Chris Wilder on a rollercoaster 12 months back at Sheffield United

The Star, Sheffield

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00:00It's a year plus one day since you took over or came back to take the reins at

00:06Sheffield United. How would you sum up that 12 months?

00:11I think I'll sum it up as it has been possibly for the last, let's work this

00:22out, 67 born, 77, 78 started really supporting Sheffield United. I suppose through

00:29that period, like every Sheffield United supporter, it's been an absolute

00:32rollercoaster, the ups and downs of being involved with our football club.

00:37So I think I'm quite right to say we weren't in a very good place and there

00:50was a lot of work to be done. In the summer I think initially was to try and

00:56get through to the end of the season and try and get some respectable results

00:59and try and put a little bit of pride back into us as a group because we

01:04were battered and bruised as a football club, ridiculed in the harsh realities of

01:10the Premier League. Talked about maybe at the start of the season not really being

01:14set for a return to Premier League and everything that surrounded that and

01:22come in at a difficult time. We had a couple of decent moments but not enough.

01:27I went on record saying that the best part of the club was the support from

01:33our fans and the academy. Knowing there was an incredible amount of

01:42work to be done in the summer and I think that's my reason Andy

01:47and I hope you respect it in terms of not really talking about takeovers and

01:52everything else because my remit personally and from the club was to get

01:59us back into a good place during the summer. Whether it was recruitment,

02:04whether it's the rebuild, whether it's the connection back with the

02:12supporters so that's been my main focus. But it was tough, it was really tough.

02:23First of all you know the opportunity to come back to Sheffield United.

02:27I'll be grateful for Prince Abdullah and the board for getting me back in.

02:34It was a tough time I know you know it wouldn't have been met universally 100%

02:39with acceptance but I felt a little bit of unfinished business to try and get us

02:49back into a respectable place over the medium and long term and I think we're

02:54well on our way to doing that and as I said delighted with the opportunity, grateful

03:00for that opportunity. It really was a punishing last four or five months for

03:07everybody, for everybody and for the players as well. I think we had to see

03:12through that a little bit you know I've been involved in the football club for a

03:19long time so one of the main advantages I think even before I stepped in in 2016

03:26one of the things I said was I like to believe I know what good looks like when

03:33we're all at it and we're all on the same page. I think that was one of the biggest

03:39things that we had to get back to being all on the same page and you've seen

03:43you know right away from the start of the season you've seen that

03:46connection, you've seen from the recruitment point of view the amount of

03:49hard work that's gone into getting the right players back to the football club

03:52in terms of the coaching and the preparation of the team. I think

03:57everybody'd be delighted in our early work and most importantly the

04:04personality and the characteristics that it takes to be a Sheffield United player

04:08and most importantly to be a Sheffield United team. We're seen in

04:12abundance, still a hell of a long way to go, no guarantees, there's no

04:17shoo-ins, nothing won in early December but we're in a decent place so I think we

04:23can all be happy for the work. So over the year, as I said at the start,

04:26rollercoaster through difficult times to hopefully times where

04:32everybody's enjoying the football and everybody's enjoying watching the team

04:35play. So how would you sum up the rapid rate of change then given

04:40the back end of last season, lots of problems, massive changes needed that I

04:45dare say on the outside we won't see either and yet as we talk now, top

04:50of the tree, team's in a good place and you know there's real potential to move

04:53forward. I'll let other people talk about that but I am absolutely delighted and

05:00in terms of where we are at the moment I don't think anybody really could

05:05have foreseen that we would be top of the division at this stage of the season.

05:08People talking about us, you know, are we going to go through the trapdoor

05:12again, is this the slide, are we going to go back into League One? Maybe it's

05:18being underplayed a little bit and I know Rob asked that question as well, you

05:21know, people have this lazy opinion of, you know, we're set to go

05:27back up, you know, everything's okay, we've just had a poor season, you know, we've

05:31kept all our players or we've lost one or two but really the group is a Premier

05:38League team that's had a poor season, that's ready to go back in. The team

05:43wasn't a Premier League team last year, it wasn't. From the off it wasn't and it

05:47got brutally exposed and there's no hiding place for that but I'm not trying

05:53to be controversial but it was miles off of it, absolutely miles off of it

05:57and we had those fleeting moments of, you know, the win against Wolves and the win

06:02against Brentford and a couple of other bits and pieces but we were

06:06undercooked, we weren't ready, we were absolutely miles off of it and I don't

06:13think it's been a normal lose a couple, bring a couple in, like the majority if

06:19not all of these Premier League teams go through. It was a complete rebuild, you

06:24know, you know the amount of players that were out of contract, the amount of

06:27players that went back to their parent clubs, the movement of the players

06:31that I had to oversee, players coming in and I think one of the biggest

06:40things is the change of the style and how we play and I've really enjoyed it, I

06:47know the coaches have really enjoyed it, Al's really enjoyed it. The feel is there,

06:54it's a good feel about it, reminiscent of and this isn't, this isn't, doesn't sort

07:01of go hand in hand and I don't want people to take this as well, he had that

07:05feel in 2018 and 2019 and we went up, so there's no guarantees because it's a long

07:12way to go, there's a lot of football to be played but it has got that feel from every

07:16aspect, from me walking down the road on a Tuesday afternoon, walking the

07:21dog and speaking to people, I can see people have got the twinkle back in their

07:24eyes and the love of the football club back on match days, walking, you know,

07:29going into the ground and seeing everybody involved. Nobody likes losing,

07:33nobody likes being on the end of beatings, nobody likes to be ridiculed.

07:38We wouldn't have turned down that opportunity of getting into the Premier

07:41League, of course you don't, whether you're ready or whether you're not, so,

07:45but, you know, the feel of winning derby games, the feel of last-minute winners at

07:51Bristol City, the feel of Tom Davis coming off the bench and scoring and getting a

07:54top-of-the-table game, you know, and still there's a little bit of pain in there,

07:59we understand, in the Middlesbrough game and the Leeds game, but for us to be in

08:02the position is, you know, it's great credit to the work of the staff, getting

08:10the help that I've had from the board in allowing me to drive that

08:15recruitment and, most importantly, the players in terms of their attitude

08:21towards coming to the football club, whether they were coming from a

08:27distance, whether on loan or whether they were already here and how they've

08:30connected. So, winning is always a good starting block and we got off to a great

08:36start, but we've kept it going. We will have disappointing afternoons and

08:41disappointing evenings, but it's how we recover from

08:45disappointment and how we keep driving this forward. So, I would say we're in a

08:50good place, having seen the majority, well, all of the league really,

08:56whether we've played them or whether we know what's coming in terms of

09:00the forthcoming fixtures.

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