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Author Topic: Sheffield United  (Read 300891 times)

Offline Jess

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #160 on: February 12, 2011, 11:44:41 AM »
Yep.  At least Crystal Palace lost though, I was worried they would draw level once they pulled one back.

I do love football, and I love cricket.  I used to tag along when my brothers went to the Oval when we were kids. But the reason I try to keep a certain safe distance between myself and any particular football team is that my life has enough peaks and troughs in it as it is without going on a masochistic Sheffield United trip.  I feel myself being increasingly drawn in though!

I lived with a fanatical Millwall supporter for a couple of years when I was 19.  His house was decorated in their colours with a whole wall dedicated to their memorabilia.  Even the mat on the doorstep was a Millwall welcome mat.  Every time they lost you could just write off the weekend. Somewhere out there his wife is probably feeling somewhat relieved as I very much doubt he's changed in that respect.

« Last Edit: February 12, 2011, 11:49:02 AM by Jess »

Offline lighty

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #161 on: February 12, 2011, 07:02:57 PM »
Yep.  At least Crystal Palace lost though, I was worried they would draw level once they pulled one back.

I do love football, and I love cricket.  I used to tag along when my brothers went to the Oval when we were kids. But the reason I try to keep a certain safe distance between myself and any particular football team is that my life has enough peaks and troughs in it as it is without going on a masochistic Sheffield United trip.  I feel myself being increasingly drawn in though!

I lived with a fanatical Millwall supporter for a couple of years when I was 19.  His house was decorated in their colours with a whole wall dedicated to their memorabilia.  Even the mat on the doorstep was a Millwall welcome mat.  Every time they lost you could just write off the weekend. Somewhere out there his wife is probably feeling somewhat relieved as I very much doubt he's changed in that respect.

I have always been a footie fan - I lived in Japan from the time I was 9 until I was 16 (a month shy of that, actually) - most of the schools I attended had a bigger following for their 'soccer' team than their 'football' (eggball) team, so it's not surprising that my sensibilities are not very American in that regard.  I never played the sport myself; I don't recall girls having a team, actually, and my bad knees precluded many athletics anyway . . . but I loved to watch.
When I graduated from high school, my first college had only soccer (and tennis), so my addiction continued - and when I moved to Los Angeles a couple of years later, almost the first thing I did was get a season ticket to the LA Aztecs (the relatively short-lived North American Soccer League; the second or third attempt to start a professional league in the US).  George Best was playing for them then - and Pele was playing for the New York Cosmos.  Yeah, they were older and George was well on his way to a meltdown - but he could still play (and he looked so freaking HOT.  Geeze Louise . . . and those were the days of the skin tight short shorts, too . . . oh, the memories . . .)

I still remember sitting front and center, behind the benches at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and watching them play.  There weren't many supporters so you could pretty much pick and choose your seat - and the guys were so appreciative that you felt like you knew them all.  George was funny - when he scored (or assisted) - he'd turn to the crowd with a big grin on his face and make a silly little bow before racing off again.

Anyway (as I wander aimlessly down memory lane) - I spent a lot of years reading about footie in the English newspapers, but I don't think I saw a match for years, except for the occasional World Cup performance.  US telly wasn't interested, really.  The internet and satellite tv has opened up that world, though, and made it worthwhile to adopt a club again.  I do watch MLS (American league) footie and more or less support a couple of clubs - the LA Galaxy and the Chicago Fire - but I prefer English league football (in a pinch I'll watch the Italians or the Germans or the Spanish or the South Americans . . . but that's just watching because I enjoy it, not supporting).

I adopted the Blades because of Sean - I admit that - but that only had meaning for the first season I supported them.  After that, the decision had to be mine alone, based on the club - and they stole my heart.  So, up - down - winning - losing . . . doesn't matter.  I'm a Blade because they made me one and if Sean decided tomorrow to support another club it wouldn't change my mind.

Foolish, I know - but you know what Pascal said -le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point.  It is what it is!  Up the Blades!

Offline Jess

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #162 on: February 12, 2011, 08:29:37 PM »
I don't think it's foolish.  I don't think it matters how you discover a passion in life.

I'm really into my music and seeing live bands.  My favourite band - I got into them because of my ex.  On the eve of my first solo trip around the world, he gave me their album as a gift and put it on my ipod and when I was travelling I used to listen to it and think of him.  

Then I got really into the band, became a bigger fan than him, met the band, got a chance to see them at a few intimate gigs, and now I try and see them whenever they are playing anywhere I can realistically get to.  I once saw them play 3 times in 3 days in different areas of the country and I've travelled to different countries to see them which is foolish because gigs do get cancelled.

