When I first got here, players hated the fans and fans hated the players ...
IT went right down to the wire. The tension unbearable. Emotions through the wringer, they had hung in there until the bitter end, their destiny decided by the very last play of the competition. Against the heaviest of odds at times, they opted for the long game and were still left standing at the death. Mission accomplished.
Chris Wilder was a midst the celebratory throng in the Warner Stand as Jos Buttler removed the bails at Lord’s last month. He acknowledges the drama of England’s World Cup win could be an allegory for Sheffield United’s first season back in the top flight for a dozen years.
‘It wasn’t sixes smashed about the park. It wasn’t that type of game,’ says Wilder. ‘It was difficult to bat and Joe Root said he’d found it hard to get off the square. Everybody had their own issues with the pitch but, when there was that much at stake, it was never going to be a free-flowing game. When it comes down to it, in a situation like that, it’s all about the win.
‘New Zealand were fabulous. I never thought it was going to be as straightforward as some people were making out and it wasn’t. It was a game that ebbed and flowed right the way through to the death and provided an unbelievable conclusion.’
The very mention of cricket develops a glint in Wilder’s eyes. ‘Sheffield Boys U nd er-13s, opening bat,’ he beams. ‘Not that I was that good. I loved playing but I certainly wasn’t the best cricketer the school produced. Someone else took that mantle. A bloke who goes by the initials MPV.’ To Michael Vaughan, Ashes-winning captain, on Silverdale’s sporting roll call can now be added Chris Wilder, Premier League manager.
Apart from ‘ the price of the ticket, which was quite heavy,’ the Lord’s experience is one this Yorkshireman treasured. That night of July 14, he ended up in a St John’s Wood pub, drinking in the atmosphere of the historic occasion in addition to the wet stuff that passed over the bar.
The man with the Blades tattoo was also in the crowd at Bramall Lane exacting quite contrasting emotions in 2007: Sheffield United’s previous home fixture in the Premier League prior to today’s visit of Crystal Palace. The final-day defeat by Wigan.
The sinking feeling came with an over-riding sense of injustice for a home support towards West Ham and their third-party owned pair of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. ‘I would come back to watch whenever I could, to be with a few of my pals,’ says Wilder. ‘It was a day out, a chance for a few beers and a catch-up. The sort of togetherness a club should promote.
‘There were a lot of things flying around at the back end of that season. People t al ked about weakened sides. It was a difficult one for me because I knew Paul Jewell and Chris Hutchings from when I played at Bradford so, although I was distraught that Sheffield United had gone down, Jagger and Hutch were really good guys and it was great for them to keep Wigan up.’
Back then, life was markedly different for Wilder, a manager at Conference level with Halifax, a club heading towards liquidation. He says with a chuckle: ‘People ask me whether I ever thought, when I stood on the Kop, that I would be managing Sheffield United in the Premier League. I was thinking about what was for tea and how the team were going to get on that day!
‘My way has always been not to get too far ahead of myself. This year it might also be a case of not getting too down on myself if things aren’t going as I’d like.’
If things are going as he would like, strong home form will almost certainly have played its part. ‘There’s no doubt about it. We talk about utilising the support here,’ he says. ‘The players and fans certainly weren’t connected when I first came to the club. Players hated supporters, supporters hated players. You still had 20,000 turning up weekly but it was an easy place to play for opposition teams. It was one of the first things we addressed. The way we played enthused the crowd.’
Since February 2014, when he took over at the Football League’s bottom club Northampton, Wilder has been the most prolific winner among managers i n English football, tasting victory 131 times. He knows, however, that he must get used to losing.
‘ There are going to be some reality checks this year,’ says Wilder. ‘I’m all right with that. I don’t like it, I’m not going to feel cock-a-hoop if we get beat but, when you are i nvolved in a nine-month season and one that’s so relentless, you have to get over it quickly. I have talked to a couple of managers about it and their advice was: “Don’t beat yourself up in this division because you’re up against it”.
Wilder is expected to stick with the core of those players who got him here over the opening weeks. Lys Mousset and Mo Besic, his two foreign outfield acquisitions among an outlay of £45 million this summer, have experience of English f ootball. Otherwise, Wilder played it safe, shopping for homegrown products.
‘ It’s 100 per cent due to the players I know,’ he says. ‘With the money we have to spend, we can’t afford to make mistakes.
‘Neither have the club got an extensive international scouting system because, financially, we had to plough everything in to get out of League One — selling Dominic Calvert- Lewin, Che Adams and Aaron Ramsdale. I didn’t want to but we had to generate the money to bring in players we felt could get us out of the division. Then, we had to sell David Brooks to get in John Egan and others to try to make us more competitive in the Championship.’
Things will change, of course, if Wilder’s newcomers can go the full distance now they are back in the Premier League.