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For all those creaming themselves over a Europa League challenge, have a read of this latest offering from The Athletic...
How Sheffield United can learn from Hull: ‘All of a sudden, we switched from hunter to hunted and that’s never easy’
By Richard Sutcliffe 7h ago
When the fixtures were released last summer ahead of Sheffield United’s first season back in the Premier League for a dozen years, Chris Wilder was on the golf course.
He had already had chance to digest the challenge facing his newly-promoted side thanks to the club having had a draft of the season’s schedule the day before.
Even so, as the red-and-white half of the Steel City took a deep breath whilst scanning the fixture list for the first time, Wilder could have been forgiven for being slightly put off his game that June morning as the size of the task facing United sunk in.
Particularly daunting was the 25-day period after Christmas that was bookended by two meetings with champions Manchester City and also included trips to Liverpool and Arsenal.
But it was far from the only run of games that brought home just what lay in store for Wilder’s team. November also stood out, courtesy of trips to Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers either side of Manchester United’s first visit to Bramall Lane since Wayne Rooney’s double secured victory for Sir Alex Ferguson in 2006.
What neither Wilder nor those excited supporters could have imagined back in the summer is that United, in terms of the league table, would be heading into this tricky run of games looking down on a trio of clubs competing in Europe this term.
It is a remarkable turn of events but not one that Wilder plans on getting carried away about.
“I won’t assess the season until we’re done,” he said when asked about heading to north London five places above last season’s Champions League runners-up. “It is great for the supporters but, without being negative about it, the division is quite tight. A win jumps you three or four places. We just have to continue focusing on keeping doing a lot of things right.”
Wilder’s words of caution in the aftermath of beating Burnley 3-0 were to be expected. No prizes are given out at this time of year, as the United manager well knows. He also does not have to look too far for an example of why a stunning start to life in the Premier League for a newly-promoted club is not necessarily a guarantee against a nerve-shredding fight for survival.
Like United today, Hull City were in sixth place after 11 games of the 2008-09 season. Phil Brown’s side had 20 points to their name as November moved into its second week and were fresh from giving champions Manchester United an almighty scare in a seven-goal thriller at Old Trafford.
The mood was buoyant and the talk among supporters, still rubbing their eyes in disbelief at Hull claiming back-to-back victories on the road over Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, was of maybe pushing on to challenge for a European place.
The reality, however, was rather different, with Hull going on to win just twice more that season. Only defeat for Newcastle United on the final day at Aston Villa saved Brown’s team, who ended the campaign sitting just one place above the relegation zone with 35 points.
“I do see a lot of parallels between how Sheffield United have started this season and the Tigers all those years ago,” says Paul Duffen, then Hull’s chairman, to The Athletic. “Like ourselves in 2008, they have taken the momentum of winning promotion and built on it with some fantastic results.
“As with ourselves, they have achieved some of those results at the expense of clubs who maybe didn’t quite take them as seriously as they should. We were this little club from East Yorkshire who were expected to be swept aside. Or that is how it felt at times.
“Yet, like Sheffield United this season, we beat them. It was a very satisfying time. But then what happened is once we had gone to Arsenal and Spurs, and beaten them both, the rest of the Premier League woke up and did start to take us seriously.
“All of a sudden, we had switched from the hunter to the hunted and that is never easy. Sheffield United are likely to find the same. How they deal with that switch will probably decide their season.”
Dean Windass’s place in the history of Hull City is assured. At the grand old age of 39, his volleyed winner at Wembley against Bristol City ended the city’s 104-year wait for top-flight football.
It was a sweet moment for a striker who had missed the Championship play-off final five years earlier after being dramatically axed from the Sheffield United squad by Neil Warnock.
Promotion for Hull meant a return to a level he had graced with Bradford City, where he finished as top scorer in the 1999-00 campaign as Paul Jewell’s side stayed up against all the odds, and Middlesbrough.
