Sheffield Wednesday forum

[Dick Knights Mumm]

but at the end of the day, we both support two completely different teams, one that is a potential sleeping giant, one that is simply overachieving currently.

Do not be fooled by the last 10-15 years. We are a bigger club than that period would lead you to believe. We have a catchment area to envy, a new stadium (you will be impressed), and a wealthy Albion-supporting chairman. And I mean wealthy. These are happy days for our club - which is on the up.

Apart from that - fair points.

 

[Silent Bob]

I'd say Sheffield Wednesday are underachieving if anything.

 

[Working class pride]

The long post from the Wednesday fan shows how uch they live in the past. BHA have a bloke that has spent £97 Million in cash on a new ground, sold about 3000 corporate seats for next year and expect to sell the maximum allowed 16/17000 season tickets for next year and the new ground is built to expand to 36000 capacity. Brighton have a catchment area of a 500,000 conurbation and an entire county (the second biggest in England. Wednesday are lucky to get 17000 at home in total these days. Yes Wednesday were / are a big club historically, but bigger than a successful Brighton in the future? Not by much, if at all and lets face it, a half decent foreign footballer looking to play in England and given the choce of Yorkshire or Sussex is going to choose Sussex.

 

[Hunting 784561]

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[Hunting 784561]

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[Tooting Gull]

I don't blame the Wednesday fan (or other fans) for misunderstanding our situation. If it was me, and someone said 'No, really, our club have been artificially held back for 15-20 years, we are so much bigger than what we have been', I'd raise an eyebrow and probably suggest they were just, well, a much smaller club than they thought. It is a very long time to be 'below your natural level'.

Even some of us have had our doubts at times, but genuinely now it is becoming clear that after a very bizarre and challenging set of circumstances Brighton ARE a bigger club than the poxy 3,000 at Gillingham and time at Withdean suggested. I don't expect everyone else to twig that immediately, but they will.

 

[Turkey]

Who care's what they think. Our "blip" is being massivly exagerated by some people - we lost to Hartlepool who have been on a roll recently and climbing the table (won at Huddersfield the other day!), dropped 2pts vs Bristol which was annoying, got a good point at Southampton, an unlucky loss at Huddersfield and a good point with 10 men against Charlton. Team's below us are just latching on to that because they naturally need to cling to some hope that they can catch us.

Facts are, we've played all the best teams away from home and are still 4 points clear. A win on Saturday could put us 7 ahead of them. Getting their nickers in a twist because we find it funny how all of them think they'll obviously over take us. Maybe they will but it's just them clinging to hope that they will improve and sign some good players. I don't think we'd get battered by anyone 5-1 in this league. They've also lost 8 games already. They've got to improve a lot more than we have. Maybe they will but its all just pie in the sky hope at the moment.

 

[JonTheOwl]

It does frustrate me how you immediately assume I'm here to insult your club, at the end of the day. Your fans will think differently from ours, every supporter thinks there team is the best in the world. That is how it goes.

Both Brighton and Wednesday are far too big to be messing around in the tin pot league, I respect every single team in this league. But at the end of the day, we have a 40,000 stadium (granted, we rarely fill it), a chairman that is willing to spend by all accounts, a very good League 1 team, possibly (Note possibly) pushing mid-table Championship currently.

Brighton also, are on the up, a new stadium, your fans assure me you have money to spend, and currently a talented squad. I'm undecided on whether you will go up, same with us. It's touch and go, one of us has to grab the league by the scruff of it's neck and take it to the other team's, so far neither team has done that. We had a chance when we were top, you've had your chance. Neither of us have got significantly ahead, without cocking it up.

I'd love to travel down to Brighton, as it'll be a top game and you know.. It's Brighton. Good luck for the rest of the season, both teams will be up near the top, that's a certainty.

