Heckingbottom

[sheff_blade90]

Wilder was the last manager to come back like this with Boro

i thought about that. because i like wilder & understood why he left. but there were some that still harboured a grudge against him like warnock.

as wasnt there alot chants against wilder. "wilder wilder whats the score"

 

[Captain2]

Oh ok, that’s a different look at it to what you previously posted about signings and sales.

We can’t do anything about the championship. It’s the league we’re in and all we can do is win as many games as we can to get autos.

Worry about the premier league when we get there but financially it’s a hard slog up there.

It’s a poor league yet again, saying this a strong side playing attractive football would romp it.
The gulf between the two top leagues is wider than ever.Fear if we go up.But probably a nice problem for our new financiers.

 

[Tony_Kaufman]

I personally never rated Hecky. He did a good job promoting us but the football was poor. He had a plan A and no plan B and his only answer to plan A failing was to stick with plan A and make some subs. In the majority of cases the subs were too late and often baffling. I hold no animosity towards him and he'll get a warm welcome from me.

 

[Champagneblade]

Hopefully, however Burnley have just gone 10 straight without conceding so it'll take some doing.

But you never know in the Championship and that run will likely end at some point, and a Lancashire derby too.

Derby. Could be a bit of a leveller.

 

[Champagneblade]

I personally never rated Hecky. He did a good job promoting us but the football was poor. He had a plan A and no plan B and his only answer to plan A failing was to stick with plan A and make some subs. In the majority of cases the subs were too late and often baffling. I hold no animosity towards him and he'll get a warm welcome from me.

I suppose it depends which period.

When he had Gibbs-White and Ndiaye and we terrorised Wilder’s Boro 4-1, we were pretty good.

Do you mean second season when the tactic was just “give it to Iliman”?

 

[Tony_Kaufman]

I suppose it depends which period.

When he had Gibbs-White and Ndiaye and we terrorised Wilder’s Boro 4-1, we were pretty good.

Do you mean second season when the tactic was just “give it to Iliman”?

Yep, mainly the promotion season. Not consistent enough for me. In the majority of matches we were poor for the best part of 65-70 minutes every game. It was the 20-25 minutes where we did play well that saw us get the results. Then there was also the inevitable defend the lead and try to see out games instead of pushing to extend the lead while we're on top and dominating. Hence baffling subs.

 

[Champagneblade]

Yep, mainly the promotion season. Not consistent enough for me. In the majority of matches we were poor for the best part of 65-70 minutes every game. It was the 20-25 minutes where we did play well that saw us get the results. Then there was also the inevitable defend the lead and try to see out games instead of pushing to extend the lead while we're on top and dominating. Hence baffling subs.

We did tend to rely on individual brilliance form Ndiaye and Berge rather than a particular pattern of play.

 

[N20 Blade]

Derby. Could be a bit of a leveller.

Surely, the balloon will burst at some point.

 

[SwissBlade]

It’s a poor league yet again, saying this a strong side playing attractive football would romp it.
The gulf between the two top leagues is wider than ever.Fear if we go up.But probably a nice problem for our new financiers.

I don’t actually know whether it’s a poor league, the sides with failure payments ( Leeds, us, Burnley) are naturally occupying the top slots currently, though that doesn’t tell the full story as rebuilds have had to happen. Sunderland have been well backed, had built with youngsters for a while but are well organised now.

The chasers below that are a mix of well backed, physical sides with some quality but they’re also well organised.

The kicker in this division will always be down to the size of the league, it means that the sides with less money making that step from league one are fighting amongst the unstable, poorly organised and skint clubs. Many change their managers and get a boost from doing so, become more organised and fight for their lives, throwing up some unusual results.

The middle bunch are a mix of money, bad / well organised and some quality.

Surely a poor league would have sides running away with it and not getting beaten.
The top 4 have been beaten 14 times between them.

It can be spun as a poor or good league but whilst we’ve mostly seemed a level above we’ve also worked hard. It’s about perspective some times. Leeds are apparently the best in the division playing wonderful football… and yes they score a lot of goals, but since we’re crap we’d be above them but for the points deduction. Perhaps we’re not that bad

 

[Captain2]

I don’t actually know whether it’s a poor league, the sides with failure payments ( Leeds, us, Burnley) are naturally occupying the top slots currently, though that doesn’t tell the full story as rebuilds have had to happen. Sunderland have been well backed, had built with youngsters for a while but are well organised now.

