Even the most ardent of Sheffield United fans could not have foreseen the dizzy heights of the Premier League’s top six when the Blades clinched promotion back to the top flight.

This time last year, United defeated Ipswich Town to seal their spot back in the Premier League for the first time in 12 years, with Chris Wilder’s infectious style of attacking football expertly negotiating the Championship’s challenges throughout the season.

Fast forward exactly 365 days and, on the pitch, little has changed for the Blades. There are a few new faces, yes, but their style, principles and crucially their form, has rarely wavered.

Off the field, however, the world around them has changed drastically.

“We were having a great season,” begins defender John Egan, one of the Blades’ many bright sparks from what has been a whirlwind campaign.

“We took our form from last season into this season and we really kicked on. We’ve gotten better and better and to be fighting for a European spot and the quarter-final of the FA Cup, we were really kicking into our groove, but it is what it is.

“It’s gotten called to a halt and we can still look back and see how well we’ve done.”

When the Premier League season was suspended on March 13th due to the coronavirus pandemic, Sheffield United sat 7th in the table, remarkably just five points behind the top four with ten games remaining.

Egan and the Blades’ gung-ho 3-5-2, which sees full-backs overlapping wings backs and central midfielders roaring into the box to support their front two, has proven too hot to handle for many of the Premier League’s stalwarts.

Just ask Arsenal and Manchester United.

“I think at the start maybe teams thought we weren’t going to be as gung-ho as we are, in terms of our formation and stuff,” Egan explained.

“Teams probably didn’t know what to expect. We had a lot of teams matching us up early on in the first four or five games, I’m sure Bournemouth matched us up and I think Southampton.

“A few teams matched us up, teams who don’t play 3-5-2 played it against us and you could see that they were doing things to combat us even back then.

“That’s a compliment to us when teams start doing that because it shows that you’re doing something right and teams are a little bit afraid of the way we play.

“I think in the main we’ve been brilliant we’ve been hard to play against and have gotten better and better in terms of our own attacking play as the season has gone on. We’re all about improvement and we’ve improved a lot this year.”

The Irish defender has been one of their key performers this season, featuring in 27 of their 28 games and helping the Blades to the second-best defence in the Premier League, having conceded just 25 goals.

Alongside the outstanding pair of Chris Basham and Jack O’Connell, Egan’s steady influence has been a brilliant base for the Blades to build from an attacking sense, with continuity and familiarity a key part of their success.

Egan had been tipped by some – namely Sky Sports’ Charlie Nicholas – for a potential spot in the Team of the Season come the end of the year, such has been his quality.

But how does the 27-year-old feel he’s adjusted to his debut campaign in the top flight?

“I think I’ve settled in quite well. I’ve always believed I could play at this level and I’ve had to work my way up. I’m just very lucky that I got to taste Premier League football with such a good team and such a good group of lads.

“We have a lot of like-minded people on the team. I think everyone has raised their game 10-fold this year and that’s the reason we’re doing so well. I’ve found the step-up really exciting and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it playing against the big teams.

“Every game is such an occasion and it’s definitely something I want to keep doing.”

After leaving Sunderland in 2014, Egan climbed his way up the English ladder, from Gillingham to Brentford before finally moving to Bramall Lane in the summer of 2018.

Where he once battled at Spotland and New Meadow each week, he now finds himself at Anfield and the Etihad, with the challenge of keeping a striker like Sergio Aguero quiet the new normal.

“We played City twice and across the course of the two games, he probably touched the ball twice and scored two goals. He’s definitely the most lethal.”

Egan admits that although the Premier League is a step-up, the lower leagues have their significant challenges too, something he is quick to assert.

But in terms of his own natural rise, which has seen significant and steady progress year upon year, how satisfying would a chance at European football be to Egan?

“It would be huge. We’ve put ourselves in a great position so that when the league does kick off again it’s all to play for.

“We’ve got some tough teams to play, this is all provided the league does come back in the first place obviously, if we can carry on our form then why can’t we make a push for Europe?”

It is not just at club level though Egan has impressed, with the defender coming into the Irish starting XI towards the end of the European qualifying campaign.

The suspension of the season has seen a change at the Irish helm with new manager Stephen Kenny earmarking Egan as a player who could have a key role in the way the Boys in Green operate in the future.

“The addition of John Egan altered the dynamic,” Kenny told the media earlier this month following his unveiling.

“Rather than having a pair of traditional number fives, it completely changes everything about how you play. That gives a great platform to build the rest, like having raiding full-backs.”

Egan outlined that he was pleased to hear the kind words from his new manager and the task at hand for the Boys in Green remains reaching next year’s European Championships whenever the playoff games do go ahead.

“It’s good to hear that. Whenever the international games are back we’ve got two massive qualifiers coming up and hopefully, we can qualify for the Euros when that kicks back into action.”

Ireland and Egan could face up to nine games over the autumn and winter months at the end of 2020, with the Euro playoff, Nations League and World Cup qualifiers all scheduled, provided of course the situation returns to at least some normality.

Egan outlined that he hasn’t been finding the lockdown too difficult mentally – training at home, as well as Netflix’s hit-show Money Heist, have kept him sane – but if and when he does return to action for Ireland, the defender has no issues with what could be a hectic schedule.

“It will be jam-packed but I think if and when it does come back we’ll have gone long enough without a game that we’d nearly play a match every day if we could! I’d be something we’d relish.”

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