Expectation

[Dkc]

Thought the OP started out reasonable in terms of stating that expecting promotion every year is ridiculous, but then it turned into yet another pro-Wilder can't risk anyone else tirade

Nothing to do with Wilder. In general I'm not a fan of sacking managers. I thought we should have given Micky Adams a chance to get us back up after we were relegated. Would have kept Warnock after relegation. Disagreed with the sackings of Wilson, Porterfield, even Blackwell (in hindsight).

Too often managers are the fall guys for factors beyond their control. Injuries, lack of funds, players' personal issues, bad refereeing/ VAR decisions, dodgy rulings, points deductions and not least luck on the field are all factors they have little influence over.

It takes time to build a decent team. It takes time for managers to get to know the players on a personal level, figure out their strengths and weaknesses and get new signings over the line. The job of building a decent team often takes more than a single season.

Most famous example is Alex Ferguson who would have been sacked after his first season if he were starting out in management today.

I've never said that we "can't risk" anyone else over Wilder. But if you are going to sack him, at least come up with a better reason than a mid-table finish (after he took over when we were rock bottom).

 

[Lens instep catch]

This will be my 64th season my expectations remain the same as all the others
I will enjoy meeting my mates for a drink before the games(although numbers are dwindling as we all get older)
I will still have the excitement of a brand new season if we are good enough and get a bit of luck along the way maybe we can have an extended season
If we are not good enough and the football gods are against us I will take where we finish
Either way if still in good health I will enjoy my summer and look forward to another new season

 

[Dkc]

This will be my 64th season my expectations remain the same as all the others
I will enjoy meeting my mates for a drink before the games(although numbers are dwindling as we all get older)
I will still have the excitement of a brand new season if we are good enough and get a bit of luck along the way maybe we can have an extended season
If we are not good enough and the football gods are against us I will take where we finish
Either way if still in good health I will enjoy my summer and look forward to another new season

Well done for keeping the faith all these years. By my reckoning your first season would have been 1962!

 

[s20Blade]

Expectation is to finish mid-table while gradually offloading high wages and young talent for good sell-on fees.

But I am biased because I don't want to go back to the PL anytime soon.

 

[LBA_Blade]

Expectation is to finish mid-table while gradually offloading high wages and young talent for good sell-on fees.

But I am biased because I don't want to go back to the PL anytime soon.

Rinse and repeat now with the current owners, might have a flirt with a potential 8th spot only to be disappointed but be good to have a run in one of the cups at least again.

 

[Lens instep catch]

Well done for keeping the faith all these years. By my reckoning your first season would have been 1962!

Thanks DKC you are a good mathematician, to be honest. it hasn't been hard for me you could say it has been a labour of love
Not an expectation but a life time wish during the sixties the biggest game was the F.A. cup final played at Wembley ever since then it has been my dream that I see the Blades win at Wembley. I will take that dream into the next season

 

[reedy63]

I dont think our American owners want Premier League football anyway. Lack of ambition. Smaller clubs like Bournemouth and Brentford dont get crowds 28k to 31k.
So the owners of both clubs, who have the ambition to stay in the Premier League, are doing a great job for them. Sheffield is one of the biggest cities in England.
If our owners dont want to have success, then people in that will provide millions of pounds to sustain us. Otherwise, we will stay in the championship and have a repeat of the disappointing season we had in 1925/26.

 

[LBA_Blade]

I dont think our American owners want Premier League football anyway. Lack of ambition. Smaller clubs like Bournemouth and Brentford dont get crowds 28k to 31k.
So the owners of both clubs, who have the ambition to stay in the Premier League, are doing a great job for them. Sheffield is one of the biggest cities in England.
If our owners dont want to have success, then people in that will provide millions of pounds to sustain us. Otherwise, we will stay in the championship and have a repeat of the disappointing season we had in 1925/26.

We finished 5th in the 1st division a bit harsh!

 

[Snowflake]

My expectation is to go and enjoy the afternoon out.
Promotion to the PL is way down my list.
I'd rather have a Selles start, then a blaze of wins rest of the season to finish 7th

7th ? Not another set of play off matches, please !

 

[BocciaBlade]

Expectations at clubs change due to recent history. What would you say the expectations of Bournemouth or Brentford fans are now compared to, say, 10 years ago?

Good point and I presume they’re higher than they’ve ever been but they were always for years lower league clubs that decided to go a different way and are now reaping the rewards.How long do you think it will take us to get to their level on and off the pitch?

 

[calcalcal]

Im a bit of a cynic personally and having quickly drafted a prediction for next season I have us between 15-17th based on
Hopeless owners
Scr bumming us
The fact we will have to sell good players

My expectation is to survive, under this ownership. Simple as that

 

[Greasy Chap Butty]

7th ? Not another set of play off matches, please !

Oh yeah! I forgot 17th next season, everybody gets a go.

 

[Rufus Smalls]

A bit of a nothing season after poor summer recruitment and selling a few - 13th position is my finishing prediction.

 

[reedy63]

LBA Blade
Opps got the year wrong, 2025/26, a disappointing season. i will have to go to Specsavers to get my glasses changed.

 

[Dkc]

The expectations of our football club regardless of it's past should be looking at the population of the generic local area by metropolitan area Sheffield is the 5th largest city. Larger than Manchester, and just below Liverpool,

This myth keeps cropping up again and again. Sheffield / Rotherham is the 10th biggest urban area in the UK.

