Baron99

That sound you can hear is many lawyers rubbing their hands. Aren't UEFA now simply reaping what they originally sowed by creating a super league in the first place, pandering to the main European clubs, both increasing the clubs' revenue & that of UEFA itself by moving from a straight knock out competition to one based on leagues & now UEFA are looking to add more clubs by the sound of things & generate more income. UEFA, now their cushy number is being challenged & they don't like it as the golden egg, laying geese are deciding to sit on more profitable, new owner's nests? Personally however, any of the top English clubs that sign up for such a move, I'd kick out of the league & all domestic competitions. The clubs were / are happy to sign up to the Premiership's rules & regulations and take the subsequent tv money the Premiership has negotiated on their behalf for years.

Well based on the following, the Blades picked up £132 million when finishing 9th in the Premiership last season & will be receiving in the region of £40 million in parachute payments. Presumably the £40 million is spread over 3 years? https://www.planetfootball.com/quick-reads/club-by-club-a-breakdown-of-the-2019-20-premier-league-prize-money/ https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/may/05/efl-chief-parachute-payments-evil-eradicated-football Hope we don't squander it.

My bold. I doubt you'd ever get consensus amongst clubs. The rewards for success are too great & as we know, clubs & their accountants & lawyers are smart when it comes to circumventing rules & regulations & they'd do it all they could to keep a good player. A player takes a 50% wage cut, all of a sudden, a sponsor agrees to sponsor thier shirt for £50,000 week or the club pays similar in a win bonus.

To be honest, I've never agreed with parachute payments but I'm not in charge. If you look at the likes of Norwich, promoted to the Premiership for the fifth time, they must be one of the richest clubs going, despite being a yo-yo club. I agree, players should take a hit in their wages as they are ultimately the ones who are responsible for the division / the league position they find themselves in each May but I don't think the Players' Union would go for that one in a hurry?

BBC Sports has finally caught up. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56794673

Wasn't this always the cards? https://news.sky.com/story/european-super-league-plans-set-to-be-announced-six-english-teams-involved-sky-news-understands-12279432 Apparently England's big clubs have already signed up, as have the likes of Barcelona. It puts them at odds with those running the Premier League & the current rules & comes hours before UEFA announces changes to the Champions League format.

I'd like Howe but I certainly wouldn't be disappointed if we got Jokanovic instead. He was rated by Fulham supporters. It might be the case of spending a substantial amount on getting a decent manager & his backroom staff in place at the expense of buying players & using the manager to improve the squad we have at the start of next season & bringing on the youth academy players & the younger fringe squad members? As you say, it looks like a clear put will be on the cards, even if we wanted to keep some of the players, no doubt some will trigger contract clauses anyway. We'll have to take a hit on some of the transfer money we paid out for the likes of McBurnie. I read a couple of weeks back that Villa want him but will only pay in the region of £13 to £14 million. Clearly he / his agent were already thinking of a move with this story doing the rounds with relegation impending & he won't be the only one but we'll be able to save on wages & spend the parachute payments on decent Championship players who might be hungry for a promotion fight? Also read that Berg was attracting the attention of Man City.

Heaven forbid. You're not suggesting that there's some sort of link with India not being on the 'Red list' & the PM's impending visit to India are you? 😀. Hmmmm? Also read yesterday that infection numbers appear to be increasing in Canada as well. I think that 'Red list' does need to be revisited. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56779428 Apparently, the increase in infection in Canada is down to the UK variant in the Ontario area.

Couldn't agree more with your comments. However, I was also thinking about how much money was saved by the tax payer by having a scaled down funeral, (albeit enforced by the Covid restrictions), not having to pay for enhanced security for an additional 800 to 1,000 mourners, disruption to the surrounding area & the inevitable clean up afterwards, especially in the current financial climate. It also spared us the sight of all the false mawkishness of seeing people trying to throw flowers at a passing herse with one hand, while trying to video or selfie themselves with the other to post later on their social media accounts.

Premiership Football & Sheffield - why can't the city sustain a Premiership side? We've both been there, United & Wednesday but both failed to make an impact long term, which seems incredible for a cith the size of Sheffield with two well supported teams. So why can't either team make an impact in the Premiership? Has it / is is mismanagement going back decades? Is it the parochial attitude of only looking to ex-players as a choice for managers or only looking locally to other clubs in the South Yorkshire for managers & players? Think Danny Wilson?

Last week I had a dream that I was a co-presenter on 'March of the Day' but all the football was cancelled so Lineker, Shearer, Wright & myself ended up discussing video games. The consensus was Space Invaders was the best. Alan Hansen, putting in a rare appearance, said he preferred Donkey Kong. Who'd have thought it. Funny for a football programme, nobody picked a football video game or football manager simulation? I wonder what this could have meant?

