The Blades Way

 

 

Ask Sheffield United supporters what is "The Blades Way"? They will no doubt give a variety of answers. To some it is losing a Play Off Final. For others it will be the fact that they are always the bridesmaid (cup semi-finalists), but never the bride. In fact matron of honour (Runners-Up) would be nice. To others it would be selling off our best players, over a number of years. Others might agree and suggest that we under sell or under-value those players as well.

If they were asked what it should be, many would say an ethos under-pinning the club, of how we play, our image as a club, to fans, staff players and the outside world and a series of on-pitch objectives that we should be working towards. It would be a coherent message, clear of misconception with everyone singing from the same hymn sheet.

The thing is we have had "The Blades Way" and although it was launched with much fanfare it was never actually defined. When Kevin McCabe sat at table with the banner proclaiming the new marketing drive in 2008, he suggested it was about establishing the Blades in the Premier League on a base of "responsibility, determination, discipline, pride, hard work, honesty and commitment to excellence and the community". It also appeared to be linked to the development of the "Blades family" of clubs across the World; a family now largely divorced and to be honest some members of the family were more like second cousins twice removed to start with.

Maybe it was assumed that The Blades Way was easily understandable, visible, permeating every action at the club. I guess we were supposed to just feel it, see it and recognise it. If that is the case it hasn't really worked, on many levels, not least the over-arching objective of establishing the club in the Premier League. Given the virtues stated in that initial description of "The Blades Way" and events in the intervening period, it really makes you question what in reality "The Blades Way" is and has been?   

Is it about short term success and promotion, or a long haul of building from the bottom up? Or are we trying to do a bit of both and succeeding at neither?

Is it to have a lack of football knowledge on the board and to place trust in expensively rewarded chief executives who continue to make decisions that cost the club money. Or employ chief executives  who fail to attract investors, do little to reduce an unmaintainable cost base, but then receive a significant Golden Handshake on their departure?

Is it to have a style of play and a type of player that fits each position at every age group and team level, or is it to have 4 managers in 3 years, each with a different playing ethos and way of working?

Is it to claim to want to build with youth, but offer contracts to players in their 30's contracts on exorbitant wages, or to take on veteran players because they are friends with the owner's son?

Is it to develop the academy, but leave the academy players developing frostbite on a bench when the opportunity to give them 15/20 minutes at the end of a "dead" game is presented?

Is it to publicly state that a continued reliance on loan players would be disastrous, yet to see short term contracts and loans continue remain a way of supplementing the match-day squad at the expense of contracted players with a commitment to the club?

Is it for our manager to tell the media one thing, only to be contradicted 24 hours later by an owner desperate to grab the media's microphone and attention, like a drunk Delia Smith.

Is it for the words of the owner to be found out less than a week later to be mere attention seeking PR puff?

Is it for a manager to be hung out to dry after selling a financially valuable player?

Is it a club that can use the salary cap as an excuse for wider financial problems that they don't explain clearly to the wider and less knowledgeable fan base?

Is it for the manager to completely fail to acknowledge a known weaknesses in his side (a severe lack of width), so a January transfer window can pass without him strengthening in a key area, "because it wasn't necessary"? Again hiding the real financial issues at play.

Is it about a lack of coherent message that leaves fans divided in their views and fighting amongst themselves?

Is it about an inconsistency of words and actions that has led fans to purposely stay away from home games? 

Recently Kevin McCabe said; "The focus going forward will be to develop and grow a high performing player talent base, maintaining a sustainable business where we can see a maximum return on our assets and ensuring we are a true family and community club.”

You can come up with all the marketing gimmicks you like, but what really defines your club is what happens on the pitch. Sadly that statement from Kevin McCabe says little about that. Maybe we can assume that "high performing player talent base" translates to on-field success? Although it could cynically be translated as a self-generated academy production line, providing suitable profit on sale to make the club self-sustainable. Let's be honest, that is the reality of the situation we are in.

It is time for the bluster and about-turns to stop. The club needs to make a clear statement, free of jargon and spin that says this is the state we are in, this is what we are doing about it and this is how long it will take to put right. This statement of intent may not translate into the on-field success we all crave, no-one can guarantee that. However, it may put a stop to the misconceptions and mistrust amongst the supports and stop large proportions of the (until now, extremely loyal) support drift towards being away-day Blades or stay away Blades.

Yet again a January transfer window has passed with controversy. I supported the sale of Nick Blackman on the basis that the squad needed strengthening and this was the best way to go about it. Although it is easy to forget the arrival of Murphy and Higginbotham prior to Blackman's departure, the truth is many expected the funds to be spent and little that was said prior to his departure would have led the club to say otherwise.

Comments to the media blaming the salary cap are misjudged. The sale of Blackman could equate to another £800,000 of base turnover for the cap calculation, plus his salary costs, in effect freeing up £500,000 for wages (nearly 5% in cap terms). The reality is, the sale was used to plug on-going financial losses. Why can it not just be said.

Let's have a bit of honesty, let's have a commitment to doing all we can to get the club promoted (a quick way to arrest a proportion of the losses) and let's have a bit of pride back in our team and the club. Marketing and PR guff like "True Blades are at the Lane" and "the Blades Way" just won't wash anymore. Straight talking, clear and ingenuous statements will.      