List of urban areas in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

If you go by the actual population of the city itself, Sheffield is of a similar size of Manchester. But if you are looking at population size relative to football crowds, you need to look at everyone who lives in the area, regardless of where the official city boundary is. People from Salford go to Maine Rd. People from Dronfield go to Bramall Lane.

The population of Greater Manchester is 2.5 million. Sheffield / Rotherham is 685 k

 

[SW12 to S12 to S18]

I have Great Expectations.

 

[Kenilworth]

Over the years, fans’ expectations seem to have changed. Today, many fans demand success. Success is defined as promotion and nothing less. Not just “making the play-offs” or doing well in the cup. Promotion.

When I was younger, maintaining the status quo in the second tier and avoiding relegation was seen as success. Anything more was a bonus.

Today, I hear many fans saying that “Wilder’s in the last chance saloon to deliver success”. Making the playoff final last season was “failure” as we didn’t win. Many say that if we don’t get promotion this coming season we should change the manager.

If you take a step back for a moment, you will see that we will be a club without parachute payments next season, competing with many clubs that are as big or bigger than us, who have historically been more successful. There will be three new clubs dropping down from the PL with parachute payments – Wolves, Burney and West Ham / Spurs. Plus we will be competing against similar-sized clubs - Southampton (if they don't beat Hull), Boro, Derby, Norwich, Birmingham, Stoke, West Brom, Blackburn, Cardiff, as well as other well-performing teams like Millwall and Wrexham.

There are 24 teams in the division. Only two get promoted automatically. Three go down. We have no more right to expect promotion than any other club, and those with parachute payments will start with a big advantage. Many other clubs will be better-funded than us. We are not exceptional by any metric. We were the 6th-best supported club in the division this season. Historically, plenty of Championship clubs have been more successful.

Given our resources, I simply can’t see how finishing in the top two or winning the playoffs can be the minimum expectation of many of our fans. Yet it is.

Under Wilder, I expect next season will be better than this one, which was scuppered to a large extent by the Selles fiasco. I can see us finishing in the play offs, especially in the expanded format. I will be disappointed if we don’t. But unless we get into deep relegation trouble I wouldn’t change the manager.

If we were to sack Wilder and get, say, Challinor in, how long would we give him? Would fans want him sacked if we finished, say, 17th? Who would we bring in then?

On average, new managers in the EFL average 1.35 points per game in their first season, (often inheriting teams that have been performing badly) and many are sacked before they turn things around. It generally takes 2–3 years for a manager to establish a squad of their own and see greater success. And managers who succeed in League One/Two often struggle with the step up to the Championship.

Even if we finished 15th next season I would give Wilder a new contract. He is a proven motivator, knows how to win promotion, and has never suffered a relegation in the EFL. At the very least he will keep us in the Championship, which is fine by me. If we only challenge for promotion to the PL every 2-3 years, that’s fine too.

We have no right to be challenging for promotion. Big clubs drop down to League One every season, but since we came up from League One we have never seriously looked like returning. If we changed the manager we might get automatic promotion to the PL - but the stats say it’s highly unlikely.

I’m not sure Wilder would survive a 15th place or want to. I believe he is the best person to give us a chance of promotion next season .
If we finished 15th I believe that would be the absolute end of the Wilder era.

Whilst that would be deflating I would not think it would diminish the job Wilder has done in his time, for this club in my mind. However, I seem to be in a minority of people voicing this.

 

[reedy63]

Best to wait and see what Chris Wilders does with incoming players, and then predict for next season.

 

[LBA_Blade]

This myth keeps cropping up again and again. Sheffield / Rotherham is the 10th biggest urban area in the UK.

List of urban areas in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

If you go by the actual population of the city itself, Sheffield is of a similar size of Manchester. But if you are looking at population size relative to football crowds, you need to look at everyone who lives in the area, regardless of where the official city boundary is. People from Salford go to Maine Rd. People from Dronfield go to Bramall Lane.

The population of Greater Manchester is 2.5 million. Sheffield / Rotherham is 685 k

Greater Manchester is a difficult one as to how that boundary is drawn but South Yorkshire is 1.4 million

 

[TJ blade]

Some more rubbish, coming in the next window, followed by another dismal season! Bladey blades blaming the fans, reffs, pies at half time, anybody bar Wilder me personally dont give a flying as long as I can get my pre match pints in the brothers arms.

 

[KMC-1889]

I thought we should have given Micky Adams a chance to get us back up after we were relegated.

 

[dellasthunderbolt]

For me it’s simple: playoffs down to 8th next year. We should be in there.

 

[Superblades]

1/3 of the league have a chance of the play offs. Any less than that and it’s a disaster.

 

[Dkc]

For me it’s simple: playoffs down to 8th next year. We should be in there.

Question is, will it be enough for the fans when we inevitably fail to win them?

I reckon it will be Wolves and West Ham / Spurs going up automatically. Then six teams for the playoffs. Southampton (if they stay down) Boro, Burnley will be three of them. Then Derby, Norwich, Blades, Hull (if they stay down) Millwall, Wrexham, Birmingham, West Brom could all be battling for the final three places. It's not a given.

 

[Northernsoulblade]

I would just like to see a 90 minute again