Sharpening a Rusty Blade - Book III

[Amaroq]

Its like the punchline to a bad joke:

"Yeah, our injury crisis is so severe, our chairman is in physiotherapy..."

[Amaroq]

Sunday, 14th March, 2010. Premier League - Game 30, at Portsmouth.

There was a fairly full docket of games on Sunday, with four clubs playing. Our match had originally been scheduled as a televised endeavor on Monday, but that was bumped off by the Wednesday F.A. Cup tie against Manchester United, so we made the trip down to the English Channel, just opposite the Isle of Wight, today instead. Portsmouth, Champions of England in 1948/49 and 1949/50, had been a lower mid-table side since earning promotion from the Championship in 2002. This year, they looked like candidates for the drop: as we headed south to Fratton Park, they were in 18th, four points back of Crystal Palace and safety, with only six wins to their season.

The lineup I was naming gave them an opportunity to improve on that record, as between the eleven, they were averaging 9.5 starts for the season to date. Roy Carroll, in goal, had an excuse: he'd only joined the club in January. His defense, captained by Hayden Foxe, was otherwise the number two lineup with Joe Keenan, Steve Foster, and Danny Payne. Steve Newton was the defensive midfielder. On the left wing, 20-year-old Simon Blake was making his first Premier League start, while on the right was Graham Allen. The attacking midfield paired Iain Hume and Joe Newell, while the lone striker in the 4-5-1 was Peter Weatherson.

Many of my squad hadn't played a senior match since January. Of course, all the long-term players were still worrying about Derek, while the rest were looking forward to the mid-week trip to Old Trafford.

The resulting football was as ugly as you would expect it to be.

How bad was it? In the sixth minute, Joe Newell looked to have put Peter Weatherson through on goal, but his shot was well wide, of more danger to the ball boy than the netting.

Portsmouth looked equally inept, and goalkeeper Erick Delgado nearly had a disaster a minute later. The Peruvian, imported for £1.2M in the January window, came out to meet Joe Keenan's long ball outside his area. He utterly misplayed the bounce, and it skipped past him untouched. It looked to be rolling towards goal for what would have been a 70-yard score, but went just wide, crossing the end line a half step before Iain Hume could catch up to knock it home.

The entire first half went that way: an ugly goal-mouth scramble on the quarter hour required three clearances and a blocked shot all by Hayden Foxe to prevent hapless Portsmouth from scoring. When Joe Keenan finally scrambled it away, Iain Hume had a breakaway the other direction, but missed just wide.

Our best chance came from a combination of our two wingers, with Simon Blake's cross leading to Graham Allen's header, but Delgado made the save. By halftime the announcers must have been running out of creative ways to say 'the shot missed' - and there wasn't even the excuse of inclement weather to explain the poor play.

After such an ugly first half, it was only appropriate that the goal, when it came, was equally unaesthetic. Joe Newell intercepted a pass in midfield, and Hume reset, dropping possession back through the defense. Danny Payne brought it up the right side over the halfway line before passing forward to Allen, who put it left for Weatherson. The striker was some 35 yards out, and sent a low pass for Hume, who struck it with fury from the penalty arc. The shot hit Francisco Javier Rodríguez, and bounced tamely away - trickling on course for the far post, which it struck and glanced in. Delgado, wrong footed, slipped and fell, but still almost had time to crawl over to stop it. It was hardly a 20-yard screamer or Goal of the Month candidate, but it doesn't matter how it crossed the line - we were up 1-0.

Portsmouth, give them credit, didn't fold, and redoubled their efforts to get forward. Even the introduction of Jonathan Forte, who replaced the tiring Allen, or Bruno Cheyrou for the yellow-carded Newell couldn't seem to inject any life into our lads, and the next half hour were played entirely in front of our area. For most of that period, Portsmouth's shooting looked as ineffectual as a four year-olds, though Roy Carroll was called on to make a few saves. However, if you give any club sufficient chances, they'll eventually make good, and so it was today. Simon Blake conceded a corner in the 77th minute, and Gary O'Neil floated it in to the center. Scott Brown beat Joe Keenan in traffic to head it home from precisely the middle of Carroll's goal, and the long suffering crowd of 22,051 finally had something to cheer, as it was leveled at 1-1.

I was livid, and let my players know it, screaming at them fit to burst a blood vessel. I made my last change, sending young Michael Field on for Allen, and switching to a 4-4-2 with Hume shifted over to the right wing. It wasn't the change or the yelling so much as a substitution that I had made earlier which impacted the final score. In the 85th minute, a long Portsmouth clearance was headed back up the pitch by Hayden Foxe. Bruno Cheyrou made a dummy move towards it, convincing Michael Svensson to leap for it at a height neither of them could reach. The clever Frenchman whirled just as Svensson jumped, and burst upfield for it. Thus unencumbered by any marker, he raced to within about 12 yards from goal before firing home the game-winner, and giving us an unconvincing 2-1 victory.

Portsmouth 1, Sheffield United 2

Brown 77; Hume 49, Cheyrou 85

MoM: Carroll

There is a saying, "Good teams win ugly games." This was far and away the ugliest game of the year: we'd played down to the level of our opponents, but still found a way to win it.

I'd been unsure whether to chew the lads out for 80 uninspired minutes, or to shrug it off as the price of not rotating in the last six weeks. The choice was made for me when Stuart McCall handed me the telephone.

Its a bit harder to understand him over the phone - I hadn't realized just how much lip-reading was involved in understanding his lisping speech in person - but it was our convalescent chairman, who asked me to tell the lads how pleased he was with them.

[Amaroq]

Monday, 15th March, 2010.

The match hadn't been televised, and obviously the selectors for the Premier League Team of the Week hadn't watched it, as we had two players honoured. Roy Carroll had, in fact, made seven saves to preserve his record - he hasn't yet lost as a Sheffield United keeper - and had warranted Man of the Match, certainly. Iain Hume's selection, however, stunned me. His goal had been one of the weakest of the season, and the rest of his match hadn't been overly impressive.

In miscellaneous news, I'd spent the paltry sum of £26,000 in compensation to hire Rab Kielty away from League One leaders Blackpool. The 50-year-old Scot is reputed to be an excellent coach of young players, with a fine eye for potential.

None of that mattered compared to the excitement building in the Steel City:

On Wednesday, we would be at Old Trafford, for the biggest match of the season!

[aaberdeenn]

I've not been in here in quite a while but I saw this linked in OTF and thought I'd let you know; I know he's quite famous in these parts.

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/BREAKING-Sheffield-footba...end-Derek.3847211.jp

[BobBev]

Oh roqy - you put the guy in hospital and look what happens IRL - that's strong voodoo you've got there my friend

[Jammer86]

Yeah I read this today, I would have skipped over it if it wasan't for your story. RIP Derek Dooley.

[Amaroq]

BobBev - yeah, this story's prescience has gotten quite spooky. Neil Warnock, Kevin Keegan, now Mr. Dooley.. surely its all coincidence!

Nice to see you, 'deenn, thanks for dropping in.

* * * * * * *

Those who knew him will eulogize the man better than I, I am certain, but he touched my life: I, who have never met him, a continent away.

In researching this story, to place him in it as a fictional character, I learned enough about Derek Dooley to develop a tremendous respect for what he accomplished in a vibrant and inspirational life.

I can only hope that's come across in the way I've written of him here, and that I have done justice to his passion, his joy, and his integrity in the character who bears his name upon these pages.

Should any of his family or friends happen to come across this story, I do hope that they will sense that I write of him only with the greatest respect: please accept this as homage.

Godspeed, Derek Dooley. You were much loved.

[Amaroq]

Wednesday, 17th March, 2010. F.A. Cup - Sixth Round, at Manchester United.

Old Trafford, for a Quarter Final match.

It doesn't get any more classic than this!

Despite getting dumped out of the UEFA Cup and an unpopular change in managers mid-season, United were still in position to win a double. Solidly in contention to win the Premier League, they were third, a mere three points back of Chelsea. They'd avoided the Blues for the F.A. Cup Semi-Finals, assuming they could get past us. They'd beaten us in our last two trips to Old Trafford, last year handing a bunch of our young players a 4-1 defeat in the season finale, and this year beating our first team 2-0. However, I reminded the lads of 2006, before my time, and honestly before any of theirs, when a Sheffield United club bound for relegation from the Championship to League One snuck past Manchester United 2-0 in the F.A. Cup Fourth Round.

With a full schedule, United were pounded by injury and every one of their eleven looked tired from the long season. Ruud van Nistelrooy was out with a sprained wrist, Wayne Rooney with a bruised thigh, and Alan Smith with broken ribs, which reduced them to their fourth- and fifth- choice strikers. They were also missing stalwart defender Wes Brown and starting left winger Jérôme Rothen - the Old Trafford fans might need a scorecard to tell who is who. They started three little-known 17-year-olds, which gave us half a chance, at least.

For the biggest game of our season, I had nine of my best eleven, in our new 4-4-2 formation with the diamond midfield. Roy Carroll, coming off a brilliant performance, was in goal. Sean Dillon injured his shoulder in the pre-match warmup, and was a late scratch for Joe Keenan. Hayden Foxe, David Rozehnal, and Keith McCormack completed the back four. The defensive midfielder was Mathieu Berson, whose professional attitude had shown no wavering at the news that I was bringing in Freddy Guarin to compete for his spot next season. Joe Hamill was the left wing, and Victor Sikora started on the right for the injured Pennant. Bruno Cheyrou, the hero in Portsmouth, was the playmaker in the attacking midfield role. The strike team paired Imre Szabics with the too-well-rested Florent Sinama-Pongolle, who complained that the long layoff had left him lacking 'match pace'.

I told the lads before the kickoff that their beloved Chairman had made the trip to Manchester, against his doctors' orders, and was in one of the skyboxes. I didn't even need to make the obvious connection: captain Hayden Foxe did.

"Right lads," he said, his Australian accent commanding across the dressing room. "Some of you are new, and you may not know, but this man lives and breathes Sheffield football. He's loved at Wednesday, and he's loved here.. and we're going to go out and win this one. For him."

There were chills in my spine as we took the field with an air of belief that hadn't been present since... well, ever. The quiet confidence translated into composure on the field, and the fifth minute saw a wonderful long ball by Bruno Cheyrou. Sinama-Pongolle was through on goal, only to have the whistle blown. Offsides. He had been, at most, a half-step early - that lack of match practice?

The thing I remember most about the first 20 minutes was the cold rain falling steadily, and the five yellow cards handed out by referee Rob Styles. It was clear that he was in a tough mood, and would brook no questionable fouls at all. The wet surface made even an innocuous slide tackle look vicious, and that was contributing.

The breaks in play were disrupting the rhythm a bit, but United had begun to assert some control when Bruno Cheyrou started upfield in what looked like a fast break. He stopped, held up the ball, and then played it back to defensive midfielder Mathieu Berson. That lulled the United defense to sleep, but the French defensive mid sent a long ball through the center for the run of Imre Szabics. With brilliant pace, the Hungarian was through on-side, and slotted it past Timmy Howard. I learned then how strong the visiting support was - over 10,000 for this game, according to some reports - and they made their approbation known. Twenty-eight minutes in, and we were beating Manchester United 1-0!!!

It seemed too good to be true, but the joy was short-lived. Victor Sikora was battling Danny Banks, one of the 17-year-olds, for a loose ball in midfield, and Styles blew the whistle. Both players had a fistful of jersey, but Sikora had already been booked, for tripping in the sixth minute, and Styles showed no hesitation in showing him red.

Reduced to ten men, teams have two choices: they can pack it in, or they can raise their game and try to make up for the missing man. I expected the former - it was Manchester United! - and for a few nervous minutes, it looked like the lads would. Then they started to adjust to the 4-4-1 I'd asked for, with Sinama-Pongolle alone up front, and Szabics filling in at right wing. They began to pick up the tempo, hustling hard in defense and threatening on the counter.

In the 40th minute, another move started with a pass back from Cheyrou to Berson. He sent it right back to his countryman, who played a wonderful little through pass that beat 20-year-old Stuart Williams. The talented defender was making his Manchester United debut in central defense, and seemed surprised by the quality of the ball and the burst of pace Florent Sinama-Pongolle gave. The diminutive Réunioniste raced onto it, and poked it home under the sliding Tim Howard to put us up 2-0!!

