment with the squad we have to be still in with a mathematical chance with three games to go.

I do realise, in saying that I've got a lot of pleasure from seeing my team play, that this makes me a thick clapper and 'part of the problem' too, although no-one ever gave me a convincing reason why that is. (Thats not a challenge or an invitation, btw. I don't care...)

[handoblade]

Another step forward, entertaining football, most pulling in the same direction. Are we the finished product? "No" but it's a million miles better than a few years ago when we were going backwards each year. Back him and CW will get us to the promised land.

[RonnieWaldock]

Considering where we’ve come from over the past few years, and considering where we get most of our players from, I think we have had a remarkably good season.
However, I am disappointed that this year’s U18’s do not look as good as previous years. I fear we will strongly regret letting Mark Grayson defect to the dark side. This happened before CW arrived, but already you can see how their juniors have improved while ours have gone backwards. I hope I am wrong, but doubt that I am.

It is interesting how different people, see the same thing. Rod is a “glass 80% full” sort of bloke (100% full with his domestic bliss), whereas SBT appears to be a “glass 20% full” type (I’ve no idea about his private life). I’m somewhere in the middle, but having kept supporting United all these years, including Division 4, I suppose I am more inclined to Rod & Aya’s point of view.
I am certainly aware that running a professional football club, dealing with very rich players and extremely rich agents, is a lot more difficult that many supporters can begin to imagine. It isn’t a computer game.
In the end, we all want the same thing. How best to get there is a matter of opinion - not fact.
UTB!!!

[GrayBlade]

I think some of the negativity is born out of the disappointment that we all know we should be comfortabley in the play-offs by now and we’ve chucked away too many points. We can give just about any team in the division a game but we’ve lacked a bit of ruthlessness up front and focus at the back.

If our first season back in the Championship had been turned on it’s head and we’d started slowly and finished strong like Millwall have there wouldn’t be any negatives whatsoever now, so as often happens raising supporter’s expectations and then falling away can cause a negative reaction. It’s normal and I bet the Millwall fans would feel just the way we do in our shoes.

That said, while some fans (like me) are I think quite rightly pointing out where and why they think our form has dropped off, I don’t think that I know any single Blade who is asking for Wilder’s head or doesn’t back him 100% as our best manager in decades. They’ve all been surprised how well we’ve equipped ourselves at this level and have been happy with the style football we’ve played most of the time, but that doesn't stop us wanting more and maybe having the gut feeling we have thrown a great chance away because Wilder wasn’t backed in January and it was down to ownership squabbles.

So it’s been a 7/10 season for me and it could still be a 8 or even a 10, unlikely as it may seem, but we can’t just sit back and clap away if we see things that aren’t right. Different Blades have different ways of getting their points across but everyone of them positive or negative is born out of love for our club.

I think we’ve got a great thing going with Chris with but as always with United, we’re waiting for somebody upstairs to pull the rug from under his feet and fear he’ll leave. Anybody who doesn’t think that our owners are our weakest link (again) and main barrier to this club’s success must have been living on Fuller’s Earth for the past 50 years. UTB

[FatherKnowsBest]

... but that doesn't stop us wanting more and maybe having the gut feeling we have thrown a great chance away because Wilder wasn’t backed in January and it was down to ownership squabbles.

There was fairly wide agreement that Wilder had been backed in the JTW, as he was able to land his targets and kept hold of Brooks (whether as a result of his illness or not). As it happens, none of the new ones have had a significant impact on the results, as January transfers rarely do.

As for ownership squabbles, we were all unaware until after the JTW thatcontract clauses had been triggered, and one was trying to buy the other out or visa versa. As we stand no-one knows anything about which way this will go, and what the effect will be. It didn't seem to stop Wilder buying his targets in the last two transfer windows. We'll have to see about the summer window, but doom and gloom seems a little premature.

... but we can’t just sit back and clap away if we see things that aren’t right.

I haven't seen anyone blindly clapping anything. Acknowledging that we got a lot right isn't the same thing as ignoring what we got wrong. Personally I can't stand the labeling of posters as clappers or slashers (just waiting for the first cry of 'patsy'...) Most posters views are not so black and white, and trying to reduce it to a binary argument is just disingenuous and cynical. We all see where we are weak and where we haven't performed. Its not some mystery revealed only to the True Believers. While we might think we know the answer, its the managers and coaches job to deal with it and put it right. I may know a bit about football, but I confess, CW probably has me beat.

I think we’ve got a great thing going with Chris with but as always with United, we’re waiting for somebody upstairs to pull the rug from under his feet and fear he’ll leave. Anybody who doesn’t think that our owners are our weakest link (again) and main barrier to this club’s success must have been living on Fuller’s Earth for the past 50 years. UTB

I think we've got a great thing with Chris, but he is not immune from criticism. Of course we'll cut him some slack because of what he has achieved here so far, but I hope he and Alan have learned from this season, as next year we are going to have to be smarter and more consistent at both ends of the pitch. UTB

[Ayamonteblade]

There was fairly wide agreement that Wilder had been backed in the JTW, as he was able to land his targets and kept hold of Brooks (whether as a result of his illness or not). As it happens, none of the new ones have had a significant impact on the results, as January transfers rarely do.

As for ownership squabbles, we were all unaware until after the JTW thatcontract clauses had been triggered, and one was trying to buy the other out or visa versa. As we stand no-one knows anything about which way this will go, and what the effect will be. It didn't seem to stop Wilder buying his targets in the last two transfer windows. We'll have to see about the summer window, but doom and gloom seems a little premature.



I haven't seen anyone blindly clapping anything. Acknowledging that we got a lot right isn't the same thing as ignoring what we got wrong. Personally I can't stand the labeling of posters as clappers or slashers (just waiting for the first cry of 'patsy'...) Most posters views are not so black and white, and trying to reduce it to a binary argument is just disingenuous and cynical. We all see where we are weak and where we haven't performed. Its not some mystery revealed only to the True Believers. While we might think we know the answer, its the managers and coaches job to deal with it and put it right. I may know a bit about football, but I confess, CW probably has me beat.



I think we've got a great thing with Chris, but he is not immune from criticism. Of course we'll cut him some slack because of what he has achieved here so far, but I hope he and Alan have learned from this season, as next year we are going to have to be smarter and more consistent at both ends of the pitch. UTB

Very true FKB - the strange thing about this board is that in January everybody seemed very happy with the amount of money spent and the purchases made, as well as the fact that we had not sold Brookes. Opinions seemed to have changed seemlessly - which of course is possible on here.

I am very happy with our season, but still struggle with the fact that our manager only wants a squad of British/Irish players - I think that is a real problem. Why would we rule out foreign players and how many young starlets are we going to ignore just because their face doesn't fit our manager's mould. In this day and age it just seems wrong to me.

That is a problem to me...more than the amount of money being spent.

[FatherKnowsBest]

I am very happy with our season, but still struggle with the fact that our manager only wants a squad of British/Irish players - I think that is a real problem. Why would we rule out foreign players and how many young starlets are we going to ignore just because their face doesn't fit our manager's mould. In this day and age it just seems wrong to me.

That is a problem to me...more than the amount of money being spent.

While I'm not drawing any conclusions or suggesting any bias, we also have a noticably 'white' squad.