 

[JonTheOwl]

The long post from the Wednesday fan shows how uch they live in the past. BHA have a bloke that has spent £97 Million in cash on a new ground, sold about 3000 corporate seats for next year and expect to sell the maximum allowed 16/17000 season tickets for next year and the new ground is built to expand to 36000 capacity. Brighton have a catchment area of a 500,000 conurbation and an entire county (the second biggest in England. Wednesday are lucky to get 17000 at home in total these days. Yes Wednesday were / are a big club historically, but bigger than a successful Brighton in the future? Not by much, if at all and lets face it, a half decent foreign footballer looking to play in England and given the choce of Yorkshire or Sussex is going to choose Sussex.

*Sigh* I do despair with brain-dead people like you. WE DO NOT LIVE IN THE PAST. Do you know how shit the past 10 years have been as a Wednesday supporter? I believe that the relegation last year was quite possibly the lowest feeling I've ever felt as a Wednesdayite.

There's several points in your comment, that just show that all clubs have idiotic supporters. You appear to be one of them, just because you have a large 'catchment area' does not mean all of them are supporters. Answer me honestly, what percentage support Brighton? Less than 1%?

Sheffield has a population of 500,000. There are two 'big' clubs in the city, both are well known by the whole of England. Ask any person in England whether they'd heard of Wednesday and it'd be a resounding yes. We were the first club to take over 40,000 people to a play-off final.

Also, you have no idea what the future holds for Brighton, no clue what-so-ever. Just because you spent £97 million on a new ground, does not prove you will be a successful club. Believe it or not, we had a grant accepted to extend Hillsborough into a 54,000 seater stadium. It was chosen to be one of the grounds to be used in the world cup if we won it, Brighton were not even considered.

Why would they choose Sussex? Do you not think they'd look towards the capital more? Or further north where more successful teams such as Liverpool or Man Utd reside? Your opinions make no sense.

 

[JonTheOwl]

Do not be fooled by the last 10-15 years. We are a bigger club than that period would lead you to believe. We have a catchment area to envy, a new stadium (you will be impressed), and a wealthy Albion-supporting chairman. And I mean wealthy. These are happy days for our club - which is on the up.

Apart from that - fair points.

Fair enough, but currently you are OVERACHIEVING. We already have all of the resources, now we just need the manager, players and backroom staff to turn us into a top club. You still have a lot to develop.

That's the only point I'm trying to make, I agree with your sentiments completely and believe you will be a big team eventually. But it will take time, whereas we could aim, and possibly achieve the Premier League in 4 years. It's possible, but unlikely.

 

[JonTheOwl]

No you are a giant on a life support machine......we are midgets growing into six-footers

The life-support machine has been taken off with this investment, the giant's awakening.

 

[Captain Haddock]

All reasonable comments (including a number of Wednesday fans being twats - we all have them though)

The only team that any set of fans have much of an idea about is the one they see every week. And there are always going to be a group of fans talking up their chances. We do have an awful lot of fans who are very negative too, incidentally, but they haven't had much to talk about with our enforced break. That, coupled with the fact that the teams around us (you, Charlton, 'Udders, B'mouth etc) are all dropping points which could've seen us tumble down the table has encouraged the more exciteable element.

For what it's worth, despite your defeat at Hillsborough you have been one of the more watchable teams I've seen this season. A lot have come to Hillsborough and shut up shop. Given your excellent start and then more recent "slump" (for want of a better word) I wouldn't be surprised if you have been suffering from opponents setting out their stall to frustrate you.

I wouldn't like to predict the top 6 at the end of the season but it would surprise me if you didn't feature.

Spot on (especially the educated guess in bold above!)

 

[Captain Haddock]

"A draw is obviously best for us. I really don't care for either of these teams for the simple reason their fans are cocky fookers and think they're bigger and better than us."

Ironic comedy genius! ....intended, of course......... Isn't it?!

 

[BRIGHT ON Q]

The life-support machine has been taken off with this investment, the giant's awakening.

Why didn't you just beat Palace last season and we would'nt be having this thread!

 

[Billy the Fish]

*Sigh* I do despair with brain-dead people like you. WE DO NOT LIVE IN THE PAST. Do you know how shit the past 10 years have been as a Wednesday supporter? I believe that the relegation last year was quite possibly the lowest feeling I've ever felt as a Wednesdayite.

