James Shield's Sheffield United Column: Before people start throwing bombs at The Blades, they would do well to remember this

“Was he getting asked a lot? Or was he just talking a lot?” the Chelsea manager asked journalists who had logged on to the call, after being forced to wait in a corridor for a good 15 minutes while Chris Wilder spoke with reporters.

Lampard wasn’t being tetchy. In fact, after being informed his opposite number is one of the few Premier League coaches who actually speaks openly with the press, the former England midfielder nodded, smiled and replied “I know, I know” before admitting “Yep, he’s a good bloke” to someone seated out of shot to the left. It was, without being disrespectful to the performance United produced in west London, one of the few times that evening when Chelsea, or anyone associated with them, didn’t have things entirely their own way. When David McGoldrick fired the visitors in front early on, no one inside the stadium could deny it was deserved. But from then on, once Hakim Ziyech discovered his rhythm and Tammy Abraham his eye for goal, the contest went pretty much the way the table would suggest with goals from Ben Chilwell, Thiago Silva and Timo Werner wrapping up a routine win for the title hopefuls after their young team mate’s equaliser.

Of all the things Wilder said during a lengthy round of interviews, one off the cuff comment about the identity of United’s scorer shone the strongest light on the challenge they face in the Premier League this season.

“They bring on a World Cup winner in (Olivier) Giroud and the lad who got our one was a free transfer from Ipswich,” he reminded as he explained why, once they realised the contest had got away from them, United went into damage limitation mode.

Wilder wasn’t being defeatist. Just realistic. Because, after a seventh defeat in eight outings meant his team would enter the international break bottom of the table, the United manager is aware of the size of the challenge they face in order to retain to-flight status next term - both on the pitch and off it where, despite spending heavily by their own standards since being promoted from the Championship 19 months ago, United must find a way of bridging the financial divide between themselves and even lower-ranking PL clubs.

In order to properly gauge United’s displays this term, some perspective is required, not to mention recognition that transfer fees paid are not always the best measure of a club’s financial clout. Silva, for example, capped 91 times by Brazil, was acquired for nothing when his contract with Paris St Germain expired. But he is thought to be earning around £110,000 a week - or £5.7m a year. That is nearly as much as United handed Derby County to acquire Jayden Bogle and Max Lowe over the summer. Or, to put it another way, more than half the sum it took to prise Lys Mousset away from AFC Bournemouth two windows earlier.

Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City, who have lavished over £1bn on new talent since being taken over by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund in 2008, occupy a different stratosphere to United. But then again, so do West Ham, who visit Bramall Lane next weekend, with £45m attacker Sebastien Haller in tow. He pockets around £12,000 more than Silva every single week, despite representing a team which spent most of last season flirting with relegation. Brighton and Hove Albion, bankrolled by gambler and entrepreneur Tony Bloom, are United’s juniors when it comes to stature. Yet, they now find themselves in a position where they can afford to hand Adam Lallana around £360,000 a month in order to capture him from Liverpool.

This is the lens through which United’s results of late must be viewed. Not the prism of last term when, fuelled by the momentum of a promotion winning campaign, they threatened to qualify for Europe before eventually finishing ninth. However it should be noted, when what proved to be a three month break in competition because of the Covid-19 pandemic robbed them of that, United struggled to achieve any sort of consistency.

It is a shame that money is now a prerequisite for sustained success at the highest level. Imaginative tactics, intelligent coaching and recruitment can help delay the inevitable. But in the end, it all boils down to pounds, shillings and pence.

Things should be different. But they aren’t. And until they are, United are in the business of realpolitik - something their critics in the mainstream and social media would do well to remember before pointing the finger and chucking grenades.

Providing owners make the absolute maximum they can available, and managers resist the temptation to demand funding they’ll never get, no criticism should be levelled at clubs who struggle to keep pace with the largesse. But United’s predicament should serve as a reminder why they must use the international break to not only replenish the confidence levels of those players not called-up by their respective countries, work on shape in and out of possession and attempt to iron out some of the mistakes which have crept into their work, but also investigate ways of expanding their commercial operations. Because, unless there is a material change in circumstances behind the scenes, the future could depend upon it.

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