originaltrueblade
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Long but worth the read fellow Blades
WHO motivates the motivator? A question posed recently by former Liverpool manager Graeme Souness on Sky Sports as Sheffield United emerged from yet another rallying half-time team talk.
Blades boss Chris Wilder’s enthusiasm and energy is infectious. Qualities that have punctuated an extraordinary management career stretching 20 years. The last 58 months being an unforgettable and, apart from very recent times, joyous reign at Bramall Lane.
But even he has a limit and on the morning of Friday, March 12, it had been reached. A haunting silence enveloped the club despite sports news outlets all over the country announced his exit. Thirty-six hours later it was officially confirmed he had departed by “mutual consent” in a short, corporate statement on the club’s website.
Shortly afterwards it was revealed that under-23 coach Paul Heckingbottom, a former Sheffield Wednesday defender, will take temporary charge, starting today for the trip to Leicester City, until the end of the season. He will be assisted by new arrival Jason Tindall, sacked by Championship Bournemouth after six months in charge. Tindall is a long-term friend of United chief executive Steve Bettis. Wilder’s assistant, Alan Knill, remains on the coaching staff as do the departed manager’s other close associates, goalkeeping coach Darren Ward and Matt Prestridge.
Make no mistake, Wilder chose to leave. The only mutual understanding was that he and club owner Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud have very different ideas about the way forward.
Regular readers of this website will be well versed in the reasons why Wilder’s decision to quit was merely a question of when to press the nuclear button. Judging by the response from the more naive of readers, this was viewed at best as hysterical misinformation designed as clickbait, at worst “poor journalism” or simply made up.
It wasn’t, as events have proven, but no apology needed. It was based on honest, fact-driven journalism backed by reliable sources, otherwise what’s the point? Wilder was prepared to quit at the turn of the year and had even begun engaging in what sounded like covert goodbyes, but then stepped back.
RELATIONSHIP
Partly because he still believed he could muster a survival fight; partly because of his affection for the club and his relationship with a group of honest, hard-working players he and his coaching staff inspired to extraordinary achievement. Individuals, with few exceptions, whom despite this season’s catastrophe, have never let heads drop. Which speaks volumes for their character and the judgment of the man who assembled them.
Now the club’s greatest asset by a considerable distance has been allowed to leave. Why? Because Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his regime claim they know, with precious little evidence to support it, what is best for Sheffield United.
Apparently, Wilder, lifelong Blade, ballboy, player and manager, doesn’t. A man who in 2016 took a broken club – and let’s not forget the Saudi businessman was co-owner at the time, therefore bearing his share of the responsibility for the state it was in – and lifted United from League one to the Premier League within three years. I can’t speak for you, but I know whose judgment I trust.
Even Wilder’s appointment was nothing to do with the Saudi royal, other than to offer a rubber stamp. The manager was all set to join Charlton Athletic before Prince Abdullah’s then partner, Kevin McCabe, made a late, instinctive intervention to steer him to the Lane. That is not to suggest favour with McCabe, just to illustrate that Prince Abdullah’s knowledge of English football is limited to FIFA 21 and all of its previous variations of which he is reported to be a keen advocate. That and the superficial glitterati of Europe’s football elite which adorn his purpose-built array of TV screens in Riyadh.
KNOWLEDGE
“You don’t support Sheffield United if you are a glory hunter,” said Wilder earlier this season. The irony, especially because of where the Blades are now heading, will probably be lost on a Saudi who has sparse knowledge of the British grassroots game but apparently is basing future, cost-conscious strategy on it.
Some Blades fans after a beer or four, may well claim to have spotted Chris Wilder strolling along the River Don. If the feat were humanly possible, you wouldn’t put it past him. But the 53-year-old is just that – human.
In the last fortnight, the demeanour a man who has relentlessly faced TV cameras and microphones, and answered mostly similar and monotonous questions (to be fair material has been limited), with trademark honesty and good humour, even the daft ones, has visibly declined.
Wilder, as every Blade knows, is a winner. Under normal circumstances even a draw from the jaws of victory, is enough for toys to come out of the pram, albeit well-crafted ones. The earliest evidence of which for those with good memories was United’s visit to Charlton in League One.
So, it is easy to understand how after 28 attempts, 22 league defeats and only 14 points is difficult enough for Wilder to get his head around. Especially as largely the same group of players lost only seven (four of those were against eventual champions Liverpool and runners-up Manchester City) and amassed 43 points at the same stage in the last campaign.
REMARKABLE
Even more remarkable as it was United’s first taste of top flight football for 12 years. A team widely regarded as favourites for relegation occupied sixth place, two points short of a Champions League birth, when a pandemic intervened.
