Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder did not hold back in the wake of his club’s relegation back to the Championship.
Wilder clearly loves the Blades and is upset that he could not conjure an escape for the club after his early December appointment to the Premier League’s bottom side.
The Blades probably could’ve been up by two or three at Newcastle after taking a 1-0 lead but fell apart in a hurry to lose 5-1 and confirm their spot in the 2024-25 Championship division.
And he was pretty ruthless in his words about the players’ performances this season.
Chris Wilder reacts to Sheffield United relegation
Here are his words, via the BBC:
“We have not been good enough,” Wilder said. “The league has been too powerful for us right the way through the season.”
“There’s plenty of games where we have been put to bed early but today we should have been 3-0 up at halftime. I’m scratching my head that it was 1-1. Newcastle up their game and get a head of steam. Then our old mistakes start to fall in and goals go from two to three to four to five pretty quickly.
Wow. That’s intense. Wilder would later say that one of his leaders was only fit for 30 minutes, though Jack Robinson, William Osula, and Vinicius Souza’s 67-minute entrances were followed five minutes later by a Newcastle goal.
Sheffield United sold stars Iliman Ndiaye and Sander Berge last summer, and were missing several of Wilder’s preferred veteran through injury for some time. George Baldock, Chris Basham, and John Egan have missed real time this season.
And Wilder had made 19-year-old Ollie Arblaster his captain, already a statement on his veterans. He kept veteran Oliver Norwood and season star Vinicius Souza on the bench.
It’s clear that the Blades weren’t good enough this season, but should this tell us all we need to know about Wilder’s plans for his Sheffield United future and whether Blades should want him in them?