Category: sheffield

Here we go again then…

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Before we begin this post, for the record: Yes, we won the quiz.
Some really odd questions in there.
And I didn’t think we’d try to answer one of them with “Patagonian Toothbrush”. Especially in the Food & Drink round. It wasn’t right, for a number of reasons.
But 20 teams, 100 points available, we got 88, 2nd place got 81. All good, all cool.

Much money was raised for good causes.

And there were no South African politics questions.

And so now we move onto tonight’s festivities, and by festivities, I mean the start of a new football season for Sheffield United. It’s something that I always look forward to with a mixture of excited anticipation and a hint of worry and trepidation.

But it’s ok. It’s all part of the fun and games that I’ve been going through for the last n years. And once this first game is done, then I’ll only be stressed and on edge for the next eight or nine months.

So that’s something to look forward to.

There must have been something wrong with my phone, because I never got the call from the United manager Rubén Sellés to go and play centre back in the match today. Weird.

He must think he’s got enough of a defence. I’m less convinced.


Anyway, it looks like I’ll be watching from 6000 miles… away.

COME ON YOU RED AND WHITE WIZZZZZAAAAARDS!!!!!!
THIS IS OUR SEASON!!!!!!!!*

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* terms and conditions apply

It’s happening again

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Four whole days before the start of the next football season, and we’ve just decided to sell one of our key players.

But that’s fine, because we have more than adequate back up and squad depth for that position.

Oh. Wait. No. No, we don’t.

OK, so maybe not at the moment, but there are still [checks notes] a whole four days before the season starts. We can surely find exactly the right player(s), get them signed, registered, trained up and adapted to our system in the next 72 hours, so that they’re ready to go on Saturday evening, right?

Well, probably not.

But at least we got a HUGE sum of money for him.

Considerably less, you say? Like what?

Oh, so like less than half what you originally told us, and now some of which we have to give to another team?

Great. Just great.

When we’ve sold players just before the start of a season before, things have gone hideously wrong.

Obviously, things could be much, much worse, but then that’s not a good bar to aim for.

Can we please not mess up this season before it’s even begun?

Preserving our heritage (or “Give peas a chance”)

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News from back home about a plan to save a Peas Sign.

Ghost signs are silent storytellers, etched into the very brickwork of our communities. These faded, hand-painted advertisements offer a nostalgic glimpse into bygone eras, snapshots of commerce, culture, and everyday life.
One striking example lives on the gable end of the Cocker and Carr building: the “Natural No. 1 Processed Peas” sign. Timeworn but enduring, it speaks volumes about the area’s local identity and trading history. Its survival is thanks to the resilient oil-based paints of the past, whose pigments have weathered decades of wind, rain, and urban change.

Wow. Quite the intro.
And yes indeed, there is an old sign advertising processed peas on the gable end of the building in question:

There used to be an advertising board on that gable end, and when it was taken down, the previous advert – for No.1 Processed Peas was revealed.

I’ve no idea how old it is, but we’re probably looking at some time in the early/middle bit of last century. Sadly, it seems that the manufacturers never considered just how vague their product name would be in an internet search. Frustrating.

And great news: the plan is now to find some means of safeguarding this piece of urban heritage, so that it remains as a reminder of the past – even if it is just an ad for some tinned peas.

Preserving it is more than just restoring a wall, it’s about protecting a piece of living heritage.

I couldn’t agree more. We’re far too quick to destroy and discard these sort of historical pieces. And while stuff like this might be a bit mundane, it’s also completely irreplaceable. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
It’s not doing any harm up there on the wall. It’s not offending anyone or getting in the way of anything, so why not preserve a bit of history?

(And while they’re at it, maybe tidy up the rest of the wall, too?)
(Just a thought.)

There’s actually a heritage building being restored very close to our home here in Cape Town, which I’m delighted about. It certainly beats having 8 soulless townhouses squeezed onto a tiny footprint like they’re doing everywhere else. And once it’s finished, it will be a real icon – alongside a wonderful family home – and will be preserved for generations to come.

My only issue is that saving heritage housing does apparently seem to be a rather noisy endeavour.

If they could do something about that, it would be nice.

Birmingham, summed up

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United have a first round Carabao Cup tie away at Birmingham City.

And we described it on our website as:

Tip?

Interesting example. Anyway…

Look. I’m thinking that whoever did the title meant “trip”, but also that they had – at some point – visited Birmingham, and thus their subconscious took control of their typing fingers.

Hard to argue with it, though. I wouldn’t edit this at all.

All for nothing?

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No matter who wins this afternoon’s little matchup in North London, it’s going to be a massive struggle for them to stay in the Premier League next season. The last six clubs promoted to the top flight have come straight back down, and between them, scored a record number of points. And not a record number in a good way.

Why is this? Well, the gulf between the two leagues has always been opening up, but it seems that soon after Covid, it widened into a chasm of epic proportions. And if you were in there when this happened, you now seem to have some sort of protection against relegation.

So suddenly, you have the likes of Bournemouth, Fulham, Brentford and Brighton battling it out for European places. And no offence to those clubs, but they’re not exactly historically the biggest teams. But they were in the mix when it counted and now they are the new biggest teams.

Of course, 95% of it comes down to money. Plucky performances and passionate support can only do so much. And how on earth are Championship cubs meant to compete when there’s this level of financial disparity?

When you don’t have European football, and when you don’t have an assured place in the Premier League, you simply can’t attract big players. And the double whammy is that the opposition can.
And thanks to English teams performing way above the average in the European competitions this year, there could be as many as 10 of the 17 existing teams in the Premier League playing in Europe next year. Six of them will be in the top tier on the chart below, another four in that second tier.

There’s a lot of money splashing around for the other clubs when you aren’t in those top two bands.

Spurs and ManU might have had absolutely awful seasons this time around, but they were still miles clear of the relegation places. There’s just no competition anymore when it comes to going down. And while that might be a very comfortable position for the established clubs, it will slowly(?) kill the league.

Of course, I hope we go up this afternoon. We have played brilliantly all season and we deserve to celebrate with something to show for it. But at the back of my mind (and those of dirty l**ds and Burnley fans, if they’re being honest), is the tinge of realism that next season will be a hard watch.

Still… let’s deal with that if and when we have to.
COME ON YOU RED AND WHITE WIZZZZZAAAAARDS!

EDIT: OK, a few days later now and that didn’t go well.
But I have just spotted this:

Which does kind of prove the point.