20 Best Sheffield United Players of the last 25 years

In the third and final instalment of the 101 Best Sheffield United players, Ben Meakin counts down the top twenty from the last quarter century.

Words: Ben Meakin (BladesPod)

So, here we are. We’ve journeyed from Laurent D’Jaffo to Mark Duffy with stops off at David Unsworth, Wayne Allison, Keith Gillespie and lots more along the way. We’ve made it. We’re down to the 20 best United players of the last 25 years, only five of whom are still on our books.

If you’ve avidly consumed the previous two parts (and why wouldn’t you?) then there’s unlikely to be many surprises as to who has made it to the coveted final 20 – but perhaps the ordering will still bring you a soupçon of suspense. Who’s in the top 10? And who is the number one best Sheffield United player of the last quarter-century? Read on…

20) Morgan Gibbs-White – 37 appearances, 12 goals

I’ll get this in up front: I’m not having any of the Gibbs-White abuse that I’ve seen/heard since he signed for Forest in the summer of 2022. Yes, Forest are strongly disliked in these parts. Yes, they beat us in the playoffs. Yes, Gibbs-White’s final kick in a Blades shirt was a missed penalty that eliminated us in said playoffs against said Forest. Yes, I went through a stage of “gah, anyone but them” when he signed permanently from Wolves.

But setting all that aside, Morgan Gibbs-White’s season on loan at United was one of the best single seasons I’ve ever seen from an attacking player in red and white. From the moment he got on the ball against Peterborough in his debut – in what would prove to be a thrilling partnership with the still-developing Iliman Ndiaye – it was clear just how far above every other player on the pitch he was.

MGW was our second-highest scorer that season and one of the hardest-working loanees I’ve seen, despite the club being an off-field mess as Slavisa Jokanovic was booted in October. He had that rare quality – shown the following season by Ndiaye – of dragging his team over the line by the scruff of the neck: every ball was chased, every tackle was committed to, every teammate was appropriately geed up before, during and after.

He stepped up in big games too: a superb curling cross for Sharp against Forest. That ridiculous mid-air flick against Boro, after another assist for Sharp. A vital header against Fulham to clinch our playoff spot. And a momentum-shifting goal in that fateful second leg against Forest. It added up to 12 goals and nine assists across the season.

What a player. At the end of that season I predicted he’d be in an England squad within 12 months; moving to a relegation candidate might have hampered that but I won’t be shocked if he gets there very soon.

19) Paul Coutts – 136 appearances, 5 goals

Who knows how high Coutts would have placed on this list had he not suffered a terrible leg break against Burton in 2017? The man who never gave the ball away had a slow, occasionally-maligned start to his Blades career: Nigel Clough added Coutts to the litany of signings from Derby in 2015 but neither he nor Nigel Adkins appeared to particularly know what to do with him.

As with so many players on this list, Chris Wilder soon changed that. Installed as the playmaking base of a “holy trinity” midfield that featured box-to-box action from John Fleck and a dash of mercurial, line-breaking creativity from Mark Duffy, Coutts absolutely thrived. He was instrumental in United’s title-winning charge from League One that season, and underlined his class with an absurdly high-quality performance in the 4-2 win over Wednesday. 

In a game where Leon Clarke scored two, David Brooks dazzled and Mark Duffy scored that goal, Coutts was still somehow the best player on the pitch and his name rang out around Hillsborough long after most Wednesday fans had headed for the tram.

Sadly, a few weeks later came that devastating injury that saw him miss almost a full year of football and, when he did return, it was clear that our midfield maestro was unlikely to get back to those levels again. He left United at the end of that season – our promotion to the Premier League – and went on to play for Fleetwood, Salford and Bristol Rovers before joining Highland League side Inverurie Loco Works in August 2023.

18) Dean Henderson – 86 appearances, 35 clean sheets

The last loan player to appear on this list, and by definition the BEST loan player Sheffield United have had in these 25 years… sort of. Henderson endeared himself to the fanbase so strongly that the mere mention of his name in Football Twitter rumour circles is enough to get Blades fans salivating, even though Wes Foderingham has done a perfectly adequate job between the sticks over the last two and a bit seasons (and, as I write this, Henderson has just joined Palace).

