Category: sheffield

Different approach

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After the disaster that was yesterday: least said, soonest mended, although there are a couple of points that need to be made. Namely that while it was a great effort, it’s the W-D-L and Pts* columns that matter, because there is no “Played against a Top 6 team and almost got something from the game” column, and there never has been.

And worth saying that there is – and there never will be – any excuse for the racist abuse and threats against his family that our goalkeeper has had to face from the Spurs keyboard warriors online. Utterly disgusting. I will enjoy every moment of those “fans” being found and banned for life (noting that much of the stuff I saw came from overseas, especially SE Asia).

Anyway, in a 24 hour break from real sport, I’m going to head to a warehouse in Retreat (yep, seriously), and watch South Africa’s rugby union team play out what should be a really tight and competitive game against Romania.

Rugby is a big deal in SA, and I’m not sure that the locals understand quite how much it isn’t a big deal in other countries, like Romania. Even less so (I’m guessing) in Moldova, who one local estate agent seems to think are taking on the Springboks in Bordeaux this afternoon.

(I know Moldova isn’t far away from Romania. But I know it’s not Romania, too.)

Anyway. Whoever they’re playing. Let’s give this a go, and then I can get back for some proper sport from Liverpool and Spain a bit later on.

* incidentally, our PTSD column will be huge after yesterday

Return of the Mac

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United’s 10th signing of the transfer window. Welcome back, James McAtee:

It’s a great signing, albeit just a loan: this guy is still very much in Man City’s plans for the future. And I love the Twitter video announcing his return. (B)eagle-eyed viewers will recognise bits of the A57 Snake Pass (Manchester to Sheffield, see?) at the beginning of the clip, and that celebration after that goal at Blackpool…

Being honest, it’s not a bad line-up for the Blades overall, in what we all know is going to be a very tough season. Sure, it’s not full of stellar 100 million megaplayers like ManU or Citeh or billion pound spending Chelsea(!), but it’s a decent squad.

And that being the case, I just don’t know why we couldn’t have got more of these deals done earlier? We clearly needed more players in our first three games, and we are not in a position – nor were we ever – in which we could afford to have a delayed start to the season.

And yet…

OK. So now, are we at full strength? Is that it?

Or do we have a late, late signing up our sleeves? Cut off is 11pm UK time.

Bit unlucky?

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A narrow defeat to the best team in the world. But still a defeat.

Ok. I thought we rode our luck a bit in the first half, and then everyone knows how the story ends when Citeh score after an hour.

Didn’t happen.

And then to get a goal, and then when they scored again, to almost get another one – I actually thought that we were a bit unlucky.

Still a defeat, but who expects anything else when they’re playing a billion pound team.

We keep fighting.

It’s back…

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Indeed. The Premier League starts tonight. Manchester City at Burnley, no less. Eww.

And so the rules (which, I will remind you, I didn’t write) say that I must put this on the blog.

I even brought this out earlier.

Further to that, the rule which I did write, says that I must remind everyone that this video was shot in Piketberg. Piketberg is also known for… er… being on the N7 between Malmesbury and Citrusdal.

That’s about it.

But onto more important matters:
Of course, this season, the Mighty Red And White Wizards from Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane are also in the Premier League.

So, some sort of prediction seems appropriate.

Well, given that we’ve known for almost 4 months that we were going to be starting in the Premier League this weekend, it’s been a pretty disastrous pre-season, and an especially chaotic last fortnight. We’ve sold several of our best players (yes, including Sander, who I foolishly referenced in that last post):

We don’t have many players, we do have a lot of injuries, and we also have at least one visa issue, thus it looks like some of our team, and even more of our much-depleted bench will be made up of academy players. Compare and contrast with the big boys spending literally hundreds of millions of pounds throughout the summer, and it feels like we’re scratching around in the dirt for whatever we can find.

It’s going to be a very long, very hard season. So I’ll absolutely bite your hand off for 17th position or above – and therefore survival – and the chance to go again next season.

On our side, we have the best fans in the country, we have a formidable stadium to visit, we have some incredible team spirit, and we have a local, down-to-earth manager who understands the club, the limitations facing him, and the importance of the team’s success to the fanbase. I can’t wait for our first win (it took a horribly long while last time), but I’ll fully understand when we struggle, and I’ll continue to support wholeheartedly as long as there is 100% effort from the players.

You can’t ask for more.

We’re a very small fish in a very big pond, but it’s quite literally the best pond in the world to be in.
We worked damn hard to get promotion last season and we had some great times getting it.
This is what we wanted*. We shouldn’t forget that at any point this time around.

Never stop supporting. Never stop believing.


* although perhaps not quite as we wanted it.