He and I split and now I barely remember that I originally discovered them because of him - it's become a love affair with their music as opposed to a love affair with him.

It's good to have passion in your life for something - it's what keeps us young.

Offline lighty

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #163 on: February 12, 2011, 11:27:20 PM »
I don't think it's foolish.  I don't think it matters how you discover a passion in life.

I'm really into my music and seeing live bands.  My favourite band - I got into them because of my ex.  On the eve of my first solo trip around the world, he gave me their album as a gift and put it on my ipod and when I was travelling I used to listen to it and think of him.  

Then I got really into the band, became a bigger fan than him, met the band, got a chance to see them at a few intimate gigs, and now I try and see them whenever they are playing anywhere I can realistically get to.  I once saw them play 3 times in 3 days in different areas of the country and I've travelled to different countries to see them which is foolish because gigs do get cancelled.

He and I split and now I barely remember that I originally discovered them because of him - it's become a love affair with their music as opposed to a love affair with him.

It's good to have passion in your life for something - it's what keeps us young.

Oh, I agree - I have many passions (too many, probably!)  I don't think I ever developed such an affection for a particular musical group, though when I was younger I had favourites that I would make an effort to see (Dan Fogelberg was one - he passed away a couple of years ago.  Too young.  Heartbreaking). 

Our interests do keep us young - or at least feeling younger . . . until our back goes out, our shoulders seize up or our knees revolt at kneeling (I've been gardening and plastering the kitchen walls today - pretty stiff at the moment.  But it was a very relaxing day for all that).

Listening (or watching) to a footie match is pure fun without the muscle aches.  At least my muscles! :)

Offline Jess

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #164 on: February 13, 2011, 12:21:50 AM »
:) Maybe not young in the physical sense, but I know people who seem old beyond their years, mostly because they have no passion for anything.  

It’s a bit hard to describe but this band became important to me at a really key period in my life. So I’ve been listening to their music on some of the best and the worst days of my life. Certain songs have very powerful associations. And when you’ve met the people involved and talked to them, it’s different.

Plus, after a period of time, you can go to a gig, even a very big venue, look across the audience and you see all the usual suspects there at the front, people you’ve come to know.  So it’s like sharing an experience with friends.  I hasten to add here that they’re not a cheesy pop band!

It must be fairly similar with football.  Memories, associations and shared experiences.

Another of my ex-boyfriends accidentally got me into dog rescue, which is one of the defining passions of my life and will be when I’m 90 years old, whether I’ve got muscle aches or not.  There's so much suffering and death I see every day which makes me feel powerless and angry. Although by that age, my contribution would probably be limited to writing rude letters to newspapers and signing my will to leave my house to the dogs home!
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 12:24:06 AM by Jess »

Offline lighty

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #165 on: February 13, 2011, 11:28:41 AM »
:) Maybe not young in the physical sense, but I know people who seem old beyond their years, mostly because they have no passion for anything.  

It’s a bit hard to describe but this band became important to me at a really key period in my life. So I’ve been listening to their music on some of the best and the worst days of my life. Certain songs have very powerful associations. And when you’ve met the people involved and talked to them, it’s different.

Plus, after a period of time, you can go to a gig, even a very big venue, look across the audience and you see all the usual suspects there at the front, people you’ve come to know.  So it’s like sharing an experience with friends.  I hasten to add here that they’re not a cheesy pop band!

It must be fairly similar with football.  Memories, associations and shared experiences.

Another of my ex-boyfriends accidentally got me into dog rescue, which is one of the defining passions of my life and will be when I’m 90 years old, whether I’ve got muscle aches or not.  There's so much suffering and death I see every day which makes me feel powerless and angry. Although by that age, my contribution would probably be limited to writing rude letters to newspapers and signing my will to leave my house to the dogs home!


Wouldn't matter if they were a cheesy pop band, Jess (see your own comment to me on that point) !

I think you're right about how we are drawn to certain things by memories, associations, and shared experiences.  Growing up as an Air Force brat, I don't have the 'this is my hometown' 'here is the house where I grew up' 'this is friend I've known since I was four' type of thing - being a global nomad doesn't lend itself to establishing permanence.  So memories and associations are my alternative, since I lack the concrete reality of home and place.