Deano joined United in the summer of 2018, and the then-21-year-old was an obvious, immediate upgrade on Simon Moore and Jamal Blackman from the season before. He kept 20 clean sheets that season, behind an admittedly strong defence, as United were promoted. Despite having John Egan, Jack O’Connell and prime Chris Basham in front of him, Henderson kept his concentration and pulled off some phenomenal saves throughout the campaign.

Re-signing him for the Premier League season felt like a huge coup, and so it proved as United’s backline was tested more regularly but he always stood up to the task (with one notable exception against Liverpool). But it was about more than just goalkeeping with Henderson, who went out of his way to forge strong bonds with the fans and wasn’t remotely averse to clapping back at any opposition crowds who gave him stick.

Summer 2020 was a turning point for him, as he signed a new long-term contract with Man Utd presumably with the understanding that he’d get more of a shot in the first team, and a third loan to the Blades was off the table. 

Had he not signed that contract, perhaps United would have spent the £20m or so that ended up going on Aaron Ramsdale on Deano instead. Perhaps United would have stayed up that season (probably we wouldn’t), and perhaps Henderson would be the England #2 by now. It’s been sad watching such a promising career stagnate over the last few years, but I suppose on the plus side he will have earned lots and lots of money from those mad idiots making the decisions at Old Trafford.  

17) Paddy Kenny – 315 appearances, clean sheet data not available

The highest-ranked goalkeeper on this list, Paddy’s time at the Lane ended a little sourly which is why he’s probably not as beloved as Dean Henderson – but what a keeper he was. Signed from Bury in 2002, he flourished immediately and was the club’s Player of the Year. Warnock dubbed him “one of the best signings I’ve ever made… he’s one of the first names on the team sheet because he’s so reliable.”

As well as being a top shot-stopper, Paddy’s command of the penalty area was far above any other United keeper of this (any?) era. We had arrived at the end of the Alan Kelly/Simon Tracey axis of excellence, and Paddy seamlessly filled their gloves. It felt like every ball that came into or even somewhat near our box would see Kenny charging out to clear or claim. It got to the stage where years after he’d left I still found myself shouting “Paddyyy!” whenever an opposition cross looked vaguely catchable.

He was also delightfully mad in that way that good keepers used to be before the rise in popularity of sterile, ball-playing robokeepers like Alisson and Ederson (curse their boringly efficient play!). You never quite knew when Paddy was about to drop a clanger, give away a pen, wind up the opposition fans or have his eyebrow bitten off outside a Halifax curry house. But you loved him for it anyway.

Just weeks after signing a new contract in 2009, Kenny tested positive for a banned substance (believed to have been contained in over-the-counter cough medicine he’d taken) and was hit with a nine-month ban that prevented him from even training with his teammates. United chose to stand by him and honour the contract extension despite the ban – only for Paddy to jump ship to QPR after they met his piddling £750,000 release clause weeks after he returned from suspension. Hmm.

16) Michael Tonge – 299 appearances, 24 goals

Tonge made his Blades debut in 2001 and was involved regularly the following season, but it was in 2002/03 that he suddenly caught fire as a thrilling attacking midfielder, winning a spot in the PFA Team of the Year.

Tonge was unplayable that year, earning England U21 recognition and being strongly linked with Liverpool – against whom he scored a sensational double in the League Cup semi-final, sending Jamie Carragher for a pie with a fantastic dummy for the second. Earlier that season he’d terrorised the Wednesday defence in a game we somehow lost (Kevin Pressman, basically) though he did star as we won the return fixture 3-1. 

His eight goals that season would prove to be the best scoring return of his United career, and arguably he never quite hit those levels again. He was, however, a regular starter for the next five seasons, helping United clinch promotion in 2005/06 and scoring a couple of goals in the Premier League including a stonking freekick against West Ham.