On a personal level, his third taste of life among the elite proved to be a frustrating one. He started just one game, the infamous Boxing Day defeat at Manchester City when Brown chose to deliver his half-time team-talk on the pitch.
But Windass was in the squad as Hull announced their arrival in the Premier League with not only those stunning victories at the Emirates Stadium and White Hart Lane but also by beating Newcastle United, Fulham, West Ham United and West Bromwich Albion.
“I don’t think anyone got complacent or anything like that,” he tells The Athletic. “It is just that we were competing in a tough league.
“I always think back to what Paul Jewell kept saying that year we stayed up at Bradford. ‘Fourth-bottom is a massive achievement’ was the message all the way through, no matter if we had just beaten Arsenal or lost against someone in the relegation fight with us. He was right.
“It was the same at Hull City. We had that brilliant start and were joint-top at one stage. Even at Christmas, we had something like 27 points but the Premier League is a place where you can quickly lose three in a row and then, it is hard to bounce back.
“We had that at City. We were flying and Geovanni was scoring from all over. None of us had expected it. We were determined not to get carried away and Phil Brown always made sure we kept our feet on the ground.
“But things caught up with us eventually and the wins dried up. The Premier League is a tough league — no-one should forget that.
“Sheffield United’s win over Burnley on Saturday was brilliant. They are an old club of mine and it is great to see the job Chrissy is doing. But he won’t be carried away and that is exactly the right approach.”
Hull are far from the only newly-promoted club to start life in the Premier League like an express train only for their seasons to then stall. Huddersfield Town had 15 points at the corresponding stage of 2017-18 but still needed draws at Manchester City and Chelsea in the final week to stay up. Seven years earlier, Burnley went down despite winning five of their opening 11 games.
More heartening for the Bramall Lane faithful is how other newly-promoted teams have built on good starts. Wolves, for example, finished seventh last term on the back of the first 11 games yielding 15 points, while West Ham also finished in the top half in 2012-13 after winning five and drawing three of those opening fixtures.
Of the teams promoted to the top flight since the turn of the millennium, only Hull can better West Ham’s tally of 18 points at this stage of a season, but that still did not prevent them becoming embroiled in a desperate fight for survival.
“We went into the Premier League with a sense of innocence and — to an extent — ignorance,” recalls former chairman Duffen. “Hull City had never played at this level before, everything was brand new and it was one big adventure for the entire club.
“Promotion meant so much to so many people. I always remember the play-off final at Wembley and our supporters taking along photographs of family members who were no longer with us. They just wanted these lost ancestors, all huge Hull City fans, to share in a historic day.
“Going into the Premier League stretches every single sinew of a club. You are never ready until it happens. We were effectively one man and his dog in terms of the club’s infrastructure compared to others in the Premier League.
“We changed that over time, and Hull became a respected constituent of the Premier League but everyone had to step up at first, right across the club.
“This is possibly where Sheffield United are different. Okay, it is quite a few years since the club had been up in the top division before this season but they do have that presence. They probably feel to belong more than we did. At least at first, anyway.”
Hull reached the 20-point mark in 2008-09 by winning 3-0 at West Brom in their ninth fixture. It took Brown’s men level on points with Liverpool and Chelsea at the summit of the Premier League.
“What a time to be a Hull City fan,” adds Duffen, a Tottenham supporter who had taken charge at the KC Stadium along with property developer Russell Bartlett in 2007. “Memories we will have forever. On a personal level, winning at the Emirates was pretty special. As was sitting across from Daniel Levy at Tottenham a week later as we claimed another three points.
“But then, once clubs started to show that bit more respect to us, things quickly got very difficult. We only won two more times after that incredible start. We beat Middlesbrough in December at home and then Manucho scored in the last minute (at Fulham in March).
“Once teams started showing us that respect, we struggled. We did not possess the strength in depth we probably needed to change things. It meant we didn’t have that ‘Plan B’. We tried to change things in the January but that is never ideal because it is a distressed market.”
