Sheffield Steel, Reborn!

Possibly.

Tom Barrasso. A new name to be added to the Sheffield Steelers staff. Hopefully a new name to go down in Steelers history. 

He has a massive uphill job to do. He has to rebuild just about everything to do with the on ice product, almost from a standing start. An inherited team, originally signed by the best coach in the universe, and at the moment of Tom taking over, a team very much in a well deserved last place in the league. Last place, which will take some shifting from, as even though we are on equal points to the team just above us, they have played 4 games less than us. This applies to most of the rest of the teams in the league. They have all played less than us (except Nothingham, who have played 1 more, but are significantly higher up the league, (even though this might be a false position when other teams like Belfast, Fife and Cardiff start catching them up with games played)).

Last place, say it out loud, say it softly, or just think it. Whichever way you say it, it doesn't bear much in the way of inspiration, or instil a lot of confidence for the future. But last place is where we are at, and for Tom, that's his starting point. We were in last place under Thommo for his last week with us, so at least Tom knew the score and where we were at. Also, he has watched a couple of videos of this seasons games and has now seen us at practice sessions and been on the bench as head honcho for a couple of games....

…. AND HE'S STILL HERE, PEOPLE!

So, that in itself, sends a small, but very significant, boost to the confidence levels of the fans, who have had to put up with the demise over the past, few years. Hopefully, it will also ring bells with the current team. Whether they are the best we can get, or not, at this point is irrelevant. This is Tom's starting rosta. Changes may come in the weeks ahead, they may not, we shall have to wait and see how it pans out, but for now, it's all uphill from here. 

A few things worth noting, Tom has already said "the guys are buying into the idea that we can fix this" which is an immense step forward as he has them realising that it is broken, and broken badly. 

Also, no denials from the estate agent that it isn't broken, especially as he was asked when Thommo resigned "how did we get into this mess" to which he replied "We've been in worse spots, we can fix this", so another admission that things were broken.

A quote from Tony Smith saying "He couldn't get the team to play, a team he recruited" about Thommo, Recruitment, something mentioned a few times over the last couple of years by people on social media and on the forum.

Both Tom and Tony have accepted that booing is part of the game and the fans (paying customers) way of announcing that they are very unhappy about the product on the ice, even though the estate agent just wants to call us all "haters" (and no, I will not leave it alone, as I personally think he has done more damage than good for the Sheffield Steelers).

Tony was aware of the booing and said "fans have every right to do so". Tom has also said, "Fans will start to boo if the team doesn't start to get results" and he doesn't want that, so he knows he has to work miracles and in a relatively short period of time.

Everything coming out of the Steelers office now, is pretty much what the "know nothing" fans have been saying on social media for some time now, and not just this season. Again and again, our thoughts have become fact and we have had to sit here and endure abuse from just about everyone in the Steelers office. I suppose sitting here waiting for any form of apology or even an acceptance that we do know more than you think, will mean me wading through tons and tons of popcorn, and having to bite the bullet and think, NO, that will never happen.

For now though, looking forward, is a new future on the horizon?

Is Tom the man to take us to that future?

I certainly hope so. I'm willing to give him the chance to turn things round. How long a chance, well, we'll have to see. I am thinking he will take considerably less time than his predecessor to get players to work as a team and put some working performances out there for the fans.

Good luck Tom.

Bring the belief back.

Mart.

A New Start!

Old v. New.

Steelers heritage and history was being flushed down the pan at an alarming rate. The trouble is no one was watching it, and no was willing to do anything about it. One of the main problems is having to admit your best mate, who you have already touted as "The best coach ever to stand behind a bench in this country", isn't. This is where the size 12, extra thick blinkers came out and were worn on a daily basis.

With the above statement, the Brummie had already crucified his best mate and is more to blame for the eventual crash and burn, than Thommo himself.

In estate agents language, he could try and cover it up, or as was the case, try and shift the blame onto someone else. This obviously felt like a good plan, but when you start blame shifting to the paying audience, you are treading on very thin ice (didn't mean the pun). There will always be the bunch of gullible types that believe estate agents, there will always be a few that will jump on the bandwagon and try and escalate it, and there will always be those with the so thick, rose tinted glasses on, that they are brainwashed into thinking what ever happens with the Steelers is all well and good.

Sorry, to disillusion you, but you're living in a completely different space to the rest of the world. Anyone still out there thinking that a small (and I mean small) bunch of people who jokingly set up a resistance page are responsible for the fall from grace of the best hockey coach, this side of the moon, are sadly, not playing with a complete set, and sitting there with your pink specs on believing every word from an already proven liar will only be making your rehabilitation back into the real world, that much more difficult.

Refusing to see the obvious does not make you correct. Hearing the same lies over and over and over does not suddenly make it the truth. The Steelers have been taken on a massive backwards retreat for the past 3 years, and the upper echelons of the club have had their eyes firmly shut to what has happened.

The list of players recruited, who seemed to need all season to gel is frightening. The list of excuses even more so, but the one reason never mentioned was "I don't know what to do".

The estate agent, the Star, and even the owner are massively complicit in what was going wrong at the Steelers, but after trying to blame the fans, causing a massive rift between fans with differing feelings, causing a major rift between fans and the team, bringing masses of ridicule on themselves from all other teams in the league, and completely refusing to see where the problem lies, needed to change their own, extremely blinkered mind set.

Everything said about Thommo not being the coach the Steelers needed, right back as far as Adams being sacked has been borne out to be correct, even though the estate agent and the Star have criticised every word. Continually being told "you don't know what you are talking about" or "you know nothing" is just a blanket to cover it over. Continually bleating on about the progress being made behind the scenes, while all well and good and much needed to build a stable club, is not what the fans are paying their hard earned for. They are paying to watch an ice hockey game.

Here's a quote "The hockey is crap, the Steelers are rubbish and the games are really boring, but I am so impressed with everything that is going on behind the scenes, lets have more of this crap hockey, and keep all the secrets about what is going on behind closed doors" said NO ONE EVER. These people, who the estate agent finds it so easy to be abusive to, to blame when things go wrong and also to accuse of knowing nothing on a regular basis, all seem to know a damn site more than him, as everything said over the past couple of years has suddenly come to light as being more correct than anything he has said.

This last couple of years have been disastrous for the Steelers. It needs a massive boost to get things moving upwards, with the fans, the league, the media, the feelings, the history, pretty much every aspect. If nothing had happened this last 2 weeks, I could see the Steelers collapsing completely, as the booing (not from a vocal minority David) would only have got louder, and then eventually would have got quieter as fans decided they would find other things to spend their money on. This is one of the main areas that the estate agent seems to struggle with. They spend their money on a seat ticket, on 50-50 tickets, on shirt raffles, on being abused by the announcer. How much damage will it do if they stop spending their money?

Thommo resigning, hopefully is now going to give the Steelers a chance to start a rebuild. We have to find a coach who can be just a bit better than the best coach in the universe, and also the owner has to find a way of getting credibility back in a large portion of the fan base. Hard work, I think, as a lot of damage has been done. I shall monitor the feelings and the results over the next few weeks. I have already noticed in the Star, BW has changed his tune somewhat. Is this to try and turn the anger away from him, after spouting the propaganda given to him against the fans. We shall see.

The new coach has arrived and it sounds good. In fact, it sounds exceptional. But I'm not one for hyping things totally out of context. I'll leave that to the estate agent, he's good at it, not correct most of the time, but good at it.

Welcome to Sheffield Tom Barrasso.

Mart.