Martin Smith column: Let's make John a Sheffield star

He's been taking money from football fans for more than 20 years - and they love it.
So farewell then, Thomas Christiansen.So farewell then, Thomas Christiansen.
So farewell then, Thomas Christiansen.

Owls, Blades, Rangers fans and everyone in Sheffield know him as the mad man with the pram.

John Burkhill, is 79 and £750,000 towards the £1m target for Macmillan care he set after losing wife June and daughter Karen to the disease. Now there is a petition to get him a star on the pavement in Sheffield Town Hall’s walk of fame.

John at RangersJohn at Rangers
John at Rangers

June died within a year of Karen in 1992.

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“Sometimes when I’m pushing the pram I think of Karen and imagine her as a baby in the pram and I just have to keep going” John once said.

Does a man like John deserve to be honoured alongside Jessica Ennis, Michael Vaughan and Michael Palin?

Every day of the week, and I’m sure they’d agree. Let’s make it happen.

John at RangersJohn at Rangers
John at Rangers

*Three sent off, six goals conceded between them and one brutally honest Twitter assessment.

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It wasn’t a great weekend for Sheffield against the West Midlands.

Blades fan Gazz Snowden summed it up with: ‘Look let’s be rate, Wolves are a playboy girl and us Blades are the undateables.’

And Wednesday are in the same bracket with an even worse result against bounce-back Birmingham.

Money isn’t everything as Chris Wilder has proved at Bramall Lane.

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But it makes the difference when spent properly, and without it’s difficult for clubs to reach the so-called ‘next level.’

*Meanwhile Leeds United have sacked manager Thomas Christiansen - their 10th since Neil Warnock left in 2013.

Voted as the most hated team in a poll last year some will wonder about karma.

Anyone who remembers Don Revie’s team of the 60s/70s will recall a relentlessly brilliant machine, and one hated for its cynical brutality.

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Ask 20-something football fans from anywhere but West Yorkshire what they think of Leeds today and you still get ‘dirty Leeds’ as first response.

They haven’t really been dirty Leeds since 1974 when Brian Clough told them to throw their League Champions medals in the bin.

Fair? Probably not.

Understandable? Absolutely.