Shifting topic just a hair . . .
Sean has a reputation for being able (and apparently willing) to turn his back on people and things abruptly and permanently - a 'one strike and you're out' attitude in a fashion.  I find it rather sad - but at the same time I understand it completely because it is a common facet of people who grew up in military (and other type) families that moved not just houses but countries every few years.  During those years it serves as a coping mechanism to protect from the pain of leaving places and people just about the time you've started to settle in - but later, when the constant moving is over, it becomes just a hard-line attitude.  It took me years to break myself from doing it . . . even when I realised that it was hurting me more than anyone else.

I mention it because we've been talking about associations - and in my experience it is rather rare to see someone who was raised in a completely opposite manner (spending all his growing up years in the same place and still able to 'go home' now) from a global nomad with that attitude.  Makes me wonder, sometimes, just how connected to his community he was growing up.

Offline Jess

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #166 on: February 13, 2011, 01:01:40 PM »
I had a very settled childhood – my family had lived in the same house for 70 years. My parents had a rock solid marriage. Maybe that gave me the confidence to be quite nomadic, although I’ve tied myself down a bit too easily at times! I felt very cut adrift and unsettled when my parents died and the house had to be sold because that safe place I could always go home to didn’t exist anymore.

The ‘one strike and you’re out’ attitude is a self-protection mechanism. I’ve seen it quite a bit in people who didn't come from a nomadic background. People learn to cope with dysfunctional environments in any number of ways depending on their personalities.

Take my sister and I.  Same environment.  She is very much a ‘one strike and you’re out’ person and will ignore people for years on end for some imagined slight.  I’m the opposite in that I will often forgive far too much and it takes a lot (often far too much) for me to shut somebody out.

Over time, I’ve had to become much more hardened and tend to adopt that attitude more, because I was too forgiving and idealistic. People have taken advantage of that in the past.

I’ve come to see that trusting too easily has allowed people to cause me a lot of damage, which I’d underestimated. It’s learning the ideal balance to be struck between giving people more chances, and protecting yourself from emotional damage which can take years to recover from.  That's not easy.

I’d imagine being famous would be another explanation for that kind of attitude because you must have to put up with so much, so many fake people using you and wanting to be with you for selfish reasons.  Let’s face it, there are a lot of shallow, greedy, fame-hungry people out there, and being a celebrity must attract them. That's why I would hate to be famous.

Over time that must harden somebody, and self-protective instincts kick in. You learn to build a wall and shut people outside it if there’s any perceived threat. I’d imagine the more you have to lose, the faster you’d do it.


Offline lighty

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #167 on: February 13, 2011, 08:43:25 PM »
Interesting.  It is in reading responses like yours that I begin to realise how very little I know about 'settled' people.  Most - almost all, in fact - of my friends are settled people who grew up in similar situations as yours.  I suppose it is indicative of my personal fortress wall that I don't see the 'one strike' rule in them.   I know I seem slightly odd (but nice enough for all that) to them.  They put up with my quirks and when they talk about chatting with someone they've known since nursery school, I just smile and nod and don't tell them that is as foreign to me as Mars!

I hate to think that Sean has built such a protective wall - I understand it, but it's sad to imagine, because I know about those walls far too well.  You can build them high and strong and fast.  They have moats with alligators and barbed wire along the top.  What they don't have is a door. 

If no one can get in, neither can you get out - but you don't realise it until you've shoved the last brick into place.

Offline Jess

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #168 on: February 13, 2011, 09:37:23 PM »
I’m not a very good example of a ‘settled’ person, I’m afraid!  Firstly, I grew up in London which is a very transient place, so most of the people I grew up with have moved away.  Secondly, I only keep in contact with one friend and one member of my family from back then – I haven’t spoken to my sister in over 5 years.

Growing up in London is very different from growing up in a close community so I don’t really know what effect that has. Apart from saying that when I moved to a tiny rural village, I was so used to the anonymity of London that I found it very odd the way people took an interest in my business.

And I very much go my own way, I’m not very conventional so I have quirks aplenty!

Some people have a close inner circle of family and friends and build the wall around that.  They’re happy with that. Yes, they probably miss out on meeting some interesting people, but they'd probably look around at others and say they save themselves a lot of stress too. And even if they let people in sometimes, they evict them for the slightest thing because their emotional needs are being sufficiently met by their inner circle.

I think you get some people who reach a point (if they weren’t always there) of being very static in their lives. It’s like they’ve drawn this big circle around themselves, they’re happy with what’s inside it, and they don’t look beyond the boundaries. They’re not interested in what’s beyond it. And they’re not interested in taking risks on people. Often they’re quite content.