First signs that already strained matters behind the scenes were turning toxic was when Wilder told Sky Sports after a 2-0 home defeat to Liverpool that United’s model is to finish 17th and try to buy the best Championship players. Anyone who has followed his relentless drive to push boundaries, would immediately know such fingernail strategy is of no long-term interest to an ambitious Wilder.
Two days later he cast doubt on his future during a pre-match Press conference ahead of a home date with Aston Villa in what turned out to be his last victory. Asked where he saw himself next season, Wilder replied: “I don't know. Head down on to the Villa game, what will be will be.” Pointedly, he added: If we stick to the plan, I want to stay.”
After another home defeat, this time to Southampton, possibly unbeknown to him, his swansong, Wilder said: "That player of the year award at the end of the season is not going to be contested between six or seven players this time round. I am not being flippant about that, but that is it.” He added: “It looked a game too far for us. I’m looking at it and thinking I could have made some changes, but unfortunately, I couldn’t, there weren’t too many options.” And for the first time he admitted: “We looked like we’d run our race.”
TRUST
But it isn’t what has happened on match days that ultimately proved to be the final straw for Wilder. It was a blatant lack of trust behind the scenes from his employer who is insistent on fundamentally changing the way things are done going forward whilst renaging on what Wilder thought were promises. It didn’t help, either, that Prince Abdullah was always uneasy about the manager’s tell-it-as-it-is approach and I-am-my-own-man style which brought matters to a head. Or from Wilder’s perspective, they way in which his boss sought to distance himself from the Blades’ plight and, in rare public interviews, appeared to be looking for credit for not sacking the manager.
Naturally, ownership brings with it power and entitlement, but it also demands responsibility. Whatever your take on how Sheffield United find themselves in what only a few months ago would have been regarded as unimaginable decline, it’s a sorry state of affairs. How Prince Abdullah has managed to look a gift horse in the mouth and trash United’s amazing Premier League progress, is unforgivable.
He has undermined a man with huge football knowledge and know-how, coupled with extraordinary man-management skills and, by and large, an uncanny eye for untapped talent, the bedrock of United’s dramatic rise from League One. Not only that, undermined him to such an extent that he has chosen to walk away from the club he dearly loves.
Why? Because, apparently, Prince Abdullah and his entourage know better. I’ll leave you to be the judge of that one.
WHO motivates the motivator? A question posed recently by former Liverpool manager Graeme Souness on Sky Sports as Sheffield United emerged from yet another rallying half-time team talk.
Blades boss Chris Wilder’s enthusiasm and energy is infectious. Qualities that have punctuated an extraordinary management career stretching 20 years. The last 58 months being an unforgettable and, apart from very recent times, joyous reign at Bramall Lane.
But even he has a limit and on the morning of Friday, March 12, it had been reached. A haunting silence enveloped the club despite sports news outlets all over the country announced his exit. Thirty-six hours later it was officially confirmed he had departed by “mutual consent” in a short, corporate statement on the club’s website.
Shortly afterwards it was revealed that under-23 coach Paul Heckingbottom, a former Sheffield Wednesday defender, will take temporary charge, starting today for the trip to Leicester City, until the end of the season. He will be assisted by new arrival Jason Tindall, sacked by Championship Bournemouth after six months in charge. Tindall is a long-term friend of United chief executive Steve Bettis. Wilder’s assistant, Alan Knill, remains on the coaching staff as do the departed manager’s other close associates, goalkeeping coach Darren Ward and Matt Prestridge.
Make no mistake, Wilder chose to leave. The only mutual understanding was that he and club owner Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud have very different ideas about the way forward.
Regular readers of this website will be well versed in the reasons why Wilder’s decision to quit was merely a question of when to press the nuclear button. Judging by the response from the more naive of readers, this was viewed at best as hysterical misinformation designed as clickbait, at worst “poor journalism” or simply made up.
It wasn’t, as events have proven, but no apology needed. It was based on honest, fact-driven journalism backed by reliable sources, otherwise what’s the point? Wilder was prepared to quit at the turn of the year and had even begun engaging in what sounded like covert goodbyes, but then stepped back.
RELATIONSHIP
Partly because he still believed he could muster a survival fight; partly because of his affection for the club and his relationship with a group of honest, hard-working players he and his coaching staff inspired to extraordinary achievement. Individuals, with few exceptions, whom despite this season’s catastrophe, have never let heads drop. Which speaks volumes for their character and the judgment of the man who assembled them.
Now the club’s greatest asset by a considerable distance has been allowed to leave. Why? Because Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his regime claim they know, with precious little evidence to support it, what is best for Sheffield United.
