AT the risk of sounding like Messrs Cleese, Idle, Palin, Jones, Gilliam and Chapman, Sheffield United no longer have one of their key weapons: “Surprise”. This is just one of the problems facing the Blades in 2020-21 as they lurch from disappointment to disappointment. The club must be sick of the sound of nerds and […]
WOLVES were fairly comfortable winners at Sheffield United in their first match of the Premier season, but you got the feeling it could have been even better than a 2-0 victory at Bramall Lane. Sheffield United could find their sophomore season a tough one, although the neutrals will delight in any success that comes their […]
IT HAS been known down the years as “The Khaki Final”, owing to the vast number of soldiers in military uniform watching the game. While the event is well known, the outcome of the match has been largely overlooked in history. Many people will struggle to name the two finalists: Sheffield United and Chelsea. But […]
ANYONE who knows anything about the early history of Association Football will have heard of the name Willie Foulke. At 24-stone, Foulke, who played in goal for Sheffield United, Chelsea and Bradford City, and made a fleeting appearance for England, holds the record for the heaviest professional footballer in Britain, if not the world. I […]
RUN YOUR finger along the list of Premier League towns and cities and there’s a glaring omission – Sheffield. Not just because the city has a rich football heritage is the absence of a team from “steel city” notable, but also because the only place with a bigger population than Sheffield in the current list […]
GEORGE BEST was still considered to be the best player in the country, of any country, in fact, in 1971. Manchester United were still the biggest draw in town. But Best was a troubled soul, increasingly getting into hot water and commanding the wrong kind of headlines, and United were still trying to negotiate the […]
NOBODY really expected Sheffield United to mount a serious challenge for promotion to the Premier League this season, but the Blades are sitting at the top of the Championship table and have confounded the tipsters’ predictions in the opening months of the season. When the bookmakers’ priced their odds for the 2018-19 campaign, United were […]
It has been known down the years as “The Khaki Final”, owing to the vast number of soldiers in military uniform watching the game. While the event is well known, the outcome of the match has been largely overlooked in history. Many people will struggle to name the two finalists: Sheffield United and Chelsea. But […]
Sheffield could – and should – be England’s Milan. Two clubs, considerable latent support, reasonable catchment area, passionate football folk, and a population of half a million. The two clubs, United and Wednesday, are part of football’s traditional heartland, early beneficiaries of the industrialisation of the sport in Britain, indeed the world. They need not […]
