From the Prince to King.

It's been three weeks now since it was confirmed that Sheffield United would be receiving substantial investment for the first team from a mystery foreign investor. A few days and another defeat later, Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was named as the new co-owner who wants to see us in the Premier League within the next 5 years, estimated to be bringing with him an initial £20 million worth of funding. With transfer fees being paid for several targets already this season, including Florent Cuvelier and Jose Baxter, it is clear that the Prince is willing to back David Weir, but for how long?

As the talks with Prince Abdullah started back in January, it is likely that he was involved in the manager selection process, albeit as an outsider, but to me this shows that he supported the selection of Weir. Add this to the fact that United are with their 6th permanent manager in as many years and Kevin McCabe keeping half of the ownership, hopefully we won't see many rash decisions in terms of a quick-fire sacking.

Blades won't need reminding of our poor performances this season, particularly the second half showing at Rotherham, and those who made the long trip north to Carlisle last weekend, only to have to wait 80+ minutes before they saw us have a shot on target. United fans have been calling out for a goal scorer, they may have got one this week with Marlon King, but is the price worth paying?

King must be close to holding the record for the most convictions for a sportsman who still gains employment. Thousands of Unitedite's, myself included, are disappointed by the signing of such a high-profile criminal who's previous actions have been downright vile. Many are willing to look past a criminal record if it contains one or two petty crimes, the likes of minor driving bans etc, that happened while the player was young and naive if they are clearly ashamed and have learnt from their mistakes. King's record is different though, for a start he is a current member of the Sex Offenders Register and only 2 months ago was arrested in relation to a hit-and-run to be bailed pending further inquiries.

Many people have been talking about Ched Evans again this week, asking why people were happy to support him on-field whilst he was awaiting his own trial. For me, that answer lies in the rightful British culture where we treat people as innocent until proven guilty. As soon as he was found guilty, that was the end of the backing forever as far as the majority of Blades are concerned and very little else needs to be said about it. The fact that he was found guilty by those who heard all the evidence both initially and again in his appeal is more than enough to never want him, or those like him, back at our club.

One of the worst things from the King signings this week was his interview with Radio Sheffield's Rob Staton. At the end of the interview he was asked what he thought of Blades fans responses to his signing to which he all but said he didn't care about our opinions or appreciates our concerns, a lack of class shown for a start. When almost given an easy way out to pull back a small bit of credit by Rob asking whether he could reassure people that his previous trouble was over, King's response was to avoid the question completely, not even showing the slightest bit of remorse.

For me, the signing smacks of near desperation, Weir has almost been forced into signing a proven goalscorer and has jumped straight in for one that some of the current squad and Lee Carsley have all played with, despite his history. As we proved against Carlisle and Rotherham, you have no hope in scoring many goals if you create very little or are afraid to shoot. Never have I been more disappointed in a signing, particular given both Sheffield club's recent history with the likes of Ched and Gary Madine.

I'm certainly not alone with these thoughts, but it is the responses people are planning that separate us. An awful lot have shown their displeasure already over social media or by writing to the club personally with several interacting with the new directors James Phipps and Selahattin Baki on Twitter. These two have impressed on the social aspect so far, as they are willing to converse openly with fans, asking for opinions and taking the time to understand the culture of our beloved club. I just hope those responsible understand why we are so disappointed.

I have faith that all the supporters will stick by the club and the majority will attempt to ignore King. Some have signalled that they will do that by not attending matches and fair play to them for that. Me, I'll still attend the games I can and listen on the radio supporting the club, in particular the other 10 men on the field and the manager. I will neither cheer nor boo King, and applause for any goals he might score will be because United have scored, not him. Anyone who is planning on booing today, or at future games, please don't as it can only cause negativity and we have enough of that already. After all, we all want one thing to happen and that is for the Blades to succeed.

If League One Was Sunday League

Yesterday afternoon, I saw a tweet from @Berkshireblade asking whether or not anyone had created a table of what League One would look like if Portsmouth FC were to fold. Being a fan of all things statistical, I was intrigued to find out what the effects of Pompey 'folding', like a Sunday League side, would have on the rest of the table. After watching the Blades for the last 18 months in the third tier, this wasn't the first time I had likened it to the Sunday League, either.

