jacko

D-Hydrated

Done (and shared). If everyone, who isn't going to buy their usual pie and pint at the Stoke game, gives the equivalent amount to the Trust fund, then you'll be hurting Chansiri twice in the same go. Win win

Great news, looks good. Well done to all who were involved in making that happen

Can see this one going down to the wire.

One day we will either redevelop Hillsborough (my preferred option) or move to a brand new stadium - either out of choice or necessity. Whichever option it is, I just pray that Chansiri isn't still at the helm of our great club - can you imagine what a complete and utter mess he would make of it, thereby saddling us with something we hate for the next hundred years. A redeveloped Hillsborough / new stadium, done properly, by someone who knows what they doing, with fan's input, would absolutely transform us as a club.

I think Danny’s take on ‘sausage-gate’ will be that it’s a bit of naughty teasing about his nationality, rather than any childish Wednesday/United name calling. Having said that, the best way to dilute an insult is to take it and turn it into something of your own. To the tune of ‘I love rock and roll’: ‘I luurrrvv sausage Röhl, he’s got more class than piggy Wilder’ (Fact: Joan Jett’s grandma (Dorothy Jett) was from Hull, so that works as well).

Great spot NickSWFC. Decided to watch the whole video against my better judgement. Once you get beyond all the usual tired stereotypical 'an American's guide to England' nonsense, it was actually quite entertaining, though not always for the reasons I was expecting. Obviously the shot of Hillsborough as mentioned - fantastic that the Americans have finally granted us 'chocloate-box' status. Well we do have a proud history of making sweets in Hillsborough, so it's well overdue. Into York and there's a casually inserted shot of the Ouse in full flood, about two metres deep in the middle of town, whilst the narrator waxes lyrical about its quaint streets, etc. They'll now think York is the Venice of England. And finally, up in Cumbria, apparently England's deepest lake is called 'Wastewater' (Rather ironic given how our water companies are currently discharging their duties!)

Whoops, would help if attached it. This was taken just as we finished it. Getting on for a year ago now!

Here you go Plonk.

The old aerodrome site up at Norton, as mentioned in an earlier post, is probably one of, if not the best sites available in Sheffield. It’s (just) within the city boundary, has two tram stops nearby and the outer ring road runs right past it, so well connected. Would also give us a presence on that side of town. I reckon the site is about 18 hectares. For comparison purposes, Middlewood is about 3.5, Brighton 15 (excellent set up there), Leeds 12, Everton 15, etc, so more than big enough. (Shows how titchy Middlewood is!) Somebody mentioned about the possibility of site contamination there – I would have thought there may be a few underground fuel tanks and the like from its former use, but I’d be surprised if there was anything more serious than that, as I don’t think there’s been any heavy industry on the site. Nothing insurmountable or prohibitively costly to sort anyway. The possibility of grant funding, that others have touched on, got me thinking about the proposed new home for Sheffield FC, which is just 5 mins down the road at the Transport Club at Meadowhead. The proposals look good, but funding as always is going to be the tough one to sort. So (and this is obviously pie in the sky with Chansiri at our helm, but anyway here we go), what about some sort of link up with Sheffield FC where, at Norton, we could have a new ground for them, which we could maybe also use for our reserve games, then have our new training complex built as part of the development (something like Brighton's superb set up). There could be FA, Sport England, Shef Council, private etc funding available for the Sheffield FC element, but we would then get our basic site infrastructure in place on the back of it. A mutually beneficial and cost effective arrangement if you like. Anyway, was just an idea which came to mind. Wednesday are aware of the site, as I wrote to them back in 2019 about the Norton site and they confirmed it is on their radar, but the vibe I got from their reply was pretty negative about the whole possibility of a new training ground generally – borne out by the lack of progress since I suppose. Sheffield United were seriously looking at this site, but I think Premier League relegation (or ownership infighting) maybe scuppered it. Whipped up this (slightly amateurish) site plan while I’m at it, to help visualise it.

Early train Shef to Manc, meet nephew there, few tinnys on the train from Victoria, then probably Blackburn Wetherspoons, bus to Ewood (or more likely will completely lose track of time in the pub, miss bus and end up trying to get a taxi, failing, then legging it to the ground on our beer scooters, arriving sometime after kick off). Few beers in Manc after, whatever the result. Good memories of Blackburn, worked at the Thwaites brewery in town for a while, as an 18 year old back in the late 80's. All demolished now, like it was never there. Thwaites still going strong, wonder where its brewed now.

Remember the Semedo away day at Forest a few years back? What a cracking day out that was. Well, maybe we should have a Danny Röhl away day at Blackburn – show the bloke our appreciation for his herculean efforts this season, irrespective of whether we stay up or not. Plus show him how much we want him to stay at Wednesday. Love a big Wednesday away day - total support whatever happens on the pitch. Could be ace.

Happy Anniversary! Loving that cover design - the classic (and best) owl and great font for 'Sheffield Wednesday'. Plus the graphics of the players faces. Superb.

Turnover is vanity Profit is sanity

If we had a proper owner, who had a long term plan to build our supporter base, then this would be the full season ticket price list.