Hull, in an attempt to spark their season into life, did break their transfer record to sign Jimmy Bullard from Fulham in a £5 million deal. But a serious knee injury suffered on his debut meant the midfielder did not play again for ten months.
It meant Bullard could only watch from the sidelines as Hull slipped ever deeper into trouble during the final months of the season despite the best efforts of manager Brown to keep spirits up.
“Phil Brown had this thing every month where he sat us all down,” says Windass. “The strikers went on one table, the midfielders another. The defenders also sat together and the keepers.
“He got us all to write down how many points we expected us to get. He wouldn’t say anything at the time, not reveal what any of us had predicted.
“But then, at the end of the month, he would look at how we had done in comparison to what we had predicted collectively. Obviously, those first two months we were miles behind in our predictions compared to what happened on the pitch. Who would have expected us to win at Arsenal and Tottenham?
“It was Phil’s way of trying to motivate us. And stop us getting ahead of ourselves. Everyone had to be realistic and I am sure the Sheffield United lads will be the same now.
“Ride these good results, of course. You have to enjoy results like the wins over Burnley. Or Arsenal the other week. But also make sure everyone’s feet stay on the ground.
“Life in the Premier League can change so quickly. What seems like being okay for a newly-promoted team can suddenly get very difficult.”
For Sheffield United, Saturday’s trip to Tottenham brings an opportunity to build on their own hugely encouraging start. Not only are the club sixth in the table but Wilder’s side boast the joint-best defensive record in the Premier League with Leicester City after conceding just eight times in those opening 11 fixtures.
“Full credit to Chrissy Wilder for the job he has done,” adds Windass, who netted six goals in 22 appearances for Sheffield United during the 2002-03 campaign. “But January might still be a big month. Hull City probably needed that little lift a new face or two can bring in that first year up but, for whatever reason, things did not work out.
“Eventually, things caught up with the players and the club only just ended up staying up. The good start kept Hull City in the Premier League but that season proved there is always still a lot of hard work to do, no matter how well you feel to be doing in November.”
How Sheffield United can learn from Hull: ‘All of a sudden, we switched from hunter to hunted and that’s never easy’
By Richard Sutcliffe 7h ago
When the fixtures were released last summer ahead of Sheffield United’s first season back in the Premier League for a dozen years, Chris Wilder was on the golf course.
He had already had chance to digest the challenge facing his newly-promoted side thanks to the club having had a draft of the season’s schedule the day before.
Even so, as the red-and-white half of the Steel City took a deep breath whilst scanning the fixture list for the first time, Wilder could have been forgiven for being slightly put off his game that June morning as the size of the task facing United sunk in.
Particularly daunting was the 25-day period after Christmas that was bookended by two meetings with champions Manchester City and also included trips to Liverpool and Arsenal.
But it was far from the only run of games that brought home just what lay in store for Wilder’s team. November also stood out, courtesy of trips to Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers either side of Manchester United’s first visit to Bramall Lane since Wayne Rooney’s double secured victory for Sir Alex Ferguson in 2006.
What neither Wilder nor those excited supporters could have imagined back in the summer is that United, in terms of the league table, would be heading into this tricky run of games looking down on a trio of clubs competing in Europe this term.
It is a remarkable turn of events but not one that Wilder plans on getting carried away about.
“I won’t assess the season until we’re done,” he said when asked about heading to north London five places above last season’s Champions League runners-up. “It is great for the supporters but, without being negative about it, the division is quite tight. A win jumps you three or four places. We just have to continue focusing on keeping doing a lot of things right.”
Wilder’s words of caution in the aftermath of beating Burnley 3-0 were to be expected. No prizes are given out at this time of year, as the United manager well knows. He also does not have to look too far for an example of why a stunning start to life in the Premier League for a newly-promoted club is not necessarily a guarantee against a nerve-shredding fight for survival.
