If anything, Chris has done too good a job.
We've progressed so quickly in terms of league placings until now, that none of the rest of the club has had a chance to catch up so we're at a bit of a ceiling in terms of the players we can attract.
We don't have any of the facilities that now the other, more established teams have to attract top players. Look at the documentaries on Netflix and Amazon. Spurs' training ground is like a 5 star hotel. Ours is an ex-working men's club, in a nondescript part of town in a middling Northern Town. That sounds harsh, but it's not even as if we are on land in say Dore, the nicer part of Sheffield or something nice overlooking the peak district, like Rockliffe, the Boro training ground if I recall. It's just an unremarkable area with now, unremarkable facilities.
COVID has been a massive stick in the spokes of progress. But even then, the ground isn't big enough to capitalize. After finishing 9th and averaging 31,000, you should be looking to push some of the attendances to the 34k, 36k figure and the revenue that comes with that. We've not been at a point to really consider properly pushing that ceiling at any time in recent years.
We've progressed from having the 8th lowest (or was it less) wage bill in the Championship to having a shout at Europe. It's impossible for the wage bill to adjust to the calibre of players you want to get to keep that going when you don't have huge additional investment. So we end up with Brewster who showed promise of 10 in 20 rather than Watkins who got almost 30 in the full season. Before that, we got Robinson who managed a similar ratio in a smaller sample size and we couldn't attract Maupay who had a much much more proven run.
It's a hard league to stay in. Even Fulham. I bet we couldn't afford most of their team. We got outbid for Robinson, Mitrovic will be on 20-30k more than our top earner, Cairney will be on north of 50k etc, etc. Probably the only other two teams who are comparable are WBA and Burnley.
As fun as it has been you have to be realistic. It's not going to be an continuous upward trajectory. You are going to hit bumps in the road. It's at that point you take stock and appreciate what got you here. So, we might go down. Big fucking deal. It will take a bit of time to build proper foundations to keep us here.
Let's enjoy seeing it take shape. Chris is a brilliant manager. Yes, he makes mistakes but it is a hard league. He's kept us competitive in all games bar one and this when we've been like a bird with one wing. Any team would struggle, particularly one without the depth.
We have to see the bigger picture. This is a 10, 15 year plan with Wilder at the helm. He can be our Guy Roux, Arsene Wenger, Sir Alex Ferguson. Just stick with it Blades.
But while he's at the helm. It's not over by a long chalk. And if we did go down, it's still not over because he's be there demanding more and more to get us right back up.
We may feel a bit downtrodden right now, but just like the Clint Eastwood movies, when the Pale Rider is in town, you can have faith. The Lord works in mysterious ways as Clint says...
