How Sheffield United have quietly become the story of the Championship season so far Tiny budget, unfashionable squad, unfancied in pre-season… but top of the league after 12 games. How Chris Wilder gave Blades the edge

It’s the chant that rains down on him from the Sheffield United faithful during every game, and the man himself doesn’t even attempt to play it down. But Chris Wilder‘s success at Bramall Lane is about far more than just being “one of their own”.

That helps, of course. As a boyhood Blades fan, Wilder watched them from the terraces – remembering vividly their slide into the old fourth division in the early 1980s – and later became a ball-boy, enjoying two spells as a United player just for good measure.

So, few will be enjoying United’s rise to the top of the Championship as much as the man who has masterminded it. Going into the international break the Blades, with a playing budget conservatively estimated to be lower than around two-thirds of the division, were at its summit, looking down on big-spending and more-fancied sides like Leeds, West Brom and Middlesbrough.

The question on many lips, though, is… how?

Romance

While much of the early-season Championship hype centered on Elland Road and former Argentina, Lazio and Marseille boss Marcelo Bielsa, the former Alfreton and Halifax Town boss Wilder was frantically working in the shadows 30 miles down the M1 at Bramall Lane.

His Blades revolution is gathering pace and at the heart of it is a simple and traditional belief in cohesion over cash; a throwback to a time when a footballers’ top priorities were passion and points, rather than pounds and pence.

It sounds romantic, but it gets results. Leon Clarke, a £150,000 buy from Bury, scored 19 Championship goals last season and Mark Duffy, who helped dismantle city rivals Wednesday 4-2 on their own patch, rediscovered his love of football at Vauxhall Motors, Prescot Cables and Southport after being released by Liverpool as a youngster.

Many more members of this United squad have experienced the harsh realities of football rejection, emerging stronger as a result, and it comes from the top down; Wilder remembers having to tell players they were out of work when Halifax went bust in 2008.

Before last season’s clash with Wednesday, Jake Wright remembered the biggest game of his career; the 2010 Conference play-off final for Wilder’s Oxford, against York City. When you’ve come through the pressure of a 90-minute game that will largely decide the future of yourself and your family, he reasoned, a Steel City Derby in front of 32,000 fans suddenly doesn’t seem quite as daunting.

Methods

United, though, are no team of plucky lower-league players punching above their weight and even though the likes of Manchester United loanee Dean Henderson add a sprinkling of stardust, extensive background checks into a player’s attitude as well as his ability suggest Wilder’s philosophy isn’t too dissimilar to the All Blacks’ famous, successful “no dickheads” policy.

Empty cliches about a good set of lads and “great changing rooms” ring true at Bramall Lane and a strong team bond helped United’s players pull through a succession of nights out after winning the League One title; working hard and playing harder.

It is perhaps fair to say that not many top sports scientists would endorse such methods on a consistent basis and United’s operation is as professional as any on the circuit, but it’s the envy of some too and Wilder’s decision to reward his players with a night out on their pre-season tour is still spoken about at AFC Bournemouth, who were sharing the facilities and were hit with a booze ban.

Style

That togetherness and team spirit transcends onto the field, too and although each of United’s Championship rivals know exactly how they will set up in games tactically, very few – on the evidence so far, seem to have an answer when it comes to stopping their pioneering 3-5-2 formation.

United’s wing-backs operate like traditional wingers, with the two “outside” centre-halves also tasked with getting forward and creating attacks as often as they stop them.

The result, at times, is breathtaking and a 4-1 demolition of Aston Villa earlier this season will live long in the memory. United care little for reputations and when they kick off against Leeds on 1 December, they’ll relish the fact that their squad will have cost less than the £7m Bielsa paid for Patrick Bamford alone. Bielsa’s spending power may eclipse that of Wilder dramatically, but the tactical battle between the two will be fascinating.

Before then, though, Wilder’s mission is to keep United top of a division which he admits routinely amazes him, with its vast swathes of cash. But his methods have so far been vindicated. Others, including Bielsa’s Leeds, may yet win the short-term battle for promotion to the top-flight but what a refreshing change it would be if Wilder’s Blades were to win the war. Football as a whole may just thank them for it.

Danny Hall covers Sheffield United for our sister site The Star. His book, ‘He’s one of our own, the story of Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United revolution’, is available at www.bladesbook.co.uk