"Has been noticed..." - Chris Wilder makes Sheffield United support point but question marks raised are valid
"Has been noticed..." - Chris Wilder makes Sheffield United support point but question marks raised are valid
At full-time of Saturday's hard-fought win over Norwich, with three more points in the bag and their return to the top of the Championship table secured, Chris Wilder and his Sheffield United players began their customary lap of Bramall Lane. It's a tradition they adhere to every home game - win, lose or draw - but what was noticeable this time, even from the press box, was the sight that greeted them.
It began in the John Street stand, with the BLADES wording in the seats visible not long after the final shrills of referee Josh Smith's whistle. By the time United's players made their way around to the Kop and south stands they, too, seemed to have more empty seats than punters clapping them off.
To point that out is not intended to criticise. Fans pay good money for their seats and are perfectly entitled to spend as much or little time occupying it as they like, especially if they have commitments that necessitate a swift exit towards the end of games. But there seems a marked difference nowadays to the Bramall Lane of 2018/19, when United first won promotion under Wilder's guidance and every victory lapped up by a support base revelling in their first promotion in a dozen years.
Perhaps what happened since during three seasons out of five in the Premier League - including another promotion under Paul Heckingbottom - has taken the shine off a little, maybe even created a little bit of subconscious entitlement in the minds of many. United aren't underdogs any more and that expectation, from the wider world, to challenge in the Championship may have crept into their own fanbase. Go on, then. Entertain us.
It's one of the great conundrums of football in the modern era, whether the crowd should inspire the players or whether the players should inspire the crowd. There have been legitimate concerns about the atmosphere at Bramall Lane for a while now, perhaps going back to the Covid-19 pandemic, and it remains the case, to my eyes and ears, that it often takes a spark, usually a bad refereeing decision, for the decibel levels to reach where we all know they can be.
Perhaps it's all connected. A good home victory against a proper footballing side in Norwich - albeit one who were content to look to dominate the middle areas of the pitch without doing a great deal in either penalty box - is now to be expected rather than celebrated. Why the need to stick around and appreciate it further? A number of valid reasons have also been raised in the last couple of days; including, but not limited to, the amount of time United's spent in front of their friends and family in that section of the John Street stand and even the weather on another chilly day in South Yorkshire.
Allow, for a moment, the counter-argument. This group of players has been running on fumes of late. Sydie Peck, to pick one at random, has run distances that Russ Cook would have been proud of in recent weeks. Tom Davies, who could have so easily felt the risk not justified after his recent injury hell, stuck his hand up and went again and again and again in the face of United's injury crisis. Kieffer Moore's unselfish decision to play through the pain of a hernia sums up the collective attitude of this team. That, for my money, deserves a bit more recognition.
But that is just one opinion in a divisive issue that exists purely in the grey areas between black and white and, at the end of the day, has no right or wrong answer. To counter the counter-point, United's support on the road this season has been remarkable and some of the most memorable scenes have come after the final whistle, when jubilant fans and players have come together with the feeling that another exciting chapter is building. How to transfer that feeling to Bramall Lane is a question that United - and, in fairness, many other clubs too - have not yet been able to answer.
Pressed for his view, and asked if he would like a few more fans to stay behind and share the joy of a good win, boss Wilder admitted this morning: "From a personal point of view, of course. But people have their personal choice and that's down to them. So I respect that. But it has been noticed, I don't think I can get away from that.
We all have to do a lot right to win a game of football in this division. So when we play well and we go to the top of the table, I think that should be recognised.
"If I go out at the weekend there's always a 'but' and a grumble. I don't know if it's just Sheffield people but I hear: 'Why did some of the punters not stay?' But that's their own choice. We'd all like it to be a full house at the end but we understand people have to get off, and that's their personal choice.
"I think we're building something special, that's there to be seen, and we - that's everyone, including supporters - have to do a lot right to win a game of football in this division. So when we play well and we go to the top of the table, I think that should be recognised. I was having a bit of a giggle with someone behind me towards the end of the game. Supporters are recoginising it and it's up to them to deal with it. They stay when we lose or when we draw and we respect that. It's a personal choice and I respect that as well."