With the Blades back in the Championship, Tonge returned to the top flight with Stoke in 2008 but never really established himself. A string of loan appearances followed over the next few years, but he retired in 2019 having made over 500 club appearances and been a major part of that immortal Triple Assault team.

15) Nick Montgomery – 398 appearances, 11 goals

No United player has made more appearances for the Blades during this period than Nick Montgomery, who is 13th on the all-time list of total Blades appearances. It’s a rare longevity in the modern game, with every other player in the top 20 having hung up their boots at least 20 years ago (Chris Basham has a chance of breaking into that club this season).

Monty was an outstanding defensive midfielder: incredibly consistent, supremely fit and relentless in his workrate. Defending was his forte – it’s fair to say he lacked a bit of skill going the other way – although he actually broke into the side playing wide right and caused havoc against Wednesday at Hillsborough in an eventual extra-time loss in the League Cup.

He was a linchpin of the promotion team in 2005/06, doing the dirty work in midfield while United pushed forward in other areas, and was named the club’s Player of the Year in 2009/10.

After 12 years with the Blades, Montgomery ended his career in Australia, firstly with five seasons at Central Coast Mariners who he would later go on to manage. His post-playing career has got off to a superb start, winning the A-League in 2023 and earning a move to the SPL with Hibernian earlier this month. 

14) Harry Maguire – 166 appearances, 12 goals

Kyle Walker may have more trophies, having ended up on the less-toxic side of Manchester, but Harry Maguire is right up there in terms of United’s most successful youth product.

He was a physically imposing presence right from his debut in a failing Championship side in 2011 (he came on at half-time and won the man of the match award against Cardiff), and as it happens the drop into League One might have been perfect for his development. In the third tier, teenager Maguire started from day one and absolutely dominated opposition strikers as well as being a massive (literally) danger from set-pieces.

He took big strides (again, literally) over the next few years, showing class on the ball as well as a sometimes hilarious willingness to rumble forward with it. His lumbering frame seemed to catch the opposition out as they stood off him and he accepted the invitation to slalom 60 yards with the ball at his feet.

I’ll be honest, I thought that Maguire’s physique would actually hold him back or perhaps cause him to be overlooked by Premier League clubs. I was dead wrong. He moved to Hull (then of the top flight) in 2014, and then onto Leicester where he swept the board for the club’s Player of the Year awards in 2018. Not long after, Manchester United made him the world’s most expensive defender.

Maguire has been a colossus for England, something that I think gets overlooked in the wider football landscape. Utterly consistent and reliable, he’s also a regular target from set-pieces which was the hallmark of England’s route to the 2018 World Cup semi-finals. 

I’ve been persistently baffled by the treatment of Maguire in the last few years, which seems to stem largely from rabid Manchester United fans seeking a scapegoat on Twitter for their club’s relative struggles, and a willingness from opposition fans to seize any opportunity to drag a rival player down. Even trying to separate my own United bias from Maguire’s ability, he’s surely – at the absolute worst – a top 20 central defender in the Premier League, and by no means the worst centre-back to get regular minutes for Man Utd in the last ten years. And there’s no central defender I’d rather see starting for England at the next tournament. Come on home, Harry, you know it makes sense.

13) Jack O’Connell – 177 appearances, 9 goals

I got a bit sad all over again looking up O’Connell’s career stats and seeing the word “retired” next to his age (29). 

A fact that’s worth remembering – painful though it is – is that O’Connell was getting better. He got his injury as he was on the cusp of turning 25, and had improved in each of his four seasons with the Blades up to that point. It’s easy to mythologise our Jack but he would surely have moved on to an established, top-10 Premier League side had he not sustained this injury – and would have played for England. 

It was around this time that the top clubs kicked off a run on left-footed centre-backs, as the goal kick laws changed and teams eschewed long clearances in favour of almost exclusively passing out from the back. O’Connell would have been a prized asset, and maybe I’m setting the bar too low in suggesting a top-10 destination – look at where Harry Maguire went at this stage of his career, for example.

