What happens next? Identity

In the second part of our "What happens next?" series, Jon Bradley questions our identity – what is it, what might it be, and how do we achieve it?

Jon Bradley - Four Blades in the Pub Podcast

The word identity can be misconstrued in football terms.  The slogan ‘Out Run. Out Fight. Out Play’ is printed on the inside of every Blades shirt. But whether on the pitch or within a 30-degree machine cycle, the sentiment has been washed away. Did those words ever mean anything? Whether they did or did not, unearthing a new identity from the ashes of a depressing season is something the club needs and its supporters deserve.

When Arsenal beat us 6-0, Mikel Arteta bounced into his press conference and shared his delight, describing Bramall Lane as a “difficult place to come.” As we know all too well, this could not be further from the truth. In 2023-24, no side has picked up fewer points at home. Managers tend to speak in cliches during post-match interviews, but if you dig deep enough, does Arteta have a point?

Bramall Lane is an enormous part of our identity. And over recent seasons, we have worn the fortress tag pretty well:

• 2022-23: our home record was the second-best in the Championship.

• 2021-22: after an abysmal start under Slaviša Jokanović, we ended up with the fifth-best home record in the division.

• 2020-21: we might have been relegated and finished bottom, but our home record was 18th.

• 2019-20: we were top 8 for home form in the top flight!

• 2018-19: we were the best home team in the league.

This season, we’ve lost an important part of our identity. We’ve lost even the merest possibility of leveraging that intangible advantage of fortress Bramall Lane. And let’s be honest, it hurts.

From the start of next season, the first task of the manager and the boardroom is to spark Bramall Lane into life. That’s the first step to help fans, players and the whole club feel comfortable within our own skin once again. But identity is about more than results.

After another capitulation at home to Fulham, we are glaring down the barrel of another relegation leading to another season in the second tier. We have a new-old manager. We have the same old owner, and possibly the only Saudi chairperson suspected of owning a BrightHouse Card. We have a squad crammed full of players with expiring contracts. We’re at the precipice of a huge transfer window with, more than likely, a greater number of ins and outs than we’ve seen for a decade. Put simply, we’re in the throes of an identity crisis, especially in regards to recruitment.

Who are we when it comes to transfers? Are we a club that suits a Technical, Sporting or Football Director?

Steven Bettis (CEO) has suggested that we are not. So how do we bridge the gap between inept recruitment and the vaguely undesirable ensemble of men in suits courted by football’s elite clubs? The answer, provided again by Bettis, seems to be a new Head of Recruitment relying on better data usage (what on earth have we been doing to date?).

The club seems to have been caught on its heels when it comes to data in football, whilst implausibly failing upwards into a top-flight season where our recruitment has been unable to sustain our on-field success. The results have been disastrous, and now it’s time for a mentality shift across the board.

Managing expectations

Sheffield United fans — individually and collectively — are part of this effort. For too long, we’ve lived by self-imposed small-minded values. We’ve all heard the tropes. He’s a proper Blades player. He gives everything. He understands the club. These are platitudes which I dare say I have uttered myself.

In reality, that confines our playing identity to local lads and misfits who work hard for the badge. Great. But it’s the kind of thinking that promotes pashun over talent, and if pashun won promotions then football would be an easy game peopled by folk like you or me. But that isn’t how it works.

It’s unlikely that the views of fans have any influence on the players who come through the door. But I do feel like that small-minded instinct has run through the club for ages. And considering the talent we have produced over the years, we have extraordinarily little to show for it. This needs to change. Next season, we have an opportunity to think bigger.

How about a team that blends academy graduates not only with talented young British players but also technically gifted players from around the world? It sounds simple enough, but rarely do clubs outside of the top flight have a chance to work from a base of such a strong crop of home-grown players — somehow, we do.

We can look forward to a reasonable number of academy graduates developing into first-team players next season. Oliver Arblaster. Andre Brooks. Will Osula. Daniel Jebbison (contract pending). And with others too who might spring a surprise, Sheffield United arguably have more talented youngsters on the books than at any time in living memory.

That crop of talent means that if we can build on our reputation for developing elite loan players (see McAtee, Doyle and Gibbs-White) and pick up some freebies and some exceptional players from the lower leagues, we could be on to something. From a base of academy prospects, old heads and new faces from within the EFL, if we could then identify one or two players from overseas, we could, all of sudden, engineer a diverse mix of talent pools. And the more pools to fish from, the more likely it is that we take home a big catch.

Whilst it’s not a simple, overnight fix, reassessing our recruitment strategy represents the foundations for building towards future success. Beyond the on-field benefits, a shift in approach could help broaden our sense of self, expanding our identity from a glorified Noughties-Stoke-with-a-decent-atmosphere to something more individually Sheffield United.

A huge element of this would require our supporters to manage their expectations because such a transition will come with a time cost. It is fair to say we have all had enough of top-flight football gone sour. An immediate return built on the old foundations of a manager performing beyond expectation and resulting in a guaranteed relegation lacks any real appeal.

So if we rebuild — and rebuild from a base of home-grown talent — our first team will be made up of inexperience whose effectiveness on the pitch may be varied at best. Results may not be perfect. However, we could be watching players under long-term contracts making big steps in their own development whilst also presenting the club with a tremendous opportunity to make big profits. If, for example, Oliver Arblaster is courted by a bunch of elite clubs, his future sale would be all profit, meaning we can fund a replacement and improve other positions. That’s the model, and it requires us as fans to be more at peace with selling players. And then, as this virtuous cycle persists, we should be in a stronger position to build a squad more capable of surviving in the Premier League when we are ready. 

But “when we are ready” could take time. Major change could necessitate minor decline. Sadly, and I include myself in this, over recent times we have become quite an entitled bunch.

Booing has become all too commonplace at Bramall Lane in recent years. And expectations become harder to manager in the Championship now that Sheffield United are more a scalp and less an underdog. Enduring a transition may not be easy, and we can’t afford to let ourselves become one of those entitled football clubs looking down their noses at poor results.

Instead, if the club can provide a process we can believe in, we need to trust it. We need to remember that a smarter and more sustainable future is the way to long-term success. We are supporters, not analysts, who should put our energy into supporting the team. And we all know that’s within our gift. We’ve all seen it: when we as fans are on it, we can be a noisy and positive bunch especially set against the backdrop of smaller away allocations in the Championship.

In short, if the club changes its identity, we’ve got to move with it, not against it. Of course, that’s a two-way street. The club have, to their discredit, allowed Sheffield United to become a laughing stock. However, to their credit, they have shown in recent weeks a willingness to change and a plan to re-build. We have little option but to trust it, back it, and get behind the team.

Managing the change

Now the bigger challenge here is the person overseeing this transition. In years gone by, Chris Wilder at Sheffield United has tended to sell younger players on the verges of first-team football to fund the signings of more experienced players nearing the peak of their abilities. This approach had tremendous success. It was the perfect way to play the hand he was dealt. However, next season is a new hand altogether, and you could put forward a reasonable case that Wilder is not the man to oversee a rebuild of this magnitude, particularly if — as appears the case — we shift identity from experience to youth. 

Ever the optimist, I would argue in favour of Wilder keeping the reigns whilst also being reigned in. If fans trust the process, Wilder has to lead it, embracing data, top-flight loans, overseas markets and putting faith in youth.

In the past, he used the loan market with some success, particularly with Dean Henderson, Gary Madine and Scott Hogan during his last season managing us in the Championship. However, Sheffield United should be fishing in richer waters. And I would prefer to see more players in the mould of the boys from Man City — players with very high ceilings taking their first steps in the men’s game.

More importantly, and particularly key to the new identity I am hoping for, Wilder has afforded some of our younger talents game-time this season. And as the season winds down, I hope he builds on this theme as we scrape through the final moments of an awful season. Getting minutes in the legs of long-term assets is surely better than persisting with players who won’t be turning up on Day One of pre-season.

When it comes to overseas markets, there’s a pretty big question mark over Wilder’s and the club’s track record. And as it stands, I have little confidence that Wilder has the people around him to take full advantage of unearthing talents from abroad. This isn’t to say things won’t change; hopefully, the moves behind the scenes represent a genuine attempt to use data better and recruit smarter. 

That goes for EFL recruitment too: now’s the ideal time to dispense with the desire to save the careers of washed-up journeymen and turn towards a younger profile of players, providing them with a platform to grow—that’s bound up in our change in Championship status from underdog to one of the top dogs: we shouldn’t be a home for unwanted players.

I have no doubt Chris Wilder can manage that change. But there needs to be real change. The club can’t spin their way out of this season’s horror showing, and the lip service paid to our new beginnings needs to be identifiable.

Forging a fresh identity

Players will come and go. Managers come and go (and come back). The only constant is the club and its supporters, and both crave a fresh identity. And it should be simple: come to Sheffield United and further your career alongside fellow talented young players in front of unrelentingly supportive fans at Bramall Lane.

It may not be as pithy as “Out run. Out Fight. Out play.” but those six words are looking every bit as tired as the motivational quotes that Chris Wilder ripped off the walls after replacing Nigel Adkins. Now is the time for something new.

Next season is both a challenge and an opportunity. If every part of the club can buy into a shared identity, there’s no reason we can’t be successful in the short, medium and long term. But that requires a boardroom united behind a plan, a manager united behind the players, players united behind the understanding that joining Sheffield United is an opportunity to build not end a career, and fans united behind those players come what may.

If that’s the direction we’re headed in, then I’m prepared — contrary to every pessimistic instinct — to get excited.