James Shield: If you join Sheffield United, you should know your history
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The same, I feel compelled to remind here before someone deliberately decides to make mischief, goes for those who support others too. Be they behemoths like Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea. Or non-league institutions such as Stocksbridge Park Steels, Scarborough, Hallam and St Albans. It’s why people who argue their team is bigger - and presumably better - than, let’s say, a local rival are talking complete and utter nonsense. Because whoever you’re a fan of, they’re the most important side on Earth. Size, in this instance, really doesn’t count.
Still, seeing as this is a column dedicated to United, I’m going to focus on them. Specifically an idea I’ve come up with I think Bramall Lane’s powers-that-be should adopt. Something which might, providing it’s properly presented and implemented, would help players feel the same way about the side they represent as those who make sacrifices to help them succeed.
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Hide AdAs manager Paul Heckingbottom details in The Star today, ahead of his squad’s visit to Stoke City this afternoon, owners, investors, footballers and folk on the terraces don’t always view the game through the same lens. Change is inevitable. But not all change is good, particularly when it is being encouraged by those we suspect would quite like to scrap supposedly quaint, commercially stupid notions such as promotion and relegation. Concepts such as a European Super League, which was floated yet again by Real Madrid’s president last week, are the thin end of the wedge.
“Football is sick,” Florentino Perez told Los Blancos’ annual general meeting on Sunday, as a court prepares to decide if UEFA’s attempts to block the ESL was unlawful. “It’s losing its leadership as a global sport.”
History, no matter what vested commercial interests will tell you, is important. So when someone signs for United, either to perform on the pitch or help those who do, they should be handed a dossier detailing the story of the great institution they have just joined. Realising they will be working at the oldest professional stadium still operating in the world, one which staged the first ever floodlit game and has also played host to FA Cup semi-finals and Test cricket would, surely, fill them with a great sense of pride. The same, given modern society’s bizarre assumption that cash equates to prestige, to read about United’s four FA Cup wins, the exploits of legends such as Joe Shaw, Tony Currie, Ernest Needham and others. Not forgetting, of course, more recent alumni such as Kyle Walker, Phil Jagielka and Harry Maguire.
Being reminded they are part of a remarkable story, stretching back nearly 134 years and which is set in the very city which gave birth to the modern game, might not improve United’s already encouraging results. Heckingbottom’s charges travel to Staffordshire ranked first in the Championship. But it would provide an even greater sense of belonging and place; two qualities which, assuming finance isn’t their only motivation, would make United’s squad even more formidable. And being a member of it, more than just a job.