View From The Opposition - Sheffield United
Vinny 3:50 Mon Aug 25

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View From The Opposition - Sheffield United


After years of avoiding each other the League Cup has given us the game we wanted to see with Sheffield United standing in the way of our progression to the next round.

Anything to do with form, divisions, or cup runs have gone out the window and this is a real grudge match with no West Ham fan forgetting the campaign Sheffield United waged against our club.

Two Sheffield United supporters have kindly agreed to answer the questions and as usual all questions have come from members of WHO.

The two fans we have are Chris Edge and Ryan Mosforth.


What were your first thoughts when you saw the draw for this game?

Chris: Sh*t this is could be a bit tasty!  It had to happen some time and part of me is a little bit glad it's come in a lower key match that way hopefully if both sets of fans embarrass themselves, it may go a little unnoticed than in a higher key game.

Ryan: About time! I think both sets of fans have been waiting for this game for a while ever since the 'Tevez' affair.

Do you deliberately misunderstand what happened with Tevez?

Chris: No, I don't think so.  Very much like the Gaza question, depending on which side of the line you are standing, you will always have differing opinions.  My understanding is that the Premier League is a big circus worth billions of pounds.  However, to take part in it you have to sign up to certain rules that you agree to abide by and enter into legal contracts with the league and other members. 

If you break these rules you are subject to sanctions from the league which could be financial or points deductions and also open yourself to litigation in the open court for breach of contract against other members.  That, in black and white is what happened with the Tevez signing.

Ryan: Nothing has been misunderstood. You got found guilty by the FA and given a punishment that we feel wasn't harsh enough!

Ten points clear, sitting pretty with a few games to go in the 'Tevez' season - what on earth happened at your club?

Chris: Looking back I don't think there was that much of an issue with relegation although we were always flirting around it and it's more 'what on earth happened at your club!'  It looked like we were home and hosed at one point especially when we beat you guys at Bramall Lane.

But nobody and I expect not even yourselves saw that end of season run in happening. Wigan on the final day was awful.  It was like the Alamo in the 2nd half as we poured forward but we just seemed destined not to score.  The initial reaction at the end of the match was one of typical Sheffield United - we've managed to balls it up again.

Ryan: Don't get me wrong we shot ourselves in the foot. We should have never let it go down to the last game of the season after being 10 points clear. The biggest factor for me was when we played Villa away with a weekend team the week before thinking we had already survived and lost 3-0. We only got relegated by one goal (goal difference).


Were you pleased at the compensation handed to McCabe, or would you have preferred it to have gone to Sheffield United?

Chris: Mcabe has changed the structure of the club so many times it's difficult to know where the money actually went however there was some sizeable money wasted on 'big name manager' signings that turned out to be useless with Bryan Robson at the top of the list.

As the Premier League team began to get disbanded it was replaced by high earning loanees that parachuted in and out ultimately de-stabalising the club at a time when McCabes property empire was taking a hit so my guess is that a fraction of what could have been spent on the team was actually was with the rest used to finance the debt that the club owed McCabe.

Ryan: Of course to Sheffield United. Still don't feel like this money was invested into the team.

Sheffield United, Wigan and Fulham are now all officially shit. Do you believe in karma? Do you think all three clubs now regret try to bankrupt us?

Chris: In Kevin McCabe, Dave Whelan and Mohammed Al-Fayed, all those clubs have very successful businessmen outside of football at the helm.  All 3 saw what happened with the original FA investigation and the holes that were in it and I'm pretty certain the other two would have followed exactly the same legal process to recover compensation.  

If an opportunity comes your way to spend £1,000,000 on legal fees with your lawyers telling you if you get to trial your almost certain to win as the breach of contract was very clear (and even admitted) taking a 25 fold return on that investment is good business. One thing I do find strange is West Ham's stance at trying to take the moral high ground.  Legally you simply didn't have a leg to stand on and your owners new it, hence the out of court settlement.  Had the roles been reversed don't be in any doubt that Eggert Magnusson would have been onto his lawyers faster than you can say 'failed Icelandic bank'.

