bar the shouting anyway.

Expect we'll 'tread water' and try and avoid any disastrous flirtations with relegation, while Speed attempts to knife and fork a side together comprising of what he's got and another loanee or two (despite the clubs statement of avoiding the exact same just amonth or so ago!).

Don't suppose we'll ever know just how close Speed came to aquiring that 'bit of pace up front' he was on about, but it didn't happen and perhaps we'll find out just how costly that could be, both for the club and him personally this season.

Personally, I would have liked to see at least another full back, a more creative midfielder (Tonge was reportedly up for grabs)and there must be at least one young fast forward out there for a million quid or so? I've totally given up on our scouting system, they've unearthed zero over the last few years, I'd hoped that Speed's contacts in the upper echilons might have attracted some Prem reserve - but nothing.

Ho-hum.

Disappointing yes, disastrous I'm not sure. Below is what Speed said in the Star - exactly the same as what Blackwell said so obviously that message is coming from above. Agree 100% about the scouting system although we do seem to be attracting some good local talent to the academy...

http://www.thestar.co.uk/sportheadlines/Speed-won39t-be-rushed.6505870.jp

"I'm not going to bring someone in here if I'm not completely sure that they're the right man for the job," said Speed. "The time between me taking over and the closure of the window has been very short. It's meant that, in most cases, there's not been enough opportunity to do the homework that I'd like. There are going to be other opportunities to bring people in so I'm not in a panic about things. Far from it. All I want to do is be as thorough as I possibly can. What I'm definitely not going to be doing is bringing someone in here having not looked at them properly and then realise that things aren't quite going to work out how we thought. That would be a complete waste of money and I'm not going to gamble with ours like that."

United will now switch their attention to the loan market which re-opens shortly. Speed has made no attempt to disguise the fact that he believes new rules governing the size and composition of Premier League squads could open-up a wealth of exciting avenues for teams in the npower Championship to explore.

"I've got one or two people in mind," he added. "There's a couple that I'm looking at. When you bring someone in on loan then there are often different things to consider than when you are doing a permanent deal. I'm hopeful we'll be able to get something sorted-out then."

1. The 2 new full backs last saturday made an enormous difference. Blackie lined these two up and you have to say we would not have lost 0-3 to Warnock had these two played.

2.We have a good goalie and had he played all of last season then we would have made the play offs.

3 So not too bad, we are in with a shout of top six.

4 BUT..... we have no cover if goalie or full backs get injured.

5 Hendo is rubbish, I hoped Warnock would take him but he has gone for Hulse.

6 Playing Britton behind the other two mid -fielders worked well, Monty will have to adjust slightly.

7 Quite interesting that we are involved with Syria. Using the coaching manual developed by Blackie. Will Syria have money to offer the club?

8 It would be nice if Chairman was able to tell us more of what is happening.

9 Anybody got shares in the club?

UTB

Perhaps the club are waiting for the investment from Malaysia if it comes they can afford a better type player on loan than what was available to sign on a permanent basis.

http://www.thestar.co.uk/blades/Blades-await-outcome-of-Malaysia.6505832.jp

I wouldn't want you alongside me in the trenches!

(It's all to play for)

Don't worry, you wouldn't have found me in the trenches - that was another lost cause.

Except that we won...eventually and after much, much pain.

AD 247, Christian prophets declare that the persecutions by the Romans are a sign of the impending return of Jesus.

AD 300 Lactantius Firmianus (AD c260 - AD c340), called the "Christian Cicero", from his Divinae Institutiones: "The fall and ruin of the world will soon take place, but it seems that nothing of the kind is to be feared as the city of Rome stands intact." Rome would fall in AD 410. --TEOTW pg 27

AD 365, Hilary of Poitiers predicted the world would end in 365.

AD 380, The Donatists, a North African Christian sect, predicted the world would end in 380.