Quite entertaining that, she’s got a bit of witty charisma that’s quite often missing on these things. That short section where she’s at Hillsborough really was a cringe fest though. Our pre-match musical ‘build-ups’ have certainly varied in quality over the years, but the current one is truly terrible (her facial expression throughout it was a treat – no words were required). That endless ‘der der der der - Wednesday!’ chant that goes on and on, is almost unlistenable its that bad (especially in the North stand where its belted out at 2000 decibels). I think it’s an excerpt from a recording back in the early 90’s (the original might be on the League Cup 91 dvd). It’s a badly edited excerpt from what was already a poor quality audio recording. Then it segways into the dreadful Hey Jude and back again. C’mon Wednesday, we’ve got some right musical talent in our ranks, surely we can do something better than that.

Just to clarify (if I've read it right on the TFL website), you only get issued with a penalty if you don't pay the daily charge within 3 days. 'Auto pay' just looks like a way of setting up a monthly direct debit for all the the times you enter the ULEZ (i.e. I assume this would be mainly for people/businesses who make regular trips into the ULEZ). So you don't have to sign up to it if you don't want to. We're staying with friends in Willesden so can't avoid the charge, but I assume the cameras will simply pick up my van reg and send me a payment request via the DVLA. As long as I pay it within 3 days, no need to worry about a penalty. Thats how I read it anyway!

Canada - formed in 1867 - it's a sign ah tell thi.

Exeter City have sold 874 of 1068 available tickets, as of 10am Thursday, according to their official website. Thats probably about 500 more than Accrington Stanley brought? Decent effort to be fair, it's a long old trek for them.

As with most discussions of this nature, I can see pros and cons on both sides. But perhaps I’m slightly biased in that I live in Wadsley and so Hillsborough (the stadium) is not just the place where I go and spend every other Saturday afternoon, it’s part of the fabric of this part of Sheffield. If we were to move, I don’t think you could underestimate just what a massive loss it would be to this part of our city. It’s partly the tightly packed surrounding terraced streets, the pubs, the sandwich shops etc which give Hillsborough its character. I love that aspect of it. If we were stuck out at somewhere off the Parkway, as part of some windswept barren industrial / retail park development, then I couldn’t think of anything worse. If it was done right, a fully upgraded Hillsborough could be superb – it would provide the modern standards of comfort and convenience that we all want, whilst retaining the its character and historic setting. As regards our association with the 1989 disaster, I'm not sure moving ground is an answer to this. We, as a club, will always be associated with that day, wherever we play our home games. But it certainly doesn't define us a club, especially as we, the supporters, had absolutely no involvement in what happened that day or the subsequent years' controversies. However, without question, if we do redevelop Hillsborough, then the Leppings Lane end needs demolishing and rebuilding first. But this should have been done a long time ago, especially when we had the Premier League funds to do it. I’ve often thought Ibrox looks a bit like how I imagine an upgraded Hillsborough might look one day. They have their main three-tiered stand (the equivalent of our South Stand - and by coincidence also designed by Archibald Leitch) and have then redeveloped the other three stands to suit. Its looks impressive and modern, but still has the look of a proper old school ground.

Thats a cracking statue of Big Jack. Would be great to get Mr Jennings to do us a Derek Dooley statue - in this classic pose. Remembering Dooley for what he was really famous for - being the all time top scorer in a season for Sheffield Wednesday, the club he supported growing up.

Funnily enough, I actually wrote to the club a few months back about the exact same thing (I suggested a bespoke McKee design - however, the picture mentioned above would be superb - I hadn't thought of that one). The club did respond, which was appreciated, and seemed quite receptive to the idea in principle, but I got the feeling that even a modest spruce up of the Kop isn't on their to do list. Bit of a worry actually if we can't even afford to tidy up what is clearly a bit of an eyesore - in full view of the thousands of people who pass by on the A61 every day - doesn't create a very good impression. So, if the image already exists, Pete was happy to have it displayed there and the club would seem to be happy (in principle) to have it there, then it would appear to just boil down to funding it. We could even go mad and give the Kop its first repaint since 1986 (?) at the same time.

It would make such a difference if the Kop was re-painted - just a basic smarten up, show a bit of pride in the place. So much passing traffic on the A61- gives the impression we don't care about our club (we do). And yes, that ugly space where the big owl logo use to be - this would be a prime place for a wonderful Pete McKee Wednesday-related masterpiece. I don't know, off the top of my head, maybe a steelworker pouring out molten steel into a mould forming the word 'Wednesday', with the wording 'Pride of the Steel City since 1867' incorporated. (United seem to think they 'own' our steel making heritage - about time we did something to redress the balance). Oh and another thing - Pulp are reforming next year -- why couldn't Hillsborough host a homecoming gig - Nick Banks and Jarvis are Owls - c'mon lads, make it happen.

It's good to gerrit off thi chest Gary. Bit of forum therapy. You are of course correct with much of what you say - particularly about Wednesday having so much potential. One of the lovely old romantic names of English football. You can't buy our history. 20/25 odd thousand still turning up after all the years of mainly garbage to watch, with pretty crappy facilities when you get there. Thousands still travelling to away games. Just needs a slightly daft but generous American billionaire to spot us. Americans love their history and don't take it for granted, like we do sometimes. An important history, great name, huge potential for support to grow, middle of the country, in one of Englands football hotbeds. Go on Mr Dell, we're the one you've been waiting for!

Make it a fiver to sit in the lower half of the North stand. Stick Plymouth fans in the Leppings Lower. Would look much better on TV and create a better atmosphere.. But no, we'll just have South Stand open and Upper Lep, meaning ground will look completely empty on TV.