But enough about what could have been for JOC – let’s remember what actually was, and that’s one of the best centre-backs of this era. This puts him in the mix as the best United defender I’ve had the pleasure of watching with my own eyes. Powerful, athletic and superb with the ball at his feet, he had a rare awareness of where to be in and out of possession that lent itself perfectly to that well-drilled Chris Wilder side.

Of course, he headed in the goal that sealed our promotion to the Premier League, but arguably his standout moment came a few months earlier in an immense rearguard performance against Brentford. United were down to ten men and protecting a lead, and O’Connell – alongside Egan and Basham - simply headed, kicked and blocked away everything a talented Brentford side could throw at him.

We were all still singing his name as we won promotion again four years later. This time he hadn’t made it onto the pitch, but in our hearts he was still a big part of the club’s relatively successful period over the last seven years or so. What else can you say? Jack O’Connell’s magic.

12) Enda Stevens – 202 appearances, 9 goals

Like O’Connell, Enda’s best seasons with the Blades were several years ago – but those seasons were so damn good that he fully deserves this spot just outside the top 10 best Blades of the last quarter century. 

Signed from Portsmouth following United’s promotion to the Championship under Chris Wilder, Stevens had a mixed first season at left wingback. I thought he copped some exaggerated flak during that debut campaign and was an early “Enda Defenda”, but even so I didn’t see the next two seasons coming.

The step up in Enda’s game was breathtaking. As well as being airtight defensively, his attacking ability improved massively as United romped to promotion. He racked up four goals and seven assists that season and his final-third passing numbers were off the charts. He became one of the most important players in the side – and then was somehow even better in the Premier League.

For about six months, Enda Stevens was in the mix as the best LWB in England’s elite league. He made a habit of nutmegging opposition players on his way into the box, continuing his telepathic linkup with Jack O’Connell and David McGoldrick. It all peaked with a thunderous goal against Brighton, just weeks before the world changed with the outbreak of Covid-19.

Enda was never the same player after that: he struggled through the rest of the season and never rediscovered his form. It was baffling – I’ve never seen a physical drop-off from a player in his prime like that which he went through. He left United in the summer of 2023 and has made a decent start back in the Championship with Stoke, but I’ll never forget just how good he was for those two seasons.

11) David McGoldrick – 136 appearances, 30 goals

David “Deadbat” Beeden recently wrote a lovely piece for this newsletter simply titled Heroes – and of course, David McGoldrick’s time at the Blades merited a few paragraphs. Signed on a free transfer after being coaxed in for a trial, few United fans can have had high hopes that this journeyman forward was going to be much more than a bit-part player for the Blades.

We were all wrong, as were every club in the Championship who neglected to seize this chance to sign him. Didzy was soon showcasing his full range of skills, control, vision and finishing. Crucially, and unlike at his previous clubs, he stayed fit. McGoldrick featured in all but one game that season, banging in 15 goals as United won promotion, shouldering the goalscoring burden in the second half of the campaign. His beautiful curling strike at Hull to put promotion within touching distance (Leeds lost at Brentford a few hours later) remains one of my favourites, but a thumping header to seal an underdog 10-man win over those same Bees was celebrated just as wildly.

The fact that he missed a penalty in a Steel City derby yet still remains so beloved to United fans speaks volumes. An enduring memory comes from our first season back in the Premier League, where McGoldrick couldn’t hit a barn door yet was still widely viewed as our most important attacker. At Brighton he went round the keeper and rolled the ball agonisingly wide in front of the thousands of Blades fans who were ready to celebrate their hero. But rather than bemoan yet another miss, a full-throated rendition of “oh, David McGoldrick” rang out instead.

He was the club’s Player of the Year in 2019 and again in 2021, shrugging off his hoodoo in front of goal to score eight of our 20 goals in the latter season, several of which were absolute beauties. 

Injury affected his final season with the Blades and he went on to win Derby’s Player of the Year the following year before choosing to drop down another league and end his career with his hometown club, Notts County. And there can’t be a Blade out there who doesn’t wish him well. 