AD 387 St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, identified the Goths with Ezekial's Gog. The Goths had just destroyed the Imperial army at Adrianople, prompting Ambrose to say, "...the end of the world is coming upon us." --TEOTW pg 27

AD 300 St. Martin, Bishop of Tours: "Non est dubium, quin antichristus...There is no doubt that the Antichrist has already been born. Firmly established already in his early years, he will, after reaching maturity, achieve supreme power." --TEOTW pg 27

AD 410 When Rome was sacked, some proclaimed, (as reported by St. Augustine of Hippo) "Behold, from Adam all the years have passed, and behold, the 6,000 years are completed." This alludes to the Great Week theory, held by many millennialists, that the God-alloted time of man on earth was 6,000 years, to be followed by a thousand years of peace under the earthly reign of Christ. --TIME pg 30

AD 500 At the mid-fifth century, Vandal invasions recalled calculations that the world would end in the year 500, 6000 years after Creation, and spurred new calculations to show that the name of the Vandal king Genseric represented 666: the number of the Beast. --Apoc pg 34

AD 500 Hippolytus of Rome, a third-century theologian supported the oft-accepted (for the day) view of the end of the world occuring sometime around the year AD 500. He used a mass of scriptural evidence, including the dimensions of the ark of the covenant. --TIME pg 31

AD 500 Roman theologian Sextus Julius Africanus (ca. 160-240) predicted the second coming of Jesus in the year 500.

AD 500 The theologian Irenaeus predicted the second coming of Jesus in the year 500.

AD 590 Bishop Gregory of Tours, who died in AD 594, calculated the Time of the End for sometime between 799 and 806. --Apoc pg 48


..... 1889 to present day. Predictions of the end of SUFC, on a regular basis, gathering pace when the interweb came on-line.

It is one of the strange things about humans that we are over-occupied with tales of armageddon, or the relegation of our football team, whichever. The fact that they are wrong is lost in the hysteria of the next prediction. The negative is always stronger than the positive...

To be fair Dunc, none of the predictions over the last 2000 or so years you have mentioned would be a serious as the Blades getting relegated or Robson being re-appointed.

To quote Bill Shankley ( I think ).

"Football isn't life or death, it's much more important than that".

Maybe religion is one our side though.

I think that Speed could look a bit like Jesus if he wore sandels/a bit of cloth/and let his hair/beard grow.

Maybe it's an omen and we will now take the division by a biblical storm? Although I'm not sure which one of the disciples Sam Ellis looks like.

UTB

Reading Blade

I have to agree Duncs. The other forum is becoming such a gloomy place that I rarely go there any more. Yesterday some guy was saying this is as low as it's ever been for Blades supporters! Thankfully there were plenty of people ready to remind him that it has been a lot worse. Brought back some wonderful memories ;)

Blades 7, Ipswich 0. A prediction you ask? No a fact I say. Our right back scored, nearly everybody scored. It was one of thos days in 1971. Woodward, Currie, Salmons, Deardon, Reece---those were the days
UTB

:) i was but a glint in mi old man's eye in '71. Plenty of other great memories though.

Yes happy memories Bedford.It was the first match I ever took my daughter to,she was 7 at the time.I think we can say she was very lucky and watched the Blades at their very ,very best.I seem to recall we were 4-0 up at half time and I reckon but am not sure,that Woody went on to score 4 of the 7.

UTB.

I think we just lost at a slower rate than the opposition. That is what happens in a war of attrition.
Take a look at Germany now, better lifestyle, higher standard of living, lower cost of living, better health care, superior public transport, more disposable income - help me here, I'm struggling to see just what we 'won'!

What did we win? We won the war, otherwise you would be a german, no more sheffield accent, no more greasie chip butties---it would be frankfurters and other germanic sausages, Munich bier festival and no more stones best bitter.

Oh, I see.

Just let me try and come to terms with all those things I would loose, whilst doing a comparison to my earlier list of 'gains' -

Mmmm.m.m.m - bit of a toughie that.

Tell you what, I'll just go and try on that new leider-hosen I left lying around upstairs.

Where's Pervy Blade when you need him :)

Don't forget that it is a lot cheaper to watch a game in the Bundesliga.
Another 'gain'.

And a lot less fun. I've watched 2 live and the second we walked out of at half-time (Herta Berlin vs Stuttgart) it was that bad. I agree that Germany is a great place though and I've had some great times there. They really seem to have got the social economic model right. The Euro would have been ditched and the EU disbanded a long time ago if it wasn't for them. No, when I'm feeling really down, when things hit rock bottom, I just thank my lucky stars I wasn't born a Frenchman...

What was the original discussion of this thread? ;)

I think you'll find that their sacrifice (and that of the soliders in the 2nd World War allows you the FREEDOM to post on internet message boards about what you don't like about the Country you live in or the football team you support without being dragged off and shot or sentanced to many years hard labour.

Just a thought.

It was a "win" but at a terrible cost of life.

Reading Blade

A good post Reading, which brings this thread back to the reality of war and its aftermath.

Grantham Blade