#TheBladesBigSkyBill - Time to pay

Last Tuesday (19th January) Sky Sports announced that the Southend United v Sheffield United game was being moved for television coverage; from a much anticipated Easter Monday 3:00 kick off to two days later and a 7:45 kick off on the Wednesday.

In one fail swoop hundreds of fans were inconvenienced and many were left out of pocket. An Easter Bank Holiday Weekend date had meant that many fans had planned weekend trips or family breaks incorporating the match. 9/10 weeks notice might seem acceptable, in a world where the television companies attempt to work to 6 weeks notice (still inadequate and sometimes they can't even manage to that, ask Leicester or Arsenal fans) and as has been pointed out "Fixtures are subject to change". In this instance it is worth noting a few other factors:

• A Bank Holiday weekend encourages many fans to travel who wouldn't normally travel such a distance. The extra time off work allowing family meet-ups and a journey back that doesn't end in the early hours of the morning and another day/morning off work out of annual leave entitlements. We have received an email from a German Blade who was planning a trip over with his family, combining it with an opportunity to meet up with friends in the South, those plans now abandoned.
• The distance involved. This is not some hour long drive away. Fans will struggle to make a rearranged date as it will necessitate at the very least a half day off work on the Wednesday and probably the same on the Thursday. More if you are reliant on the train as there is no way of returning on the Wednesday evening. The additional expense, employer negotiation and hassle will deter many.

We wonder whether Sky Sports don't mind their televised spectacles played out in front of half empty stadiums, or with minimal away support, meaning games have little atmosphere. Southend can probably expect away ticket sales to be more than halved by the game being televised. This is just one of many examples of football fans being inconvenienced that have seen clubs, fans and supporter organisations speak out. In relative terms some commentators have suggested we have it easy, maybe so, but it doesn't make it right. #TheBladesBigSkyBill idea has gained momentum in recent days, with social media trending, coverage in the local paper, radio and national press.

The Star - http://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/football/sheffield-united/sheffield-united-fans-to-bill-sky-for-charity-over-match-switch-1-7687541

The Star - http://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/football/sheffield-united/sheffield-united-adkins-anger-at-tv-switch-1-7689719

Radio Sheffield - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03dwnf5

Radio Sheffield - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03dwnhc

The News Hub (Martin Cloake) - https://www.the-newshub.com/football/tensions-rise-in-footballs-tv-times

The Fiver (The Guardian) - http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jan/22/the-fiver-arsenal-chelsea-and-fixture-shamblings

Sheffield Live TV - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttlBt4Bq1Y4

Others are awaiting issue of the bill today. Supporters organisations, former players and sports journalists have openly supported the principle of our claim. Blades manager Nigel Adkins has openly criticised the switch and sympathised with the fans. So today we issue the bill to Sky comprising the irrecoverable costs of Blades fans who planned to attend the game. 

The bill totals £7,271.50, representing committed rail fares, hotels, flights, additional time off work, taxi fares (in the absence of a pre-arranged lift agreed for the original fixture) and concert tickets bought for the Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott gig at Southend Pavilion on the Sunday night (not a concert anyone in Sheffield would think about popping to, unless there was another reason to be 200 miles away - we are sure fellow Blades fan Paul will not be offended by that!). We have names and in most cases addresses of people making the claim and can produce this if required.We are also aware that many other Blades fans have been more fortunate with their bookings, but have received support in our campaign all the same. This amount is less than £3,000 below the fee Sheffield United receive as the away team for this fixture, an important point of note and hopefully helps shatter the misconception that football clubs make handsomely from television coverage.

We publicly issue this bill and in doing so ask Sky not to recompense the fans affected but, as a goodwill gesture, donate the equivalent amount to a local charity that will be selected by United supporters' choice in the coming days. Blades fans can vote for a local charity by clicking on the link https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/G7CDPRY . 

We do this asking Sky to consider more fully the views and commitments of, and the impact on supporters when they make such a fixture switch: 

• To look at the timing of the original game and the distances away fans are travelling before rescheduling.
• To consider that in order to obtain the best rail and (for longer trips) hotel prices, fans are having to commit to tickets far in advance of the fixture, particularly when travel is on bank holiday weekends when services may be limited. A six week window is insufficient and inadequate.
• To consider the frequency and regularity of a club's fixtures are selected. Leeds matches being selected 13 times is massively inconvenient for Leeds fans and it can't be viewed as encouraging an upturn in Sky Sports subscriptions.
• To consider a fund being provided to clubs outside the Premier League which enables them to fund/support away fans travel in these circumstances or subsidise travel on rearranged dates midweek when the cost of attending is more than just the travel, it is time off work.