The shorthanded miracle continued in the 43rd minute, when we made it two goals in three minutes! Joe Keenan's long ball up the left side gave us a 3-on-2 breakaway against the rattled United defense. Sinama-Pongolle drew one defender to him, and played a low pass to Joe Hamill. John O'Shea was left to choose between two threats, and in the end couldn't stop either. He didn't over-commit to Hamill, but the winger's pass to Cheyrou revealed that he had far too much time and space. Our second short-handed goal, struck from the eighteen, made it 3-0 going to halftime!!

The lads were whooping it up, but knew full well that they still had work to do in the final forty-five. I'm not sure what Steve Bruce told the Manchester United lads over the break, but they came out fired up, and looked more dangerous in the first two minutes than they had in the first 45. Spanish forward Tote looked to have a golden chance, but was blown for offsides, and a minute later Mark van Bommell's forty-five yard beauty sent Darren Fletcher free on goal. Only a great save by Roy Carroll kept the clean sheet, and Mathieu Berson was there to clear.

I'd only just had time to start getting nervous when Van Bommell took out the legs of Szabics on the right wing, and he, too, was given his marching orders. A red card!

With the game reduced to 10-on-10, I was confident we could hold the lead - and my confidence was increased tenfold in the fifty-third minute. Giuseppe Rossi had only just come onto the pitch, replacing young Banks, when he was whistled for an innocuous foul at midfield. It appeared that he held back Hamill, but it was little more than a foul at worst. Styles showed him the yellow card, and the impetuous Italian blew up at the referee. He immediately earned red, and decided to make it worth his while by giving Styles a thorough rundown on his parentage, all in Italian.

The crowd, some 73,482 strong, turned very ugly, with a low guttaral growl to their boos that reminded me of a dog on the verge of attack.

The match had descended to a farcical point by that time, and when Hayden Foxe had to come out injured - I'd already brought Keith McCormack off to protect him after a yellow card - I wound up juggling the lineup in a way that saw Danny Payne in central defense, Mathieu Berson at right back, Imre Szabics at right wing, and Bruno Cheyrou as the defensive midfielder.

Still, nine-man Manchester United weren't a real threat to come back from a three-goal deficit, and our lads were having fun looking for a fourth. They didn't get one, but only thanks to the fine play of American goalkeeper Tim Howard, who made eleven saves, most in the late going, to keep the scoreline semi-respectable.

Manchester United 0, Sheffield United 3

----; Szabics 28, Sinama-Pongolle 41, Cheyrou 43

MoM: Sinama-Pongolle

It might have been a bit early for champagne celebration, but that hardly bound our lads, who looked like they'd just won the Cup in the locker room. The festivities reached their height when beloved chairman Derek Dooley made a wheelchair-bound appearance.

"Wouldn't have missed it for the world, lads," he told them, and when Joe Keenan recounted Hayden's pre-match comments, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

[mikegoodman25]

Super result for you there Amaroq things seem to be on the up for you now.

The new formation seems to be working as well. KUTGW!

[Starr_Man5]

I don't think I need to tell you how happy I am with the result against Man Yoo, Amaroq.

Sterling work, as ever.

[Jammer86]

Great win at Old Trafford. Rob Styles nearly stole the limelight though.. what a suprise!

[Amaroq]

Thank you, lads.

I'll point out one thing: with the exception of some minor adjustments to the description of the second and third red card, that post was utterly unchanged from the way I'd written it prior to learning of Mr. Dooley's demise.

The timing was definitely eerie!

mikegoodman - yes, the two formations are similar enough that there doesn't appear to have been any "settle" time required.

Starr_Man - thank you, I was bouncing off the walls, let me tell you!

Jammer - on this version of the game, especially, Styles really is a character in his own right.

[Amaroq]

Thursday, 18th March, 2010.

"This may not be the best time for this, boss, but... "

Stuart McCall was in my office, and I looked up from the reports I'd been reading. Hayden Foxe had strained his calf, and Martin Baverstock was recommending physiotherapy. That would cost a month at least, and I was torn - he could be back in two weeks without, though with a chance of reinjuring it, or even doing the injury worse. That, coupled with Victor Sikora's automatic one match ban for the red card, was giving me headaches.

Stuart stepped in and closed the door.

"I've been thinking. You know how my contract is expiring at the end of the season?"

"Yes, I'd been meaning to talk about that. I presume you'd like an extension?"

"Uh... No." He must have seen the shocked expression on my face, for he hastened to add, "Sorry, lad. Its not you, or anything you've done.

"You know how I'm always saying 'Fortune favors the bold?'"

"Of course."

"I've decided I need to strike out on my own, to move out of your shadow. I've always fancied managing my own club."

It did, in fact, come as a complete surprise, though I suppose I should have anticipated it. It is the natural next step for an Assistant Manager, and the 45-year-old Scot had definitely built reputation enough to land a position somewhere.

I offered to write a letter of recommendation - it was the least I could do for the man who'd been my right-hand-man since arriving at Sheffield - and made a note to place an advertisement for a new assistant manager.

In the Hayden Foxe matter, I finally decided to send him for physiotherapy, and recall Ben Hammond from his loan to Coventry. The lad had started five games in the month he'd been there, and had, to my surprise, scored a pair of goals, notching a 7.00 average. Unfortunately, his morale was very low: Coventry had slumped to 24th and last while he was there, losing every game he'd played.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, in an ironic twist our Reserves had faced Manchester United Reserves at Saltergate concurrently with our F.A. Cup tie at Old Trafford. The game was similarly officiated - poorly. Both sides were lucky to escape red cards, but our lads lost 0-1.

On Friday, backup midfielder Mike Flynn twisted knee in training. He would be out up to two weeks, and it was looking increasingly likely that he wouldn't play a single minute this season.

[Amaroq]

Saturday, 20th March, 2010. Premier League - Game 31, vs Ipswich Town.

Our Saturday match was nationally televised as well, a renewal of our one-time Championship rivalry with Ipswich Town. Promoted, as we had been, in 2008, by virtue of winning the Championship, the club had narrowly escaped relegation last season, placing 17th. This year they were safer, in 15th, with a six-point safety net and only eight games to play. The previous two seasons, the home side had won each encounter between the two teams by a two-goal margin, so I thought it boded well that we'd managed a 1-1 draw at Portman Road earlier in the year, especially as Ipswich hadn't won a game since January 9th.

Though I maintained the 4-4-2, it was a somewhat different lineup from either the Portsmouth crowd or the Old Trafford game. Roy Carroll remains brilliant in goal, worth every penny we paid for him. At left back, James Fowler made only his second start on loan. The central defense paired David Rozehnal with Steve Foster. Keith McCormack was again the right back, making his 20th start of the season, and 50th league appearance for the Blades. Steve Newton was the defensive midfielder, and the wingers were Jonathan Forte and Graham Allen. Iain Hume was the attacking midfielder, and at striker I paired Imre Szabics and Peter Weatherson for the first time.

The first half was a fairly tame, dull affair, as both sides played tight defense, limiting each other to long-range efforts. Iain Hume's crashing drive from 40 yards was spectacular, but was never going to trouble veteran Ipswich keeper Paul Smith, and Steve Newton shouldn't really try from range. At the other end, Roy Carroll wasn't going to be beaten from thirty yards, at least not by the likes of Darren Carter. In fact, David Rozehnal's 24-yard free kick at the half-hour mark was the best chance for either side, and he floated it over the crossbar.

I tried to wake the lads with some halftime histrionics, and for a brief moment, my acting skills seemed to have done the trick. Keith McCormack's long ball put Imre Szabics through on goal, but Irish defender Richie Byrne, in his first season of Premier League football after years in Scotland, made a key tackle in the box to avert the danger. It was a mere flash in the pan, however, and beyond that the crowd, one of the lowest of the season at 29,949, didn't get their money's worth.

Even changing wingers entirely, putting Joe Newell on the right and Darren White on the left, couldn't shake the malaise: Ipswich were clearly playing for a draw, and without Cheyrou and Sinama-Pongolle, we lacked the creativity to break them down.

In the 75th minute, I moved McCormack up to the right wing, with Newell taking over the attacking midfield role, as Hume was too tired to continue. The shift brought some life to the final minutes of the proceedings, as McCormack shot high and wide in the 82nd minute. With five minutes left, Rozehnal sent a long ball down the right, which the young Irishman cut back for Szabics. It was a golden chance for the Hungarian, but he sent it wide. Dismay was clearly written across his countenance, though he gave the youngster thumbs up for the service.

McCormack continued to look the most dangerous of our players, sending in two great crosses in injury time. The first bounced off of Jelle van Damme, but the second beat the Belgian defender. Imre Szabics towered over everyone to head home the winner.. only it struck the top of the crossbar and went over, a disappointing finish to a thoroughly disappointing game.

Sheffield United 0, Ipswich 0

----; ----

MoM: Smith (Ipswich GK)

I suppose its only natural that an emotional let-down should follow a big Cup upset, arguably the biggest in the club's 120-year history. I couldn't truly fault the lads for their play against Ipswich, especially after denying them the creative geniuses who had made the team what it is this season.

[Amaroq]

Tuesday, 23rd March, 2010.

On Sunday, Sheffield United Under-18s won their derby against Wednesday U-18s at Moor Lane in Stocksbridge. Things looked grim for our lads when David Parker was sent off just before halftime in a taut, scoreless match, but Jake Giles, Simon Blake, Scott Lee, Chris McKenzie, and Michael Field all scored short-handed goals as they exploded for five in the second half to win 5-0. Blake was Man of the Match, and Parker would be banned for one match.

Monday saw the next round of Under-19 internationals. 18-year-old Chris McKenzie played the whole match for Scotland U-19s in their 2-1 win over Azerbaijan U-19s. However, it was a poorly played encounter, dominated by a few individual performances rather than solid play throughout. He had reason to be disappointed with his personal performance, which wasn't going to earn him promotion to the U-21s without a dramatic improvement.

On Tuesday, the Under-21s played, and we had three players involved.

Joe Newell played a fine match as the right winger in a 4-4-2, lasting 68 minutes of the Young Lions' 2-0 win over South Korea. He looks very solidly entrenched in the England U-21 side, having started their last 9 matches, and is expected to play throughout the European Under-21 Championship in late May.

Chris Brown, our phenomenal 16-year-old goalkeeper, is currently on loan to Wigan Athletic. He had a comfortable time of it as the Wales U-21 keeper in their 3-0 victory over Malta: the only two shots Malta managed were well wide of target, so he was mostly called on for goal kicks.

Ireland U-21s travelled to Rostock to face the German U-21s, but it was the host nation for whom we had a player. 17-year-old right back Benjamin Herzog came on at halftime, and did well without exception in the 2-0 home win. Where was Keith McCormack, you might ask? The 20-year-old had, yet again, been called up to the senior side.

[Amaroq]

Wednesday, 24th March, 2010.

Wednesday was an international friendly date, a key one in the build-up to South Africa 2010.

The first match of the day nearly pitted two of our players against each other. Imre Szabics played the first half of Hungary's 0-2 loss at the Czech Republic, while David Marek Rozehnal came on at halftime for the winning side. Both played reasonably, but not well.

Closer to home, Keith McCormack was one of the few players to play well for Ireland as they took an 0-2 defeat in Germany. A brace by Miroslav Klose was the difference in the match; McCormack could take consolation in the fact that neither goal came through his side.

In London, England handed South Korea a 1-0 defeat, with Steven Gerrard scoring the only goal. The pundits worried that they hadn't found the net more often, with most of the possession and 20 shots, but the strike force speaks for itself: James Beattie, Luke Moore, Dean Ashton, and debutante Bobby Zamora had only 13 international goals between them, hardly enough to strike fear into the hearts of any opposition.

I was excited to see that Florent Sinama-Pongolle had earned a call-up for France's home tie against Portugal, as I still held hope that he might earn inclusion in their World Cup squad, but he was one of only three players who didn't appear. He remains stuck behind Nicolas Anelka, David Trezeguet, and Thierry Henry - whose brace gave the Saint-Denis crowd a 2-0 win over Portgual.

Roy Carroll kept a clean sheet before the home support as Northern Ireland handed United Arab Emirates a 3-0 loss. He wasn't really made to work much, finishing with only a single save.

Canada dominated the British Virgin Islands, 6-0, and it was a bit of a surprise, given the offensive fireworks, that Iain Hume wasn't involved in any of the goals. He'd only played 45 minutes, true, but it was already 4-0 when he came out at halftime.

