One Word Season - An Anatomy of a Relegation

As promised here is the #onewordseason responses from Blades on twitter and Sheffield United fan site/forum www.s24su.com.

Apologies for any offence caused by the language but I want to display everything suggested, there are some phrases that may need looking up on urban dictionary, some from the playground that I haven't heard in years and some that show you need to create a new word when one just wont do. Each expresses the upset and angst of an unexpected (well it was at the start of the season) relegation.

A certain defender loaned from Sunderland gets a mention, as do 2 of the 3 permanent managers.  

A certain night at Scunthorpe that is described here is referred to.

I hope that Unbouncebackabilityness is not going to be used next season.

Maybe to be McCabed might become standard football parlance in time?

Zemblanity...well I had to look that up. For those who can't be bothered looking - it is a word used in William Boyd's novel 'Armadillo' and is the opoosite of serendipity.

Overall what sticks out is the depressing inevitability of relegation. Roll on next season.

One Word Season

A simple idea and a simple request on twitter. One word to sum up your team's season. Your word, your team and #onewordseason . 

The results are below, the higher the frequency of the word, the bigger the word. We got a great response in terms of coverage, fans of 48 teams responded covering all four English divisions, non-league, Scotland and  France. But in another sense it was a completely depressing response, most respondees being from teams that have had disappointing seasons for one reason or another. Only a few, brief glimmers of happiness and hope.

I've excluded those submitted by Sheffield United fans, as you might expect, they far exceeded any other club in number and they have a cloud all of their own.

We had some made up words; Arsehat (Stockport County), Unfulhamish (Fulham), Crapscendo (Sunderland). We had odd words; Tufty (Everton) and Toothache (Scunthorpe). We had The Krankies; Fandabidozi (Manchester United).

Players and managers got a mention; some for positive reasons, Tevez (Manchester City), others for negative reasons, Sinclair (Reading) and Hodgson (Liverpool).

The effects of a 35 year trophy drought generated some stellar responses from Manchester City fans; Transcendent and Lunar. Whereas Leicester City fans (by far the biggest number of submissions) submitted 2 of the 5 occurences of Frustrating and both instances of Inconsistent, alongside Under-achieved amongst others.

My personal favourites?

Oscillating (Bristol City)

Bifurcated (Rotherham United)

and one that didn't make it in, as it was used to describe the season in Scottish Football rather than a team...... Baws!

I'll post the Sheffield United one shortly, worth a view for neutrals as an anatomy of a relegation.

  

 

Teams mentioned:

Arsenal, Aston Villa, Auxerre, Blackburn Rovers, Blackpool, Bolton Wanderers, Bristol City, Bristol Rovers, Burnley, Cardiff City, Celtic, Charlton Athletic, Cheltenham Town, Darlington, Derby County, Doncaster Rovers, Everton, Fulham, Hearts, Hull City, Leeds United, Leicester City, Leyton Orient, Lille, Liverpool, Macclesfield Town, Manchester City, Manchester United, Millwall, Newcastle United, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Peterborough United, Port Vale, Preston North End, QPR, Rotherham United, Salisbury City, Scunthorpe United, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Stevenage Borough, St Johnstone, Stockport County, Sunderland, Swansea City, West Ham United.