Carlton Blade
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Paul Heckingbottom stood under the Bramall Lane floodlights, tracksuit soaked in beer, the stands that had rocked and bellowed in jubilation finally emptying into another night for the ages.
“It’s box ticked, know what I mean? I won’t even go further than that because I don’t think it’s sunk in. We’ve just won a game. But there’ll probably be a moment when I sit and realise what we’ve done.”
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There was a hasty embrace with trusted assistants Stuart McCall and Jack Lester as their Status Quo anthem blared at the final whistle, an outstretched hand remembered for West Bromwich Albion’s Carlos Corberan, and then players pushed towards the Kop, faithful ones and ascendant ones: Chris Basham and Billy Sharp, Iliman Ndiaye and Anel Ahmedhodzic.
“I don’t try to make a narrative out of me,” he could only offer when urged to sum up his own role in the alchemy. “I just work hard.”
Heckingbottom: one-time plumber, reluctant coach, Premier League manager.
Heckingbottom: grafting, self-improving, turning — as the man he stands to meet next season in the Liverpool dugout once said — doubters into believers.
Perhaps he might have made that EFL awards shortlist, made more meaningful shortlists, had he not toiled as a player at Darlington and Bradford City after failing to make the grade at Manchester United, had he moaned more about injuries and transfer embargoes and frozen training pitches, had he boasted a more glamorous provenance than a Barnsley pit village.
No matter, nor has it been a problem that he could not call on the kind of emotional attachment and partisan allure that Chris Wilder — the man who brought him to the club — generated in the heady years before his acrimonious exit. Heckingbottom’s appointment drew derision and yet he has stirred Sheffield United again in his own bullshit-free way.
(Photo: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
From 16th in the Championship in November 2021 to the Premier League 18 months later, a narrow play-off defeat last term followed by automatic promotion with games to spare. The revival has been a re-awakening after an identity crisis: from soul-sapping, sideways Slav-ball to more familiar fuel; high-pressing, harrying, snarling. The stuff they need and crave at Bramall Lane.
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Since taking over from Slavisa Jokanovic, his side have won more points (137), claimed more wins (41) and kept more clean sheets (34) than any other in the division, but the sub-plots make the stats even more striking.
The Athletic has detailed the myriad obstacles Heckingbottom and his backroom team were negotiating while Ahmedhodzic was striding into opposition boxes and Ndiaye was wriggling towards goal: the thwarted takeover attempts, the halted contract negotiations, the unpaid bills and financial straits.
“The focus of the players has been top class, but the focus of the staff has been even better because we’ve hidden so much from the players,” he admitted, slicking back beer-sodden hair as the words started to come. “And Jack and Macca, they’ve managed me.”
He was a caretaker content to step back into the shadows and continue the diligent work with the under-23s that had led club chiefs to contemplate his permanent appointment before Jovanovic’s reputation and fan clamour held sway. “If I’d wanted the job, I’d have come out and said it,” he told The Athletic after a sticking-plaster spell, but he would grow surer and broader.
(Photo: James Williamson – AMA/Getty Images)
His dismissal at Hibernian in 2019 had prompted soul-searching, as had his earlier exit from Leeds United, a spell for which he was scorned despite mitigating factors of a disjointed squad under an erratic regime. “I was naive,” the 45-year-old once told the NTT20 podcast of his urge to swap Barnsley, where he had established himself as a promising young coach, for Leeds. “I wasn’t misled in any way but I didn’t know the landscape at the club.”
At Sheffield United, he did. Prolific note-taking, video analysis and study for a doctorate in sports practice while out of work would prove restorative. The seemingly cheap option set about healing old wounds, making Sheffield United make sense again. There were ample assets to mount a promotion bid and yet he, alongside Lester and McCall, lifted tired minds and muscle, replaced the pieces of Wilder’s jigsaw while making tweaks, rode an autumn injury crisis and a January window that came and went without the psychological boost of reinforcements as Middlesbrough closed in.
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As time ticked away on Tuesday and chests thudded in anticipation, the injured Rhian Brewster cajoled those around him into song. “The most pleasing thing I saw tonight? Rhian’s on the pitch with his kit on,” Heckingbottom said amid the celebrations, recalling a crucial assist against Swansea City. “Every single player has contributed.”
Ndiaye certainly did, emboldened by his manager after Morgan Gibbs-White’s exit. Manchester City loanees James McAtee and Tommy Doyle — secured by the manager amid fierce competition — increasingly did in a transitional midfield. But behind the scenes was Jack O’Connell, encouraged to assist United’s strength and conditioning team after a devastating knee injury, Basham helping his heir, Ahmedhodzic, acclimatise to galloping runs, Billy Sharp driving standards.
No excuses, no dickheads.
Through turmoil off the pitch, Heckingbottom has championed steely focus, delegated as he managed upwards as well as around, forged a protective ring. An apparent yes-man has picked his moments, too with marked messages to the board about long-term planning and clarity, a spat with Forest’s Djed Spence after a play-off defeat he admitted left him angry and hungry.
Sheffield United’s promotion may be vital for the club’s immediate financial health, but it marks individual regeneration, too; it highlights football’s modern affliction to hastily draw judgment by merely seeing the superficial but forgetting that failure might just precede growth.
Premier League tests and trepidation can wait. When the beer finally stops flowing in the red half of Sheffield, Heckingbottom might just allow himself a moment to realise what he has done.