As a World Cup tune-up, I was worried that the U.S.A. only beat Liechtenstein by a single goal, 1-0 not being the result one looks for against the little nations.

Abubakar Shittu did not start, but did play most of the match in Nigeria's 1-2 defeat against Argentina. He came on in the 24th minute when Celestine Babayaro was injured, and received the stern test of facing the South Americans with only ten men, as one of his fellow defenders was sent marching in the 28th. That the Africans only lost by a single goal is a testament to their firm defending, and the young centre-back had done well.

At Bracken Moor Lane, our Reserves had their derby with Wednesday Reserves, and a hard-fought 0-0 draw was the result. It was a bit nostalgic for United fans, with McGregor in goal, Foster in defense, Allen on the right wing, and Valerón, Bridge-Wilkinson, and Hunt comprising the attack, all regulars from earlier days, especially our Championship promotion season.

[Amaroq]

Saturday, 27th March, 2010. Premier League - Game 32, vs Leicester City.

With seven games left to play, we were still solidly seventh, but 8 points separated us from sixth-place Charlton Athletic, a gap which looked almost impossible to make up despite our eleven-game unbeaten run. In contrast, our opponents were still mired in 20th and last, with a nigh-impossible 8 point gap to escape the relegation zone. They were, however, coming off their fourth win of the season, a 3-0 result over Portsmouth, and had the incentive of revenge after our three-goal humbling of them in the F.A. Cup.

I'd considered playing the same squad they'd faced in February, as that had worked well enough, but with Foxe out, I was unable to. Instead, I went with Roy Carroll, making his 10th start in goal. Sean Dillon hadn't played for a month, and was noticeably lacking match fitness, but would start at left back anyways. In central defense, recently recalled Ben Hammond partnered David Rozehnal, and Keith McCormack returned from Germany to play right back. Mathieu Berson would play the holding midfield role in my diamond 4-4-2, with Joe Hamill on the left wing. Jermaine Pennant, still unfit after his injury, was the right wing, though I only expected 45 minutes from him. Bruno Cheyrou was, of course, the midfield playmaker - he was having a tremendous season so far. Up front, Florent Sinama-Pongolle was partnered with Imre Szabics.

Stewart Downing was making his 100th league appearance, but couldn't be enjoying it much. The Bramall Lane crowd took savage delight in booing his every touch, jeering him about Leicester's impending relegation. Unfortunately, that was their only real entertainment; we weren't giving the supporters much to cheer.

Expecting the Foxes to come out with a defensive outlook, I'd asked the lads to try the patient buildup version of our 4-4-2. It felt like they were being too patient: for thirty minutes we managed not a shot at all, and on the half-hour, the Foxes earned a free kick a mere 22 yards out. Downing, looking for his revenge, struck a beautiful curler to Roy Carroll's right, but the veteran made a diving save at the floor, and held the ball against his hip.

Leicester's defense was clogging the center, and every time we tried to go out wide, their fullbacks were up to the task. One such encounter led to a corner kick in the 40th minute. David Marek Rozehnal got up to send a brilliant header on target, only to see Icelandic midfielder Olafur-Ingi Skulason chest it down off the line. Three minutes later, Bruno Cheyrou lined up to take a dangerous free kick from the arc, but it skimmed over the bar, and halftime loomed with the match still scoreless.

We were showing the same lack of creativity that had plagued us against Ipswich: when a team decides to defend, we have real trouble breaking it down. It was more of the same in the first fifteen minutes of the second half, and I decided I had to do something. I kept with the 'patient' theme, but brought Jermaine Pennant off for Iain Hume, pushing Keith McCormack up to right wing and shifting to a 3-5-2. The Irishman had looked dangerous in that role against Ipswich, and this time he came through, charging up the right in the 69th minute, then playing a low pass through a narrow opening to Hume. One explosive touch put the Canadian forward into the area, and Richard Stearman stuck his leg out just an instant too late. Hume tumbled to the turf, the ball tantalizingly in front of him, and referee Mark Clattenburg wasted no time, rushing to point to the spot!! He then summoned Stearman to him, and showed the 22-year-old his second yellow card, and the obligatory red!

With 32,778 cheering him on, Florent Sinama-Pongolle buried the penalty low to the keeper's left to give us a 1-0 lead.

Give them credit, the Foxes held their heads high and tried to battle back, playing almost a 3-2-4 and surging forward dangerously. Between the creativity of Stewart Downing, Tomi Petrescu, and leading scorer Shola Ameobi, they looked threatening, but were also leaving great gaps at the back. Goalkeeper Russell Vaughan put on a clinic, denying Sinama-Pongolle and Hume with two world-class saves a minute apart after the attackers each got free within the area.

In the 85th minute, Petrescu caught our defense napping, racing past Rozehnal on a breakaway. Carroll rushed out, but the Finn shot from 20 yards, before he could close the gap. It had the keeper beat, but rose steadily, climbing just over the bar and hurtling into the stands behind. Moments later, Joe Keenan picked out Hume unmarked in the box, and another tremendous save left him shaking his head in disbelief.

Finally, late in injury time, Leicester hurled everyone forward in one last desperate attempt to find an equalizer. Victor Sikora stole it just outside our area, and launched a long ball that saw Sinama-Pongolle fully eight yards behind the defense, onsides only because he'd been on our side of midfield when the pass was struck. He juked around Vaughan in the box, and rolled his 24th goal of the season into the back of the net for a 2-0 final.

Sheffield United 2, Leicester 0

Sinama-Pongolle pen 71, 90; ----

MoM: Sinama-Pongolle

Florent Sinama-Pongolle had been Man of the Match in our famous victory over Manchester United, and with two more goals, had earned that honour again today. The lads pounded him on the back: he's having a phenomenal season, better than anyone could ever have expected.

Derek Dooley wheeled his way into the locker room, interrupting the celebration as the players quieted to make out his words. He told them to keep up the good work, and let me know that he was extremely pleased with our run of form.

[Amaroq]

Sunday, 28th March, 2010.

Speculation already abounds that high-profile manager Ian Richards could be tempted to quit Sheffield United for Upton Park...

I tossed the newspaper aside. "Where do they get this sort of tripe?" I asked Stuart rhetorically.

West Ham United had fired Alan Irvine, the long-time Everton manager, after seeing the side fall from 7th to 12th this season. I was no more interested in moving to London than I had been in taking over Manchester City, and issued a press release saying so.

I did glean one other surprising note from the paper, however. Florent Sinama-Pongolle's 24 goals were a 'modern Sheffield United record', though of course they were a long way shy of Jimmy Dunne's 41 back in the 1930/31 season.

We also had two more injuries. Joe Keenan, who had been on as a late sub, had twisted his knee against Leicester, and would miss a week or two. On-loan winger Darren White sprained his wrist on Sunday, which would rule him out for a similar length of time.

[Amaroq]

Wednesday, 31st March, 2010.

The next manager to receive the sack was Javier Clemente, who had always been a doubtful appointment as Liverpool's saviour. Only six clubs had scored fewer goals, and if anything it was a miracle that they were in fifth. Still, a 4-0 defeat by Chelsea on Sunday had been enough to dissipate the last of David Moores's patience, and the Reds were now looking for a new manager.

The favourite, in the eyes of any right-minded observer, had to be Peter Taylor, after his sparkling run at Manchester United had been brought to an abrupt close. Moores could hardly believe his luck, that United hadn't seen fit to retain the talented 57-year-old.

I was mentioned as well, of course, along with Sam Allardyce and Graeme Souness, but I've heard bad things about Liverpool's financial shape - and with Derek just recovering from his stroke, I couldn't even think about leaving. Honestly, after wrestling with temptation in the form of Manchester United, I'd now committed myself fully to the Blades. I dashed off another press release to reaffirm my loyalty to Sheffield United.

On Wednesday, Shay Given's heel earned the headline 'Achilles Heel' from one tabloid, after he was forced off in the eleventh minute of Arsenal's Champions League Quarter Final against Roma. The Italian giants took advantage, beating Arsenal 2-0 in London. With a home-and-away format, Claudio Pizarro's missed penalty in injury time might well come back to haunt the Gunners.

Cinderella story Maccabi Haifa earned a vital away goal, but will return to Israel with a 1-2 deficit after losing to Juventus at the Della Alpi.

However, it was a bad day for both sets of Milanese supporters. At the San Siro, visiting F.C. do Porto shocked Inter Milan, 3-0, with Ricardo Quaresma netting twice, to give the Portugese side an almost insurmountable lead for the home leg. Spanish giants Barcelona dominated A.C. Milan by the same scoreline, and would travel to Italy with a commanding lead.

At home, fringe players Jon Paul McGovern and Steven Howard both returned to full training, their physiotherapy complete.

[Amaroq]

Thursday, 1st April, 2010.

Derek Dooley entered the room, moving slowly in his wheelchair, and the contrast from two months ago couldn't have been more stark.

Once energetic, and sprightly, he now looked wan and tired. His cane had been traded for a wheelchair. His once-ruddy complexion was pale, and he had lost a lot of weight. He even seemed to have less hair than I had remembered. His speech retained the slur I'd first heard in the hospital, but his eyes still retained the fire and drive that I had come to know and love.

He wheeled over to shake my hand. "Thank you," he told me. "Your continuing loyalty to the team, especially in a time of turbulence like this, speaks highly of your moral fiber. I appreciate it."

"I'm not going anywhere," I reiterated.

"We're both delighted at that," Terry interjected, as Mister Dooley rolled around to his place at the head of the table. He'd used to sit there in a big, black leather chair. The wheelchair could have stolen some of that dignity, but he carries it with him, anyways - I could almost see the black leather when I looked towards him.

"As you all know," Derek started, "I've suffered a stroke. Not a big one, but it has been .. enough. I'm afraid my role with the team is going to have to be much reduced, and Mister Robinson will be taking over many of my former tasks.

"To be clear, I'll still be on as the chairman and C.E.O., and be in charge of setting out our policies and strategies. Terry will be in charge of implementing them. He'll be running most of the meetings I had, and everyone who used to report to me will be reporting directly to him. Yes, of course that means a promotion for him: his new title will be 'Executive Vice President.'

"Terry, care to say a few words?"

"Certainly. You all know me, and know my enthusiasm for football and for this club. I hope that little will change: we've climbed up to seventh in the Premier League, and I hope we can consolidate and build on that success to eventually become a title contender in our own right.

"That said, I'll be balancing our need to run the company at a profit against our desire to win on the pitch, and that means Ian may not always have the transfer budget he might want.

"Among other things, we're considering whether or not to further expand Bramall Lane this summer: we've been averaging 32,000 per match, and have sold out the ground more often than not."

There was more in that vein, the usual 'my door is always open' line, etc.

A quick review of our finances, at the end of the session, revealed that we'd turned a profit for the first time in many months. Helped by the two home matches and an £0.4M payout for winning the F.A. Cup Sixth Round, we'd turned a total profit of £0.5M for the month. Of course, that still left our net loss at £8.1M, primarily in transfers (as I'd spent £10.1M), and our total balance was £14.8M.

One area which Terry expressed concern about was the pricey nature of our many recent signings. We had 11 players who were earning £1M p/a or more, which made our total wage bill £17.0M p/a. We'd budgeted for £25.5M p/a, but that had to be a contributing factor. The spot that was most frustrating was in discussing renewing Florent Sinama-Pongolle's contract - he wanted £2.6M p/a to take the minimum fee release clause off of his contract, and Terry was restricting me to £2.0M p/a.

