Wilder’s been the victim of his own success and didn’t deserve an ending like this
Our Anfield legend always hits the mark
SHEFFIELD UNITED owner Prince Abdullah is one of very few people in football who might be glad that our grounds are still empty.
I’ve got a feeling that those Blades fans who would have normally packed into Bramall Lane next month for United’s next home game, against Arsenal, might have made their feelings known about the decision to part company with Chris Wilder.
And it wouldn’t have been pretty.
Last night Sheffield United finally came out with the long-anticipated official confirmation that Wilder was going – with a club statement describing their manager’s departure as by “mutual consent”.
Nothing that happens in football should surprise us anymore – and no doubt the Saudi prince would point to the Premier League table as a justifiable reason to act. There are suggestions that Wilder is paying the price for what has gone on behind the scenes, but the bottom line is that he deserved the chance to have a crack at getting his boyhood club back in the top-flight.
Just recording that he won two promotions in three seasons after taking over the Blades doesn’t really do him justice.
He absolutely catapulted the Blades into the big time – and then guided them to their highest finish since 1975.
Talk about being a victim of your success. I’ve no doubt if Wilder had brought evolution instead of revolution then he’d still be in the job.
But then Sheffield United might not have spent two seasons in the Premier League and banked £200million in the process.
Wasn’t Wilder due a bump in the road? Pep Guardiola suffered a dip last season and Jurgen Klopp is finding it tough to defend the title this time.
Klopp has gone on record as saying Liverpool have really suffered from playing in empty stadiums.
I am told that Wilder felt his team have been similarly disadvantaged.
There are certain grounds where the supporters act as a 12th man when you need one most.
Last season, the Blades won nine Premier League games by a singlegoal margin. This time, they have lost 14 by one goal.
Those kind of margins can turn on the input of the crowd.
Only last month, Prince Abdullah went on record to say that Wilder’s job would be safe even if relegation was confirmed. So, clearly, other factors have come into play since then.
I am sure that over the coming days and weeks we will learn the details of what caused the relationship between owner and manager to break down.
Will it be a genuine termination by “mutual consent” or has Chris jumped before he was pushed?
There has been talk of rows about the state of the training ground and a plan to bring in a director of football to oversee transfers.
That would certainly have been a blow to Chris. He would have felt he had earned the right to make decisions on who to buy and sell. But he won’t be out of work for long.
He’s a high-quality boss and a class act off the pitch too.
Plenty of chairmen, in England and beyond, will fancy a bit of that.
After all he had done wasn’t he due a bump the road...
AARON CRESSWELL reckons West Ham will have a much better idea about their chances of a European finish after clashes with Manchester United today and Arsenal next Sunday.
The Hammers are sitting pretty in the Europa League spots with 11 games to go, which is a far cry from the battle they faced to stay in the Premier
League last season.
And the left-back knows they will really lay down a marker for the run-in if they can beat boss David Moyes’ old team at Old Trafford and
European outsiders Arsenal at the London Stadium.
Cresswell said: “We’re 27 games in now, we’ve done really well, with possibly higher expectations than people have thought of us, and we want to hang in there as long as we can.
“After all the hard work, it would be a shame to fall away now. We don’t want that, we want to try to finish as high as we can.
“We know how tough it is going to be with teams around us hitting form –
Chelsea are doing well at the minute – but there’s no reason why we can’t.
“We’ve earned our right to be up there – whether we maintain it, time will tell.
“We’ve 11 games to go and some of the tougher matches coming up… Manchester United and Arsenal.
“We know it’s tough with the teams around us, but we have proved we can get results against the big teams. The next two games are massive. If we get six points from them
– I know it will be tough – but we’re going to be right up there.”
Cresswell (below) has played a key part in West Ham’s success with some fine performances at both ends of the field – to such an extent that he is the top flight’s leading defender for assists.
“It always helps when you have Tomas
Soucek, Craig
Dawson, Issa
Diop, Angelo
Ogbonna and
Declan Rice all attacking the ball,” he added.
“When you’ve got those boys coming in, you’ve got a great chance of getting an assist.”
Cresswell’s form has also made him a cult hero in fantasy football circles and the most selected full-back.
He said: “One of my mates sent me a link to the fantasy league so I could see the stats and it was something like 25 per cent picked me.
“I don’t play, but he was telling me, ‘You’re the top defender’.
“Stuff like that is good in showing you’re doing the right things, but I think you get a lot of points for clean sheets, don’t you? And that’s not just down to me.”
A lot of it is down to boss Moyes and the mentality he instilled in the squad.
Cresswell added: “The lads have all bought into it and we’ve got a great team spirit, a great togetherness.”
OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER feels no sympathy for David Moyes about how his Manchester United dream turned into a nightmare.
Moyes was hailed as ‘the Chosen One’ when he was asked to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson in the summer of 2013 – but his reign lasted 10 months before he was sacked.
Solskjaer (right) is full of admiration for the way the Scot has rebooted his reputation by building a West Ham side that is pushing to break into the top four.