10) John Fleck – 274 appearances, 16 goals (to date)

We’ve made it to the top 10 – the cream of the crop – and we’re starting with a player who’s still on United’s books: our Scottish hero, John Fleck. Arguably Chris Wilder’s best-ever signing, Fleck was a free transfer from Coventry in the summer of 2016 after winning the Sky Blues’ Player of the Season award. He carried that form on with the Blades as a sensational debut season ended with promotion from League One and a share of United’s own POTS award with 30-goal Billy Sharp.

Fleck’s dynamism and box-to-box energy was irrepressible at that level and, like several of that side, he got even better as United climbed the divisions. He swerved in a tone-setting freekick at Hillsborough in that derby win, and chipped in with a fantastic five goals in the Premier League the following season which included strikes against Arsenal and Manchester United.  

In my mind, the goal against Wednesday is surpassed by his late winner at Northampton the previous season. Promotion was all-but certain when Fleck ran into the box in his trademark manner and scuffed in a goal in front of the United fans, but the scenes as supporters flooded the pitch will live forever in our memories. 

Like Enda Stevens, his best years with the Blades undoubtedly came prior to that Covid-enforced interruption, and he’s been hit by injury over the last few years. He got a one-year extension in the summer of 2023 but is yet to appear following a leg break – if we’ve seen the last of Fleck in red and white, then scoring in our final home game in 2022/23 was a nice way to sign off.

9) George Baldock – 209 appearances, 6 goals (to date)

We’ve had some fantastic right wingbacks over these 25 years but for my money, George Baldock tops the lot. He’s now into his sixth season with the Blades and has been consistently excellent right the way through.

Baldock is one of the best pure defenders I’ve seen for United, sticking to attackers like glue and rarely getting beaten. He might not have the end product of peak Enda Stevens but Baldock’s athleticism and energy mean he’s at least as important to United’s attacks as he is our defence, bombing down the wing and always being available for a pass or through-ball. 

Plus, you can’t overlook his attitude and aggression. At times Baldock seems like the angriest man ever to play football, and it feels like a minor miracle that – at the time of writing – he’s never been sent off in his career. He never shirks a challenge and seems to relish going up against the very best opposition and testing himself – as any top pro should do.

Baldock was signed from MK Dons to compete with Kieron Freeman, but soon displaced “Kez” and locked down the right wingback spot for himself. He’s since gone on to play regularly for Greece, for whom he qualifies through his grandmother, making his debut in 2022.

8) Chris Morgan – 279 appearances, 16 goals

The fact that the introduction to Chris Morgan’s Wikipedia page includes the word “uncompromising” says a lot. The hardest of hard-nosed defenders to turn out for United in this period, Morgan was also an inspirational captain. 

Neil Warnock signed the former Barnsley stalwart on a free transfer in the summer of 2023, and it didn’t take long before he was named the club’s Player of the Year and given the captain’s armband. He solidified United’s defence and was the bedrock upon which the 2005/06 promotion team was built. Fittingly, he scored the final goal that season, heading in against Crystal Palace as the promotion celebrations kicked off.

He had a good season in the Premier League, too, memorably pulling a WWE-style throw on Carlos Tevez in the 3-0 home win, and the devastation he felt at relegation was plain to see. But Morgan wasn’t done, leading the Blades in the Championship over the next three seasons before injury deprived him of featuring regularly as United fell into League One.

Morgan was sent off six times with United – a club record – and had numerous other times of toeing or even crossing the line. An incident with Barnsley’s Iain Hume left the latter with a fractured skull and even led to the Barnsley Central MP tabling an early day motion in Parliament to review the decision not to charge Morgan.

“Uncompromising” he may have been, but I refuse to end this entry without referencing this delightful overhead kick against Forest in the FA Cup. Nursing a mild hangover in the away end, I was as shocked as the Forest keeper. Hats off to the commentator on this clip who – in wonderfully Partridge-esque style – chips in with “as the Germans would say, he was good Morgan”.