The league table was uncomplicated by 'games in hand' - apparently, having everybody dumped out of the European competitions was good for keeping the schedules in step. Arsenal had lost twice, back-to-back, in March, 1-0 away to Charlton and 3-1 away to Aston Villa, which meant that they had really fallen by the wayside as Chelsea's main competition, a role now held by resurgent Manchester United.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Pts W D L GF GA GD

1 Chelsea 74 22 8 2 73 18 +55

2 Manchester United 71 21 8 3 56 14 +42

3 Arsenal 68 20 8 4 80 28 +52

4 Newcastle United 64 19 7 6 74 40 +34

5 Liverpool 56 17 5 10 33 33 0

6 Charlton Athletic 55 16 7 9 53 38 +15

7 Sheffield United 50 13 11 8 50 30 +20

8 Blackburn 46 13 7 12 49 54 - 5

9 Middlesbrough 45 12 9 11 44 38 + 6

10 Aston Villa 45 12 9 11 42 38 + 4

11 Manchester City 44 13 5 14 47 58 -11

12 West Ham United 40 12 4 16 53 60 - 7

13 Southampton 34 9 7 16 44 53 - 9

14 Everton 32 8 8 16 31 56 -25

15 Ipswich Town 31 6 13 13 22 47 -25

16 Fulham 30 7 9 16 35 52 -17

17 West Brom Albion 28 7 7 18 23 52 -29

------------------------------------------------------

18 Crystal Palace 28 8 4 20 29 59 -30

19 Portsmouth 24 6 6 20 29 62 -33

20 Leicester 20 4 8 20 25 62 -37</pre>

The goal-scoring title chase remained firmly in the hands of Fernando Cavenaghi, who had shattered the previous modern record of 21 goals in a Premier League season. To put it in perspective, with six games left in the season, third-place Pizarro would have won three of the past four seasons with his 19, and Sinama-Pongolle had broken the previous record, but wasn't even close to 'in touch' with the prolific Argentine star.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">1 Fernando Cavenaghi 29 Argentina Newcastle United

2 Florent Sinama-Pongolle 22 France Sheffield United

3 Claudio Pizarro 19 Peru Argentina

4 Andrzej Nidezielan 17 Poland West Ham United

5 Yakubu 15 Nigeria Charlton Athletic</pre>

Glancing around the leagues, I was disappointed to note that York City were in real danger of being relegated from the Championship, having slipped to last with 40 out of 46 matches played:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Pts W D L GD

20 Gillingham 45 9 18 13 -11

21 Wigan Athletic 44 11 11 18 - 9

----------------------------------------------

22 Sheffield Wednesday 43 12 7 21 -11

23 Coventry 43 11 10 19 -12

24 York 42 10 12 18 -16</pre>

[Amaroq]

Saturday, 3rd April, 2010.

Chelsea at Old Trafford might well be the deciding game of the Premier League, and with our game not scheduled until Monday, I had the leisure to travel down to Manchester to take it in. Though I'm sure the tabloids would wonder who I was there to scout, I was primarily there for the atmosphere, as a fan. It was interesting to me to observe their tactics, though. Faced with tough defenses, both managers employed their fullbacks much more aggressively than I've been doing. I may have to try adding that to my 'patient buildup' tactics.

Chelsea got the most of the early going, hovering in and around the United area for most of the first twenty minutes, despite the encouragement of the 75,000-strong Old Trafford crowd, none of whom seemed to mind the rain. Peter Cech played an absolute blinder, stopping Wayne Rooney one-on-one on the counter, and making a wicked save when Ruud van Nistelrooy got free for one of his trademark 12-yard specials. The Blues took the lead in the 27th minute on Michael Ballack's 25-yard piledriver, an absolutely gorgeous effort.

The Old Trafford fans became quite upset with the officiating when van Nistelrooy's equalizer in the 39th minute was called back - he was ruled to have pushed off of a defender to create space for himself. In the second half, it was clear that José Mourinho was playing to preserve the lead, and try as they might United couldn't break down the Chelsea defense. More accurately, they could, but couldn't beat Cech. He made eight saves, half of them world-class efforts, earning Man of the Match in Chelsea's 1-0 victory. That left the Blues with a six-point lead over both Arsenal and United, and with five games to play, it looked to assure them of their fourth straight title.

In other scores from around the league, a loss by Liverpool and a draw from Charlton had given us the chance to close the gap for fifth and sixth place a bit.

When I got back to Bramall Lane, I learned that our youth squad had clinched the Under-18 Group Four title for the third year running. 19-year-old left wing Chris Rowe had twisted his knee in the pre-game warmups; he would miss about a week. However, the rest of the squad did well enough, with Simon Fox getting a shutout in his first appearance in goal for the entire season, and Simon Blake earned Man of the Match honors on the right wing in the 0-0 draw. Despite Liverpool U-18s winning their match, our lads had moved seven points clear of them, and Liverpool had only two games left to play.

[Amaroq]

Monday, 5th April, 2010. Premier League - Game 33, at West Bromwich Albion.

We had the privilege of the Monday night game, nationally televised in prime time. Our opponent would be West Brom, who were skirting the edges of the relegation zone, even with 18th-place Crystal Palace, but ahead on the tiebreakers. They had come up, as we had, through the Championship play-offs after finishing fifth last season, so they'd been pre-season favorites for the drop, but Paul Jewell had done a wonderful job keeping them alive so far. Of course, we'd beaten them 4-1 this season, and in the 2007/08 year had swept the series, winning both Championship encounters and then knocking them out of the play-offs in the semi-finals.

You'll be shocked to learn that my lineup was essentially unchanged from that which had triumphed over Leicester: these were the players I wanted fit for the F.A. Cup semi-final next Wednesday. The only change I made was replacing young Ben Hammond with Steve Foster in central defense. Other than that, it was Roy Carroll in goal, Sean Dillon, David Rozehnal, and Keith McCormack with Foster in defense. Mathieu Berson was the defensive midfielder, and Joe Hamill and Jermaine Pennant would roam the wings. Bruno Cheyrou was the playmaker, with Florent Sinama-Pongolle and Imre Szabics partnered in the 4-4-2 that was quickly becoming my favored formation, despite years of neglect.

For the first four minutes, West Brom had the better of possession, sniffing around the outside of our area, but our defense held firm - and when we finally got hold of the ball, it was a quick counter through the right side. Imre Szabics jinked through one man, then knocked a lovely pass into space for Florent Sinama-Pongolle. The pacey French striker was never in danger of being caught, and fired home his 25th goal of the season to give us a 1-0 lead.

The Baggies did their best, but it was clear that they were outclassed and demoralized, and despite the hard work of a few individuals, they couldn't string three passes together consecutively. Their almost desperate air led them to commit too many players forward, and their could be only one result to that. Bruno Cheyrou took control at our own penalty arc, and launched a gorgeous curling long ball for Sinama-Pongolle. With the ball curling in over his left shoulder, no defender could come close to stopping it. He came into the box on a diagonal, and Baggies keeper John Page stayed on his line. Our superstar drilled a low shot from the corner of the six, which was partially stopped by the keeper, but he could only turn it in at the near post, and it was 2-0.

You could hardly blame the West Brom defense for treating Sinama-Pongolle with kid gloves at that point, but he was hardly in a dangerous position, stutter-stepping with the ball in the centre circle and surrounded by white jerseys, when Daniel Gabbidon went in two-footed. Referee Dermot Gallagher showed him a straight red card, and the game was effectively over.

If there was any doubt, it was taken care of in the 41st minute, when Joe Hamill's low cross from the left picked out Sinama-Pongolle twelve yards from goal. He juked past substitute Darren Purse, who had come on for the limping Joe Cole to replace Gabbidon in defense, and fired home a van Nistelrooy-like shot to complete his hat trick.

With the outcome decided, the second half was about damage control, for both sides. West Brom switched to a very defensive 4-4-1, trying to prevent further scoring, and I brought off both Sinama-Pongolle and Cheyrou well before they were starting to feel any effects of tiring, just to prevent either from suffering an injury. A quiet, peaceful second half ended with the same scoreline: poor Roy Carroll was almost bored, as he hadn't been called on to make a single save all day.

West Brom 0, Sheffield United 3

----; Sinama-Pongolle 5, 17, 41

MoM: Sinama-Pongolle

"Well done, lads, well done!"

Our wheelchair-bound inspiration made his presence felt in the changing room, coming around to shake hands and thump backs.

"Keep it up for one more game, eh?"

[Amaroq]

Wednesday, 7th April, 2010.

The tension was growing unbearable. I'd been having trouble sleeping even before the West Brom match, and now our next game was the crucial F.A. Cup Semi-Final against Middlesbrough. Sheffield United was the talk of the town, and I couldn't go anywhere without being mobbed by well-wishers and celebrity spotters.

On Wednesday night, Marc Bridge-Wilkinson and Peter Weatherson showed their determination to regain their places in my starting lineup, each netting a goal against Coventry in a Reserve match. Michael Field capped the scoring in injury time of a 3-0 home win, and Marc was the Man of the Match.

In the Champions League, the results from the first match held up in every instance. In Israel, Juventus dispatched Maccabi Haifa 1-0 on Edixon Perea's goal - the Columbian had netted 23 times in a magical breakout season for Juve - to win on a 3-1 aggregate.

Samuel Eto'o's goal at the San Siro confirmed Barcelona's dominance over A.C. Milan, whose heartbreaking string of three consecutive runner-up finishes was ended with a 4-0 aggregate.

The Estádio do Dragão was the scene of a 52,000-strong party as FC do Porto confirmed their berth in the semi-finals with a 1-0 win over Inter Milan, giving them a four-nil aggregate as well.

Arsenal gave Roma a tough fight at the Olimpico, battling to a 2-2 draw and threatening throughout the second half, but after Roma's 2-0 win in London, the result was good enough to send the Italians into the semi's, and ended the last English presence in Europe. It would be a purely domestic season in May, and that boded ill for the national coefficients used to calculate how many places each nation earns in European play.

[Amaroq]

Saturday, 10th April, 2010.

On Thursday, Hayden Foxe returned to the training pitch, having completed the physiotherapy perscribed for his strained calf. It was a quicker recovery than I'd hoped for, but we both knew he wouldn't be match fit in time for the Middlesbrough tie. He had his sights set on being in shape for the Final.

Unfortunately, on Friday, his place on the injured reserve was taken by Graham Allen. The 23-year-old winger had torn a groin muscle in training. The recommendation of surgery, and a 4-6 month recovery time, likely meant that he had played his last game as a Blade. Unfortunately, it also meant that he was unlikely to land another job elsewhere, as he couldn't pass a physical if I sent him off to surgery. I asked him to consider his options, and let me know what he wanted to do. I was willing to re-sign him on a strictly rotation basis, for far less than he'd been demanding mid-season, and send him to surgery - or he could recover normally and hope to find a manager who didn't recognize that he was 'damaged goods'.

As had been widely expected, Liverpool announced the appointment of Peter Taylor as the new manager at Anfield on Friday. He won his debut, at Manchester City, 2-0 on Saturday. Charlton also won, so we, idle, were back to six points down, though with a game in hand.

Elsewhere, on Saturday, Tottenham Hotspur clinched the Championship with a 3-1 win over Q.P.R. - yes, with four games to go, they had a 17 point lead, and would be rightfully resuming their place in the Premier League next season. York and Sheffield Wednesday, however, were struggling, and both looked likely to get the drop, in last and second-to-last, six and four points back of safety, respectively.

I had begun taking sleeping pills, a small amount, just to get myself to sleep: every time I lay in bed, I thought of the upcoming trip to Wembley, and spun off into nervous anticipation.

[Amaroq]

Sunday, 11th April, 2010.

Sunday afternoon, the lads and I gathered at Bramall Lane to watch the first of the F.A. Cup Semi-Finals on the telly. Chelsea was facing twelfth-placed West Ham United, whose bid to repeat their fabulous shock Cup title of 1980 met its stiffest remaining obstacle, the first-place Blues. Having rooted against Chelsea in the League, I found myself rooting for them in this match: if they won, we would be a single victory away from Europe, where we would need to win twice if they lost.

The first half was very evenly matched - though sheer talent obviously favors Chelsea, West Ham were playing with heart and verve, making up for on effort what they might have lacked in class. They were playing under popular Assistant Manager Peter Grant, and obviously wanted to do him credit. Unfortunately, they began to tire in the closing minutes, and Mateja Kezman was able to put Chelsea ahead on a diving header in the 42nd minute.

Portugese midfielder Tiago got the Hammers right back into it just three minutes after the restart, with a curling long-range shot that Gaël Clichy could only partially block, failing to divert it wide but wrong-footing Peter Cech.

On the hour mark, Frank Lampard showed him how a long-range effort should look, with a vintage 30-yard strike to put Chelsea ahead, 2-1. With West Ham pressing for an equalizer, Chelsea's counter-attacking looked increasingly more likely to put the game out of reach, and though the third goal never materialized, Cech was never in danger of conceding the equalizer.

Chelsea would await us in the Final if we could find our way past Boro - and more importantly, the winner would qualify for Europe!

Sleep?

Sleep was utterly out of the question!