But there will be no place for pity in the Norwegian’s heart when Moyes returns to Old Trafford with the
Hammers today.
Solskjaer said: “I don’t think you can feel sorry for someone who has managed Manchester
United.
“David wouldn’t have taken it if he didn’t want the job. It’s a dream job for many, many managers and, unfortunately, David didn’t last for as long as he would have wanted. But he’s proving again what he’s capable of at West Ham. In football, you shouldn’t be surprised at anything, but I’ve got to say that David has made massive improvements with the West Ham team this season and last season as well.
“They have got Michail Antonio really flying, Tomas Soucek is scoring goals – and he has really built on that.
After a poor start – I remember they lost 2-0 to Newcastle on the opening day – David made some decisions, stuck with them, and they are up there on merit. You don’t get results over a long period without working at it – and you can see how well-organised they are.”
United have axed three managers in the eight years since Ferguson retired. Moyes, Louis van
Gaal and Jose Mourinho all failed to win the Premier League.
And while Solskjaer seems destined to finish no higher than second at the end of his second season in charge, beating runaway leaders City 2-0 in last weekend’s Manchester derby offered more evidence that the Norwegian is guiding the Reds in the right direction.
United are also in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, but their chances of reaching the last eight of the Europa League suffered a blow on Thursday night when they conceded a last-minute equaliser in a 1-1 home draw with AC Milan.
Solskjaer faces a mounting casualty list, with Anthony Martial’s hip injury putting the France international on the sidelines alongside Marcus Rashford and Edinson Cavani.
It means teenager Mason Greenwood will be United’s only fit senior striker. Only City have scored more than United’s 55 in the Premier League, but 35 of them were scored by Bruno Fernandes, Rashford, Martial and Cavani.
Solskjaer may now be forced to hand 18-year-old Amad Diallo his first taste of the Premier League.
It would come after the £37million Ivorian winger scored against Milan following his introduction as a second-half substitute.
THOMAS TUCHEL insists he has calmed down a lot, claiming his emotional intensity in the technical area 10 years ago was ‘triple’ what it is now.
Blimey, Thomas must have been truly demonic a decade ago.
At Elland Road, the German managed to start a verbal ruck in an empty stadium. That takes some doing.
Mind you, those familiar with Leeds United sporting director Victor Orta would not be surprised by the identity of Tuchel’s foe.
The exact details of what
Orta – a man with an in-throat megaphone – and Tuchel were arguing about were unclear, but, suffice to say, the Chelsea manager was standing up for his players, getting angry on their behalf.
In being animated and passionate Tuchel is hardly alone in the managerial fraternity.
But what is already clear after a relatively short time in the Premier League is that these Chelsea players have bought into that intensity.
There is a sharpness about their work that is hugely impressive.
It will not catch many eyes, but their defending as a collective unit is already as good as anything else in the league.
This was the TENTH clean sheet in his opening 12 games.
That is impressive, especially when you consider the rate at which his predecessor shipped goals.
That they did not win this contest was down to a spot of indifferent finishing, quirky team selection and tidy goalkeeping from Illan Meslier. But the same applies to Leeds. Despite his Chelsea team being mainly in control, Edouard Mendy, arguably, had the more taxing saves to make.
And while this stalemate was probably best left for the hipsters to salivate over, it was another reminder of where Leeds United have got to under Marcelo Bielsa.
They traded passes, energy and ideas with a lavishly-funded
Big Six operation, playing some nice stuff in patches.
What a shame it has been over a year since their supporters had the chance to see them in the flesh.
And what a shame Patrick
Bamford had to limp off in the first half in front of the inspecting
Gareth Southgate.
It certainly looked a serious enough issue to head off any thoughts Southgate might have had about including Bamford in the squad on Thursday.
He must have been in with a shout and any prolonged absence will be keenly felt by Bielsa and Leeds.
Without Bamford for the best part of an hour, the home side lacked a fulcrum.
And the best part of an hour with little threat was testimony to Bamford’s importance to this team. But they can still be satisfied with a point, unlike Chelsea.
While Leeds were tighter and more conservative than normal, this was a game from which Tuchel would have earmarked three points in his pursuit of a top-four finish.
But while those 10 defensive blanks might be something to behold – and one of the two conceded was an own goal – 13 goals in the same 12 games is hardly something for Tuchel to write home about.
Yes, making Chelsea harder to score against was a priority for
Tuchel and it is clear
he has the nous to do just that.
Whether he has the nous to now make them more prolific remains to be seen.
Because, while this was a decent display, it was an opportunity missed.
And it was missed by a coach who started the game with two conventional strikers in Timo Werner and Olivier Giroud on the bench against a team who concede with alarming regularity.
So, while Tuchel can rightly be lauded for that intensity, for his organisation, for his discipline, the Premier League waits to see if he can turn on the attacking style. Tuchel’s Chelsea are unbeaten… but not unshackled.
HE’S A TUCH AGGRESSIVE Chelsea boss Tuchel shows the drive that fires up Blues