The chasers below that are a mix of well backed, physical sides with some quality but they’re also well organised.

The kicker in this division will always be down to the size of the league, it means that the sides with less money making that step from league one are fighting amongst the unstable, poorly organised and skint clubs. Many change their managers and get a boost from doing so, become more organised and fight for their lives, throwing up some unusual results.

The middle bunch are a mix of money, bad / well organised and some quality.

Surely a poor league would have sides running away with it and not getting beaten.
The top 4 have been beaten 14 times between them.

It can be spun as a poor or good league but whilst we’ve mostly seemed a level above we’ve also worked hard. It’s about perspective some times. Leeds are apparently the best in the division playing wonderful football… and yes they score a lot of goals, but since we’re crap we’d be above them but for the points deduction. Perhaps we’re not that bad

Agree we’ve worked hard and grinded out results when resources have been undoubtedly stretched which is a commendable attribute which CW often reminds us of.
But if you had to pick any of our current squad which could cut it at the next level then very few could.Hamer for sure and Cooper is undoubtedly is a good keeper, and maybe Peck.
Anyway let’s keep on winning and get automatic promotion

 

[Cheeky Blade]

It’s a poor league yet again, saying this a strong side playing attractive football would romp it.
The gulf between the two top leagues is wider than ever.Fear if we go up.But probably a nice problem for our new financiers.

Isn’t that ‘strong side playing attractive football’ Leeds?

They might break clear over the next few games when they play us and Sunderland but haven’t managed it yet.

 

[sheff_blade90]

It’s a poor league yet again, saying this a strong side playing attractive football would romp it.
The gulf between the two top leagues is wider than ever.Fear if we go up.But probably a nice problem for our new financiers.

I don’t actually know whether it’s a poor league, the sides with failure payments ( Leeds, us, Burnley) are naturally occupying the top slots currently, though that doesn’t tell the full story as rebuilds have had to happen. Sunderland have been well backed, had built with youngsters for a while but are well organised now.

The chasers below that are a mix of well backed, physical sides with some quality but they’re also well organised.

The kicker in this division will always be down to the size of the league, it means that the sides with less money making that step from league one are fighting amongst the unstable, poorly organised and skint clubs. Many change their managers and get a boost from doing so, become more organised and fight for their lives, throwing up some unusual results.

The middle bunch are a mix of money, bad / well organised and some quality.

Surely a poor league would have sides running away with it and not getting beaten.
The top 4 have been beaten 14 times between them.

It can be spun as a poor or good league but whilst we’ve mostly seemed a level above we’ve also worked hard. It’s about perspective some times. Leeds are apparently the best in the division playing wonderful football… and yes they score a lot of goals, but since we’re crap we’d be above them but for the points deduction. Perhaps we’re not that bad

i think weirdly both are true. because 5th or below are terrible . i was looking Blackburn are on for 69pts to finish 5th which must be record low total as you need mid to late 70's normally. but i think the top 4 might be the strongest in any of our promotions maybe only 2006 could rival it. you look on PPG Leeds 100, Us 97, Burnley 92, Sunderland 90

you look through where we were in our promotion campaigns successful & unsuccessful after 32 games. we
1997 51pts
1998 55pts
2003 55pts
2006 74pts
2009 51pts
2019 58pts
2023 61pts
2025 69pts*

 

[Bladesman]

I personally never rated Hecky. He did a good job promoting us but the football was poor. He had a plan A and no plan B and his only answer to plan A failing was to stick with plan A and make some subs. In the majority of cases the subs were too late and often baffling. I hold no animosity towards him and he'll get a warm welcome from me.

I now reckon that the late subs were probably down to lack of fitness in those coming off the bench. I reckon the whole squad at the time were not fit enough bar a handful but under Hecky players who had never had injury issues were picking up injuries.