[Nadessico]

Wow that was a long read, but i must say i'm loving it, keep it up Amaroq

[Starr_Man5]

(I don't think comments are needed)

[Amaroq]

Thank you, Nadissco, glad you found it worth it! And thank you, Starr_Man. Now, let's see about 'Boro:

[Amaroq]

Monday, 12th April, 2010.

"I'll take the deal, and the surgery."

Graham Allen stopped into my office to put ink to his new contract, a 3-year-deal which would keep him at the club through his 26th birthday. Over the barrel due to his injury, he decided that security was better than trying to further his career - he had been planning on testing the waters as a free agent, as his contract was expiring in June and I wasn't willing to pay him what he thought he was worth.

With the contract signed, we sent him off to the season-ending surgical procedure - he wasn't even expected to be up to pre-season training, and would rejoin us sometime in August or September of next season.

He had just left my office, leaving me to peruse the paper - Joe Hamill and, of course, hat-trick hero Florent Sinama-Pongolle had been selected to the Premier League Team of the Week despite being idle on the weekend - when Stuart McCall arrived, carrying a sheet of paper and a bemused look on his face.

"Take a gander at this," he told me, pushing the paper across the desk at me.

I was staring at a resume - that of Juan Carlos Valerón.

"Why do we have Juan's resume?" I asked, knowing from Stuart's expression that I had to play the straight man for him.

"He's applied to be your new Assistant Manager."

"I knew he'd received his coaching badges," I said, "But he's never had any coaching experience."

"He has been helping out around the training pitch," Stuart told me. "He's pretty good. You might want to consider it, or at least hire him on as a coach."

If I'd gotten a laugh over that, I got an even better one when I spoke with his agent. The gall of the man! He was asking the same salary - £1.9M p/a - that Valerón was earning as the most overpaid player in the squad. There was no way I could offer that much - I'd been hoping to offer a tenth that, and it was well more than I was earning - and he wasn't willing to compromise on it.

That scuppered his application pretty thoroughly, I thought.

There were some routine matters, as well, paperwork which helped while away the hours as the F.A. Cup match approached. Phil Davidson had returned from Wrexham, a loan which he thought a waste of time despite playing 15 games and scoring a goal. Attacking midfielder Gary Thomas returned to the fold after three months in League One at Bristol Rovers. He'd scored 1 goal, with 2 assists, and a 6.71 rating in 14 games for the Pirates.

Elsewhere, a strange U-18 match had seen us make all three substitutions before half-time, a penalty saved, Man of the Match to one of the losing players, a shutout without a shot conceded, and an 83rd-minute game-winner by an out-of-position player who is leaving as soon as the transfer window opens. It was, in the end, a 1-0 win over Notts County U-18s, with the goal provided by David Parker, on as a striker due to an injury to Jake Giles. Luckily, the injury was only a bruised shin, keeping him out a few days at most.

[Amaroq]

Wednesday, 14th April, 2010. F.A. Cup - Semi-Final, vs Middlesbrough at Wembley.

The famous confines of Wembley were the scene, on a cool, overcast April afternoon. The crowd failed to fill the place, but 38,793 had made the trip, and it was equally split between supporters of the two clubs. The UEFA Cup awaited the winner - Middlesbrough, in eighth, were even less likely to qualify via the league than we were - and an Inter-Toto Cup berth was all the loser could hope for.

We'd met Boro six times in the past two seasons - they'd knocked us out of the League Cup semi-finals last year - and had beaten them only once, with two draws and three defeats. However, the win had come in February, and all of the defeats had come with the 4-5-1 and Allan McGregor in goal, so our lads were confident. Their lineup was decimated by injury and unhappiness, and tired from a Sunday league match, a 3-0 win over Fulham. Missing from their regular lineup were attacking midfielders Chavdar Yankov, Stilian Petrov, and Benedict Vilakazi, as well as defensemen Giourkas Seitaridis and Matthew Upson. Leading scorer Johan Elmander had just returned to training, but my scouts said he wasn't fit to play. They were wrong - he lined up, with Dean Ashton, up front.

Our lineup was the same, to a man, as had exploded for our 3-0 win the previous week. All were well rested, in superb condition, and spoiling for a fight. Roy Carroll in goal had not last a game yet, and Sean Dillon, Steve Foster, David Rozehnal, and Keith McCormack were playing well together as a unit. Mathieu Berson was the stalwart defensive midfielder, as always. On the wings, Joe Hamill was coming off a fine performance, and Jermaine Pennant had acheived match fitness just in time. Bruno Cheyrou remained the midfield engine, with Imre Szabics partnering the prolific Florent Sinama-Pongolle in an attack that had to be giving Graeme Souness nightmares.

This was no defensive classic. Right from the opening kickoff, both sides were thinking attack, and both keepers had a save by the second minute. The defenses settled in, rising to the the challenge and playing very well. Steve Foster was the most notable at our end, with Jordan Holmes leading the Boro defense. In the 13th minute, Keith McCormack, trailing Jermaine Pennant up the right wing, picked up a loose ball when the winger was tackled. He sent a cross into the six for Imre Szabics, stationed at the near post, and Wilfred Bouma headed the cross out for a corner.

That sparked seven minutes of red-and-white control, culminating in another corner kick in the 20th minute. Pennant floated it in, and David Marek Rozehnal rose, just outside of the congested six, and powered a header to the near post. The roar of the crowd confirmed what I'd just seen: we were ahead, 1-0! What a time for the Czech defender to notch his first-ever goal for Sheffield United!

Sometimes, an early goal will make a team fold. Sometimes, it will wake the sleeping lion. In a game of this magnitude, it was bound to be the latter. In the first 20 minutes, I'd noticed our lads outhustling them: Bruno Cheyrou and Florent Sinama-Pongolle had both tracked back to pick up long balls deep in our own half, where our defenders had been unable to cover. After the goal, it was Middlesbrough who were showing the effort, and only some fine defending kept the lead through the break. Foster, in particular, made a goal-saving tackled on Dean Ashton in the arc, and Roy Carroll was lucky to cover a ball pinging around the six a few minutes later. When they had dead-ball situations, we had all eleven back, it was that intense. That's not to say we didn't have chances: Cheyrou whistled a shot inches wide from a tight angle, and Phil Jagielka blocked Sinama-Pongolle's best chance. Just before the break, the French striker countered with a quick breakaway, and only a wonderful save by Jason Hammond kept it 1-0 at the break.

I gave the lads my best inspirational-speaker routine at the half, and reminded them just how important this game is to them. They came out with a renewed sense of purpose, Imre Szabics in particular. Three minutes after the restart, he volleyed a corner kick from just beyond the six, only to see it stopped on the line by his personal nemesis, Bouma. Three minutes later, he beat Bouma in the six to head Cheyrou's free kick on goal, but it failed to beat Hammond.

Things were looking so good, until the 52nd minute. Carroll, under pressure, put the ball out for a throw rather than take any chances. Franck Queudrue took it quickly, and fullback Matthew Bates sent a low cross into the six. Johan Elmander beat four white-shirted defenders to net the equalizer, and it was 1-1 with all to play for.

If it had been a good game to that point, it became a classic thereafter. Both sides were playing fantastic football, with flowing attacks from the midfield meeting stingy defense and keeping. Just on the hour mark, Dillon's long pass put Sinama-Pongolle free on the break, but he couldn't get much on the shot. Hammond, at 21 already a veteran of one European campaign, had an easy save. Shortly thereafter, I made my first sub - Hamill had been battling an injury all afternoon, and Jonathan Forte took over for him on the left. Souness had made all three of his changes before I made any.

In the 68th minute, Mark Whitehead brought Szabics down just outside the area. Some in the crowd were screaming for a penalty, but Neale Barry point to the exact point he wanted it, out right, just a foot to the side of the area. It was a golden chance, and I clenched my fists at my side as Bruno Cheyrou eyed the goal. He curled a wicked free kick around the wall, but the Boro keeper made a solid save, cradling it to his chest as he collapsed at the post.

The tension was growing unbearable. My palms were sweating, my heart was beating. The crowd were on their feet and deafening. On the pitch, you could see the tension running high as well - Within minutes of each other, Sean Dillon and Forte were booked for arguing calls. I was pacing the touchline with frenetic energy, praying my guys could pull it out.

It looked like nothing doing in the 75th minute, when Cheyrou tried a 25-yarder from the center of the pitch, through a clogged Boro area. It was blocked by Chris Riggott, but the ricochet fell to Szabics on the right side. Rather than try to settle it, he fired in a half-volley from a tight angle. It nicked off of Matthew Bates, and skipped past Hammond, striking the turf but not bouncing up off of it. It was in the back of the net, and sudden delirium erupted - the lads rushed into the corner to celebrate with him, and even our substitutes were up and celebrating, pounding me on the back. I remember hugging Stuart McCall - but at 2-1 with 15 minutes to play, it wasn't over yet.

Graeme Souness switched to a 4-3-3, while I made the change to a 4-5-1, taking Szabics off with a 'well done', and putting Iain Hume on in midfield. Every 'Boro foray forward was a danger, followed by a counter-attack that looked equally likely to score. I lost track of the fine defense: Rozehnal's inch-perfect tackle on the eighteen, Foster's perfect positioning to win a header, and Dillon's crucial interception still stand out, but there were many more

In the 80th minute, despite our emphasis on defense, Bates sent a long ball for Peter Madsen, who'd slipped behind Keith McCormack. Rozehnal, sprinting from the far side, tracked him down. With a splendid sliding tackle in the area, he simultaneously dispossessed the attacker, and started the counter, as McCormack had nothing to do but look forward. The counter was majestic, a 45-yard long ball by Pennant struck perfectly into the path of Sinama-Pongolle. Clean through with only the goalie to beat, the clinical finisher knocked a vicious shot into the top-right corner to book our place in Europe!!

There still remained ten minutes of defending, but with a 3-1 lead, I took the opportunity of placing Danny Payne on for Cheyrou: defend, defend, defend was our watchword. Finally, after an eternity, the final whistle blew, and the celebration could begin in earnest!

Sheffield United 3, Middlesbrough 1

Rozehnal 20, Szabics 75, Sinama-Pongolle 81; Elmander 52

MoM: Pennant

Europe!! We're going to Europe!!

The party lasted well into the night, let me tell you! Drinking and carousing, with the world seemingly at our feet and all the best nightspots in London to celebrate at!

[Kairyu]

WOOT!!! Grats!!!! UEFA CUP next season!!!!

and another source of income too while it is not as big as champions league tv revenue, it certainly helps

[Amaroq]

Consider it a "thank you" to all of you who have stuck with it through two bleak years! I'd thought of upping the pace a bit for these past two seasons.

[Amaroq]

Friday, 16th April, 2010.

When we returned to Sheffield the next morning, we were greeted by a throng of revelers who had seemingly camped out in front of Bramall Lane to be there when we got home. The fans, who have been so kind to us, deserved every moment that we spent with them, signing autographs, having pictures taken, and in general just soaking in their happiness mingled with our own.

When I finally made it back to my office, I checked in on yesterday's Reserve match. It had been a tough decision, but I'd sent a number of first-teamers with the Reserves rather than letting them watch at Wembley: if they weren't in my sixteen, I wanted them maintaining match fitness, not playing spectator. Victor Sikora was one such, and he earned Man of the Match honours with a fine performance, spending a half on each wing. Marc Bridge-Wilkinson scored another free-kick special, and Joe Newell was chafing at the bit to get back into the rotation - he took his frustration out on the opposition keeper with a late goal. The 2-0 win over Bolton Reserves put our Reserves back into the lead of Reserve Group 1, a two-point advantage with two games to go.

I was perhaps a bit surprised when Bridge-Wilkinson showed up at my door on Friday.

"Look, boss, we have to talk."

He stepped in and shut the door behind him.

"That was a real slap in the face, not even being invited to Wembley!"

"Well, John didn't think you were match fit yet, so I wasn't planning to start you, and I wanted you to get a match in."

"Even if you weren't intending to start me, what would you have done if Bruno had hurt himself in warmup, and neither Joe or I was there?

"With that, and this two-striker thing, I think you've pretty much made it clear that I'm not part of your plans, and if that's the case I'd like to think about changing clubs."

"I'm sorry to hear that - you were a big part of getting us where we are, and I was thinking, with Europe next season, that there will be a lot more games to go around, to keep everybody happy."

"That's just it! I don't want a few games tossed my way, like I'm a fringe player. I thought I was 'indispensable to the club', and watching Juan rot on the bench this year - I just see that being me, next year."

