Is it only me who doesn't give a shiny one if we don't go up?

Definitely want to go up, who doesn’t want to see some of the best players that football has to offer grace Oakwell every other week... should imagine the opposition will bring some decent laikers too.. On a more serious note, one of the abiding memories of the premiership season was that there seemed to be a bit more trouble in and around tarn both before and after matches...not something I’d enjoy seeing again I’m afraid.

 

Destiny in our own hands.

 

Want to see us make the playoffs.

Will be us vs 3 very good teams.

We would have a decent chance & we'd take each game as it comes. Will have been the best season since '99 whatever happens. That is a real achievement.

 

Also a better report due to it being on MOTD. Also a potful of money too.

 

Other than VAR it would be mint. Also, football is a business. £7m or £160m budget for next season?

 

My view entirely. It would be worth it though, just for the sense of achievement and the chance to bloody a few big boy's noses.

 

I do not think the owners will waste the huge amount of funds that we would receive from a season on PL and the parachute payments should we come down again.

I doubt they would spend silly millions on prove premiership players but do their fishing for relatively unnoticed talent as in the past but at a higher level.

Even if we come down after just one season we would come down as a very effective powerhouse in the Championship.

I cannot see our owners squandering the financial benefit of even just one season in the PL. We would be able to then be financially competitive in the championship and not a team with the smallest budget.

All to rhe good. We can all enjoy the time at the top while it lasts knowing that should we return to the Championship we have advanced significantly from where we are now.

 

Some would be happy to go up and get hammered every week ... show me a happy Sheffield United fan this year

 

On the flip side though, I'd say they were pretty happy last season.

 

Sheffield utd two seasons ago

 

From lockdown onwards?

 

Pro's

Financial security (if done the right way)
Higher level/quality players in a reds shirt
Feel good factor for the town
Chance to develop the ground and other facilities
Full ground every home game

Con's

Looked down on by majority of the media
Expected to be bottom of the league all season.
Have to break our wage structure to bring in better players
Too much too soon (see Derby County 2008)

 

They finished top half.

I'd say yes on the whole.

 

I agree with Whitey, that at the start of the season, nobody would have had us down to challenge for getting out of this division at the opposite end to which we've been used to of late. The players and Ismael have done amazingly well and they deserve credit for doing so. Just because I don't personally like our style doesn't mean I can't recognise how incredible the coach and players have turned round a team that under Struber most thought would struggle to get 30 points over a season.

But i also agree with others that say its likely to be a one shot opportunity. The football since covid has been odd in so many ways, and that oddness has massively benefitted us. From Wigans demise, the lack of fan criticism in grounds to a struggling very young team and ultimate unlikely survival, to what we're seeing now in terms of league position.

Progress of a club isn't always linear, so if we didn't go up, there are no guarantees we'd have the same base to improve on and if the transfer market at Championship level had more certainty, I definitely see 2, 3 or 4 players leaving, ones we'd rather not see leave.

But as for the PL itself. I didn't miss a game the last time we were there, and in travelling everywhere there were a mixture of feelings much of the time. Many fans of other teams treated us well early doors, until we started to win and look like we could give it a go, and there were some nastier exchanges between fans which i've rarely seem. Liverpool and Everton away. Newcastle, West Ham, Chelsea. Not what you read on the glossy PL brochure.

Being able to watch some of the best players on the planet though was amazing. Being able to watch Dennis Bergkamp was a joy, even if he did keep hitting Watsons top corner! Zola, another. Ginola. But what did surprise me was that in the flesh, many of those star players were just blatant cheats playing easily influenced star struck referees who lacked any class whatsoever.

Michael Owen, Dion Dublin, Alan Shearer, Paul Scholes, Steve McManaman, Paul Ince and the list could go on.

I started that season watching the PL flag waving above the West Stand on a bright sunny day, watching the PL badges on the sleeves with pride I've never felt since. It was an incredible moment. If there is a Barnsley fan who has never experienced that moment, for them, I very much hope we can get back there because it was the pinnacle for this club of ours and it was indescribable, even moreso than when Marcelle made that moment possible.

But what followed was bitter sweet. What worries me more is that cheating and diving are much worse than they were back then.

I'm glad we got there. If the opportunity beckons, you have to take it because of the vulgar riches it can provide (even if temporarily) as long as you manage them well, but in terms of the experience week in week out, I'd rather pass.

 

Ones I knew saw this as start of slippery slope - ones I know would say no

 

Sheff Utd fans weren't happy with a top half finish in the Prem last season?

Then they're daft as a brush.

Yes they were rhubarb after lockdown mainly, but from where they finished to what they'd spent and where they'd come from?

 

I hate the Prem but god I want us to make it! Don't remember the last time.

 

With their form since lockdown - no. Lot felt they had been found our and this season was an inevitably I don't find losing week in week out enjoyable as a fan

 

Spot on for what I wrote anyways.

 

You genuinely believe fellow reds fans would be pissed off if we were promoted? Bizarre viewpoint.