7) Iliman Ndiaye – 88 appearances, 22 goals

Ndiaye is the only player in the top 10 to have played less than 100 games for the club – but surely anyone who watched his abridged United career will know why he ranks so highly. I put a lot of stock in the fact that my dad – who idolised Tony Currie – was happy enough to state that Ndiaye outstripped United’s legendary number 10 as the best player he’d ever seen in red and white.

For fans of my generation, or younger ones, it’s not even close. After a contract dispute held back his introduction to the team (he’d made a Blades debut from the bench the previous season), Ndiaye scored twice and set up another on his first full start in 2021. His next goal didn’t arrive until three months later, but it put down a marker of what a special player he could be, slaloming the length of the pitch at Craven Cottage and sliding in the winner against champions-in-waiting Fulham.

He lacked fitness in that first season, frequently tiring and coming off after an hour or so, but built up a head of steam towards its conclusion with four crucial goals in United’s last five games as we reached the playoffs. 

And as for the next season… woah. He scored an even better version of that Fulham goal against Blackburn, swerving in a finish off the post, and his 15 goals were vital in our promotion push. Best of all, though, were the things he did when not actually kicking the ball into the net himself. He showed skill and inventiveness that players at this level can typically only dream of, and combined it with an insane workrate and burning desire to win.

For the second half of that season, it was rare for me to get through a United game without laughing out loud at some ridiculous piece of skill that Ndiaye pulled out to embarrass opposition players. And it wasn’t just show-pony stuff, as he racked up the assists – 11 in total, nine of which came after the World Cup break – including the set-up for Sander Berge to seal promotion in the home game against West Brom.

I’m still sad about how it ended, with a last-minute change-of-heart leading to Ndiaye joining his boyhood club Marseille on the eve of the new season. But when a player gives you that much joy, it’s impossible for me to have any hard feelings about it. I’m thankful we got those two seasons, but oh what I would have given for just one more year.

6) John Egan – 222 appearances, 8 goals (to date)

Do we underrate John Egan? Even while writing this sentence I found myself second-guessing it – “John Egan higher than Ndiaye? Really?”

But of course, he should be. One of the rare examples of United spending big money (£4m was big money for us in 2018, one year removed from League One) and it actually working out, Egan has been a rock for the Blades over the last five-plus years. He undoubtedly helped us take the step up to promotion contenders – along with another player still to come on this list – and was part of an airtight defence in the Premier League in that first season.

Of course, the side fell apart in 2020/21, but Egan’s standards barely slipped and he was one of the few players to leave that season in credit. In fact, his standards have barely slipped ever, despite playing virtually every minute of every game for club and country. 

I firmly believe that when Egan no longer plays for United – and at age 30, he’s hopefully got plenty of years left with us yet – we’ll spend years having exasperated conversations in pubs and grounds around the country where we sigh and mutter “if only we could find another defender like John Egan”. 

As you can tell from this ranking, I’m also nailing my colours to the mast and putting Egan ahead of the other great centre-back of this era, Chris Morgan. I think the success of the side with Egan in it counts for a lot, as does his international pedigree (no United player in history has won more caps while contracted to the club) and the duels I’ve seen him have – and shade – with some of the very best strikers on this planet. 

And I haven’t even mentioned perhaps his most significant contribution to Blades folklore. “If you’re going to a pub in Ireland, you have to have a song…”

5) Oliver Norwood – 227 appearances, 10 goals (to date)

Paul Coutts’ leg break was devastating for the side as well as the player, and it wasn’t until United pipped Hull to Oliver Norwood’s signature a year later that we found a replacement. And what a replacement: Norwood ran the show on his debut – coincidentally against Hull – and completely revolutionised how the Blades played.

His long-range pings have become legendary, effortlessly pinpointing passes sixty yards or more. And oof, those crosses – after a few months some fans had coined the term “the Norwood zone” for that spot on the right about 30 yards out where, whenever the ball was rolled back to him, you just knew that a fizzing first-time cross was hitting the edge of the six yard box. Go back and watch the goals we scored in 2018/19 and see how many come from the Norwood zone (he had nine assists in his debut season).