"I can't make any promises, Marc, but if you can find the form you had last season, you'll make it impossible for me to keep you off the pitch, you know that."

There wasn't much else we could say, at that point, but I had to admit to myself that he hadn't made himself indispensable this season, and his concerns were justified.

With a big league game against fifth-placed Charlton coming up, I didn't need the distraction and concern. I was already worried about a possible drop in performance after our celebration.

[Amaroq]

Saturday, 17th April, 2010. Premier League - Game 33, at Charlton Athletic.

Had we lost to Middlesbrough, the trip to London would have been a key game. We were six points back of Charlton, though with a game in hand on the fifth-placed team, and would need to beat them to have any reasonable hope of overcoming them. With a European berth assured, the game was less meaningful, but I hoped the lads would want a measure of revenge - the Addicks had beaten us at Bramall Lane, 1-0, in November.

Six of my starters from Wembley remained in the lineup despite the short rest and inevitable emotional letdown. Roy Carroll remained in goal, and Steve Foster and David Rozehnal had impressed in central defense. Joe Keenan was the left fullback, and Danny Payne made his fiftieth league appearance as a Blade on the right. Matheiu Berson remained at defensive midfielder, and Man of the Match Jermaine Pennant started on the right, though I doubted I'd get more than 70 minutes out of him. Jonathan Forte spelled Hamill on the left wing, and Iain Hume gave Cheyrou a break in the attacking midfield role. Up front, I paired Florent Sinama-Pongolle with Peter Weatherson, who was making his centennial league appearance for us.

Charlton started out strong, bringing it straight up the pitch from the opening kickoff, and it was truly desperate defending in our box the first two minutes. It didn't seem that anyone could get a boot in to clear, and if it did get out of the area, a red shirt was there immediately to retain possession and ratchet up the pressure. We weathered the initial storm, but couldn't get anything going ourselves.

The energy and urgency which had characterized our showdown with Middlesbrough was utterly lacking. In the 8th minute, the Addicks earned a free kick 30 yards out. We lined up a four-man wall between Jimmy Bullard and the goal, but he played a low pass right for Edgar Barreto, who struck a curler from 25 yards, just beyond the tip of the arc. The crowd, 23,995 strong, erupted in a cheer as it nestled into the netting, and we were down 0-1 already.

Sometimes a dominant team lets up a bit after getting an early goal, but there was no let-up in The Valley. The hosts continued to look like the dangerous side, with leading scorer Yakubu and the ever-dangerous Nicolas Anelka both having chances saved by Roy Carroll. The few times we managed to counter, nothing came of it, until the 26th minute. Joe Keenan worked it up the left sideline to Jonathan Forte, who did a tight-rope act to keep it in bounds and dodge around the fullback. He sent a low pass to Florent Sinama-Pongolle in the area. Bullard held the prolific striker back, and the referee blew the whistle. He consulted with his linesman, and then pointed to the spot!

Danny Payne stepped up to take it, and he struck it low to the keepers' left. Goal! He celebrated his fiftieth league appearance with his first-ever goal for Sheffield United. More importantly, at 1-1, we were back on level terms.

If I'd hoped that would wake the lads up, I was sorely disappointed. Charlton weren't letting that slow them down, and they were right back at us from the following kickoff. We lasted ten minutes, but in the 38th, Yakubu darted around Jermaine Pennant to send a cross in from the left. There was a crowd of players from both teams in the six, but Anelka rose above them to power a header into the back of the net. Now 31, and in his third season with the Addicks, it was his 55th goal for them, and the 170th of his career. The crowd let their appreciation at the 1-2 lead be known.

They still hadn't settled back into their seats when Anelka found the net a second time. This time, Bullard sent a cross from deep towards Barreto at the back post. Carroll came out to make the catch, but Anelka leapt between the keeper and the ball to head home his second. We were being thoroughly outplayed, and at 1-3 you might be forgiven for thinking the game was all over.

The lads didn't. In the 43rd minute, the ball was knocked loose at midfield. Iain Hunt pounced on it, and sent a quick pass forward for Peter Weatherson, who had split the central defenders. He shot from just inside the eighteen, but veteran keeper Robert Green made a solid foot save. The rebound kicked out left to Sinama-Pongolle. I expected the Frenchman to put it away, but he didn't shoot, instead playing it back to Forte, and the opportunity was lost.

We went to halftime, still trailing by two, and Stuart and I talked about changing tactics, trying something different to break the rhythm of a game that was obviously going against us. In the end, I decided against: the 4-4-2 with a patient buildup seemed to offer our best chance of scoring while still keeping people back.

Unfortunately, Charlton had obviously solved that, and it took them less than sixty seconds to renew their assault on our goal. Danish central defender Martin Albrechtsen had slipped forward unmarked, and he launched a rocket from the 18. Only a brilliant leaping save by Carroll diverted it over the bar. Five minutes later, Theo Walcott sent a cross in from the right side. With Anelka double-covered, it was Yakubu who had the chance, and the Nigerian rose to head home. At 1-4, it was clear that something had to change, and I regretted not having done so at halftime.

I shifted to a 4-5-1, bringing young Phil Davidson on for Weatherson. Seeing our retreat, Charlton manager Alan Curbishley called off his dogs, falling back into a more defensive outlook as well, replacing Anelka to a standing ovation from the home crowd. By the 67th minute, I felt comfortable going back to a 4-4-2, with Noel Hunt on as a striker, replacing Hume. Simon Blake also came in on the right wing. Hunt's ball-winning skills in the middle of the park are extraordinary, and really helped us earn the better part of possession beyond that - his performance really made me regret the decision to phase him out of the team, which was irretrievable at this point: he wouldn't sign with the club again, I'm sure. One flick-on header in particular put Sinama-Pongolle through on goal beautifully, and only a wonderful save by Green denied him.

In the very closing minutes, Hunt put a header just over after Forte had picked him out in the six. Either goal would only have served to assuage our pride, however: Charlton had thoroughly deserved their comprehensive victory, and the crowd gave them another ovation as they jogged, waving, back to the tunnel.

Charlton Athletic 4, Sheffield United 1

Barreto 8, Anelka 38, 40, Yakubu 52; Payne pen 27

MoM: Anelka

Our 14-game unbeaten streak had come to a close, and honestly I was not at all surprised: I'd known that the emotional let-down was a possibility for this match, while Charlton were locked in a nasty battle with Liverpool for fifth place, and needed every point they could get.

[Amaroq]

Sunday, 18th April, 2010.

"Is Europe too much?"

Rupert Wormwood was at it again:

Is Europe too much?

The celebration is over, and the inevitable hangover that follows has played itself out. Only cold reality remains, and Sheffield fans must ask themselves, will qualifying for the UEFA Cup be worth it?

The benefits, both financially and in terms of prestige, of the Champions League are well-documented and beyond doubt, but the UEFA Cup is a decidedly different story.

The financial incentives are relatively insignificant, percentagewise, when compared with the Premier League prize moneys and television revenue. It takes making it past the group stages, at least, for the Cup to even close in on profitable for the teams involved - at least, the English teams.

However, the cost of competing is significant, especially in terms of its effect on the domestic game. Manager Ian Richards has shown a distinct pattern of squad rotation when faced with a mid-week match, as all the UEFA Cup matches would be, and everyone agrees that squad rotation is a must when faced with a lengthy European campaign. Will he play his starters in Europe, with the inevitable problems of the second string struggling in the League?

If so, he may follow the same quick-fall pattern which has characterized each of the five 'smaller' clubs which have won a European berth these past two seasons.

Last year, Blackburn and West Ham United qualified for the UEFA Cup by finishing 6th and 7th in the League, respectively. This season, they are 10th and 12th, with no hope of a European berth. Newcastle United, last year, suffered the same fate, falling from 5th to 10th, in part due to the rigours of their UEFA Cup campaign.

Even our Champions League qualifiers have struggled, with Middlesbrough falling from 3rd last season to 9th this year, and now missing out on their last chance to reach Europe via the Cups. Aston Villa's fall from grace was even more dramatic, as they went from a title-chasing third to a relegation-battling 15th virtually overnight - but even while falling to 15th, they advanced past the Champions League group stages, as Javier Clemente insisted on keeping his best fresh for Europe.

Even a team doing well in Europe, with the sufficient depth of squad to maintain their League form, is not immune to the negative effects. The F.A.'s obscure scheduling policies, pushing matches back into April and May to prevent fixture collision in the earlier parts of the season, simply results in a massive log-jam of matches which cannot be solved if the team persists in staying alive in the Cups.

Manchester United's UEFA Cup and FA Cup titles last season came with a heavy price, as they were forced to play three games in four days at one stage, and had their season finale with the Blades pushed out a week past everyone else's closing game.

It seems unlikely that European qualification will be a major factor in bringing players to the club: after all, Richards has already brought Florent Sinama-Pongolle, Imre Szabics, Roy Carroll, David Rozehnal, Jermaine Pennant, Bruno Cheyrou and Stewart Downing to the club, all internationally known players in their own right, and the impending transfer of Colombian phenom Freddy Guarín was arranged when qualification seemed least likely.

It seems clear that UEFA Cup qualification is only suited to the clubs with the largest squads, and does not provide enough revenue to bring in sufficient players to sustain a push in the League concurrent with a long Cup run.

Richards has defied my every prediction, but I cannot believe that there is an escape from the UEFA Cup curse, save either an early exit from Europe or a struggle in the Premiership.

[Bohinen]

This story is a tremendous piece of work. I love it. Keep it up:-)

[Amaroq]

Thanks, Bohinen. Always appreciate the support, it keeps me motivated to keep up the quality!

[Amaroq]

Wednesday, 21st April, 2010. Premier League - Game 35, vs West Ham United.

The Hammers were one of Wormwood's examples - a team which had played the full group schedule of the UEFA Cup, but placed fourth, missing out the knockout rounds by a single point. Their league form had certainly struggled as a result, as they were down from 7th last year to 12th. Last season, we'd split the series, with a 5-1 win at home and a 1-3 loss away. This year, we'd beaten them 2-0 at Upton Park on a brace by Florent Sinama-Pongolle. Since then, they'd sacked manager Alan Irvine, but hadn't named a replacement.

A return home seemed to be just what we needed, and I decided to shake things up with wholesale changes throughout the lineup: only one player remained in the starting lineup from the Charlton match. Allan McGregor spelled Carroll at goalkeeper. Sean Dillon, Hayden Foxe, Ben Hammond, and Keith McCormack all returned across the defensive row, and with Steve Newton at defensive midfielder, so the back six had changed entirely. Joe Hamill and Victor Sikora were the wingers, and playmaker Bruno Cheyrou returned to orchestrate the attack. Peter Weatherson was the only returnee, partnered with Hungarian Imre Szabics at striker in the 4-4-2.

32,907 had braved the rain to celebrate our Cup victory - this was the first home match after Wembley. Cheered by the support, the lads came out strong, pushing the Hammers back from the off. We had the visitors trapped in their own territory, with the exception of a few long clearances. Peter Weatherson's clever little pass on the quarter hour sprung Bruno Cheyrou through on goal, and only a fine reflex save by Stuart Taylor kept the Frenchman off the board.

On the 20th minute, Weatherson again served Cheyrou, this time whipping in a cross that found the midfielder unmarked within 10 yards of goal. Only the fact that he scuffed the shot allowed Taylor time for a save.

Still, the goal looked inevitable, and it came in the 23rd minute. Imre Szabics had it on the left side, and switched things up with a long cross-field pass to the unmarked Victor Sikora. The Dutchman showed off his explosive pace, dribbling twenty yards unchallenged into the area. He shot low across Taylor's body, finding the far side netting for his first ever goal as a Blade. It was 1-0, and he was clearly as delighted as the fans were with that wonderful strike.

We were playing with much more alacrity, but after the goal West Ham seemed to find a bit of their footing, and at least managed to limit us to no further goals by halftime. Joe Hamill was hobbled on a hard tackle by Dennis Rommedahl in the 38th minute, and Joe Keenan came in to play the left wing - not his specialty, but he's looked okay the few times I've called on him similarly. At halftime, Sean Dillon was still fuming about it - he told anybody who was listening that it had been a vicious play. I made no changes at halftime, but the Hammers introduced Andrzej Niedielan, their leading scorer, who had been kept off to give Bobby Zamora a rare start.

