Bob Dyson

It's all about people. Spending time with those you love family, friends & football . Dedicated to Jill, Sophie, all my great mates, the Mighty Blades and SFC

[Bob Dyson @dysonblade]

Thank you @Anahaugh @gracedent for the best @MasterChefUK series to date.
Absolutely top notch with really constructive critique throughout which inspired the contestants.
What a final, all absolutely brilliant with Jhane a very, very worthy Masterchef Champion 2026 🏆 😋

[Bob Dyson @dysonblade]

@sufc Did you mean respect for the Club?

Journalists being journalists!!

[Bob Dyson @dysonblade]

@njks1889 @ErikUnchained @lah3309 20

[Yasmine Khosrowshahi @yasminekho]

Dyson is a $25 billion company.

It is 100% owned by James Dyson.

No investors. No venture capital. No public shareholders.

But there was a time when he had no job and his wife was working to keep the house running.

In 1974, James Dyson left a steady engineering job at a company called Rotork to start his own business. He'd spent four years there designing boats. Stable salary. Respected employer. He walked away from all of it to make a better wheelbarrow.

That company eventually failed. By 1978, he was running a workshop on borrowed time and that's when a broken vacuum cleaner changed everything.

He was vacuuming his house when the suction died mid-clean. He opened the bag clogged with fine dust. The machine lost power every time the bag filled more than a third of the way. He was paying for something that failed at its only job.

At his factory, he'd seen an industrial cyclone, a cone that spun air at high speed to separate paint particles from the air. No bag. No filter. Just centrifugal force and a clean exhaust.

He thought: what if you did that to a vacuum cleaner.

He didn't know it would take five years and 5,126 prototypes to find out.

His wife Deirdre taught art to keep the family going. They remortgaged the house to fund his experiments. Then again. Then a third time. Every prototype got a number. Every failure got documented, not just that it failed, but exactly how, and exactly what he'd change next.

5,126 times he built something that didn't work.
5,126 times he went back to the workshop.

By prototype 5,127, the cyclone geometry was right. Constant suction. No bag. No power loss. It picked up what every other vacuum left behind.

He was 32. He had a working prototype and no idea what to do next.

He went to every major manufacturer. Hoover. Electrolux. Every big name.

They all said no.

One Hoover executive later admitted they'd looked at it, understood exactly what it was, and passed because it would kill their replacement bag revenue. The vacuum cleaner bag market was worth over $500 million in Europe alone at the time. They knew his machine worked. That was precisely why they declined.

He spent years being rejected. Banks wouldn't lend. Investors wouldn't back a product the entire industry had already reviewed and passed on.

Then a Japanese company licensed it. Sold it for the equivalent of £3,500 a unit. It appeared in design galleries. Won awards. It made him just enough to keep going.

In 1993, the Dyson DC01 went on sale in Britain. By early 1995, it was the best-selling vacuum cleaner in the country.

He was 46 years old.

Here's what the story is actually about.

He built a $25 billion company without giving away a single share to an outsider. No VC round. No IPO. No co-founder dilution. Just a remortgaged house, a wife's teaching salary, and 5,126 failed experiments.

Most founders at his level had given away 60-70% of their company long before reaching scale. Dyson gave away nothing because he had nothing anyone wanted to invest in. The rejection that looked like a curse was the thing that kept him whole.

Since 2018 alone, the Dyson family has collected £5 billion in dividends. Not from selling the company. From never selling it.

In 1999, Dyson sued Hoover for copying his cyclone technology with their Triple Vortex vacuum. The High Court ruled that Hoover had deliberately copied a fundamental part of his patented design. Hoover agreed to pay £4 million in damages.

He said it wasn't about the money.

It was about the executives who'd looked at his machine, understood exactly what it was, and chosen bag revenue over building something better.

Dyson wanted them to know he remembered.

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

I don’t want to hear about Black Lives Matter.
I don’t want to hear about White Lives Matter.
Everyone matters.
Henry Nowak matters.

[Bob Dyson @dysonblade]

@AlanPickard1889 @Parisblade What……. your input is invaluable Al it’s absolutely what’s needed. ALL about the fans⚔️
But maybe not after your Sunday sessions 🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻😁

[Blades Fan Advisory Board @sufc_fab]

Blades - are you going to Bochum?!

The FAB have set up a dedicated WhatsApp group for supporters making the trip.

There will be plenty of useful information on there - helping Blades meet up and plan for a great pre-season.

Join here:

https://t.co/vfpRvWp5LS

⚔️🔴⚪️⚫️⚔️

[VfL Bochum 1848 @VfLBochum1848EN]

This will be the first time we have ever encountered the Blades, but this isn't the first time Bochum and Sheffield have connected!

Here's a thread on the history of the partnership between the two cities! 🧵

#meinVfL #twitterblades

[Bob Dyson @dysonblade]

@JAMES2430911 @sheffieldfc Don’t cycle 😬⚔️❤️

[Bob Dyson @dysonblade]

@JAMES2430911 @sheffieldfc James they were a sporting club originally from memory and the football club formed early 1900’s

[Football Tweet ⚽ @Footballtweet]

😳 Last year, Nottingham Forest pushed for Crystal Palace to be removed from the Europa League over John Textor’s ownership situation.

