Sheffield United's Stephen Bettis talks to The Star at Wembley

The Star, Sheffield

Put this on description for DM - Stephen Bettis, Sheffield United Chief Executive, speaks to The Star's Danny Hall outside the team's Wembley hotel ahead of the Play Off Final against Sunderland

Transcript

00:00Stephen, thank you very much for joining us. First of all, we'll stand here outside Wembley a couple

00:03hours before kick-off. How are you feeling? I think you can probably imagine how I'm feeling.

00:10I was so calm, like, you know, the last couple of weeks I've been so calm and relaxed about it all

00:14and just focused on, you know, all the planning for it and getting things right and making sure

00:19everything runs smoothly today. I got it this morning and I'm having a nervous wreck now and

00:23it's like, yeah, I just want kind of like hopefully five o'clock to come today and

00:28we've got the job done, fingers crossed. What's the last couple of weeks been like for you since

00:32United obviously bought the place here at Wembley, I imagine quite hectic and a lot to sort of go on

00:36behind the scenes? Yeah, I mean, I don't, I do think at times people have no idea the amount of

00:41planning and stuff that goes into, you know, getting this day ready, you know, like and

00:46and planning for all the eventualities of today and planning for winning, planning for losing tonight

00:51and how that's handled and how we deal with that because ultimately we've got to ensure that,

00:55you know, whatever happens we're still positive and looking forward to the future but there's

01:00so much that goes into today and, you know, that's our job, you know, we've got a great team and

01:04everyone's worked so hard at the club in the last couple of weeks to make things perfect for the

01:09guys so that they can turn up today and just focus on doing their jobs and hopefully win today.

01:14There's been so much talk about the past and the previous record mostly from, you know, in our

01:18industry but there seems to be a different mood to everything, you know, amongst the players and the

01:22the staff and everyone. Have you sort of sensed that as well behind the scenes?

01:24Yeah, definitely. I, you know, like, I don't like this, the negativity around us and the

01:30playoffs and stuff like that. I mean, you know, I've been around the club for 10 years. This is

01:34the first play, you know, playoff final I've been involved in. All right, we had Forest which

01:38didn't go so well a couple of seasons ago but it's like, I don't carry that weight with me and I

01:44know Chris doesn't. I know, you know, Chris has had success as a manager in the playoffs,

01:48etc. And I just don't think, and the players, quite a few players have had success in the

01:53playoffs at other clubs and the rest of them are too young to even, you know, to even carry that

01:59with them and I don't want them carrying that with them. I want them to be positive about today and

02:04hopefully get the job done. Yeah, there'll be a big, obviously, contingent coming down from

02:08Sheffield today. We've seen loads of them enjoying the pre-match hospitality. It's a day that can show

02:13everything good about this football club, isn't it, where everyone comes together and hopefully cheers them,

02:16you know, to what we all want. Look, that's what football's about. Football's about, you know,

02:19it's about communities and it's about bringing people together and that's what it does and days

02:23like today, you know, I see it, all of my family's coming, you know, and all of my friends and it's like,

02:29it's just a lovely day for everyone and if we can, and obviously, if we can win, that's the icing

02:33of the cake and it's a memory that you take with you for the rest of your life and, you know,

02:37hopefully we can do that and hopefully people can go away today really enjoying their Saturday afternoon.

02:42Yeah, you talked about the community feel to it. We've seen that with the new owners in terms of

02:46putting a scarf on for everyone. They seem to be really invested in this, aren't they? As well as

02:50the football and the other side of it as well. Yeah, it's important to them, yeah. They realise

02:54the part that the club plays in the community and how important it is to the people of Sheffield,

03:00you know, and they don't take that lightly and I think as you say today, the fact that, you know,

03:05they've put a scarf on everyone's seat to get behind the team shows a big part of that from them.

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