With an attacking player of his quality introduced, it was no surprise that both offenses came to life in the second half. In the 54th minute, Cheyrou launched a beautiful curling strike from range. Taylor made the save, but could only punch it away, and the rebound fell to Imre Szabics. His shot hit the woodwork and bounced clear - the Hungarian was very unlucky.

Moments later, Robert Vittek had a glorious chance when Rommedahl's long pass put him free of our back line. Allan McGregor raced out to meet him, and he hurried his shot, blazing it over the bar. Another wave of substitutions followed about the hour mark, and I brought Joe Newell on for Peter Weatherson, switching to a 4-5-1 with thirty minutes to play.

That slowed things down, and it looked liked we'd escape with the one-goal victory. On the 73rd minute, I brought Jake Giles in for Szabics, the 18-year-old making his league debut.

With thirteen minutes remaining, West Ham was reduced to ten men. I won't speculate as to whether it was intentional - but Dillon's crunching tackle left Rommedahl out for the remainder of the season with a broken collarbone, and you can draw your own conclusions. The referee didn't even give him the yellow he fully deserved, in my opinion.

West Ham's Assistant Manager, Peter Grant, switched them to a 3-2-4, trying to keep some attacking options open, but that just let us control the midfield. There was far too much space, and it was inevitable that somebody would get open for a shot. That somebody was Bruno Cheyrou, and his 30-yard curler brought the crowd to their feet in astonishment. It also sealed the victory, at 2-0, and his appointment as Man of the Match.

Sheffield United 2, West Ham 0

Sikora 23, Cheyrou 82; ----

MoM: Cheyrou

"Ian, there's somebody to see you."

I stepped out of the changing room, where celebrations were ongoing and Mister Dooley was expressing his delight to the lads, and found myself with a visitor.

"Congratulations, Mister Richards. I'm Terence Brown, chairman of West Ham United.

"I just wanted to meet you in person, and tell you how impressed I am with what you've built at Bramall Lane."

I'd no sooner sputtered my thanks, than he bid adieu. It was a strange visit, but one I didn't give much thought to at the time.

[Amaroq]

Friday, 23rd April, 2010.

A quick visit to the physio's room revealed that Joe Hamill had only bruised his shin. He'd miss the Fulham match, but should be back in time for our brutal close schedule: at Liverpool, home to Manchester United, and then thrice-champions Chelsea in the F.A. Cup Final!

In the Champions League, both home sides won, but conceded vital away goals. FC do Porto defeated Juventus 3-2. The visitors had taken an early lead, but three goals in a thirty-two minute span had the Estádio do Dragão rocking, and Porto looking good for the second leg - until David Trezeguet clawed one back in injury time.

A.S. Roma beat Barcelona by the same scoreline in Rome, a back-and-forth match that saw both sides lead en route to a 2-2 scoreline. Daniele Corvia knocked the eventual game-winner through on 58 minutes, but it was hard to bet against a Barcelona side with the advantage of two away goals and the Nou Camp.

In lesser action, Gary Thomas was welcomed back to the Under-18s after 3 months in League One. Saltergate must have seemed a small stage to him after The Memorial Stadium in Bristol, but he scored the only goal as our lads beat Crewe U-18s 1-0 on a Friday night.

[Amaroq]

Saturday, 24th April, 2010. Premier League - Game 36, vs Fulham.

At first blush, a home tie against the 16th-placed side in the Premier League might seem easy pickings for the club with the 5th-best goal differential. However, the Cottagers had already beaten us twice this season, 1-2 in a pre-season friendly, and 1-3 in London, so we knew all too well how dangerous they could be, even if it had been six straight games since they'd tasted victory.

I reverted back to the 4-5-1, going with a patient style of buildup. Roy Carroll returned in goal, despite McGregor getting a shutout in his last match. At left back, James Fowler made only the third appearance of his loan. Steve Foster and David Rozehnal returned to their duties in central defense, with Danny Payne at right back. French stalwart Mathieu Berson was the defensive midfielder, and Jonathan Forte and Jermaine Pennant would man the wings. Playmaker Marc Bridge-Wilkinson returned to the starting lineup - his announcement was met with loud applause by the crowd - with Canadian long-strike artist Iain Hume as his partner. Florent Sinama-Pongolle returned at striker, making the 30th start of his incredible season.

We came out in complete control, dominating posession right from the opening sequence and quickly pushing Fulham back to defend. Sinama-Pongolle nearly had his 26th of the season by the fifth minute, but his header from Jermaine Pennant's cross went just over the bar.

A yellow card to Jason Downey, who was forced to recklessly bring down Iain Hume as the Canadian lined up a long shot, seemed to emphasize our dominance, and if the lads tried some trickery that didn't come off rather than shoot from 25 yards, it looked okay - until the 11th minute. Egyptian forward Mido knocked a cracking 30-yarder whose dipping curvature utterly befuddled Roy Carroll. It was utterly against the run of play, but Fulham had taken an 0-1 lead.

There may have been 80 minutes left to play, but Fulham tried to close up shop, desperate to defend. They resorted to fouling at every opportunity, and even normally lenient Graham Poll was forced to hand out a number of yellows, all to the lads in blue. Marc Bridge-Wilkinson's first long-range effort was well off target, but he seemed to be finding the range, getting his shots closer and closer as the half wore on. At the half-hour mark, another Pennant service gave Sinama-Pongolle a great chance to equalize, but again he knocked the header just over the bar, and halftime came with the score still 0-1.

The 4-5-1 just wasn't breaking down Fulham's defense, even after I'd told the lads to range forward, so I brought Imre Szabics on for fullback James Fowler, switching to the 3-5-2 and telling the lads to concentrate on getting an equalizer. Often, that leads to shots at both ends, but Fulham dropped to something about like a 5-4-1, with every emphasis on defense. The box was crowded, and their fullbacks were playing well: it was impossible to get anything other than a 30-yard effort on them. We seemed to get plenty of those, but the vast majority were wide or over, and in the end Fulham goalkeeper Robert Hunter only made three saves.

The introduction of Joe Newell and Victor Sikora (replacing Bridge-Wilkinson and Forte, respectively) injected some life into the attack, and in the 78th minute they combined beautifully. Sikora, on the left wing, sent a curling pass towards Newell, at the eighteen and a bit left of the near post. The pass was a bit behind him, but the lad made a spectacular spinning volley, catching it still in the air after it had passed his body. Had it found the net, it might have been the goal of the season, but it curled inches wide of the far post - he just hadn't been able to come around on it.

The usual last-minute flurry of activity couldn't find an equalizer - Sinama-Pongolle was ruled offsides on his best chance, Sikora was brought down on a perfect tackle by Park Ji-Sung, and numerous shots into the packed eighteen caromed off of Cottager defenders.

Sheffield United 0, Fulham 1

----; Mido 11

MoM: Downey (Fulham MC)

I didn't spare the lads how I felt.

"We were flatter than a bottle of Coke that's been left out in the sun with the lid open.. for a week!"

We'd had the most classic of poor matches: we'd outshot them 15 to 1, but their one had produced the goal, while 12 of our 15 were off target.

Privately, I thought it showed the difference between this side with Bruno Cheyrou in the lineup, and without, though to be fair Marc hadn't really been match-fit at kickoff.

[Amaroq]

Sunday, 25th April, 2010.

Chelsea pounded Newcastle United, 3-0, at home. With two games to go, they're holding a two-point lead over Manchester United, as the Premier League race comes to its exciting conclusion. Even third-place Arsenal still has a chance, six points back but with a home game against Chelsea up next.

Saturday was an awful day for my former teams, as York's fate was confirmed. Though they had a match left to play, a five-game losing streak from March through April had dropped them well below the other relegation candidates. Lancaster, too, was relegated from the Conference North despite a 2-0 win - they'd needed other results to go their way, and a draw by Gainsborough Trinity had kept the Blues in 20th place, going down on goal difference on their last day.

In other news, striker James Bradley returned from Bradford City, where he'd played 14 games over a three-month loan to League One. He'd only netted 3 goals, with 1 Man of the Match award and a 6.50 average rating - none to impressive, honestly. I'd expected he would do much better than that.

[Amaroq]

Monday, 26th April, 2010.

"Hello, Mister Richards?"

"Speaking."

"Terence Brown, from West Ham United. Do you have a moment?"

"Certainly." I pushed the door to my office closed. "How do you do, sir?"

"Quite well, and thank you. You might suspect why I'm calling you. As you know, we've been without a manager since I fired Alan in March.

"Now, I know you've said that you're interested in staying at Sheffield, and I know that tyou haven't applied for a position or linked yourself with the job in any way... but after seeing your club in person on Wednesday, I must say I was very impressed.

"I'd like to offer you the managerial position here at Upton Park."

"What? Not an interview? The job?"

"Yes. I think your achievements speak for themselves."

He went on to outline the specifics: a substantial raise from my current salary, of course, and the promise of a £5.25M transfer budget for the coming summer, plus whatever I could raise from the sale of existing players. He did, he warned me, expect that we'd need to sell a number of older players, as they had twenty players earning £750K or more, and needed to significantly reduce the wage bill now that they no longer had European revenue to count on.

"I'll think about it tonight," I told him, "And discuss it with my wife, but I should warn you, I'm keen on continuing what I've built here. The prospect of and playing in Europe next year is very appealing to me."

[Kairyu]

I really dont see him going to West Ham

[GeorgieMc]

Indeed, speaking as a West Ham fan I think you'd have to be borderline insane to reject the chance to go to Manchester United and then take the West Ham job, especially with the FA Cup Final and a season in Europe on the horizon!

Plus Terry Brown is one hell of a slimy guy, don't be surprised to see that promised transfer kitty disappear suddenly!

[Amaroq]

Hey, they can't all be brilliant cliffhangers!

[Amaroq]

Wednesday, 28th April, 2010.

I turned him down.

Not before I told Derek Dooley I was considering it, and what the offer was, though!

But, honestly, it wasn't about the money: Europe beckoned, and I could hardly wait to see what more we could accomplish here. I felt like the squad was simply getting stronger as time went on, and though London is a lot more attractive than Sheffield as a place to live, there's something about the people here that is compelling.

Bruno Cheyrou, for example, had been named to the Team of the Week despite not even playing a minute on Saturday.

Wednesday saw both home sides advance in the Champions League Semi-Finals. Barcelona beat Roma on a single goal by Juan Román Riquelme, which gave them a 3-3 aggregate and let them advance on away goals, to the delight of a 96,000-strong crowd at the Nou Camp. It was the first time since 1994 that

Barça had made it as far as the Final.

Juventus was more convincing, dominating F.C. do Porto, 3-0, at the Delle Alpi to give them a 5-3 aggregate, and giving them a shot at winning it all for the second time in three years.

Joe Hamill, just back in training from his bruised shin, injured his elbow with an awkward fall during the morning training session. It'll rule him out for the coming match against Liverpool, which is not a good thing as we try to build momentum for Chelsea and the F.A. Cup Final.

Middlesbrough Reserves surprised me by starting a very strong lineup in our Reserve match later that day, with George Boateng, Chavdar Yankov, and Benedict Vilakazi headlining. We were starting an equally powerful lineup, with a number of our regulars featuring as I focused their fitness towards the Final. After falling behind 0-1, we came back with goals by Joe Newell, Man of the Match Peter Weatherson, and young James Bradley to reprise our F.A. Cup win, 3-1.

[Amaroq]

Friday, 30th April, 2010.

A busy week came to a close with the monthly board review.

"Congratulations, lad," chairman Derek Dooley started. "Europe! I can't tell you how delighted I am; I can hardly believe it. Just four years ago, we were getting relegated to League One, and I was certain we'd not see Europe in my lifetime.

"You're a miracle-worker, lad."

Executive Vice President Terry Robinson made sure to compliment me for my loyalty. "West Ham are a big club," he said, though the table might not bear him out. "I'm gratified, and I know Derek is pleased, too."

"It wasn't a question. United, now, that was tempting..."

My joke drew a bit of a strained laugh from the rest of the board: I'd never publicly renounced interest in Old Trafford the way I just had Upton Park.

"... but ... I have a contract, and I'm quite happy with it."

In fact, my bonus for qualifying for the UEFA Cup next year was a sizable chunk of change. I could hardly complain - even if Mister Brown had offered a higher base salary, I was actually earning more this year than what he'd offered.

