The all too expected relegation of Sheffield United back to the Championship was confirmed, over a year after the team’s ascension to the Premier League. They won three games without losing. With three games remaining, they lost again. Additionally, Blades supporters have only witnessed three victories at Bramall Lane in the 366 days since a far superior United team secured their spot in the top division with a victory against West Brom, with one of those victories occurring in the final home game of the previous season. With only a few games remaining in the schedule, their fate having already been decided must feel more like a merciful release than a crushing disappointment—after all, hope is what kills you.
It’s not like anyone originally thought United would stay up. They were favoured by most analysts to drop, along with Luton, even before a ball was kicked, in part because the starting lineup for the Premier League was far worse than the one that had advanced. Tommy Doyle, who was on loan from United, left, and Iliman Ndiaye and Sander Berge were sold, therefore United’s chances of staying up were perpetually doomed. Their youthful striker Daniel Jebbison, who was hailed as “one to watch” in Big Website’s Premier League forecast of the club’s potential, has been hard to follow because he hasn’t played a minute of football this season due to a mix of illness and injury. Rhian Brewster, another striker, also had a campaign that was nearly completely derailed by knack.
“The disparity between the wealthy and the poor in the Premier League is enormous these days, but some of our performances have been utterly unacceptable,” remarked Blades manager Chris Wilder after a rare recent match in which his team only lost badly for one of the two halves. United, who have conceded five goals or more in seven different top-flight games this season, are card-carrying members of the have-nots club. When they concede their 100th goal of the season, they will almost certainly be forced to raise their collective bat to the pavilion and all four corners of the field they are playing on. Taking into account the sum of money and free time their forced supporters spend to see their side win They should be forgiven for calling for an open-top bus parade through Sheffield to celebrate their side’s return to a division where they will actually be able to compete. Having been repeatedly humiliated in a league where the odds are stacked against them, they should be forgiven for inciting hostilities with their city rivals on Wednesday for the first time in five years.
“This summer is going to be difficult,” lamented Wilder, the soon-to-be-former Premier League manager, who has just three games remaining until referees can eat sandwiches in his company without consequence. “However, I still have one year left on my contract, and I hope the fans still believe in me.” I want to do it correctly the following season. Wilder will almost certainly be welcome to stay if getting it “right” for the 56-year-old means placing a respectable seventh in the Championship and sparing the supporters from another season of suffering at the hands of far richer Premier League grandees and state-owned arrivistes with whom their team is not likely to compete.
My celebration shows you how much it meant to me. Since I began playing, it is everything I have ever imagined. I am so looking forward to the next season now. Since I’m the biggest Everton fan ever, it means a lot to me to contribute and disprove everyone’s theory that we can tie these teams for a point. Feelings of a young Wayne Rooney spring to mind when 16-year-old Issy Hobson, an Evertonian for life, heads in an equaliser against Arsenal in the 95th minute to become the youngest-ever WSL goalscorer. Her goal gave the Toffees their first point against Arsenal since 2012 (Hobson was, uh, four), and it effectively ended the Gunners’ title drive. The game ended in a 1-1 tie. I wish you well in double maths.
