That was the general response from Unitedites around five years ago when Blades chairman Kevin McCabe announced plans for a hotel, conference centres, new stands and all the bells and whistles that good intentions offer.

Die hard Blades rolled their eyes at the audacity of the proposals recalling the ghosts of chairmen past and their pie-in-the-sky promises.

They were cynical because their club had made them that way. But the plans were submitted and accepted..

They built it and we came.

In the next few weeks there will be more multi-million pound developments announced for the ground.There'll be no cynicism this time.

As sure as Wembley is Wembley, United will build their new projects and their ground will become bigger and better and more modern whether they get promoted on Monday or not. Are you watching Wednesday?

Speaking of which... Blades fan Richard Holmes was among one or two swiftly into my ribs after criticism last week of the Blades fans for not filling Bramall Lane for the play-off semi-final against Preston.

He had his say, we exchanged polite-ish emails and agreed to differ.

Fair enough.

But I still say Wednesday would have got more for a one-off game like that.

Anyway, Richard came up with an excellent idea.

If we have to have play-offs why not reward the teams that finish higher by having the sixth placed team play fifth, the winners play fourth and the winners of that play third in a final? Works for me.


Many Unitedites aren't keen on the play-offs. But strangely enough United won their first ever place in the original first division via a play-off (or 'Test Match' as they were called then) by beating Accrington Stanley 1-0 at Nottingham with a wonder goal from Jack Drummond on April 22 1893.

Not a lot of people know that. Actually they do. It was in the United programme for the Preston Play-off game.


World Cup 2018 in Sheffield? People still talk about Hillsborough's games in 1966 and Euro 96 and to have both grounds involved would be a fitting salute to the city that gave the world the modern game.

Got a view? Add your comment below.



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