CHRIS WILDER has promised Sheffield United will look "completely different next season" after spectacularly shooting themselves in the foot last year.
The Blades are set to miss out on promotion to the Premier League, which will mean that next season, for their first Championship campaign since 2018-19, they will not have parachute payments to help them.
It should not have been like this.
NO PRE-SEASON: Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder (Image: Simon Bellis / Sportimage)placeholder image
NO PRE-SEASON: Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder (Image: Simon Bellis / Sportimage)
That should have been the path the Blades took after being narrowly beaten by Sunderland in last season’s Championship play-off final, but instead they took a wrecking ball to their squad, sacking manager Wilder, appointing Ruben Selles and moving on six of the Wembley starting XI.
It took just five league games – all lost – to see the error of their ways, sack Selles and re-appoint Wilder, but the damage had already been done.
When managers talk about the importance of a good pre-season in future they can point to both Sheffield clubs’ summers as case studies.
EMOTIONAL: Gustavo Hamer picked up his 10th yellow card of the season against West Bromwich Albion (Image: Simon Bellis / Sportimage)placeholder image
EMOTIONAL: Gustavo Hamer picked up his 10th yellow card of the season against West Bromwich Albion (Image: Simon Bellis / Sportimage)
It took until the November international break for Wilder to properly get a grip on results but over the half-a-season's-worth of games since, they sit seventh, five points off the leaders.
That would still not be good enough for this season, but it does give Wilder confidence that with the vital preparation time he missed out on in the summer, things can be better next time, even without a parachute payment to make life easier.
"Pre-season was huge, not having pre-season with this group," he has insisted many times since returning to the club.
"It'll look completely different next season when that opportunity arises for me to take hold of the group and put in place what I need to put in place to be physically robust for the division, to be athletically good enough to go and press teams like we have done at our best, to continually do that, not to make physical substitutions like we're having to do at this moment.
DISMAL INHERITANCE; Ruben Selles got Sheffield United's season off to a dreadful start (Image: Simon Bellis / Sportimage)placeholder image
DISMAL INHERITANCE; Ruben Selles got Sheffield United's season off to a dreadful start (Image: Simon Bellis / Sportimage)
"It's pretty difficult because of the intensity of the schedule in the Championship.
"You can't just shut the place down for three or four weeks and have a mini-pre-season.
"It'll look different and I think all the players understand and recognise that.
"Physically the way the game's going and what we're asking these players to do, they have to be at it and produce physically good performances in and out of possession."
Despite only being away for quite a short time – especially in terms of competitive matches – Wilder inherited 12 players he had not worked with before when he returned for a third spell as manager in September.
The final international break of the season, after Saturday’s game at home to play-off chasing Wrexham, is a last opportunity to take a step back and lay down some principles with those not off representing their countries but it already looks like being too late.
At a time when they needed to be putting their foot down, the Blades picked up just one point from two matches last week, leaving them with 10 points and perhaps as importantly nine places to make up in the final eight games of the season just to make the play-offs.
They played the last two matches without their best player, Gustavo Hamer, who was suspended after collecting 10 yellow cards this season. He returns on Saturday.
It was the fourth suspension of his three-season Blades career, all for bookings. In all, the attacking player has 34 in 115 games for the club.
It is one area where the influential playmaker has let his club down.
"He was disappointed that he picked up the booking,” said Wilder of the caution at West Bromwich Albion which triggered Hamer’s latest ban.
"I think it was a really poor decision. He's an emotional player.
"His bookings are usually late tackles. Emotionally he plays on the edge.
"As a player I don't really want to take that away from him but he understands that to lose a key player that was in form for two big games is a blow.
"I think deep down he understands that, recognises that.
"His impact and influence in the remaining eight games has to be massive, has to be big.
"He doesn't owe me anything, doesn't owe the club anything, his performances have been really good, but I think deep down it's, 'Come on, Gus, make sure you impact the last eight games of the season after missing these two through suspension.'"