El Wednesday

As a club our default setting is utter mediocrity. It's been the case for 50 years. Only truly exceptional managers (Charlton, Wilkinson, Atkinson) can drag us above this level. We simply can't rely on average managers, the task is too big for them.

12 is easily the worst shirt and kit in our history. It could have at least pretended to be a Wednesday strip if it had black shorts.

I agree, can you imagine Manchester City at Maine Road now? Or Leicester still at Filbert Street?

Although we've got a much richer heritage than them, in the 'modern' era (and we're talking the last 50 years) I'd say we're more akin to Coventry City. Both spent long spells in the top flight, won a single trophy in that time, can take 40k to Wembley now and then. Sadly, we're about to experience the recent lows that Cov are just emerging from.

17k v Leicester when we were top of the Premier League, early into the 96/97 season.

Meanwhile every agent out there will be ringing the alarm bells to their players about joining a club that doesn't pay its wages...

Wait until Burnley U23s turn us over at Hillsborough, in front of 4k. The only thing I'm looking forward to is hearing Chansiri has gone.

It was the other way around, we had to win and Palace just needed a point, which they got.

Even with the best will, a big budget, smart recruitment and a solid coaching infrastructure, success on the pitch isn't guaranteed - that's the beauty of football. However, everything off the pitch is largely under our control: ticketing/pricing policies, catering, merchandise, communications... There's simply no excuse for not being able to get this right.

One of those stats that assumes football was invented in 1992.

Realising that, to football fans in their mid-20s, we're a second/third tier yo-yo club.

For me, the most genuinely interesting Wednesday-related thing in the past 3 years has been when that footage of the Oxford away game from 90/91 turned up. Says it all, really.

Ah, okay. You've presented some good evidence there, and I was only 10 at the '85 game. Guess something that makes dating some of these games tricky is that teams kept the same kits for a few seasons in those days. It's all fascinating stuff though, thanks for starting this thread!

You sure this wasn't from the 85/86 season (we won 3-2)? That was my second ever game and I defo remember City wearing that black/red chessboard shirt.

I feel that Sheffield is very much a city stuck in the early-mid ‘90s. That period was not only great for both our football clubs but there was also a real sense that our city was progressing faster than a lot of our near neighbours. Think of all the exiting projects that were going ahead: Supertram, Don Valley Stadium, Ponds Forge, Sheffield Arena, The Ski Village. Plus (even if you don’t necessary like the place) Meadowhall, which was at the time Europe’s largest shopping mall! Even club nights like Gatecrasher attracted people from across the UK. We just never pushed on from there, in fact three of those places have now gone. Another thing I’ve noticed (having lived in both Leeds and Manchester for spells) is that Sheffield feels like a city for older, more conservative people who are resistant to ‘change’. It doesn’t have as much of that youthful, forward-thinking outlook and confidence. You only have to look at how any planning application for a supermarket is met with cries of anguish or how reluctant many Wednesday fans are to moving from Hillsborough.