Whether that was all down to Hecky or not he still had a lot of nonsense going on behind the scenes to deal with. So he does deserve full respect for getting us promoted.

 

[Tom Bott]

I don’t actually know whether it’s a poor league, the sides with failure payments ( Leeds, us, Burnley) are naturally occupying the top slots currently, though that doesn’t tell the full story as rebuilds have had to happen.

Luton Town though.

 

[Balham]

Bang average Championship again, 3 or 4 teams vying for automatic, squad that is no where near good enough for Prem and chance of attracting Premiership standard players low.
Also how we grind out results against poor opposition is reminiscent of the Hecky era.

The fact that we have won 21 out of 32 games and are averaging more than 2 points per game would suggest that this United team is far from "bang average Championship".
Last time we went up we were reliant on the ghost of Oli Norwood in central midfield. The average age was 26.6 and of the top 20 by minutes played as many were in their 30s as there were in their early 20s*. We also had no money and sold our best two players (and two of our remaining 5 youngest regulars) so it's absolutely no surprise to anyone that we were abysmal in the top flight.

This season we have an average age of 24.2. In the top 20 by minutes played only two are over 30 whereas 8 are 24 or under. This squad has far more athleticism and, crucially, the signing of Cannon shows that the owners are willing and able to back us financially.

22/23
7 aged 24 or under: Ndiaye (22), Berge (24), Ahmedhodzic (23), McAtee (19), Doyle (20), Bogle (22), Norrington-Davies (23)
7 aged 30 or over: Foderingham (31), Norwood (31), Basham (34), Sharp (36), Fleck (30), Stevens (32), Clark (32)

24/25
8 aged 24 or under: Burrows (23), Gilchrist (21), Peck (20), Rak-Sakyi (22), Arblaster (21), Brooks (21), McCallum (24), Seriki (23)
2 aged 30 or over: Moore (32) and Robinson (31). In the rest of the squad only Davies is over 30.

 

[Silent Blade]

i think weirdly both are true. because 5th or below are terrible . i was looking Blackburn are on for 69pts to finish 5th which must be record low total as you need mid to late 70's normally. but i think the top 4 might be the strongest in any of our promotions maybe only 2006 could rival it. you look on PPG Leeds 100, Us 97, Burnley 92, Sunderland 90

you look through where we were in our promotion campaigns successful & unsuccessful after 32 games. we
1997 51pts
1998 55pts
2003 55pts
2006 74pts
2009 51pts
2019 58pts
2023 61pts
2025 69pts*

69 in 2006

 

[sheff_blade90]

69 in 2006

yeah that's my mistake dont know what i was looking at. it wasnt 32 games. but that does make this the joint best championship team sheffield utd have ever had

 

[SRBlade]

i thought about that. because i like wilder & understood why he left. but there were some that still harboured a grudge against him like warnock.

as wasnt there alot chants against wilder. "wilder wilder whats the score"

My personal favourite of that night was "Chrissy Wilder, he's one of our own" while winning 4-1 against his side.

 

[Carlton Blade]

Hecky has a better PPG and goal difference at Preston than Wednesday have, despite having no pre season or signings. Underrated manager, top bloke

 

[The Bear]

I don’t actually know whether it’s a poor league, the sides with failure payments ( Leeds, us, Burnley) are naturally occupying the top slots currently, though that doesn’t tell the full story as rebuilds have had to happen. Sunderland have been well backed, had built with youngsters for a while but are well organised now.

The chasers below that are a mix of well backed, physical sides with some quality but they’re also well organised.

The kicker in this division will always be down to the size of the league, it means that the sides with less money making that step from league one are fighting amongst the unstable, poorly organised and skint clubs. Many change their managers and get a boost from doing so, become more organised and fight for their lives, throwing up some unusual results.

The middle bunch are a mix of money, bad / well organised and some quality.

Surely a poor league would have sides running away with it and not getting beaten.
The top 4 have been beaten 14 times between them.

It can be spun as a poor or good league but whilst we’ve mostly seemed a level above we’ve also worked hard. It’s about perspective some times. Leeds are apparently the best in the division playing wonderful football… and yes they score a lot of goals, but since we’re crap we’d be above them but for the points deduction. Perhaps we’re not that bad

How? We haven't got that brilliant a goal difference compared with L**ds.

