Hougoumont

It's not just the fact that shops have disapeared though, it's what has been left in their place. Be honest, lots of areas in the city look squalid and run down. We should adopt the broken window principle to restore a bit of pride in our city.

I came to this thread late so have not really got the overall gist of what was being argued, but...as an older poster my take on my city is that in the centre, we seemed to tread water for many years whilst all the other major cities were having expensive redevelopment. We now seem to be catching up but to put a football analogy on it we are now at the top of the Championship pushing for promotion. However, the same can't be said for the rest of the city which in many areas is far worse now than before. Areas like the Wicker, which was once a busy thriving offshoot of the market area and a gateway to another thriving area along Attercliffe Common. These are now almost deserted because of traffic and parking restrictions that have made it very difficult for pedestrians to access and the destruction of shops and communities in the Attercliffe area which have rendered it a nothing area, populated by a few small businesses, a couple of retail parks and latterly some university buildings. The council had a monster chance to regenerate that area when it had the opportunity to build a stadium for the world student games. Wednesday or United could have been playing there today as Man City and West ham are in their new homes. But they chose the only option that would ensure it's future failure. The result is that the Wicker and the adjacent area up Spital hill towards Burngreave and then onwards down to Pitsmoor, Firvale, and on to Firth Park have now become one long ethnic ghetto which does little for the integration of minorities into the city and doesn't encourage development in those areas. Areas like Heeley Bottom, once a thriving out of town shopping area are now little more than a slum clearance project. Further up into Woodseats where the once vibrant shopping area is now devoid of any community feeling at all and has become a slow moving traffic jam. Firth Park centre has likewise lost it's vibrancy and looks squalid. Anyone who has taken the Supertram to the match cannot have failed to notice the drab exteriors of the few remaining shops and abandoned pubs along Middlewood Road as far as Hillsborough centre, then once again, a previous vibrant shopping centre is now an row of charity shops and estate agents. I could go on. The SCC has indeed made efforts over the past two decades to improve the city centre but has virtually ignored the outlying districts. A simple decision to rigourously enforce litter and graffiti laws would make a huge difference to our city and make it a much nicer place to live. Enforcing laws to make owners and landlords look after empty buildings and keep them in good condition would vastly improve the environment. There are derelict buildings that to my knowledge have been like that for twenty years. The bottom of Broad Street springs to mind. Make the owners either refurbish the buildings or clear the site and put compulsory purchase orders on the land. Make extra efforts to keep street furniture and railings to a minimum and maintain them properly. Send teams out to destroy the weeds that seem to line every major road into the city. These things aren't rocket science, they just need the will to do it.

You haven't read my post properly...I said it put us to the back of the queue and we've been playing catch up ever since.

Sheffield is a much nicer place than either of those. I think what you mean is that they both have had much more money spent on them regarding infrastructure and development. So has Birmingham, Liverpool and Newcastle. I think the city councils anti government stance and backing of the miners in the 70/80's put us at the back of the queue when redevelopment cash started to flow and we're still playing catch up.

What? with his heading ability. You're kidding yourself that a PL team would even look at him.

Is hoping in the FA's tactics manual.

He's probably come on and stub his toe on an advertising hoarding then push the ref over when told to get on with it.

Was it a blue lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry....bet you can't say that.

That lad spanner, he looks a bit of a nut job.

Such a little word...there's a chance nobody will notice it.

I was there that day in the North, but I've honestly got no memory whatsoever of holding up any coloured cards.

If he doesn't do it here his next club will be a sizeable step down and he will look back to a huge missed opportunity. Get stuck in son and make a name for yourself here.

He was my favoured choice at the time together with Monk, there was very little to choose between them. Perhaps it was down to desired length of contract and or staff being brought in that was the clincher. Maybe we picked the wrong Garry of maybe Gary spotted the shitstorm he would likely inherit and declined. We'll never know.

Still got my original and the quality is good...but the fit in them days was very loose and baggy. ...bit tight these days.

So long as he's not involved with their dietary plan.