Like United today, Hull City were in sixth place after 11 games of the 2008-09 season. Phil Brown’s side had 20 points to their name as November moved into its second week and were fresh from giving champions Manchester United an almighty scare in a seven-goal thriller at Old Trafford.
The mood was buoyant and the talk among supporters, still rubbing their eyes in disbelief at Hull claiming back-to-back victories on the road over Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, was of maybe pushing on to challenge for a European place.
The reality, however, was rather different, with Hull going on to win just twice more that season. Only defeat for Newcastle United on the final day at Aston Villa saved Brown’s team, who ended the campaign sitting just one place above the relegation zone with 35 points.
“I do see a lot of parallels between how Sheffield United have started this season and the Tigers all those years ago,” says Paul Duffen, then Hull’s chairman, to The Athletic. “Like ourselves in 2008, they have taken the momentum of winning promotion and built on it with some fantastic results.
“As with ourselves, they have achieved some of those results at the expense of clubs who maybe didn’t quite take them as seriously as they should. We were this little club from East Yorkshire who were expected to be swept aside. Or that is how it felt at times.
“Yet, like Sheffield United this season, we beat them. It was a very satisfying time. But then what happened is once we had gone to Arsenal and Spurs, and beaten them both, the rest of the Premier League woke up and did start to take us seriously.
“All of a sudden, we had switched from the hunter to the hunted and that is never easy. Sheffield United are likely to find the same. How they deal with that switch will probably decide their season.”
Dean Windass’s place in the history of Hull City is assured. At the grand old age of 39, his volleyed winner at Wembley against Bristol City ended the city’s 104-year wait for top-flight football.
It was a sweet moment for a striker who had missed the Championship play-off final five years earlier after being dramatically axed from the Sheffield United squad by Neil Warnock.
Promotion for Hull meant a return to a level he had graced with Bradford City, where he finished as top scorer in the 1999-00 campaign as Paul Jewell’s side stayed up against all the odds, and Middlesbrough.
On a personal level, his third taste of life among the elite proved to be a frustrating one. He started just one game, the infamous Boxing Day defeat at Manchester City when Brown chose to deliver his half-time team-talk on the pitch.
But Windass was in the squad as Hull announced their arrival in the Premier League with not only those stunning victories at the Emirates Stadium and White Hart Lane but also by beating Newcastle United, Fulham, West Ham United and West Bromwich Albion.
“I don’t think anyone got complacent or anything like that,” he tells The Athletic. “It is just that we were competing in a tough league.
“I always think back to what Paul Jewell kept saying that year we stayed up at Bradford. ‘Fourth-bottom is a massive achievement’ was the message all the way through, no matter if we had just beaten Arsenal or lost against someone in the relegation fight with us. He was right.
“It was the same at Hull City. We had that brilliant start and were joint-top at one stage. Even at Christmas, we had something like 27 points but the Premier League is a place where you can quickly lose three in a row and then, it is hard to bounce back.
“We had that at City. We were flying and Geovanni was scoring from all over. None of us had expected it. We were determined not to get carried away and Phil Brown always made sure we kept our feet on the ground.
“But things caught up with us eventually and the wins dried up. The Premier League is a tough league — no-one should forget that.
“Sheffield United’s win over Burnley on Saturday was brilliant. They are an old club of mine and it is great to see the job Chrissy is doing. But he won’t be carried away and that is exactly the right approach.”
Hull are far from the only newly-promoted club to start life in the Premier League like an express train only for their seasons to then stall. Huddersfield Town had 15 points at the corresponding stage of 2017-18 but still needed draws at Manchester City and Chelsea in the final week to stay up. Seven years earlier, Burnley went down despite winning five of their opening 11 games.
More heartening for the Bramall Lane faithful is how other newly-promoted teams have built on good starts. Wolves, for example, finished seventh last term on the back of the first 11 games yielding 15 points, while West Ham also finished in the top half in 2012-13 after winning five and drawing three of those opening fixtures.