Palace were dropped into the UEFA Conference League instead… and ended up WINNING the competition to qualify for the Europa League anyway. 🏆

Meanwhile, Forest went into the Europa League, won nothing, and now won’t play European football next season. 🤯

Football Karma is REAL.

[Danny Hall @dannyhall04]

A fortnight or so ago, one of the most unheralded figures at Bramall Lane celebrated 10 years as a Blade. It's been some journey, with no doubt plenty more twists and turns to come

https://t.co/BrH3mS2OEK

#sufc #twitterblades

[Bob Dyson @dysonblade]

Remove the use of the Video assistant referee (VAR) from Premier League football - Sign the Petition! https://t.co/DSlc4TsHza via @UKChange

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

Steve Parish’s handling of Oliver Glasner’s angry reaction to Marc Guehi’s exit proved masterful. Some club chairmen might have dismissed an emotional head coach who challenged their authority. Parish rose above Glasner’s criticism to do what was best for Crystal Palace.

He has to balance the books so Guehi’s departure with his contract expiring was inevitable. Parish also had to work with a manager who had already signalled his intent to leave. Palace were beset with “civil war” headlines and a sense of uncertainty and transition. A winter of discontent, holders knocked out the Cup, 10 games without a win, Glasner barbs at the board, chaos.

Parish got a grip of the situation. Whatever the disagreement over Guehi’s sale, Parish and Glasner had a mutual respect, they cleared the air, the storm passed and they finish the season in glorious style with another trophy.

It’s a pity Glasner’s not staying at Palace, not building on this remarkable momentum and having a crack at the Europa League. Palace will miss Glasner. And he will miss them, a club and board who care. #CPFC

[Danny Hall @dannyhall04]

🚨 Understand United are in talks over a pre-season friendly abroad this summer - but it won't be on their planned summer camp in the sun. All info we have, and reason for delayed announcement, all in here

https://t.co/ofmrHwvqcF

#sufc #twitterblades

[Blades Fan Advisory Board @sufc_fab]

We want as many Blades as possible at our pre-season games and will share any confirmed information as soon as we have it.

UTB.

⚔️🔴⚫️⚪️⚔️

#sufc

3/3

[Blades Fan Advisory Board @sufc_fab]

Whilst plans are at an advanced stage, the club is not in a place to confirm fixtures at this moment.

As soon as that changes, both the club and the FAB will let fans know so they can start making arrangements.

#sufc

2/3

[Blades Fan Advisory Board @sufc_fab]

Blades fans. We’ve had a lot of you asking us about the club’s plans for pre-season. We know a lot of you want to travel and support the club, getting the 2026/27 season off to a great start.

#sufc

1/3

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

Energy bills are rising again. Labour will blame Iran, but you’re paying more because of Ed Miliband’s net zero taxes and refusal to drill our own oil and gas.

Our Cheap Power Plan would cut bills by 20% by scrapping the green taxes, scrapping VAT and drilling in the North Sea.

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

Sunderland’s starting XI in their joyous, season-ending 2-1 victory over listless Chelsea cost the same as £106m Enzo Fernandez. This is no slight on a world champion, an elite attacking midfielder, full of craft and craftiness, if moody at times. This is simply a celebration of Sunderland’s exceptional recruitment, finding gems who can see - and seize - the opportunity at the Stadium of Light.

This is also a celebration of Regis Le Bris’ remarkable team-building, blending and bonding qualities which have guided a side promoted via the play-offs into seventh and Europe. For those of us who thought Sunderland would go straight back down, apologies and enjoy Europe. You deserve it. A well-run football operation deserves it. That backing from stands to boardroom deserves it. Football also deserves it: a reminder that the status quo can be challenged with shrewd planning and investment and hard work.

Of Le Bris’ starting XI against Chelsea, eight joined on the eve of the season and one in the winter window: Roefs a reported £9m from Nijmegen; Mukiele £9.5m from PS-G; Reinaldo free from Atletico Madrid; Geertruida loan from RB Leipzig; Le Fee £19.3m, loan made permanent from Roma; Xhaka £13m from Bayer Leverkusen; Sadiki £15m from Union St-Gilloise; Angulo £17.5m from Anderlecht (in February); and seven-goal Brobbey £21.6m from Ajax. Two 2025 arrivals came off the bench: Diarra £30m from Strasbourg; and Isidor £5m loan made permanent from Zenit St-Petersburg (in February 2025).

Three of the 14 involved were already at the club. The starting pair of: Hume £200,000 from Linfield in 2022; and O’Nien undisclosed but reported as £200,000 to £300,000 from Wycombe Wanderers in 2018. And the sub: Rigg from Sunderland’s academy. (The £105.5m total does not include the undisclosed loan fees).

When Sunderland won 2-1 at the Bridge in October, Le Bris’ starting XI cost only £75m (and also had the important Ballard, £2m from Arsenal in 2022). Chelsea’s starting XI was £433m.

Four miles from the Bridge, on Park Lane this evening, the League Managers Association celebrates its members’ many achievements this season. Le Bris certainly deserves a mention. Mixing old and many new players, and getting new signings to settle quickly, requires real people skills. Le Bris and his staff clearly have them.

It’s also a reflection on Sunderland’s family club reputation that so many newcomers are welcomed and assimilated so quickly. Some will move on, some will be moved on but what a journey this is across England - and soon Europe. #SAFC