At the end of last season I posted a collection of pre-season predictions made by Sheffield Wednesday fans. None of them came to fruition as United finished 12 points in front of the Owls, taking 4 points off them in the process. With their predictions being so woefully incorrect last season, maybe this time they would be less confident? Maybe this time they would be more measured? Maybe even give United more respect?

Or maybe not…….

Here are a collection of quotes posted on Owlstalk from May 2018-July 2018. Ladies and Gentlemen, enjoy….

“Seriously, I can see us running away with the title this time around and I’ll tell you exactly why.

We have the desire back, the players want to make it happen. They have belief in the new manager.

More than anything else, confidence and desire are what you need to win a title. We have some of the quality players we need.“ “Over the past 8 weeks we have had a few key players back in Fernando, Barry bannan, Tom Lees and Jack hunt. Without looking at the stats I believe our form during this period is up in the top 6 easily. I think that says all you need to know about what this current side is capable of. “ “No team will finish above us next season” “Not sure about winning the league but we will be promoted next season.” “If Villa are still in the division, they are the only side I would worry about. Everyone else, I think we could (and should) thrash.

Look at the quality we have, that has been badly mismanaged by Carlos. For two seasons we almost managed to go up, despite the (second season mostly) sterile sideways tippy-tappy football. Jos has us playing much better, attacking, confident football. We are going straight up, and I’ll be putting my money where my mouth is.” “Top 6 should probably be the aim for me, top 2 not out of reach” “I’m pretty confident as things stand. I’d only really fancy Stoke, WestBrom and Boro to fare better than us at the minute.

Imo I think Derby and Villa will struggle to better this season, Preston, Pigs and Millwall won’t punch above their weight again. Swansea won’t trouble the playoffs

All in all nothing to fear” “The pig’s had a fantastic season, we’ve had a truely awful one, and in the end there’s not an awful lot to choose between. We know we can improve. Can they? You’d suggest without investment they won’t. 2nd season and all that.We’ve been decimated by injuries all season. They lost one player and a keeper.Looking forward to next season. Enjoy the Summer folks.” “Competing at the top- Will be West Brom, Stoke, Potentially Swansea, The three sides in the playoffs who don’t go up, Us, Potentially Brentford, Preston, maybe Birmingham under Monk or Norwich.

Competing at the bottom- Bolton, Wigan, Whoever goes up through playoffs in L1, Sheffield United” “It’s going to be a long season for both of us, it’s bragging rights between who’s going to finish 13th or 14th.” “Pigs finishing above us? not a chance”. “I expect us to finish above Leeds and The Pigs” “We’ll finish 12th and they’ll finish 19th. Wilder will leave mid season” “They’re all obsessed with us so will grunt in agreement with Wilder and their wont be any questions as to why they’re in for a season of hanging around the middle of the table.” “I’ll give Wilder is dues, he’s certainly got the knack for getting mediocre players to perform to levels you wouldn’t think them capable of. However, while last season that proved enough to surprise a lot of people, I don’t think their current crop of players, nor the ones they seem to be looking to add, will ever get a team promoted.” “I saw enough at the end of last season to know United will struggle this season” “I don’t really fancy their chances either. They have a lower end championship squad and it will show unless they make any significant changes to their squad.”





“They literally don’t have one single player who would get in our first 11 or bench when fully fit. The two things that stopped us last season were CC completely losing the plot and the mountain of injuries, neither will be an issue next season” “A realistic Sheffield X Westwood Lees O’Connell Pudil Hunt Bannan Fleck Reach Forestieri Nuhiu Hooper I count that as Wednesday 9, United 2.” “Fleck ahead of Hutch and Lee after 1 good season at this level?I don’t think so. Hutch and Lee are both far better players than Fleck. ” “If they sold Coutsy they’d be screwed as last season has shown” “They keep going on about us not being able to strengthen. They don’t seem to realise that we don’t need new players, we just need to get all the players we already have back out on the pitch, instead of in the physio room “ “Forestieri alone is worth more than Sheffield United” “I can’t wait to see him rip the pigs apart this season” “I expect us to finish higher than them, because I expect us to be able to keep far more of our players fit this season than we did last season, and it’s as simple as that for me; compare the two squads when fully fit and ours is clearly superior to theirs. Maybe when we play them again they’ll beat us on pashun – but maybe not – if nothing else, I’d like to think our players will be ready for them and ready for revenge this time around. And in any case, I’m confident we’ll have the better season overall. “ “I wish it was the start of the season tomorrow I can’t wait to ram their boasts down their throats!” “I said to my dad after they beat us, that they have peaked. A game or two later they did just that….. I suspect next season will be even worse for them.”

“Confident the natural order will be restored next season, the best they can hope for is putting on a performance when they play us in their ‘cup finals’ and avoiding relegation.” “Millwall massively over achieved last season and I can’t see them doing as well again along with pigs.” “They are on the decline” “They probably think they will go up!” “Way they ended last season suggests they won’t be doing as well next.” “They need 4 new strikers at the Gary Madine level to stay in the too half of the table. They need to spend spend spend and it ain’t going to happen. As Wilder knows all too well” “Their attacking options are still poo . How old is Billy sharp now? No way will they score enough to finish higher than mid table. ” “Bias a side, genuinely think they’ll regress. They’re not gonna have millions to spend and there’s only so much you can get out of Billy Sharp and Leon Clarke in the purple patch of his career.” “They know our squad is miles ahead of theirs & if they stay fit normal service will be resumed next season & they will be fighting a relegation battle with toy town.” “down – pigs,Ipswich and toy town” “With Wilder 16th-20th. Without Wilder 19th-23rd. They will probably get enough points at home to stay up, however, it wouldn’t surprise me if they did drop.” “we did what we could with a reserve team, and they over achieved, we will win promotion, they will be lucky to stay up and one way or another wilder will be gone by jan” “Absolutely.If they carry on their mid season slump from Jan into the first half of Next Season,Then it won’t be a complete surprise to find them in the bottom 5/6 of the Championship and quite possibly Chris Wilder being given the boot” “Grunts are heading for the trap door next season..that’s why wider wants out..he knows this was his big chance and they bottled it”