Ryan: No I don't. You are the one club who has gained from all this even with paying all that money out. That one season has changed the whole future for our club. I now have to live with the fact that Fleetwood Town are a better side then us ;)

Do you think the public face of your club has been scarred by the events of recent years?

Chris: If your talking Tevez here, I really don't think the club has been scarred by the action it took at all.  I think the investigations and all the subsequent attention actually highlighted how badly the Premier League is run and organised and the accountability they should take in the role of this has never really been investigated.  The only time I ever see anything bad regarding this is via West Ham or Sheffield Wednesday fans which is understandable, but I think the rest of the football community broadly supported United's actions on the Tevez saga.

If you're referring to the Ched Evans publicity then yes, that's a different matter and is real elephant in the room.  Although he has continually protested his innocence and continuing to appeal his sentence, he his however a convicted rapist and that's not something I think the club at this stage of rebuilding should be getting involved with.  If he does manage to clear his name then I would welcome him back but regardless I think someone is going to sign him - thats just the way football seems to be.

Ryan: I think the public had a bad reputation anyway ever since Warnock got the job. I think if this had been the other way round your fans would have done the same as would any other club. I think the majority of the fans like the fact we are not liked.


Seeing as your club appears quite staunch regarding morality in football, do you feel any shame at all for Chris Morgan's disgusting assault on Iain Hume?

Chris: I'm not sure Sheffield United see themselves as being the moral backbone of the football community although I can obviously understand why West Ham fans think they do.

Chris Morgans 'tackle' on Iain Hume probably was, on reflection, a little bit on the naughty side but these things do happen and unless your whiter than white, it's a strange accusation that the entire club should feel 'shame'.  Do some of Julian Dicks 'tackles' still shamefully keep you awake at night?

Ryan: Chris Morgan is a great guy and a legend. That's my only comment.

What's the Brammal Lane atmosphere like when you play, say, Crawley Town?

Chris: Not too bad really.  We still have a very loyal support despite the division we are in and still average around the 18,000.  It's even better when you go away and rack up the new grounds visited, the real silver lining of relegation!

Ryan: That is the worse thing about being in this league. At least when you are in the Championship the club's bring a few thousand away fans. To go from 30k in Prem to 18/19k now, it's like supporting a different club! This league is so s*it but then so hard to get out of!

Your favourite crisp

Chris: I've been flirting with kettle chips recently but that's not a very northern thing to say.  You can't go too far wrong with a decent packet of ready salted.

Ryan: Best question of them all....got to be Flame Grilled Steak McCoys.

Prediction for the game

Chris: 3-0 West Ham. This season I think we're concentrating on the big cups and they don't come much bigger than the Johnstons Paint!!

Ryan: West Ham 3 - 0 Sheffield United (We haven't played well yet this year)



Many thanks to Chris and Ryan for their answers.

Irish Hammer 4:25 Thu Aug 28
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

No he wasn't

He was playing for Derby

Balto 1:52 Thu Aug 28
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

During this period a player for Sheffield United was none other than Paolo Pasquale Peschisolido, commonly known as Paul Peschisolido who is the husband of our very own Karren Brady. Interesting pillow talk.

One Flew 5:40 Tue Aug 26
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

I like this comment from the official site today

...As Chairmen of the Club we would ask that those passions are channelled in the right way and we show our class as a Club. As far as we are concerned, the whole unsavoury episode is in the past as it involved different managers and different players and in our case, different Chairmen....

So there is only one unsavoury element left, McCabe

Also I'm a bit confused Vinny on the meaning of WDTWSDSYP , what does it mean?

Texas Iron 5:37 Tue Aug 26
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

Stain...

So please tell us who the "main players " are...

The Human Stain 5:31 Tue Aug 26
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

Tex,

as with most things you are well wide of the mark. Of the main culprets you have one out of three. However the main players are nowhere in your list.