As of 17/02/2013, the League One table looked like this:

Position	Team	P	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Bournemouth	33	57	42	15	58
2	Sheff Utd	32	47	29	18	57
3	Yeovil	32	55	40	15	57
4	Doncaster	31	44	29	15	57
5	Tranmere	32	47	31	16	56
6	Swindon	31	52	21	31	55
7	Brentford	31	45	32	13	54
8	Coventry	33	53	40	13	50
9	Walsall	33	46	48	-2	48
10	Leyton Orient	32	36	39	-3	46
11	Notts County	32	44	35	9	45
12	MK Dons	30	40	34	6	44
13	Crewe	31	38	40	-2	44
14	Stevenage	30	37	41	-4	43
15	Crawley	29	38	42	-4	42
16	Carlisle	32	40	55	-15	40
17	Preston	32	41	42	-1	38
18	Shrewsbury	33	36	40	-4	37
19	Scunthorpe	33	36	55	-19	35
20	Colchester	32	31	50	-19	32
21	Oldham	31	32	45	-13	30
22	Bury	32	31	48	-17	27
23	Hartlepool	32	28	53	-25	24
24	Portsmouth	33	34	57	-23	23

When looking through the results, some stuck out as having larger influences on position, namely Swindon's two matches which resulted in two wins and +6 GD for the Robins. However, due to Portsmouth's horrendous season to date, Swindon's position would not be the worst if Pompey were to leave the league now.

The table below shows what the table would look like if the Portsmouth results were removed from the system, again as of 17/02/2013.

Position	Team	P	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Tranmere	31	45	29	16	55
2	Sheff Utd	31	46	29	17	54
3	Yeovil	30	52	37	15	54
4	Doncaster	30	43	29	14	54
5	Bournemouth	31	54	41	13	54
6	Brentford	30	44	32	12	51
7	Swindon	29	45	20	25	49
8	Coventry	32	52	39	13	49
9	Crewe	30	38	38	0	44
10	MK Dons	29	38	32	6	43
11	Leyton Orient	31	33	37	-4	43
12	Walsall	31	42	47	-5	42
13	Stevenage	29	35	40	-5	40
14	Notts County	30	39	35	4	39
15	Crawley	27	36	38	-2	39
16	Preston	31	41	42	-1	37
17	Shrewsbury	32	35	37	-2	37
18	Carlisle	30	35	52	-17	36
19	Scunthorpe	31	33	52	-19	32
20	Colchester	30	26	46	-20	28
21	Oldham	30	31	45	-14	27
22	Bury	31	29	48	-19	24
23	Hartlepool	30	25	52	-27	20

Initially, eyes are drawn to the promotion and relegation places in the new table. In regards to the top, Tranmere move up four places, swapping positions with current league leaders Bournemouth while Brentford and Swindon also switch places. At the bottom, very little happens in terms of position for the bottom five, although Oldham and Bury slip slightly closer to safety.

The place where most moves occur, is in the middle of the table. To make comparisons easier between the two tables, I created a third that is colour coded and position changes noted.

Pos Change	Pos	Team	P	F	A	GD	Pts
+ 4	1	Tranmere	31	45	29	16	55
	2	Sheff Utd	31	46	29	17	54
	3	Yeovil	30	52	37	15	54
	4	Doncaster	30	43	29	14	54
- 4	5	Bournemouth	31	54	41	13	54
+ 1	6	Brentford	30	44	32	12	51
- 1	7	Swindon	29	45	20	25	49
	8	Coventry	32	52	39	13	49
+ 4	9	Crewe	30	38	38	0	44
+2	10	MK Dons	29	38	32	6	43
- 1	11	Leyton Orient	31	33	37	-4	43
- 3	12	Walsall	31	42	47	-5	42
+ 1	13	Stevenage	29	35	40	-5	40
- 3	14	Notts County	30	44	35	9	39
	15	Crawley	27	36	38	-2	39
+ 1	16	Preston	31	41	42	-1	37
+ 1	17	Shrewsbury	32	35	37	-2	37
- 2	18	Carlisle	30	35	55	-20	36
	19	Scunthorpe	31	33	52	-19	32
	20	Colchester	30	26	46	-20	28
	21	Oldham	30	31	45	-14	27
	22	Bury	31	29	48	-19	24
	23	Hartlepool	30	25	52	-27	20

Teams may have only moved one or two positions in most cases, however the league remains closely contested with only 12 points separating Crawley in 15th from the play-off places.

Personally, I would be incredibly surprised if the league would allow Portsmouth to leave the league mid-season given the problems it would cause them. Despite that and given the changes it has on the league at this stage of the season, I wonder what the overall effect would be at the end of the season. My thoughts would be that the changes wouldn't be as drastic as all 23 remaining teams would have played Portsmouth twice, however, teams like Crewe and Shrewsbury who have suffered one defeat apiece already at the hands of the south coast club could find positives (in this table only) if they were to lose against them for a second time.