MEN OF STEEL
Blades on brink of ending their 12-year Premier League exile
Patience was the order of the day at Bramall Lane where the queue trailed out of the ticket office, crept past the players’ entrance, along the rear of the tony currie Stand and towards the large picture of alan Woodward.
there was little trace of celebration in the air. Most waited in a nervous hush. Pessimism usually prevails in S2 where they are painfully familiar with football’s ability to punish the optimist.
they will proceed with caution but some of those Sheffield United supporters must have been fighting the urge to dance.
Victory against already-relegated ipswich tomorrow will virtually clinch promotion, easing the Blades six points clear of their closest challengers Leeds, who will have two to play and an inferior goal difference.
the Premier League beckons after a 12-year exile. Back to the top with dreams of rekindling the glory days of currie and Woodward.
Less than three miles away, at the club’s training ground on the top of one of Sheffield’s seven hills, chris Wilder was promising the assembled media he was going to be about as entertaining as Geoff Boycott in grim pursuit of another century at Headingley.
‘How boring am i going to be?’ said Wilder, as he mimed a forward defensive. ‘ Like Boycott, the Western terrace has emptied.’
Boring does not come naturally to Sheffield United’s manager. Born in the city and raised as a Blades fan, he had two spells as a player at the club and was present when they were promoted to the top flight under Dave Bassett in 1990.
‘a great period for the club,’ said Wilder. ‘i played in the back end of that season. Fortunately for me i tore my ankle ligaments, otherwise i would have been at charlton athletic. that’s how fate happens. i came back here and played in the old First Division.’
‘ Harry’ Bassett, with seven promotions on his record, has mentored Wilder through the astonishing rise of his coaching career, which started with his mates in Sheffield’s Sunday League and has turned full circle back to the steel city via alfreton, Halifax, Oxford and northampton.
‘i’m tight with Harry,’ said the 51year-old. ‘even though he tried to get rid of me about 33 times. i was like a rubber bullet, i kept bouncing back. i’ve a huge amount of respect for what he did for the club. He transformed it.’
there are parallels. Just as there are with neil Warnock, who led Sheffield United back to the Premier League in 2006. no- nonsense managers, connected to their audience, serving up high- energy football and demanding maximum effort from their players. ‘chris has delivered pride, passion, work ethic and fantastic attacking football,’ said chris Morgan, captain in the team promoted under Warnock. ‘He’s given the supporters something to cheer. it’s been a long, hard 12 years. there’s still work to do but promotion would be a massive boost to the city.’
Like Barnsley- born Morgan, Wilder’s side are captained by a local hero — Billy Sharp, 33 years old and improving with age. He has 24 goals this season but is not expected to be fit to face ipswich.
it was 2007 when Sheffield United crashed out of the top flight, relegated by one goal on goal difference amid cries of injustice as West Ham escaped with an unlikely win on the last day at Manchester United, with the only goal scored by carlos tevez.
it still rankles. the Premier League ruled that tevez and Javier Mascherano had been signed illegally and fined West Ham £5.5million but did not deduct points and the Blades went down.
eventually, they won the legal case and West Ham were ordered to pay compensation of £35m, but this would not make up for the sense of lost opportunity.
as the Premier League enjoyed its global boom, Sheffield United slid into League One where they languished for six years while nurturing talent including england defenders Kyle Walker and Harry Maguire.
the 2012 promotion bid was derailed when top scorer ched evans was jailed for rape in april. His conviction was quashed four years later but evans was in prison as the Blades were pipped to automatic promotion by Sheffield Wednesday, and then lost on penalties at Wembley — the sixth of eight successive defeats in the play-offs.
as Wilder puts it with a hint of South Yorkshire understatement, the club has ‘been through the mill a bit’.
chairman Kevin Mccabe and Prince abdullah Bin Mosaad Bin abdulaziz al Saud, a co-owner since 2013, are locked in a fight for control and braced for a date in the High court next month.
Wilder considered quitting last summer as the power struggle threatened to impact transfer plans, but an agreement was reached and he signed a new deal.
‘i’ve got a clear vision of how i want this club to go forward,’ said Wilder. ‘there are no threats but it has to be right. the two owners got together and we improved.’
Beat ipswich and they might even do a little jig at Bramall Lane.