There's several points in your comment, that just show that all clubs have idiotic supporters. You appear to be one of them, just because you have a large 'catchment area' does not mean all of them are supporters. Answer me honestly, what percentage support Brighton? Less than 1%?

Sheffield has a population of 500,000. There are two 'big' clubs in the city, both are well known by the whole of England. Ask any person in England whether they'd heard of Wednesday and it'd be a resounding yes. We were the first club to take over 40,000 people to a play-off final.

Also, you have no idea what the future holds for Brighton, no clue what-so-ever. Just because you spent £97 million on a new ground, does not prove you will be a successful club. Believe it or not, we had a grant accepted to extend Hillsborough into a 54,000 seater stadium. It was chosen to be one of the grounds to be used in the world cup if we won it, Brighton were not even considered.

Why would they choose Sussex? Do you not think they'd look towards the capital more? Or further north where more successful teams such as Liverpool or Man Utd reside? Your opinions make no sense.

To be fair most of what you've said makes sense. Given Wednesday's history and stadium anyone would be an idiot to think we're anywhere near as big a club, we're not and as far as I can see nobody's trying to argue that.

We definitely are punching above our weight in terms of resources when you look at the transfer budget and wages of teams like Weds, Stains and Udders, even Poyet has said this in interviews.

I don't think anyone was really offended by that thread on your site, Tooting Gull has it about right - I wouldn't expect any of your lot to know our specific circumstances, why would you?

What I do take issue with is the comment in bold. We've just had 20 years of the worst period in our clubs history. In that time BHAFC has nealry been wound up by the taxman, homeless, asset stripped and 90 minutes from dropping our of the league. I understand that everything is relative and getting relegated out of the top flight for a decade must seem pretty bad for you, but is it really worse than playing your home games in Gillingham? (a bit like you groundsharing with Doncaster)

 

[Foolg]

To be fair most of what you've said makes sense. Given Wednesday's history and stadium anyone would be an idiot to think we're anywhere near as big a club, we're not and as far as I can see nobody's trying to argue that.

We definitely are punching above our weight in terms of resources when you look at the transfer budget and wages of teams like Weds, Stains and Udders, even Poyet has said this in interviews.

I don't think anyone was really offended by that thread on your site, Tooting Gull has it about right - I wouldn't expect any of your lot to know our specific circumstances, why would you?

What I do take issue with is the comment in bold. We've just had 20 years of the worst period in our clubs history. In that time BHAFC has nealry been wound up by the taxman, homeless, asset stripped and 90 minutes from dropping our of the league. I understand that everything is relative and getting relegated out of the top flight for a decade must seem pretty bad for you, but is it really worse than playing your home games in Gillingham? (a bit like you groundsharing with Doncaster)

I agree with all of that, and most of the Wednesday fans post, the bit i cannot concur with is regarding the last ten years. You've spent time in the Championship, hardly hell is it? As BTF says, try playing home games at Gillingham and then being pushed into a crappy athletics track, where you'll be charged £24 for a seat with no roof and awful facilities. Look at the likes of Luton town (fair enough the fans are mostly c*nts), Grimsby, Rotherham and so on. Championship clubs not long ago, not on the same scale as Wednesday, but having been hit with ridiculous points deductions those are the clubs that have had it bad.
You're a bigger club than us, I'm not going to argue with that, who knows with the investment we have coming we may well be pushing for the premier league in the next few years. This club has got a decent history, many people seem to forget the fact we were a top division side for quite a while, FA cup finalists and all that.
What does get to me is the fans on other boards (not a dig at yourself Jon the owl) insisting that we won't last the pace, and that our fans are cocky. It's almost a lack of respect, that because we havent speant like Huddersfield and Stains, we wont be going up in the top 2 because we havent speant enough to do so. As for cocky, I think 99% of people would agree we didnt expect to be 4 points clear come January, not because we didnt believe in Gus, simply because it would've been unrealistic given other teams budgets.
Welcome to NSC, and look forward to playing you in April.