Apparently, Wilder, lifelong Blade, ballboy, player and manager, doesn’t. A man who in 2016 took a broken club – and let’s not forget the Saudi businessman was co-owner at the time, therefore bearing his share of the responsibility for the state it was in – and lifted United from League one to the Premier League within three years. I can’t speak for you, but I know whose judgment I trust.
Even Wilder’s appointment was nothing to do with the Saudi royal, other than to offer a rubber stamp. The manager was all set to join Charlton Athletic before Prince Abdullah’s then partner, Kevin McCabe, made a late, instinctive intervention to steer him to the Lane. That is not to suggest favour with McCabe, just to illustrate that Prince Abdullah’s knowledge of English football is limited to FIFA 21 and all of its previous variations of which he is reported to be a keen advocate. That and the superficial glitterati of Europe’s football elite which adorn his purpose-built array of TV screens in Riyadh.
KNOWLEDGE
“You don’t support Sheffield United if you are a glory hunter,” said Wilder earlier this season. The irony, especially because of where the Blades are now heading, will probably be lost on a Saudi who has sparse knowledge of the British grassroots game but apparently is basing future, cost-conscious strategy on it.
Some Blades fans after a beer or four, may well claim to have spotted Chris Wilder strolling along the River Don. If the feat were humanly possible, you wouldn’t put it past him. But the 53-year-old is just that – human.
In the last fortnight, the demeanour a man who has relentlessly faced TV cameras and microphones, and answered mostly similar and monotonous questions (to be fair material has been limited), with trademark honesty and good humour, even the daft ones, has visibly declined.
Wilder, as every Blade knows, is a winner. Under normal circumstances even a draw from the jaws of victory, is enough for toys to come out of the pram, albeit well-crafted ones. The earliest evidence of which for those with good memories was United’s visit to Charlton in League One.
So, it is easy to understand how after 28 attempts, 22 league defeats and only 14 points is difficult enough for Wilder to get his head around. Especially as largely the same group of players lost only seven (four of those were against eventual champions Liverpool and runners-up Manchester City) and amassed 43 points at the same stage in the last campaign.
REMARKABLE
Even more remarkable as it was United’s first taste of top flight football for 12 years. A team widely regarded as favourites for relegation occupied sixth place, two points short of a Champions League birth, when a pandemic intervened.
First signs that already strained matters behind the scenes were turning toxic was when Wilder told Sky Sports after a 2-0 home defeat to Liverpool that United’s model is to finish 17th and try to buy the best Championship players. Anyone who has followed his relentless drive to push boundaries, would immediately know such fingernail strategy is of no long-term interest to an ambitious Wilder.
Two days later he cast doubt on his future during a pre-match Press conference ahead of a home date with Aston Villa in what turned out to be his last victory. Asked where he saw himself next season, Wilder replied: “I don't know. Head down on to the Villa game, what will be will be.” Pointedly, he added: If we stick to the plan, I want to stay.”
After another home defeat, this time to Southampton, possibly unbeknown to him, his swansong, Wilder said: "That player of the year award at the end of the season is not going to be contested between six or seven players this time round. I am not being flippant about that, but that is it.” He added: “It looked a game too far for us. I’m looking at it and thinking I could have made some changes, but unfortunately, I couldn’t, there weren’t too many options.” And for the first time he admitted: “We looked like we’d run our race.”
TRUST
But it isn’t what has happened on match days that ultimately proved to be the final straw for Wilder. It was a blatant lack of trust behind the scenes from his employer who is insistent on fundamentally changing the way things are done going forward whilst renaging on what Wilder thought were promises. It didn’t help, either, that Prince Abdullah was always uneasy about the manager’s tell-it-as-it-is approach and I-am-my-own-man style which brought matters to a head. Or from Wilder’s perspective, they way in which his boss sought to distance himself from the Blades’ plight and, in rare public interviews, appeared to be looking for credit for not sacking the manager.
Naturally, ownership brings with it power and entitlement, but it also demands responsibility. Whatever your take on how Sheffield United find themselves in what only a few months ago would have been regarded as unimaginable decline, it’s a sorry state of affairs. How Prince Abdullah has managed to look a gift horse in the mouth and trash United’s amazing Premier League progress, is unforgivable.
He has undermined a man with huge football knowledge and know-how, coupled with extraordinary man-management skills and, by and large, an uncanny eye for untapped talent, the bedrock of United’s dramatic rise from League One. Not only that, undermined him to such an extent that he has chosen to walk away from the club he dearly loves.
Why? Because, apparently, Prince Abdullah and his entourage know better. I’ll leave you to be the judge of that one.