Bye Bye Blackman?

 

 

So Nick Blackman is potentially on his way to Palace. Am I really that bothered? To be honest I am relatively sanguine about it. You get used to these events that after so long you feel anaesthetised and numb to the nagging annoyance and anger you know you perhaps should feel.

 

United have sold much better players than him in the past and will no doubt do so again in the future. There are very few clubs in any division that will retain their best players, not least a League One club that made a loss of £13m last year. A club stymied in its transfer activities by a move to being a break-even business and achieving a wage cap percentage they would have been nowhere near in the last two years of failure.

 

Tabloid reports we paid £350,000 for him; the key is what we make on top of that and realistically it isn't going to be the significant amounts that many Blades fans openly crave. For a League One striker with 11 league goals, 6 from the penalty spot we aren't going to get much more than double that. The truth is, we will never know, hidden behind the increasingly used mask of undisclosed fee…..with potential add-ons. Profit would give Danny Wilson room to manoeuvre in the transfer market, with both monies coming into the club and an increase in turnover which will consequently increase the wage budget and total value of the available salary funds within the cap.

 

The importance of strengthening other key areas, assuming funds are released, is surely clear to see. We have a lack of options in central midfield and a dearth of creativity in wide areas. That lack of wide supply is due to a combination of poor delivery and Danny Wilson's insistence on persisting with inverted wingers, forever cutting inside to little effect. Blackman is as guilt of that as anyone. Look how frequently the Blades have struggled to break down opposition defences and how often an attack out wide ends with a narrow chipped cross on to a towering League One centre half’s temple.

 

Blackman is a bit of a show pony footballer. Erratic and lacking little confidence he must cause team-mates as much frustration as he does the fans at times, but as supporters we sometimes see past his failings because he scores goals. He is capable of much more than we get to see, if only he had a bit more application and thought we might see the substance as well as the style.

 

Yes he chases lost causes and often recovers the ball, but when there are easier positions to chase down, he is strolling around the pitch seemingly oblivious to the opportunity. At times he struts about the pitch with seemingly half-hearted indifference. That may not be the case, but his body language suggests a man who is interested in the work that gets noticed and not the off the ball graft required, particularly when played out wide.

 

In possession, you sense something exciting might happen, but equally as likely is a wild shot from distance blazed over the bar. His clear strengths are his pace, particularly when running at defenders, and his ability to hold up the ball, but how often does he do the hard work and then fail to part with the ball when a teammate takes up a good position? It is interesting that his stats show a player who has scored a goal once every two games and half of his shots per game are on target.

 

The biggest issue for me with his potential departure is that without Blackman we become an even more one dimensional team, lacking pace in every part of the pitch. Whilst teams hit us swiftly on the break, leaving us looking listless, we have no one likely to do that to the opposition. A huge amount of importance is placed on who and how we replace and strengthen the squad.

 

Yes, losing one of our supposedly better players at this stage of the season hurts. Some may say it shows a lack of ambition. You can only really say that when you see how the money is spent. Nick Blackman is our top scorer, but he has only scored 4 in the last 10 games; 2 of which were penalties. He is not the player around which the team's style of play revolves, nor is he the player we are ultimately reliant on for results. 

 

 

Every backbone and heart you break

Will still come back for more

 

As ever, at moments like this, fans take to the message boards, to social media and to their mobiles, hammering their keys like a demented woodpecker. They are blaming the board, Kevin McCabe, Danny Wilson; but few are actually wondering if the player himself is driving the move.  A pay rise and a move to a club pushing for promotion to the Premier League, what's not to like about that from Blackman's perspective? They are also ranting about a move that is still to be confirmed, but why should that stop those who set up the Kevin McCabe OUT Facebook group?

 

There are those who will claim that it is the final straw; that is them finished with the club, that they are not renewing season tickets next season; one even showed his cut up season ticket on twitter last night. Some will go to extremes; saying that Meadowhall with the missus is preferable. I think they annoy me less than those who say they will go to some away games, but not the home ones. As if part-time support and putting money in rival club's coffers helps the situation of the club they profess to love.

 

These are the "Drama Queens", as I prefer to think of them. Some may follow through with their claims, many will not. I am damned sure that selling Nick Blackman isn't an excuse to end years of support. I can see a cumulative impact of player sales causing frustration, but to walk away…really?

 

It is quite interesting that when you look up the many definitions of support in a dictionary they could each be applied to being a football supporter;

 

-          to bear or hold up, serve as a foundation for.

-          to sustain or withstand (weight, pressure, strain, etc.) without giving way; serve as a prop for.

-          to undergo or endure, especially with patience or submission; tolerate.

-          to sustain (a person, the mind, spirits, courage, etc.) under trial or affliction.

 

As Blades supporters we are all too familiar with the third and fourth definitions. Maybe some should remember that and put a little perspective in their rants. I am by no means happy with where our club finds itself, or with some of the decisions have been made, but really what would be left and what state would be in Kevin McCabe walked away? Think about that and maybe wait and see the state of the squad versus Coventry City on Friday before hammering your keyboards or opening your mouth.