The meeting continued with just a quick word from Terry reminding me that the fans are more than satisfied. "They're over the moon," he said. "I've never seen excitement so high for next season." In fact, season ticket sales had begun for next year, and we already had a solid stream of revenue coming from it.

It wasn't enough to offset our losses, however. We'd lost £0.7M for the month, which put our losses for the season at a woeful £8.8M.

"Don't worry about it," he told me. "The off-season revenues are coming, and the prize money, TV money, and F.A. Cup prizes will more than offset everything. Honest, we're delighted with the club's finances, even if you can't see it."

I could see it, honestly. We had £14.0M in the bank, which was £0.8M more than we'd had the previous season on the same date, so I knew that, whatever the accounting ledgers claimed, we were still turning a profit.

With just two matches left in the season, for every team, the league was balanced on a knife's edge. Any of three teams could still win the title, though Arsenal's chances were vanishingly slim, and even 20th-placed Leicester could still save themselves with two wins and a lot of luck. It could all resolve itself in one glorious weekend of play, however.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Pts W D L GF GA GD

1 Chelsea 82 24 10 2 78 19 +59

2 Manchester United 80 24 8 4 63 16 +47

3 Arsenal 76 22 10 4 84 29 +55

4 Newcastle United 70 21 7 8 77 44 +33

5 Charlton Athletic 63 18 9 9 61 41 +20

6 Liverpool 63 19 6 11 41 38 + 3

7 Sheffield United 56 15 11 10 56 35 +21

8 Aston Villa 53 14 11 11 49 39 +10

9 Middlesbrough 50 13 11 12 49 41 + 8

10 Blackburn 49 13 10 13 52 58 - 2

11 Manchester City 46 13 7 16 48 64 -16

12 West Ham United 44 13 5 18 58 66 - 8

13 Southampton 39 10 9 17 49 58 - 9

14 Everton 38 10 8 18 36 60 -24

15 Ipswich Town 35 6 17 13 27 52 -25

16 Fulham 34 8 10 18 36 56 -20

17 West Brom Albion 32 8 8 20 25 58 -33

------------------------------------------------------

18 Crystal Palace 28 8 4 24 29 70 -41

19 Portsmouth 27 7 6 23 33 72 -39

20 Leicester 26 5 11 20 32 67 -35</pre>

Portsmouth, the League Cup winners, looked all but certain to go down, now: would we see a second Championship side in Europe?

In the chase for the Premier League's goalscoring crown, Florent had closed the gap on Fernando Cavenaghi, but it would take a miracle for him to catch the Argentinian at this point.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> 1 Fernando Cavenaghi 29 Argentina Newcastle United

2 Florent Sinama-Pongolle 25 France Sheffield United

3 Yakubu 20 Nigeria Charlton Athletic

4 Claudio Pizarro 19 Peru Arsenal

5 Andrzej Niedzielan 17 Poland West Ham United</pre>

He'd need five goals against Liverpool and Manchester United just to overtake - and that, only if Cavenaghi was kept off the score sheet.

[Amaroq]

Saturday, 1st May, 2010. Premier League - Game 37, at Liverpool.

Liverpool were tied with Charlton Athletic for fifth place, but that was hardly indicative of their true strength. Since ex-United manager Peter Taylor had taken over, they hadn't lost a single game, and the offense had come to life with a 5-2 shellacking of Portsmouth in their last game. The fans were loving it, loving that Taylor, who seems to be a genius, had been discarded by Manchester United, and loving the escape from the negative defensive football which Javier Clemente had favored. Worse, they had every motivation for this game, as their UEFA Cup berth was on the line.

I owed it to Charlton to start my strongest lineup, and I did just that. Roy Carroll made his 15th start in goal. His defense was my best four across the board: Sean Dillon, Hayden Foxe, David Rozehnal, and Keith McCormack. Steve Newton spelled Berson at the defensive midfield role, and Jonathan Forte spelled injured left-winger Hamill. Jermaine Pennant was in only his tenth game as a Blade on the right side. For the first time all season I partnered Bruno Cheyrou and Marc Bridge-Wilkinson together in the attacking midfield. With Florent Sinama-Pongolle at striker, I was expecting some fireworks.

There were plenty, right from the opening touch. It took Sinama-Pongolle just two minutes to get his first shot, and only a fine block by defender Manuel Herrero kept him from opening his tally. Moments later, Liverpool's 22-year-old striker Adam Joyce showed why he was so highly touted, slipping free for a header at the back post, but struck the upright. Keith McCormack had a cross nearly drift in, but England keeper Paul Robinson tipped it over at the far post. When Sinama-Pongolle hit the post from 16 yards, still before the quarter hour, you just expected five goals to score before it was all over. The rebound kicked to Bruno Cheyrou in a good position, but he blazed it over.

The breakthrough finally came in the 20th minute. Brazilian midfielder Diego showed why he had rated a £14M move from FC do Porto in 2007, with a lovely feint towards the center before angling a nice little ball out left for Robin van Persie. The talented Dutch winger fired in a cross, which David Rozehnal looked positioned to clear. Unfortunately, his right knee crumpled as he set to jump, and he fell to the turf clutching at it in obvious pain. That left Jermaine Jenas an unopposed header from the six, and he powered it to the near corner to make it 0-1.

The celebration of the crowd was short-lived, as Rozehnal didn't get up. A respectful quiet fell over the Kop as the physios treated him, with a smattering of polite applause for him when they carted him off. That put Danny Payne on as a central defender, and it was clear that he and Foxe had never so much as trained together as a central partnership. It took Edú just five minutes to race into the box, unmarked - Foxe had challenged the winger, expecting Payne to cover for him, but Payne was worried about Diego. Edú had a brilliant chance, and a desperate sliding tackle by young Steve Newton could only have resulted in a penalty. It didn't: Edú hurdled over him, and finished the chance off personally to make it 0-2.

With my star defender out and a two goal deficit, I expected the game was over, but Marc Bridge-Wilkinson had other ideas. He sent a beautiful long pass curling behind the defense for Sinama-Pongolle in the 36th. It was exactly the sort of thing I'd imagine the two putting together, but Robinson spoiled the dream by making a brilliant solo save. Sinama-Pongolle tracked it down before it cross the endline, and centered for Cheyrou to nod it home in the six - he couldn't believe it when the England number one was there to pluck it out of the air for an incredible double-save.

The Liverpool defense must have relaxed, for not 20 seconds later, Jonathan Forte knocked a wonderful through ball into Sinama-Pongolle's path. A pretty little stutter-step move completely fooled Rafael Márquez, keeping the Mexican veteran from even challenging him, and another one-on-one with Robinson followed. This time, the French magician rounded the keeper easily, knocking it home to the delight of the visiting fans, and at 1-2 we had real hope.

The Reds were still trying to get forward, and over the next few minutes, they had the best of it, with several chances saved by Roy Carroll. In first half injury time, when it looked like both sides had escaped further damage, Bridge-Wilkinson slipped out left, looking like a winger. He put a low pass central to Cheyrou, who in turned knocked a one-timer into space for Sinama-Pongolle. It was a footrace between the striker and Robinson, and the Frenchman reached it just in time to toe-poke it past the onrushing keeper. It was his 30th goal of the season, and we'd come from two down to go into the half even at 2-2!!

The game was being played at a furious pace, and Bridge-Wilkinson was noticeably tiring by the 57th minute. I brought the veteran off for Imre Szabics, shifting to a 4-4-2. The defenses and goalkeepers hadn't been up to much in the first half, but they were on form in the second. There were some great tackles, the best of which were Danny Payne dispossessing Diego on the box, and Márquez earning a measure of revenge against Cheyrou.

It looked like we were gaining the upper hand, and in the 68th minute, Cheyrou hit a ferocious left-footed strike from just outside the area. Robinson did brilliantly to turn the ball away. In the 72nd minute, a fine long ball by Forte put Szabics into space. He skipped past Sami Hyypiä and shot from an angle. Robinson beat the ball away, but the rebound fell right to Sinama-Pongolle, who had a simple finish. Márquez desperately threw himself in the way for a block that should have earned him Man of the Match honours.

Moments later, Diego made a great play to flip the ball into the right-hand corner for Jason Koumas. He skipped past Dillon, and, from about the side edge of the area, fired a shot in. Despite the tight angle, he managed a fabulous curl which saw it kick in off the far post. 57,594 rose to their feet in unison to cheer as gorgeous a goal as you could ever hope to see. All our hard work was undone, as only fifteen minutes remained and Liverpool led, 2-3.

I threw everything at them in the final minutes, making a final change - attacking midfielder Iain Hume on for defensive midfielder Steve Newton, with Payne moving to defensive mid as we shifted to a 3-5-2. However, the Reds defense was too strong, and weren't giving us anything of a real chance. Even so, Sinama-Pongolle nearly scored from a narrow angle, but his bid for a hat trick went sailing over the crossbar, and we had to settle for a disappointing but hard-fought loss.

Liverpool 3, Sheffield United 2

Jenas 20, Edú 25, Koumas 75; Sinama-Pongolle 37, 45

MoM: van Persie (Liverpool AM L)

Despite the final result, I was much happier with our performance. We'd shown we could find the target, and impressively, we'd held our own while playing end to end football with one of the historic best of the Premier League.

However, I was very worried as I headed for the physio room to check on Rozehnal: my own career had come to a close on a knee injury.

[Amaroq]

Sunday, 2nd May, 2010.

"He'll need to go in for an MRI, I'm afraid. We won't really know until the swelling's gone down. We can schedule one for Monday."

I hated the doctor's verdict, and seeing David's swollen knee, even bagged as it was in ice, just worried me the more. I certainly didn't want to face Chelsea without the best member of my central defense.

In other Premier League action on Saturday, West Brom had beaten Charlton 1-0, which meant that Crystal Palace, Portsmouth, and Leicester were all relegated, regardless of the outcomes of their games. Newcastle United had netted four goals against Everton in a 4-2 win, but amazingly Cavenaghi hadn't scored any of them, which meant that with his brace, Sinama-Pongolle needed two more goals to catch him.

In the other leagues, Blackpool won the League One title, finishing one point ahead of Swindon Town, and two ahead of Millwall and Wycombe each: it was a dramatic close to their season. Notts County won League Two, finishing four points clear of Darlington and Chester.

Sunday's Premier League matches may well have decided the title: Arsenal beat Chelsea 5-2 behind an incredible four-goal performance by Claudio Pizarro.

Manchester United pounded 19th-placed Portsmouth, 4-0, taking advantage of Chelsea's stumble to sneak into first place with only one game to play - the season finale at Bramall Lane!

[Amaroq]

Wednesday, 5th May, 2010.

"He'll be fine. It was only a bit of a strain, no ligament or cartilage damage."

The verdict from Rozehnal's MRI exam couldn't have been better: the Czech defender should be fit and ready to play in time for the F.A. Cup Final.

The Championship season had come to a close, with Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest joining York as the clubs relegated. Oddly, that was each of the clubs whose fates I cared about, and I'd have wished all three of them could stay up.

At the top of the table, Bolton had edged Leeds United for second place and the other promotion place, joining Tottenham in the climb to the Premiership.

In a move so minor, most fans took no notice, backup fullback James Fowler's loan completed. The 29-year-old fullback returned to West Brom after seeing just three matches in three months:

James Fowler, DMRL, 29: February 2010-May 2010: 1 season, 3 games, 0 goals, 7.33

On Wednesday, defensive midfielder Mathieu Berson strained his neck. He would miss the season finale against Manchester United, but should be fit enough by the F.A. Cup Final. Abubakar Shittu was also injured, suffering a bruised rib, but that wouldn't matter: I'd already decided I had to play my first-choice 4-5-1 against the Red Devils, in fairness to the rest of the league.

Wednesday night, goals by first-team strikers Imre Szabics and Peter Weatherson helped Sheffield United Reserves to a 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest Reserves. They may have been ringers, but they got to celebrate with the rest of the Reserves, who had won the Reserve Group One title for the first time, finishing four points clear of Manchester United Reserves.

Was it an omen?

Entering the final match day of the season, the table stood thus:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Pts W D L GF GA GD

1 Manchester United 83 25 8 4 67 16 +51

2 Chelsea 82 24 10 3 80 24 +56

3 Arsenal 79 23 10 4 89 31 +58</pre>

With Chelsea heavily favoured at home against mid-table Blackburn, the Red Devils had to get three points off us in the finale.