As Jock Stein said "Football without fans is nothing", a statement that seems to be lost in the current footballing world where ticket prices rise, fixture changes and a lack of care or thought for fan welfare permeate the decisions of administrators and television companies. There is real and present danger that fans will increasingly become emotionally and financially disenfranchised from the game. This cannot be helpful for clubs, leagues or media rights holders and it needs to change.

Many Thanks and Up the Blades!

 

The Blades' Big Sky Bill

So it started with a tweet 

and with the added thoughts and support of fellow Blade Luke Prest the idea has germinated to this......

As you have no doubt seen, Sky TV have chosen our trip to Southend to be televised. This has resulted in a change of date and kick off from 3:00 pm on the Easter Bank Holiday Monday - a traditional footballing date - to 7:45 pm on the following Wednesday.

Time and time again, Sky do this to clubs across the land. The feelings, finances and desires of supporters are never once considered when these decisions are made by TV companies.

Sheffield to Southend is no short trip. With it being the Bank Holiday, large numbers of United will have booked hotels, travel, match tickets etc. well in advance in anticipation of a long weekend or just a good day out by the Essex seaside. These plans and not so insignificant financial commitments are now ruined or increased further by the decision of Sky to change the day and time of the fixture at just 8 weeks notice. Some may say 8 weeks is plenty of notice, but it is not just that, moving the match from a Bank Holiday - which makes it much easier for fans to attend - to a midweek night suddenly affects more people. What was a planned weekend away is no more. The need to book trains in advance to get the best prices, to line up accommodation around a Bank Holiday weekend means that action has already taken place and finances committed.

So what can we, as fans, do about this? The idea we are mooting is that the cost of Sky's action is calculated as a whole on behalf of all Blades and issued by way of an open letter/invoice to Sky. Seeking recompense for individual fans is probably stretching it, but instead we propose the total cost incurred by fans is settled by way of a donation to a nominated Sheffield charity. We can set up a vote so Blades fans can choose the recipients, assuming Sky see fit to pay.

So we ask that if you had made arrangements for the Southend match prior to Sky's rearranging of the fixture, you detail them by replying to this post, completing the Contact Form in the sidebar to the right of this post or by emailing email@lukeprest.com where they will be collated. We will then issue a total 'invoice' from us, the supporters of Sheffield United.

Please include your name, address, and details of any costs you have incurred as a result of the change in fixture - these could be lost wages, cancelled hotels, re-booking of train tickets etc. If you haven't already booked, don't feel left out. Can you demonstrate that the cost of travel have changed to your financial detriment? The key factor is that whatever we include has to be credible and real.

Please try and email/reply by Sunday 24th January and assuming we have a good response we will issue the bill early next week.

Just think what a small but ultimately powerful message this could provide. The Star have expressed interest in the idea, there were plenty of calls to Football Heaven tonight so we will make sure Radio Sheffield are aware of the plan and we will be letting the Football Supporters Federation know as well. For a small amount of your time in sending us the details you can demonstrate your anger and frustration at the contempt and ignorance shown to you, whilst hopefully helping a local charity benefit.

#TheBladesBigSkyBill

We are not the only fans to suffer from late notice fixture changes, with the cost implications and inconvenience that they cause. Hopefully other clubs' fans might see this and follow suit, or find their own ways to challenge the status quo. Football without fans is nothing. Football matches without away fans are sterile, muted, dispassionate events. It shouldn't have to be that way.

Thanks and Up The Blades.

Interview with Steve Thompson - Part 2 (Taking the Reins)

As we left Part 1 (which you can read here), Steve had moved to Lincoln City in the Summer of 1989 and he went on to play for them in the 1989-90 season.

Steve was still registered as a player at the start of the following season though but, when Allan Clarke was dismissed as manager, he became the Board's choice as his successor and immediately lifted the Club off the bottom of the table to a respectable mid-table finish.

He went on to manage the Imps for 114 League games, registering 46 wins and 31 draws, and left before the final match of the 1992/93 season with the Board announcing that his contract wouldn't be renewed with the Club missing out on the play-offs. Steve was still registered as a player at the start of the following season though but, when Allan Clarke was dismissed as manager (November 1990), he became the Board's choice as his successor and immediately lifted the Club off the bottom of the table to a respectable mid-table finish; losing only three of the last 18 games that season and avoiding a second relegation to the Conference.