He was outstanding in that first Premier League season, marrying up the pings with superb defensive work as part of United’s rock-solid out-of-possession shape. And then Covid happened, and his form fell off a cliff. I thought he was finished after a further dreadful three months under Slavisa Jokanovic, but then Paul Heckingbottom took over, reverted to 3-5-2, and stuck Norwood in the middle of it.

And suddenly, he was back. He finished that season superbly, and carried that form into the ensuing promotion season (the fourth Premier League promotion of his career). I commented at the time that although Billy Sharp and John Egan wore the captain’s armband, at times it felt like Norwood’s team – such was his on-field leadership.

With a fresh stack of midfield talent in the building after this transfer window, we might be reaching the end of Oli’s influence in United’s starting XI. But I’m not writing him off again. He deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest midfielders to grace our club, and the results with him in the team speak for themselves.

4) Michael Brown – 169 appearances, 33 goals

I struggled to separate Brown and Norwood on this ranking. On the one hand, Norwood has the longevity, a pair of promotions, and the top-flight experience with the Blades. On the other, Norwood never had a season like the one Brown gave us in 2002/03.

That just about shades it for oh Lord, Michael Brown. I don’t want to rewrite history here by giving the impression that Brown was a one-season wonder – he won the club’s Player of the Season the year before this one – but I’m still going to talk largely about 02/03.

Brown was a semi-regular goalscoring midfielder during his first few years with the Blades, including five in the league the season before this one. But something happened in 2002 that led to one of the greatest single seasons I’ve ever seen from a United player. The only ones that immediately spring to mind by way of comparison are Billy Sharp’s 30-goal season and Ndiaye’s 25+ combined-goals-and-assists from last year (and maybe Ched Evans scoring 35 goals in League One, but we don’t need to dwell on that). 

With Stuart McCall covering defensively in midfield, Brown simply couldn’t stop scoring. More specifically, he couldn’t stop scoring absolute screamers. There was the thunderous volley against Wednesday, of course, but he arguably topped it a week or so later with a howitzer against Ipswich in the cup.

There were big goals, too: he scored in both legs of the playoffs against Forest, the latter of which sparked a furious comeback. Yeah, he missed a penalty in the final (we would 1,000% have come back to win that final had he scored) but ended the season with an astonishing 22 goals in all competitions – from midfield. I’m not sure we’ll see anything like that again.

We certainly didn’t see it again from Brown, sadly, who moved to Spurs in a cut-price deal in 2004 with his contract running down (sounds familiar). He went on to have a solid top-flight career, particularly with Fulham and Portsmouth, although his metamorphosis into a kind of hatchet man was a little puzzling to someone who largely remembered him for silky skills and gorgeous, gorgeous goals.

3) Phil Jagielka –  305 appearances, 22 goals

I still can’t really explain why, but as a teenager I became weirdly invested in this lad in the youth team who was just a couple of years older than me and had a funny-sounding name. At one point I even took a picture of him into the barbers to request the same haircut (possibly not something I should be admitting publicly, but anyway…).

15-year-old me clearly knew his onions when it came to player scouting, as Jagielka developed into something very, very special. At first he was a player without a true position, playing right-back with some success in 2002/03 (and scoring that goal against Leeds, a goal I’ve watched so many times I can clearly recall the commentary – now Jagielka brings it down on the chest longwayoutCRACKSITOHHHHHHHHHH!!!) and then becoming a goalscoring midfielder as United reached the Premier League.

Towards the end of his Blades career, he moved to centre-back, and that would stick. Eventually, he started games for England at the World Cup and enjoyed a superb Premier League career. He even returned for a couple of seasons at the back end of his career, although Covid deprived the majority of United fans from giving him the welcome and send-off he deserved. 

I, however, did get that pleasure – in fact I am proud to say that I was present for Phil Jagielka’s first and last Sheffield United appearances. That wasn’t the main reason I chose to get a ticket for the weird socially distant final-day win over Burnley in 2021, but it was a nice bonus to know that I’d been able to give one last standing ovation to the player I’d idolised for decades.