Then you get people (irrespective of their backgrounds) who have a different perspective.  They’re always looking outwards beyond the boundaries, taking risks, seeking to meet new people, try new things, travel to new places, wanting to know what’s around the next corner.  They can’t believe that people in the first group can be happy living in their tiny, insular world shutting people out. But, who knows, the people in the first group may well be happier as they're content with what they have.

You can probably tell from this that after many years of thinking I knew what was best, I've reached the point where  I realize I don't actually know :)

I don't know how any of that applies to Sean by the way - that was me rambling on very generic ground :)
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 09:55:25 PM by Jess »

Offline lighty

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #169 on: February 13, 2011, 11:32:05 PM »
I’m not a very good example of a ‘settled’ person, I’m afraid!  Firstly, I grew up in London which is a very transient place, so most of the people I grew up with have moved away.  Secondly, I only keep in contact with one friend and one member of my family from back then – I haven’t spoken to my sister in over 5 years.

Growing up in London is very different from growing up in a close community so I don’t really know what effect that has. Apart from saying that when I moved to a tiny rural village, I was so used to the anonymity of London that I found it very odd the way people took an interest in my business.

And I very much go my own way, I’m not very conventional so I have quirks aplenty!

Some people have a close inner circle of family and friends and build the wall around that.  They’re happy with that. Yes, they probably miss out on meeting some interesting people, but they'd probably look around at others and say they save themselves a lot of stress too. And even if they let people in sometimes, they evict them for the slightest thing because their emotional needs are being sufficiently met by their inner circle.

I think you get some people who reach a point (if they weren’t always there) of being very static in their lives. It’s like they’ve drawn this big circle around themselves, they’re happy with what’s inside it, and they don’t look beyond the boundaries. They’re not interested in what’s beyond it. And they’re not interested in taking risks on people. Often they’re quite content.

Then you get people (irrespective of their backgrounds) who have a different perspective.  They’re always looking outwards beyond the boundaries, taking risks, seeking to meet new people, try new things, travel to new places, wanting to know what’s around the next corner.  They can’t believe that people in the first group can be happy living in their tiny, insular world shutting people out. But, who knows, the people in the first group may well be happier as they're content with what they have.

You can probably tell from this that after many years of thinking I knew what was best, I've reached the point where  I realize I don't actually know :)

I don't know how any of that applies to Sean by the way - that was me rambling on very generic ground :)


Crimey.  If it weren't for rambling, I'd probably never say a word . . . :)
I'm going to think about what you've said and get back to it - it's getting to be my bedtime and I can feel my neurons flickering off as I type!

Offline patch

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #170 on: February 16, 2011, 09:29:23 AM »
'Blades Have Fight ' - Insists Cork

http://www.sheffutd.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=231900

Quote
'Dave's a legend but his 'little chat' to the players before the Reading game went on for about four hours! He was telling them that this is the best club he has ever worked at and that the fans are the best as well - he even told them that Sean Bean would pack up his whole Hollywood career to play for United!'



Offline patch

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #171 on: March 03, 2011, 10:48:52 AM »

Offline Blue Jay

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #172 on: March 03, 2011, 11:41:39 AM »
Isn't that the same as always?  :backout

Offline lighty

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #173 on: March 03, 2011, 12:45:59 PM »
Isn't that the same as always?  :backout

Pretty much.  More this season than usual . . . c'est la vie  !

Offline Jess

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #174 on: March 05, 2011, 09:33:36 AM »
1 - 0 down at the moment.  I feel masochistic following this.  I'm off to the shops to buy some milk instead!

Offline Jess

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #175 on: March 05, 2011, 11:39:05 AM »
Oh well, that was an unmitigated disaster - Scunthorpe won as well.

Offline patch

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #176 on: March 08, 2011, 03:50:31 PM »
Quote
Sheff Utd   2 - 1   Nott'm Forest
Matthew Lowton scored the winner as Sheffield United came from behind to beat Nottingham Forest and register their first win of 2011.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_div_1/9415424.stm

Offline Sable899

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #177 on: March 08, 2011, 08:15:46 PM »
Well, miracles do exist!
 :holycrap

Offline lighty

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #178 on: March 08, 2011, 09:56:10 PM »
Well, miracles do exist!
 :holycrap

Down in AZ, without more than 10 minutes at a time to myself *whinge* . . .

This is the best news I've had ALL week.

Up the Blades!!

Offline najinboulder

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Re: Sheffield United
« Reply #179 on: March 16, 2011, 10:54:29 PM »
Way cool Thanks :goodgrl2: