Benjamin Bloom: the view from outside
YouTuber Benjamin Bloom reviews the Blades' season (so far)
We were delighted that YouTube Championship genius, Benjamin Bloom, agreed to give his perspective on the Blades season (so far). Albeit we had hoped that the publication of this article would fall on a bright and breezy Monday, following a weekend of blazing victory. Of course, that wasn’t to be. Nevertheless, it’s fascinating to read an outsider's perspective on our club, and I wonder whether you agree with Ben’s conclusions?
Benjamin Bloom: the view from outside
Parenthood
Covering the Championship is like being a parent.
I loved watching the Sheffield United team of 2018/19 blast their way to automatic promotion in what was a vintage Championship season. Promoted alongside the Blades was the excellent Norwich team of Pukki, Buendia and Aarons; Bielsa’s Leeds thrilled but collapsed on the home straight as the Aston Villa powerhouse of Grealish, Abraham and McGinn took the play-off promotion spot. That’s all without mentioning West Brom with Barnes, Gayle and Rodriguez, plus Lampard’s Derby with Wilson, Mount and Tomori. It was a special year, and that Blades side was a special team that played with bravery and innovation under an excellent leader.
If I were a parent then, Sheffield United was my brilliant A-level student child, who’d aced their finals with me proudly waving them off to university.
I’m not entirely sure where to go in terms of finishing off the university analogy, but I’ll give it a go. The Blades took to uni like a duck to water, and in year one, made loads of new friends, involved themselves in extracurricular activities, and ended up with first-class honours.
By their second year in the top flight, the university experience is over. And this proud parent is removing the stuff from their man cave and resetting the bedroom for the prodigal child to return home. There are probably a few holes in that analogy, but the overarching point is that even some of the most brilliant Championship alumni find their way back sooner or later.
The Sheffield United that returned back to the second tier had a strange quality: somehow feeling different and at the same time very similar to the one that left the division. The biggest difference was the absence of Chris Wilder in the dugout; if ever a manager and a club seemed a perfect fit, this was it.
Back in tier two
With two seasons up in the Premier League, the playing squad still had a familiar look, with one of the Blades’ biggest Premier League problems being the integration of new faces into an already successful side. Not wanting to jump ahead too far, but this season's minutes-played list sees John Egan and Oliver Norwood as the top two, and Billy Sharp and John Fleck in the top six. The influence of Chris Wilder’s squad that bounced from League one to ninth in the Premier League is still evident, even three years post promotion.
Earlier I said the biggest difference was the absence of Chris Wilder, but that’s not strictly true.
Everyone who follows the Championship knows the insanity of its TV money distribution and the ‘haves and have nots’ cliff edges within the division. Sheffield United left the Championship as the heroic underdog who finished higher in the pyramid than no fewer than eight other teams who were benefitting from parachute payments in 2019. They returned in 2021 on the other side of the fence, having received two years of Premier League TV money and with three years of parachute payments on the way. Parachute teams expect promotion. Near misses are potentially acceptable but anything outside the top six is a sackable offence for whoever is in charge. The expectations on Sheffield United at Championship level had flipped 180 in the space of a couple of seasons; they’d gone from rank outsiders to red hot favourites.
Slav
The man tasked with returning Sheffield United to the Premier League was Slavisa Jokanovic. In hindsight, I appreciate my views on Jokanovic may be unpopular with United fans, but I was a big fan of the signing and Jokanovic’s work before arriving at Bramall Lane. The Fulham side Jokanovic got promoted in 2018 may not have had the underdog fairy dust that Wilder’s Sheffield United did, but they were a brilliant team who went up via the play-offs. Fulham were powered by flying fullbacks, a slick rotating midfield three, plus the star power of Cairney, Sessegnon and a then on loan Mitrovic.
The only blot on Fulham’s copybook that season was the slow start, they didn’t click into gear until about week six, and that was enough for that old scoundrel Neil Warnock to get Cardiff in front and stay there until the end. Regardless of all the good things Jokanovic did with Fulham, the key takeaway is the slow start, which did for him this season at Bramall Lane. I thought it would be a good fit, but Jokanovic and Sheffield United didn’t work. The Blades were 16th with 19 games played when Slav left, and in came Paul Heckingbottom.
Oh Heck
If I remember correctly, the appointment of Heckingbottom was not well received by Blades fans. Actually, that might be a bit of a mischaracterisation of the situation. Perhaps it wasn’t the Heckingbottom hire in isolation that was the problem. The local hero Wilder was replaced by Heckingbottom, who was replaced by Jokanovic, who Heckingbottom replaced - it all felt a little bit chaotic. The good news for the higher-ups at Sheffield United is, judging by on-the-pitch output, this decision has worked, and the Blades have gone from being the 16th best team in the Championship pre-Heckingbottom to the third best since he arrived.
Sometimes a manager needs to play the cards in his hand, and Heckingbottom’s strategy was to understand that a slow evolution wasn’t working quickly. The Blades had to go back to what had worked for this squad previously. The fabled three at the back system returned, and if it weren’t for Dean Henderson warming the bench at Manchester United and Jack O’Connell not kicking a ball for two years, Heckingbottom’s entire back six would be pure Wilder.
Add in two good bits of recruitment in Sander Berge and Morgan Gibbs-White, plus the immortal Billy Sharp, and you’ve got the basis for an in-house promotion push. I must confess, when I look at the 2022 version of Sheffield United, it does have the feeling of Heckingbottom fanning the embers of a once roaring fire as opposed to trying to throw on some new logs and build a new one.
Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing now depends entirely on a play-off semi-final second leg against Nottingham Forest. The odds are stacked against United after a first leg defeat that ended with Morgan Gibbs-White giving a long, drawn-out wave to the Kop. Whatever the outcome of the play-off semi, a new team needs building at Bramall Lane. Whether that’s in the Premier League with Gibbs-White and Berge or the Championship without them, those Wilder embers aren’t going to glow forever.
Benjamin Bloom is an EFL Championship YouTuber, presenter and writer. You can catch him on Twitter, or subscribe to his channel for daily football content on the second tier.
Brilliant summary, a really good evaluation of the last few years & now we're in the Championship next year at least firm plans can be made! Thanks Benjamin
Thanks, Benjamin - what a great analogy to 'being a parent'! We all feel very protective towards The Blades but sometimes get overwhelmed by how 'independent' and unexpected our child can be! You're spot on with your comments!