This was 45 minutes, by the way, but it wasn’t the slog I thought it would be. Wilder was really upbeat. I did wonder if he would be combative and defensive given the last three results, but I was glad to see that wasn’t the case at all.
“I’ve got about 6 players coming back in about a week, so that’s encouraging. Around the Cardiff game, definitely for the Norwich game”
“Attitude of the group is good. There’s no white flags”
“When it comes to the Norwich game, there will be a completely different look to our team”
“It’s always good to take points off teams around you, but it’s about an accumulation of points” and the overall table is all that really matters.
Regarding reports of JRS going back to Palace for treatment on his injury, he didn’t answer it straight, he just said the process is normal, referring to when Gilchrist had a little injury, both clubs’ medical teams talk to each other and agree treatment.
Souttar has had his operation this week
Regarding the January Transfer Window, “Incredibly positive talks with the new owners and Bettis”
“I never expected anything to be done for Saturday. Historically tough window.” He talked about how parent clubs with multiple interested parties look for the best deal, which can drag things out.
He said the new owners “want to help me out” and improve the group for the second half of the season.
Rob asked about whether the new owners want to make a ‘statement signing’. “We just want to sign good players who will improve us and fit into the group”. “Quality over quantity” “Age is important. The group needs some experience”
BBD, Chaudhury, Poku, Jacobsen were all referenced by Rob as the names we are linked with and also match the age/experience profile Wilder has been mentioning, so “are they the kind of players you’re keeping an eye on”. Wilder obviously wouldn’t answer that straight, though he did say “I know how much Ben enjoyed it here and for me he had a decent loan, so naturally players with those connections will get linked.” “Age is important as is mentality and quality and I’m very confident we can do that (bring those types in)”
Regarding Kieffer Moore’s penalty record. “Kieffer’s record is outstanding at the top level”. “We’ll look at it. It may be that Kieffer comes off penalties for a while, but we’ll look at that. We have players with quality that can step up. Players miss penalties”
On to Watford, like when we played them earlier in the season, Wilder said how much he likes Tom Cleverley, talked about his not-so-great experience, but still a valuable one, when he managed Watford recently. He dismissed the idea that it was a failure for him, saying he wanted to work and wanted to take on that very different challenge and get the experience of it.
He talked about their consistent good home form, but “they’re a bit hot and cold, but will be looking to overcome a recent loss to Cardiff (at home) and QPR (away)”
Rob and Chris then talked about Chris’ experience at Watford and Boro and the experience of that. All stuff we’ve heard before, with Chris emphasising he absolutely does not regret taking the Watford job. “It’s an experience you learn from” to be a better manager and “come out of it still punching”
Next interviewer asked about the JTW again, giving Chris the opportunity to talk about how attractive the club is to potential incoming players, with the new ownership, position in the league, the academy, style of play, etc. Hoping that players will say “I fancy a bit of that, I’ll enjoy that”, as “it’s a fantastic club to play for”
Regarding Anis Slimane at Norwich, is there a recall clause, and given how it ended would you even want to bring him back (lovely worded question)? “No, there’s talks ongoing (regarding selling him, I think he meant). Anis is there for the season.” He said he would have been part of the first team squad with us, but “he wanted to play for a manager he previously played for and Norwich is a really good club. No problems with Anis and what he wanted to do, but maybe he should have been a bit clearer with it, which didn’t go down well with me. Anis’ future is away from the football club”
Asked about Tom Davies and how he’s stepped up and is putting it in even though he’s just coming back from injury, Chris talked about how great of a player he is, “driving us forward” down to the last second of the games and how “He’s a proper Sheffield United player who will be huge for us in the last 20 games of the season. My concern is while trying to still picks points up, we have to be careful and Tom has to be open and honest” about how his body is going.
“The kids have done great. Absolutely spot on. I’m delighted with them. No disrespect to them but there are levels within the young players. There’s the level of Peck, Brooks, Arblaster, Seriki, but then there’s the level just underneath with Oné, Blacker, Baptiste, Colechin. I want them to be involved in the first team as I don’t like spaces on the bench, but we have to be careful that we don’t expose these guys (on the pitch) when they’re not quite ready”
“If I thought they were ready, I’d put them in, we always have done, but it’s top-end Championship football and we want to win, and there’s an expectation to win, but they have to be ready. They’re on the bench for the experience and hopefully they’ll come through into the first team in the coming years and they’ll already have the experience of being around the big game days”
Regarding Gus Hamer being one yellow away from a 2-game ban. “Gus has to be careful” saying some of it is Gus’ fault, but then he did blame the refs for a lot of it. “I don’t want to take that aggressiveness out of his game. He plays on the edge and so we have to miss him for one or two games (as a result)”
“He’s been absolutely outstanding”
They then had a light-hearted chat about how the nature of how fans and media share opinions on football has changed over the years, from being in the boozer chatting over the Green ‘Un to social media and phone-ins every night and how now if you win a game, you’re gonna win the league, if you lose a game, you’re useless.
“People will have opinions through the season on performances, substitutions, but we’ll be judged at the end of the season”
They talked a bit further about how the impact can be knee-jerk reactions with managers/players at certain clubs (like Watford) but Wilder believes in stability, though he understands if a club has a long poor run/season, decisions get made.
Wilder has “appreciated” the words of support from the new owners and their commitment to helping improve the club in January. “There will come a time when things turn and they’ll want a change (in manager)” but we’re doing well and “when we get our players back for the Norwich game, add in January (transfer window) and we’ll have a successful second half of the season”
He was then asked what he did and didn’t enjoy about his time at Watford. It was quite interesting actually, he said there were two sporting directors “knocking on my door at 9am, asking why I’d picked a certain team, asking what I’m doing in training, suggesting…..maybe suggesting to the wrong person”. “Players with their own agendas”. “Team spirit, work ethic, out run, out fight, out play, connection with the supporters” are the characteristics of a good club and being at Watford helped confirm to him that without those you don’t do well.
“When individuals ego’s take over, you don’t have a cat-in-hell’s chance”
Talking about the last three games, “we have to look at ourselves, have we made the right decisions, have we made the right substitutions, how do we make sure we take those big moments?” but “they were tight games with fine margins”. “We haven’t had poor performances”
When asked if it is a tough time, he pointed out that “last season was tough”, whereas this is just something to work through “while we’re stretched a little bit”
He finished off by talking about how “bigger squads, better squads, give themselves the best opportunity” in this “relentless” period, as they can do more rotation. He also talked about how during this period, and with all the travelling, there hasn’t been enough time to get the coaching done that they want to. “There’s things we want to get in to them”, so I assume this upcoming break with just the FA Cup game, with time to coach, time to heal the injured, and time to bring in new faces, we should be very excited about the rest of the season.
UTB
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