Of the teams promoted to the top flight since the turn of the millennium, only Hull can better West Ham’s tally of 18 points at this stage of a season, but that still did not prevent them becoming embroiled in a desperate fight for survival.
“We went into the Premier League with a sense of innocence and — to an extent — ignorance,” recalls former chairman Duffen. “Hull City had never played at this level before, everything was brand new and it was one big adventure for the entire club.
“Promotion meant so much to so many people. I always remember the play-off final at Wembley and our supporters taking along photographs of family members who were no longer with us. They just wanted these lost ancestors, all huge Hull City fans, to share in a historic day.
“Going into the Premier League stretches every single sinew of a club. You are never ready until it happens. We were effectively one man and his dog in terms of the club’s infrastructure compared to others in the Premier League.
“We changed that over time, and Hull became a respected constituent of the Premier League but everyone had to step up at first, right across the club.
“This is possibly where Sheffield United are different. Okay, it is quite a few years since the club had been up in the top division before this season but they do have that presence. They probably feel to belong more than we did. At least at first, anyway.”
Hull reached the 20-point mark in 2008-09 by winning 3-0 at West Brom in their ninth fixture. It took Brown’s men level on points with Liverpool and Chelsea at the summit of the Premier League.
“What a time to be a Hull City fan,” adds Duffen, a Tottenham supporter who had taken charge at the KC Stadium along with property developer Russell Bartlett in 2007. “Memories we will have forever. On a personal level, winning at the Emirates was pretty special. As was sitting across from Daniel Levy at Tottenham a week later as we claimed another three points.
“But then, once clubs started to show that bit more respect to us, things quickly got very difficult. We only won two more times after that incredible start. We beat Middlesbrough in December at home and then Manucho scored in the last minute (at Fulham in March).
“Once teams started showing us that respect, we struggled. We did not possess the strength in depth we probably needed to change things. It meant we didn’t have that ‘Plan B’. We tried to change things in the January but that is never ideal because it is a distressed market.”
Hull, in an attempt to spark their season into life, did break their transfer record to sign Jimmy Bullard from Fulham in a £5 million deal. But a serious knee injury suffered on his debut meant the midfielder did not play again for ten months.
It meant Bullard could only watch from the sidelines as Hull slipped ever deeper into trouble during the final months of the season despite the best efforts of manager Brown to keep spirits up.
“Phil Brown had this thing every month where he sat us all down,” says Windass. “The strikers went on one table, the midfielders another. The defenders also sat together and the keepers.
“He got us all to write down how many points we expected us to get. He wouldn’t say anything at the time, not reveal what any of us had predicted.
“But then, at the end of the month, he would look at how we had done in comparison to what we had predicted collectively. Obviously, those first two months we were miles behind in our predictions compared to what happened on the pitch. Who would have expected us to win at Arsenal and Tottenham?
“It was Phil’s way of trying to motivate us. And stop us getting ahead of ourselves. Everyone had to be realistic and I am sure the Sheffield United lads will be the same now.
“Ride these good results, of course. You have to enjoy results like the wins over Burnley. Or Arsenal the other week. But also make sure everyone’s feet stay on the ground.
“Life in the Premier League can change so quickly. What seems like being okay for a newly-promoted team can suddenly get very difficult.”
For Sheffield United, Saturday’s trip to Tottenham brings an opportunity to build on their own hugely encouraging start. Not only are the club sixth in the table but Wilder’s side boast the joint-best defensive record in the Premier League with Leicester City after conceding just eight times in those opening 11 fixtures.
“Full credit to Chrissy Wilder for the job he has done,” adds Windass, who netted six goals in 22 appearances for Sheffield United during the 2002-03 campaign. “But January might still be a big month. Hull City probably needed that little lift a new face or two can bring in that first year up but, for whatever reason, things did not work out.
“Eventually, things caught up with the players and the club only just ended up staying up. The good start kept Hull City in the Premier League but that season proved there is always still a lot of hard work to do, no matter how well you feel to be doing in November.”