You learn from your mistakes early in your managerial career. You get carried away with wins and carried away with your own importance and as you get you older you recognise the mistakes you made.

He went on to manage the Imps for 114 League games, registering 46 wins and 31 draws, and left before the final match of the 1992/93 season with the Lincoln board announcing that his contract wouldn't be renewed with the club missing out on the play-offs. A spell on Kevin Keegan's coaching staff at Newcastle United followed and then three months as assistant manager at Doncaster Rovers. From there he became Director of Football at Southend United, taking over as manager when Peter Taylor left with the club deep in relegation trouble.

Steve led them to 13th place at the end of the season and then left to join Colin Murphy as assistant manager at Notts County in June 1995. County made the play-offs in their first season in charge, but struggled badly the following year in a season that would see the Magpies relegated to Division Three. Both Murphy and Thompson were sacked before the season finished.

We lost in the play-offs 2-0 to Bradford City, who Kammy was managing at the time, and the following season, well you often start with a headache after the pain of play-off defeat. You have to try and lift the players and it is tough. A few defeats and you get a backlash from the fans. We lost three games at home and it was already "Murphy out".

Steve then joined Nigel Spackman's coaching staff at Sheffield United and following Spackman's resignation in March 1998 he was made caretaker manager. Manager of the club he had both supported and played for.

When we were on the cup run that season, Garth Crooks came to interview me for the BBC. I used to room with Garth on occasions whilst at Charlton and he said; “Tommo you used to bore me silly with all my Sheffield United talk and you must keep pinching yourself to find you’re in the job you are in.” He was not wrong.

I got so much pleasure and enormous gratification from managing the club, albeit for just 16 games. On an afternoon I would often just go for a walk around the pitch and then sit in the stand and think; “Flippin’ heck, I never thought this would happen in my lifetime”.

As a lad I used to get the 71 bus up Prince of Wales Road, down over Norfolk Park, getting off at Silver Blades ice rink and leg it through the backstreets to the Lane. That was my Tuesday night and Saturday afternoon when United were at home. Then I’d do the same routine in reverse at full time. And here I was, managing that same club.

I have had lengthy spells at Lincoln and I watch them now with my job, but Sheffield United has always been my club. You hear from managers who tell us that they supported the club they manage and that they stood on the terraces as a kid. I am not sure they all have, but I know I was there.

A dream job for Steve, but his job was made more difficult than it ought to have been thanks to the turbulent relationship between board and fans and also the circumstances around Nigel Spackman's departure.

It was a very difficult time. I remember getting a call on the Tuesday morning of the game at Ipswich to say that Nigel had resigned and I was going to have to take charge. There was only Fred Eyre (Chief Scout) and Russell Slade left. We lost 1-0; I think it was a deflected goal in off Shaun Derry.

I had been very friendly with Willie Donachie who had been Nigel's assistant prior to leaving earlier in the season for Manchester City. I spoke to him when the job came up and he said that it was a great chance and I should take it. Some people thought I had stabbed Nigel in the back when I took the job, but that was far from the case, he left of his own accord. I remember being there when Mike McDonald and Kevin McCabe tried to persuade Nigel to come back and see it out to the end of the season, but Nigel felt he'd been let down badly.

I brought Jim Barron in to assist me and Russell was brilliant. He had little experience of first team coaching at the time; he had been working with the youngsters, but really helped. I wasn’t totally inexperienced at that level; I’d taken charge of Southend so it wasn’t totally alien to me. The experienced players deserve credit; David Holdsworth, Nicky Marker, Alan Kelly, Simon Tracey and others helped keep it going to the end of the season.

United had spent big in the preceding years under Howard Kendall and Nigel Spackman, but belts were being tightened and the expensive, big name players were being sold. The sale of Jan Aage Fjortoft and Brian Deane on the same day had led to Spackman's departure. With a promotion push starting to drift, Steve was only given limited funds to work with.

Yes, I managed to bring in Chris Wilder for a second spell and brought in Paul Devlin and Ian Hamilton. I also gave Curtis Woodhouse and Lee Morris their debuts which was great.