(Top photo: George Wood/Getty Images)
“It’s box ticked, know what I mean? I won’t even go further than that because I don’t think it’s sunk in. We’ve just won a game. But there’ll probably be a moment when I sit and realise what we’ve done.”
ADVERTISEMENT
There was a hasty embrace with trusted assistants Stuart McCall and Jack Lester as their Status Quo anthem blared at the final whistle, an outstretched hand remembered for West Bromwich Albion’s Carlos Corberan, and then players pushed towards the Kop, faithful ones and ascendant ones: Chris Basham and Billy Sharp, Iliman Ndiaye and Anel Ahmedhodzic.
“I don’t try to make a narrative out of me,” he could only offer when urged to sum up his own role in the alchemy. “I just work hard.”
Heckingbottom: one-time plumber, reluctant coach, Premier League manager.
Heckingbottom: grafting, self-improving, turning — as the man he stands to meet next season in the Liverpool dugout once said — doubters into believers.
Perhaps he might have made that EFL awards shortlist, made more meaningful shortlists, had he not toiled as a player at Darlington and Bradford City after failing to make the grade at Manchester United, had he moaned more about injuries and transfer embargoes and frozen training pitches, had he boasted a more glamorous provenance than a Barnsley pit village.
No matter, nor has it been a problem that he could not call on the kind of emotional attachment and partisan allure that Chris Wilder — the man who brought him to the club — generated in the heady years before his acrimonious exit. Heckingbottom’s appointment drew derision and yet he has stirred Sheffield United again in his own bullshit-free way.
(Photo: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
From 16th in the Championship in November 2021 to the Premier League 18 months later, a narrow play-off defeat last term followed by automatic promotion with games to spare. The revival has been a re-awakening after an identity crisis: from soul-sapping, sideways Slav-ball to more familiar fuel; high-pressing, harrying, snarling. The stuff they need and crave at Bramall Lane.
ADVERTISEMENT
Since taking over from Slavisa Jokanovic, his side have won more points (137), claimed more wins (41) and kept more clean sheets (34) than any other in the division, but the sub-plots make the stats even more striking.
The Athletic has detailed the myriad obstacles Heckingbottom and his backroom team were negotiating while Ahmedhodzic was striding into opposition boxes and Ndiaye was wriggling towards goal: the thwarted takeover attempts, the halted contract negotiations, the unpaid bills and financial straits.
“The focus of the players has been top class, but the focus of the staff has been even better because we’ve hidden so much from the players,” he admitted, slicking back beer-sodden hair as the words started to come. “And Jack and Macca, they’ve managed me.”
He was a caretaker content to step back into the shadows and continue the diligent work with the under-23s that had led club chiefs to contemplate his permanent appointment before Jovanovic’s reputation and fan clamour held sway. “If I’d wanted the job, I’d have come out and said it,” he told The Athletic after a sticking-plaster spell, but he would grow surer and broader.
(Photo: James Williamson – AMA/Getty Images)
His dismissal at Hibernian in 2019 had prompted soul-searching, as had his earlier exit from Leeds United, a spell for which he was scorned despite mitigating factors of a disjointed squad under an erratic regime. “I was naive,” the 45-year-old once told the NTT20 podcast of his urge to swap Barnsley, where he had established himself as a promising young coach, for Leeds. “I wasn’t misled in any way but I didn’t know the landscape at the club.”
At Sheffield United, he did. Prolific note-taking, video analysis and study for a doctorate in sports practice while out of work would prove restorative. The seemingly cheap option set about healing old wounds, making Sheffield United make sense again. There were ample assets to mount a promotion bid and yet he, alongside Lester and McCall, lifted tired minds and muscle, replaced the pieces of Wilder’s jigsaw while making tweaks, rode an autumn injury crisis and a January window that came and went without the psychological boost of reinforcements as Middlesbrough closed in.
ADVERTISEMENT
As time ticked away on Tuesday and chests thudded in anticipation, the injured Rhian Brewster cajoled those around him into song. “The most pleasing thing I saw tonight? Rhian’s on the pitch with his kit on,” Heckingbottom said amid the celebrations, recalling a crucial assist against Swansea City. “Every single player has contributed.”
Ndiaye certainly did, emboldened by his manager after Morgan Gibbs-White’s exit. Manchester City loanees James McAtee and Tommy Doyle — secured by the manager amid fierce competition — increasingly did in a transitional midfield. But behind the scenes was Jack O’Connell, encouraged to assist United’s strength and conditioning team after a devastating knee injury, Basham helping his heir, Ahmedhodzic, acclimatise to galloping runs, Billy Sharp driving standards.
No excuses, no dickheads.
Through turmoil off the pitch, Heckingbottom has championed steely focus, delegated as he managed upwards as well as around, forged a protective ring. An apparent yes-man has picked his moments, too with marked messages to the board about long-term planning and clarity, a spat with Forest’s Djed Spence after a play-off defeat he admitted left him angry and hungry.
Sheffield United’s promotion may be vital for the club’s immediate financial health, but it marks individual regeneration, too; it highlights football’s modern affliction to hastily draw judgment by merely seeing the superficial but forgetting that failure might just precede growth.
Premier League tests and trepidation can wait. When the beer finally stops flowing in the red half of Sheffield, Heckingbottom might just allow himself a moment to realise what he has done.
(Top photo: George Wood/Getty Images)
