Sheffield United Wet And Wilder For Championship Challenge

Twelve months is a very long time in football.

This time last year Sheffield United were preparing for their sixth consecutive season in League One. Chris Wilder had replaced Nigel Adkins in the top job, after another disappointing campaign at Bramall Lane.

The Blades started the 2016-2017 poorly, with an opening day loss to Bolton Wanderers and just one victory from their first five matches. A long-desired promotion back to the Championship looked a hell of a long way off. Déjà vu again.

But Wilder and his side caught fire and became unstoppable. They went on to win the division in stunning style, recording 30 victories, 100 points and scoring 92 goals. It was stark turnaround that finally ended their absence from their second-tier.

The good vibes continue at S2. The Blades kicked off the 2017-2018 campaign with a 1-0 win over Brentford on Saturday. Tonight they face Walsall in the Carabao Cup before Middlesbrough away. You can sense the momentum at United. Wilder just doesn’t want to cement a place in the Championship, he wants to push on. High standards are being set.

“We’ll play better,” Wilder told The Sportsman on the Brentford victory.

“I thought we were a little bit loose in terms of our possession. We need to be better when we turn the ball over.”

Walsall were the Blades’ bogey side last season, beating them on three occasions in league and cup. But nothing less than victory over the Saddlers is on Wilder’s mind.

“There must be something wrong with that draw out in Thailand or where it was, because it’s a wind up that they stuck us two together,” he joked.

“But no it’s one of those things that’s cropped up. They seem to have a bit of a sign on us but we go into the game wanting to play well and wanting to win. They doesn’t’ change, I’m never changed our outlook on that whatever part of the season. To be a player, or a manager or a coach, you have to have a desire to win at anything really.”

To challenge for promotion to the Premier League the 49-year-old knows he needs to add to his squad. Wilder is scouring the market for more additions before the transfer window closes.

“You look at the Middlesbrough scenario, they’ve possibly got two teams that can go and play in the Championship week-in-week-out and have Championship experience.  Our boys haven’t even got the Championship experience, the majority of them. So we need to strengthen the squad. We possibly need a centre half and a couple of places up the pitch. We need another defender to go with what we’ve got.”
 

A local product who made more than 100 appearances for Sheffield United as a defender in the 1980s and 1990s, Wilder has got the club’s best interests at heart. He has got the often disillusioned fanbase, which have seen six different managers in the past four years, on side. The Yorkshireman has also got his players singing from the same hymn sheet.

“Momentum’s a big thing in football, it just carries over and that’s what we’re trying to do, keep it going,” Winger Mark Duffy said.

“The teams in the past that have carried that momentum on have done great things in their first season in the Championship. With this group of players there’s no reason why we can’t look at them and try and copy them really.”

The Blades’ fans and players are believing again. Who knows after another 12 months where this club will be.