A big blow that season was losing Dane Whitehouse to the injury that ended his career. I still see Gareth Ainsworth around Lincoln where he is still revered (Ainsworth's horror tackle, whilst playing for Port Vale, caused Whitehouse's injury) and I tell him I can't forgive him for that. I was sat in the dug-out and it was a bad, bad tackle.

Dane, along with Mitch Ward were coming through at United when I was there as a player and you could see then Dane had what was required to be a great player.

Probably the highlight of Steve's time as manager was the penalty shootout victory over Coventry City in a FA Cup Quarter Final replay.

We had gone to Coventry on the Saturday and nobody gave us a prayer. They were in a division above and obviously we were going through a tough time, but Marcelo got us an equaliser.

That Tuesday night, the replay at Bramall Lane, if I could relive that in my dreams a million times it wouldn’t be enough. David Holdsworth hooking in an overhead kick to equalise in the last minute, nobody would put money on that! Then Katchouro missed his penalty...

It was a terrible penalty from Katchouro. What sticks in my mind as well as Alan Kelly’s save, was the fact that the penalty takers were not always those you would have expected; Wayne Quinn, United’s left back scored the winning penalty that night.

I remember a fella that night jumping on my back saying “Tommo, Tommo”, he was a big guy with a beard and a bald head. “Tommo, Tommo, do you remember me?” I said “Nah”; I thought he was going to break my back! Anyway, he says “I went to Junior School with you!” I said, “Ah right, you didn’t have a beard and bald head then.” To which he says; “Have you got any tickets for the semi?”

Quinny was a great lad. I remember when Newcastle came in for Wayne and god bless him he didn’t know whether to stick or twist. He didn’t want to leave United. I said to him, I know you love United, but Newcastle is a massive club and off he went. He never really fulfilled his potential there, which was surprising.

United went on to face Newcastle in the semi-final at Old Trafford and to a lot of Blades fans the match felt like an opportunity missed. That if United had taken the game to them more there might have been a different result. In the end United lost 1-0.

To lead them out at Old Trafford was amazing and I still maintain to this day that we were unlucky not to get a result. Wayne Quinn had a one on one and Petr Katchouro missed a great chance, I know they had a few chances but really we were done by Alan Shearer. The header came from Shearer who leaned on Lee Sandford and got the header in at the far post, it was something he got away with for years.

Steve stabilised the team and saw United through into the play offs in 6^th; although it was very tight with United edging out Birmingham on goal difference.

We had lost away at Stockport and had to wait for other scores to come in to be sure we got in the play offs.

They then faced Sunderland in the play-offs and a 2-1 win at Bramall Lane perfectly set up the second leg in front of a 40,000 crowd at the Stadium of Light.

I played against Niall Quinn (then Sunderland striker) when I was at Charlton. I think we played them four times in one season and he got three hat tricks! He was having a fitness test before the first leg at Bramall Lane and I said; “Big man, are you playing?” Quinn said “No, he’s saving me for Tuesday night; I’ll probably score the winner then.” He didn’t, but he was back in the team and a thorn in our side.

When we went up to the Stadium of Light, Peter Reid greeted me on arrival and said he had just been to the referee’s room and we had no chance as the ref was “shitting himself”. He was right, that night the referee (Mick Pierce) just couldn’t handle the game or the pressure and the noise and atmosphere that night was unbelievable. A deflected goal off Nicky Marker and a Kevin Phillips goal and Sunderland were in the final. Given the changes at the club and the limited money I had to spend, I was proud of the lads for getting there.

Having guided the Blades to the play-offs and the semi-finals of the FA Cup, it would have been fair to assume that Steve had a fair chance of getting the job full-time, but that was not to be the case.

Mike McDonald was saying you can apply for the job, so I did and got an interview and went through the process, but I wish they had said straight up what the situation was. Maybe I should have read the script. It was a fake interview. The club was a plc. the share price had dipped from the issue price  and the board wanted a big name to get the price back up. That man was Steve Bruce and it was obvious he would want to bring in his own people; Lou Macari, John Deehan and it was obvious that I wasn’t going to fit in.

There was a time earlier that season when Hull wanted me, although I think Stephen Hinchcliffe was the chairman so it might not have worked out well, with what I had done at United I might have found a club that summer, but stayed on. I should have perhaps realised that he would have wanted his own people.

In Part 3 tomorrow we look at Steve's spell as manager at Notts County, his radio punditry and he offers a few thoughts on Lincoln and Sheffield United's prospects for the new season.