I'm a Sheffield United (aka. The Blades) season ticket holder, last year we were very cruely cheated out of survival in the (boring and overrated) Premiership thanks to cheating West Ham signing illegal players and the incompetent idiots in charge of the Premiership deciding that "it's too late in the season and it would be harsh on their fans to deduct them points" and decided to give them a £5million fine which to them is peanuts! Some people still go on saying we didn't play well enough against Wigan on the last day, but we shouldn't have even been in a situation like that, West Ham should have been disqualified, relegated and given a $100million. What they did to Football is far worse than what Stepney and Couglan did with confidential Ferrari documents. Even worse, (the legendary) Neil Warnock was so unhappy with our cruel relegation he decided to resign and almost retired from management (and now he's the manager of Crystal Palace).
Whilst it was slightly relieving to be back in a league where there is proper football and none of the poncy-pussies, overrated-and overpayed prima-donnas and cheaters you find in the Premiership, we were about to be dealt by another blow, Warnock's replacement was Bryan Robson the most BORING man in Football, more boring to listen to than Kimi Raikkonen. He had done terrible jobs in the past getting Bradford and West Brom relegated and falling out with players, but we had to give him a chance and after a few encouraging comments from him and also a good pre-season campaign, we were blinded by what was about to come.
We started the season with a 2-2 draw against Colchester, throwing away the lead TWICE. Then things got worse as the season went on, we were losing to clubs like Scunthorpe and even worse, as we went on the performances got worse, the players became less bothered, putting in less effort and Robson's excuses just got worse and worse and worse. Then a small bright patch came in November when we strung a few wins together, as if we were turning the corner, but no, we understeered straight into the wall when we got humiliated 3-0 at home to Stoke in December. I was so unhappy I left at half time when we were already 3-0 down.
Robson refused to take the blame and layed it all on the players when even a blind man could see Robson was killing our club with his boring football and poor management skills. Sheffield United is a club about passion, never-say-die attitude, battling, making up in spirit whatever lack of skill we have, Robson killed off just about every one of those aspects about the club with his dull spineless tactics. We were so poor even somebody like Tadcaster Albion could have beaten us.
The PLC Chairman Kevin McCabe kept coming to Robson's rescue, even after we lost to Crystal Palace with Warnock back at the Lane. Warnock himself was pretty unhappy with what Robson had done to us (Warnock is a Blades fan). Another thing that only kept Robson in longer was also scalping 2 Premiership teams in the FA Cup, Bolton Wanderers (who had that ginger idiot Gary Megson in charge) and Manchester City (whose fans contributed to their own downfall by dropping a load of balloons in their penalty area leading to our first goal). But that didn't help matters we lost the Sheffield derby to our city rivals Sheffield Wednesday thanks to more crap tactics from Robson and the players not being up for it. McCabe came to Robson's rescue again, Robson blamed the players and very ungratefully slagged off McCabe for not giving him enough funds which is the biggest pile of crap I have ever heard (Robson spent £8million on James Beattie, how can THAT be not enough funds??!).
Things were so bad, the fans were split, I was falling out with my friends over our opinions of the situation and I was turning up to less games. The final straw came when we could only manage a poor 0-0 draw against Scunthorpe, followed by a car-park demonstration.
On Valentines day Robson was finally sacked, and in came Kevin Blackwell (who used to work as Neil Warnock's assistant until he was tempted away by the Leeds). Blackwell has turned the tables, got the players playing like we used to do before Robson came in and we have won 4 consecutive games, and COULD sneak into the play-offs. But right now we're losing to Preston thanks to a penalty.
Still, even if we don't get into the play-offs, whatever Blackwell has done has been an incredible achievement and we'll be in great shape to get promoted next season. I know I might sound a bit contradictory when I earlier said the Premiership was boring, but you've got to wish for the best for your club, and we made the Premiership a lot more interesting when we were in it.
"And Mansell was lucky not to be taken off by that
RIDICULOUS bit of driving by Alliot!!" - James Hunt
"AAAAAND into the pitlane.....
OHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" - Murray Walker