 

[WestYorksBlade]

Preston will beat Burnley, you heard it here first.

 

[SwissBlade]

How? We haven't got that brilliant a goal difference compared with L**ds.

Yeah fair one. We’d still be second

 

[Old Programme seller]

Leeds have taken the bull by the horns and scored their way to the top which it’s great if you have the players but Farke has played to those strengths it’ll be interesting if they can do that next season if they were to get promotion as it looks like they will but they could end up doing a Southampton and not change and get hammered.

 

[Silent Blade]

yeah that's my mistake dont know what i was looking at. it wasnt 32 games. but that does make this the joint best championship team sheffield utd have ever had

Points wise, the 1952-53 promotion season was the highest we have had in the 2nd tier (42 games) and we may beat that.

 

[N20 Blade]

Hecky has a better PPG and goal difference at Preston than Wednesday have, despite having no pre season or signings. Underrated manager, top bloke

He's had a mixed bag of a career, tbh. However, we should never forget what he did for us and the context. Yes, he had the players but he saved us from the abyss. The problem for him now is PNE. They are the epitome of a nothing club. Mid-table obscurity every season. Impossible to get them up so eventually there will be a bad run and he goes.

I'd like to see him drop to league one and take a biggish club up, and with momentum have a go. Maybe a Bolton or Huddersfield.

 

[loyalblade95]

If we can get promoted this year, I think top 4 is pretty much guaranteed now, and if Hecky is still Preston manager next season, I'd look at sending some of our youngsters there next season for development, Oné and Brooks in particular (as neither are getting into the team at the moment).

He gets good performances out of young loan players, like he did with McAtee, Doyle, Ndiaye, RND and MGW at the time, plus he knows quite a few of our youngsters.

 

[Silky Sabella]

I personally never rated Hecky. He did a good job promoting us but the football was poor. He had a plan A and no plan B and his only answer to plan A failing was to stick with plan A and make some subs. In the majority of cases the subs were too late and often baffling. I hold no animosity towards him and he'll get a warm welcome from me

 

[wak1889]

I don’t actually know whether it’s a poor league, the sides with failure payments ( Leeds, us, Burnley) are naturally occupying the top slots currently, though that doesn’t tell the full story as rebuilds have had to happen. Sunderland have been well backed, had built with youngsters for a while but are well organised now.

The chasers below that are a mix of well backed, physical sides with some quality but they’re also well organised.

The kicker in this division will always be down to the size of the league, it means that the sides with less money making that step from league one are fighting amongst the unstable, poorly organised and skint clubs. Many change their managers and get a boost from doing so, become more organised and fight for their lives, throwing up some unusual results.

The middle bunch are a mix of money, bad / well organised and some quality.

Surely a poor league would have sides running away with it and not getting beaten.
The top 4 have been beaten 14 times between them.

It can be spun as a poor or good league but whilst we’ve mostly seemed a level above we’ve also worked hard. It’s about perspective some times. Leeds are apparently the best in the division playing wonderful football… and yes they score a lot of goals, but since we’re crap we’d be above them but for the points deduction. Perhaps we’re not that bad

But of those 14 how many are to teams outside the top 4, we have lost to Burnley, Leeds and Sunderland, Leeds have lost to Burnley, Sunderland have lost to us and Burnley lost to Sunderland that's 6 of the defeats

 

[sheff_blade90]

Hecky has a better PPG and goal difference at Preston than Wednesday have, despite having no pre season or signings. Underrated manager, top bloke

& on another cup run. if he beats burnley in 5th rd. they would be in the 1st FA Cup quarter final since 1965

heckys unfashionable but he did what slavisa couldnt.

 

[Silky Sabella]

Didn't like one jot the way he and the Saudi man stabbed Slav in the back and conspired together to get rid of him. The Saudi man wanted to appoint Heckingbottom as a permanent successor to Wilder but fan power stopped that, thank goodness. To sack Slav after the length of time was a disgrace and endorces this. It was Slav who brought in M G W and paired him with Ndiaye and they had a brilliant bond.