Sheffield United have equalled their record number of league defeats in a single season (26 - also in 1975-76 and 2010-11), while the Blades have lost 16 Premier League games by a single goal this season, the most one-goal defeats in a single top-flight campaign since Ipswich Town in 1985-86 (also 16). The single goal defeats just sum up the season! Let's face it, we failed to compete & get results against teams such as Newcastle, West Ham, Fulham, Crystal Palace & the like, in the 'mini league', outside the big 5 or 6 clubs. I wrote a few months back, I posted along the lines of no need to worry, 20 games left, the fat lady's not even warming up, let alone singing. Well it appears she couldn't even be bothered to turn up in the end, she lacked the enthusiasm & just sent a CD of her greatest hits in. I'll now try & console myself & convince myself, that we're back in a more exciting league & that in a few months, (hopefully?), I'll be sat in my seat on the Kop at BDTBL in be sunshine. Come August, like every football supporter, come the eternal football optimist. Remember, the highs are only high because the lows are so low. UTB.

An Indian variant has now been discovered. https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-indian-variant-could-scupper-easing-of-uk-coronavirus-lockdown-rules-warns-expert-12277830

Went for personal reasons, apparently. Club statement; https://www.sufc.co.uk/news/2021/april/Board-announcement/

If we call people from Poland, Poles, why aren't people from Holland called Holes?

Apiary - Pureed gorilla (tastes like chicken, apparently).

My bold. Well, I too will be voting for committee system.

And health matters, including Wales NHS, issuing of contracts etc, have been devolved to the Welsh Assembly & nothing to do with Westminster. The Welsh Assembly has been run by the majority Welsh LABOUR Party since its inception & they are the ones who ultimately agree contracts. You might have also missed the news that Matt Hancock declared his interest & has been cleared of any wrongdoing. Perhaps he somehow put pressure on Welsh majority Labour members? Now that would be a story.

My bold. The buses that generally serve the south side of the city, which used to have stops in the High St, Leopold St, Peace Gardens, (as you state, with proper bus shelters, etc), such as the 75; 76; 97; 98 and all the 80's, now have to stand on Arundel Gate, just after the O2 building with no coverings or bus information. This has been like this since around June last year, plenty of time to provide such facilities. Hardly conducive to the customer experience. In the meantime, on the other side of Arundel Gate, where the pavement ls were already a good 20 feet wide, whoever is responsible, has seen fit to basically remove one lane by adding red & white ballads & extend the pavement out into the road at most stops to meet buses at their stops. Great idea, except when one bus pulls up, meaning that a second bus, trying to pulling into the stop after, then has to wait along with impatient passengers behind the first bus, because the driver can't let passengers off due to the ballads blocking their exit. Brilliant thought out planning all round. In one fell swoop, managed to inconvenience both passengers, buses & add to the traffic congestion problems on Arundel Gate. I can understand that SCC are probably, purposely trying to discourage the motorist from driving through the city centre but to also seemingly wanting to discourage public transport operators & the vast majority of Sheffield citizens who rely on buses to get them to places where they actually want to be & on time, seems perverse?

Also nearby on Abbeydale Road there's also the Barrowboy & Two Thirds Beer Co with outside seating. Further down Abbeydale Road, there's also the Dead Donkey Bar with limited seats outside, near Bragazzi's.

Well could the local Labour Party claim to be 'green' after the Amey tree felling debacle; having to admit their mistakes etc; misleading the electorate, etc? Lying in layman's terms. I don't think so. So there's one difference. https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politics/watchdog-satisfied-sheffield-councils-response-damning-tree-felling-report-3120795

My bold. A salary considered by some, doesn't even have to be in be in a good white collar job. Listening to a discussion this morning on the radio, regarding the cancellation & re-employment on new contracts of gas engineers by British Gas has been revealed that even under the new contracts, experienced engineers will earn a basic of £40,000 per annum. Many mid level IT jobs these days will attract a similar level of salary & a recent graduate to one of the big law or accountancy firms would probably see a starting salary of £30k to £35k. Not bad for someone in their mid twenties. Of course, what links all the above salaries are that the jobs will be filled by applicants who have sacrificed a deal in the short-term by undertaking a considerable amount education in order to obtain the qualifications required to enter employment at such levels. Something probably not appreciated by some, who probably think these jobs have been handed to them on a plate. And yes, the majority entering such jobs & receiving such salaries WON'T have been born with silver spoons in their mouths.

Abbeydale Cinema are advertising a pop-up bar.

The recently closed off roads / pedestrianised bits like the end of Surrey St & Norfolk Row wouldn't look half so bad if ornate gates were used to stop vehicle access rather than those ugly concrete blocks but I suppose they're also to protect the pedestrians from terrorist vehicle attack? It's a shame that wedding parties are now unable to pull up outside the main Town Hall entrance. I suppose that the concrete blocks on Surrey St would only be lifted for the likes of a Royal visit?

Surely you mean 'Alliance' not 'Allience'?