Backbone, back-line and backing - Summer of change beckons at Sheffield United after embarrassing season

Skipper Jack Robinson stared bleakly into the distance. Ben Osborn stood with his hands on his head. Chris Wilder marched towards the middle of the St. James’ Park pitch, his Sheffield United side routinely beaten for the latest time in a season full of routine beatings. In many ways this was indistinguishable from many others, apart from what it ultimately meant. The Blades relegated back to the Championship, just over 12 months after escaping it.

Relegation had long since been expected - it wasn’t the same shocking vibe as, say, Chelsea in 1994, or even Wigan at home in 2007 - but it felt no nicer. United are down with three games of the season still to play. They have shipped 97 goals and will surely go on to break the all-time Premier League record of 100, set by Swindon Town in 1993/94 over the course of four more matches. It even seems an uphill battle to match the miserly 23-point total they mustered in their last Premier League relegation, three long years ago.

But in the bleak midwinter there remained defiance. United’ superb travelling support, up in the gods at St. James’ Park, chanted “The Blades are staying up”, their words drenched in self-deprecating irony, when their side was awarded an injury-time with the score already 5-1 to Newcastle. True to form, the penalty was subsequently overturned. VAR couldn’t even give United that parting gift on their way back to the Championship. A warning there for Ipswich fans, riding high on the verge of a second successive promotion - the journey is infinitely better than the destination and VAR is one of the many things that Unitedites won’t miss about the Premier League experience.

Wilder's heartfelt message to Unitedites after post-relegation huddle

Even that late decision didn’t dampen Blades fans’ spirits too much and as the last rites were read over their Premier League spell, and Newcastle passed the ball around to cheers of their own supporters who had been so frustrated by United in the first half, a defiant rendition of the Greasy Chip Butty song drifted into the cold north-east air. For a period on the touchine, boss Wilder looked up to his left and stared at the Blades in the vertiginous away end. Later, he marched over to them and thumped the badge on his chest. They responded with what will have surely been a welcome rendition of his “He’s one of our own...” chant. Later still, Wilder described the support as the most consistent thing about the football club and, in a post-match huddle, reminded his players that they need to repay their fans for a nightmare season.

Not everyone will have the chance. Of the group that stood around Wilder on the St. James’ Park turf, how many will remain past the last three games? A host are out of contract. Loanees James McAtee and Ben Brereton Diaz will probably privately feel they’ve done enough to earn another Premier League loan move next season. Loanee Yasser Larouci will leave. Key men such as George Baldock, John Egan and Oli McBurnie are all out of contract and, all battling their own injury issues, may follow him.

This is a seismic summer for Sheffield United, make no mistake. As many as 18 players could walk away, including the loanees and Cameron Archer, as part of his buy-back arrangement with Aston Villa, while the likes of Anel Ahmedhodzic and Vini Souza, a generally underwhelming eight-figure signing in the summer, are unlikely to see a season in the Championship as part of their own career arcs.

United need to reinvent themselves, clear out many of the players who have spent too much time on the treatment table and not enough on the training ground or Bramall Lane pitch. They cannot expect to bounce back to the Premier League and something drastically different to happen next time, if the same ownership structure remains in charge and the level of investment required to even have a chance of competing in the Premier League is not provided once again.

The best ability, in Wilder’s eyes, is availability and there will be big decisions taken on the likes of Baldock, Egan, Chris Basham, Rhys Norrington-Davies and Max Lowe, amongst others, who have all suffered injury issues this season. It risks straying into ‘excuses’ territory to mention the ‘I’ word but injuries have undeniably contributed to United’s poor season, even going back to Basham’s horror broken leg at Fulham a week after John Egan was effectively ruled out for the season. In between, Tom Davies also went down at the training ground. What part, one wonders, could he play in the rebuild?

Wilder defiant over United future despite "poor" admission

Summer recruitment also did not help, the pre-season sales of Iliman Ndiaye and Sander Berge damaging morale and creating a void of character and experience after Billy Sharp, Jack O’Connell and Enda Stevens were also released. United acted quickly to bring in Gus Hamer as Berge’s replacement - the former Coventry man one of few to have grown into the season - but were slow to seal Archer’s signing. Paul Heckingbottom, initially handed a miserly £20m budget for permanent signings, was forced to pair Will Osula and Benie Traore, two top-flight debutants, for the first three games of the season and three narrow one-goal defeats left United behind the eight-ball from the start.

Promoted teams can only really hope to survive, never mind thrive, in the Premier League by outscoring teams or keeping things tight defensively, as United did so effectively in 2019/20 when they finished ninth with a goal difference of zero. This time around they have neither managed to score enough goals, nor keep things tight at the back. At times they have looked a threat going forward, leading against Everton and Tottenham and Aston Villa and Luton and Crystal Palace and Bournemouth and Fulham and Liverpool and Manchester United. Taking just four points from those positions, in those games, perhaps tells its own story while the much-maligned xG stats suggest that United have conceded 18 more goals than they should have done this season so far, and have 10 fewer points.

Familiar failings haunt United again as painful relegation confirmed

Not enough players have taken individual responsibility at the back. There has, in the absence of Basham and Egan, been a lack of leadership. (Seven different men have worn the captain’s armband this season.) Goals have, far too often, gone in in clusters. On Saturday, a game United have been 4-1 up in at half-time, they went from 1-1 to 5-1 down inside 20 minutes.

Wilder, who replaced Heckingbottom in December when the Blades were four points off safety, accepts his share of responsibility for what has happened but others must do the same. He has held his tongue at times this season, aware of the effect his words could have on a brittle squad devoid of any confidence and belief, but the shackles will now come off. Wilder has been here before, inheriting a club on the floor after Nigel Adkins’ disastrous season left United 11th in the third tier, and every Blade remembers what happened next.

His challenge is to now repeat that feat and there is no one better to attempt the Blades rebuild. Wilder has a valuable innate recognition of what he wants his football club to look like and is hungrier than ever to make it happen. United are stronger as a club, if not a team, than 12 months ago, with the Premier League millions banked and plans for a new training ground and category one academy as a legacy of three seasons in the top flight in the space of five years. With relegation done and dusted, United can now afford to look forward. Adversity creates opportunity, and it is one that must not be wasted.