Two players left now, and if you’ve been paying attention, you can probably guess who they are. But who’s going to end up top of the very pile? Reader, scroll on.

2) Chris Basham – 390 appearances, 15 goals

Bashambauer, allroundspieler – he gets in at number 2 on my ranking of the top 101 Blades of this era which I hope is a fitting recognition for his evolution during his soon-to-be-10-years with the club. 

Signed in 2014 by Nigel Clough, the first few Basham years weren’t bad exactly, they were just very mediocre. He rarely missed a game, but rarely impacted one either. But when Chris Wilder arrived? Woah. Mediocre Basham suddenly became an all-action central defender who dribbled out of defence and got in the opposition box. He became a player that Alan Shearer picked alongside Virgil van Dijk in his Premier League Team of the Season. He became a Sheffield United legend.

I used to take great delight in watching opposition defenders – and fans – panic when Basham would start dancing forward with the ball, or suddenly burst into the area on the overlap. What the hell is he doing there?! Like O’Connell and Stevens on the other side, Basham had a near-telepathic relationship with first Kieron Freeman and then George Baldock, and it made for some of the best attacking football I’ve ever seen at the Lane.

But of course, let’s not overlook Basham the defender. Not until Anel Ahmedhodzic’s arrival has a player even come close to replicating what Basham has produced as a right centre-back, where he frequently looked unbeatable and was always there with a timely header, block or clearance. One of my favourite performances from him came at Spurs in the Premier League, where he shut down the electric Heung-min Son in a tone-setting display.

A few other things I have to mention with Bash: firstly, yes he worked at McDonalds. Secondly, the Basham turn against Southampton in the League Cup, before he’d become anything like the player we think of today. And finally, well, in the words of Daniel Mann: Basham’s arriviiiiiiing.

1) Billy Sharp – 377 appearances, 129 goals

It had to be, didn’t it. From his debut in 2004 to signing off with another promotion 19 years later, Billy Sharp has been at the heart of this quarter-century – even if it took a third spell, kicking off in 2015, for him to truly cement his place in Blades history.

For that we owe a debt of gratitude to Nigel Adkins for re-signing Sharp, who’d played under him to great effect at Scunthorpe and Southampton. And, though the team struggled that season, Sharp kept things fairly-respectable with an excellent return of 21 goals.

That summer, Chris Wilder arrived – and gave Sharp the captain’s armband that seemed to elevate his game to new levels. 30 goals followed as part of a sensational, 100-point promotion from League One. He hit a further 13 in the Championship, and followed that with 23 more in another promotion effort.

Would he be able to do it in the Premier League? We should have known. In injury time in our opening fixture with Bournemouth, there was Sharp off the subs bench, toe-stubbing in a goalmouth scramble and sparking #scenes that I’m amazed everyone walked away from.

Even while things fell apart for the Blades over the next season and a half, Sharp stayed consistent. His penalty earned us a blush-sparing first win of the season against Newcastle, and he smashed in another winner against West Brom. As the side struggled to find its feet under Slavisa Jokanovic in the Championship, Sharp again kept us afloat with some crucial goals as part of 14 that season.

But it’s always been about more than the goals with Sharp. He is one of us, a boyhood Blade who’s been through an incredible amount both as a footballer and a human, including the tragic passing of his infant son in 2011. He was – and still is – a fan, a leader, a goal machine, a hard worker, a fighter, and someone who I will always respect massively for what he’s done on and off the pitch.

There might not have been the fairytale ending that Sharp’s Blades career deserved – although who knows, maybe this story has a prologue still to be written – but signing off his time in red and white with yet another promotion was a pretty decent way to bow out. Billy is now banging them in for LA Galaxy on the other side of the pond, although their season ends in a few months…  just putting it out there…

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Ben Meakin is the creator and co-host of BladesPod, a Sheffield United podcast. You can follow him on Twitter and find BladesPod wherever you get your podcasts.