13 Brentford Rd 1:35 Tue Aug 26
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

Interestingly that season Bolton managed by BFS finished 7th and Man City finished one place above us in 14th.

Clearly the right team were relegated as even with parachute payments and our money they have sunk like a stone since, whereas we go down and bounce straight back.
He who laughs last...............

alfie romeo 1:25 Tue Aug 26
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

I think they came across very well. Unlike their club which has suffered very much since they were relegated.

Vinny 12:51 Tue Aug 26
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

And that Zamora goal in the 1-0 at home to Everton.

Bobby certainly deserved credit for his goals in that run in.

Vinny 12:49 Tue Aug 26
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

One of most superb results in that run was a 1-0 victory away at Arsenal.

Robert Green put in one of the best goal keeping displays I have seen in my time watching West Ham and Bobby Zamora scored possibly the most underrated goal ever. It was a phenomenal finish.

DukeofDevo 12:45 Tue Aug 26
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

Henry Winter to the list of C###s please.

These findings are what happens when people start theorising about football results. We'd all win the pools if it was possible to accurately predict results.

Tevez didn't keep us up that year the team did.

Academy321 12:11 Tue Aug 26
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

Decent, intelligent answers much to my suprise

I assume these lads have been living down South for a few years?

IlfordArmy 7:41 Tue Aug 26
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

Texas Iron 4:46 Tue Aug 26
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United
My judgment on The Tevez affair...

Biggest Cunts...Joorabchian...Duxbury...McCabe...

Major Cunts...Griffiths...Winter...Warnock...

Minor Cunts...Whelan...Al Fayed...

Have I missed any...???


yeah you missed Texas Iron in biggest cunts

Sey 7:34 Tue Aug 26
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

They have to deal with watching Fleetwood. They forget we've been down and bounced back since all of this. Typical hard done by northerners. Never stop moaning about how other people are better off than them. Cunts!

Texas Iron 4:46 Tue Aug 26
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

My judgment on The Tevez affair...

Biggest Cunts...Joorabchian...Duxbury...McCabe...

Major Cunts...Griffiths...Winter...Warnock...

Minor Cunts...Whelan...Al Fayed...

Have I missed any...???

stomper 3:39 Tue Aug 26
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

Very solid answers on the all important crisps question, tho' he was rightly reticent on the kettle crisps abomination.

les marteaux 2:09 Tue Aug 26
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

The Griffiths tribunal ranks alongside the cases of Ernest Saunders, Timothy Evans Harry Redknapp, Michael Jackson and OJ Simpson as one of the worst examples of a perverse outcome in legal history.

WHU(Exeter) 1:08 Tue Aug 26
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

So there was a weakened team against Aston Villa away, and also a weakened team when they played at Manchester Utd.

And yet Warnock was on about bringing teams to task properly, if they fielded weakened teams?

All they ever wanted was a level playing field, from which they could spout startling hypocrisy.

norwaytips 11:35 Mon Aug 25
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

:-) So they will play their 'weekend' team? Is this, as opposed to their midweek one?
Also, our owners 'new' we never had a leg to stand on?
Shame you never asked them which school they went to.

Iron Duke 9:44 Mon Aug 25
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

Thanks Vinny. Fair play to them for volunteering for this. They actually come out of it looking OK.

But ready salted crisps? The fucking stupid wife beating northern monkey!

David L 9:40 Mon Aug 25
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

Morgan's ice bucket challenge is on YouTube. He's such a whinging thick fucker he really is. He didn't know what to do and then blames the two guys for not pouring it fast enough. Mind you, they did actually say "what do we do?"
the moronic twats

BRANDED 9:36 Mon Aug 25
Re: View From The Opposition - Sheffield United

BTW we'll WHIPPET in from the right to BEAT the MINER league club and have CHIPS at half time and are willing to SHOULDER the blame in knowledge that the BIGGEST CUNTS ON EARTH LOST BITTERLY, just like the MINER STRIKE.

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