 

[Working class pride]

*Sigh* I do despair with brain-dead people like you. WE DO NOT LIVE IN THE PAST. Do you know how shit the past 10 years have been as a Wednesday supporter? I believe that the relegation last year was quite possibly the lowest feeling I've ever felt as a Wednesdayite.

There's several points in your comment, that just show that all clubs have idiotic supporters. You appear to be one of them, just because you have a large 'catchment area' does not mean all of them are supporters. Answer me honestly, what percentage support Brighton? Less than 1%?

Sheffield has a population of 500,000. There are two 'big' clubs in the city, both are well known by the whole of England. Ask any person in England whether they'd heard of Wednesday and it'd be a resounding yes. We were the first club to take over 40,000 people to a play-off final.

Also, you have no idea what the future holds for Brighton, no clue what-so-ever. Just because you spent £97 million on a new ground, does not prove you will be a successful club. Believe it or not, we had a grant accepted to extend Hillsborough into a 54,000 seater stadium. It was chosen to be one of the grounds to be used in the world cup if we won it, Brighton were not even considered.

Why would they choose Sussex? Do you not think they'd look towards the capital more? Or further north where more successful teams such as Liverpool or Man Utd reside? Your opinions make no sense.

Firstly a wise owl does not shout "moron" when they disagree with someone. Dealing in turn

1. Brighton has a vast support, not 1% of Brighton as you suggest. it streches from Hastings in th east, to Bognor in the west. Brighton in the south, Gatwick/Crawaley in the north. Asking a brighton fan how many fans brighton have in brighton is not quite as silly as asking a chelsea fan how many fans they have in chelsea but there is an anology, because Brighton since the 70s has changed, the same way that Soho, Battersea and areas of London have also changed. But you need to understand the social economic history of the south perhaps to understand this point.
2. Shef Wednesday have not had it rough. Try losing your ground, playing 140 round trip away in the lower two leagues and then at a ground with no roof for 15 years
3. We compete with premier league football in London for support, but that does not change that locally the catchment area for Brighton is the second largest county in england that has a very large urban and country population within it also. Wednesday have Shef U, Rotherham, Barnsley, Doncaster and then Leeds to compete with.
4. Brighton is close to London for attracting players, and has an international feel being called "little London". Its changed since the 60s and is no longer a bedsit, crime ridden place as described in Brighton Rock and Thunderball on the whole, although yes it is still the drugs death capital of the UK
4, Wednesday are a big club, I like Wednesday but dont come on here trying to be superior as frankly mate you have not a clue what you are talking about

 

[dwayne]

Fair enough, but currently you are OVERACHIEVING. We already have all of the resources, now we just need the manager, players and backroom staff to turn us into a top club. You still have a lot to develop.

That's the only point I'm trying to make, I agree with your sentiments completely and believe you will be a big team eventually. But it will take time, whereas we could aim, and possibly achieve the Premier League in 4 years. It's possible, but unlikely.

You seem to be the one that's a little deluded. You're saying that you have the resources? Well what resources are they? A big stadium yes but what do you have that we don't? Do you really think mandaric is in it for the long haul? Mandarics just there to make a quick buck. He'll sell you on like he did with Leicester and Pompey, unstable clubs with uncertain futures.

Where as we have a chairman Who is a lifelong fan travels to games on the train with fans and has pumped more into our stadium than your chairmans NET WORTH.

We have the back room staff in place, a great team that are all in it for each other unlike your overpaid higher league journeymen.

Yep I think we're in a good spot. I'm sure mandaric will bring you some success in the short term future but don't get carried away mate I would much rather be in our position.

 

[gruntage]

I wonder if Wednesday fans are still confident of over turning us?

14 points is quite a gap.. especially when you draw to 9 man Yeovil

 

[eastlondonseagull]

I wonder if Wednesday fans are still confident of over turning us?

14 points is quite a gap.. especially when you draw to 9 man Yeovil

Nine men?!!

I've got family in Sheffield, I quite like the city myself. But Wednesday are a sack of shit.