“I definitely didn’t...” - Portsmouth boss makes Sheffield United admission after surprise early-season struggle
“I definitely didn’t...” - Portsmouth boss makes Sheffield United admission after surprise early-season struggle
A third of the current Championship season is already behind us and it’s probably the understatement of the century to say that it has not been one so far that Sheffield United expected. After last season’s promotion push fell just short in the play-off final at Wembley, the Blades were widely tipped to go one better this time around.
But an unnecessary summer of change has altered the landscape significantly and United went into the current international break in the bottom three. and three points adrift of fourth-bottom Oxford United.
United have shown signs recently that things are steadily turning in the right direction but that has not always been translated into results, with the Blades showing an alarming habit of shooting themselves in the foot by conceding really cheap goals at poor times.
The Blades have already lost more games this term than in the entirety of 2024/25 and January has been earmarked as a key turning point in their season, even if expectations have been tempered considerably in many quarters.
There remains, though, a lot of football to be played and the consensus inside football is that United will find their feet soon enough, with Paul Heckingbottom and Frank Lampard amongst the managers of late to forecast better times ahead for the Blades.
“I definitely didn’t...” - Portsmouth boss makes Sheffield United admission after surprise early-season struggle
That may spell bad news for the clutch of teams in and around the relegation zone who are trying to keep their own heads above water while battling with the likes of fellow underperformers Norwich City and Southampton - who both followed United’s lead of late in sacking the managers that had been entrusted to take them up recently.
One are Portsmouth, currently 20th in the table and four points above the Blades. “I definitely didn’t expect to see Sheffield United and Norwich down there,” admitted their manager John Mousinho. “I probably didn’t expect to see Southampton down there, as nice as it might be.
“But I don’t think there’s any point in bothering ourselves with who’s around us and picking up points down at the bottom. I can compare it to pretty much every, single point of last year.
“We played Cardiff this time last year and I would’ve put my mortgage on them being a top six side, when we played them. They were brilliant on the night. I would’ve put my mortgage on Stoke being a top six side when they demolished us 6-1 as well. Both of them were involved in a relegation battle and Cardiff ended up going down.
“Luton had parachute payments and you would’ve thought they would’ve sorted themselves out at some point. I bet there were sides who watched us at various points last season and thought we are going down. We ended up finishing 16th and had a good end to the season.
“So you can’t look at all the sides around you and think: ‘What are this team or that team going to do?’ Sides will be dragged into it, sides will come out of it and sides will do it a bit of both. The table will be so different come the end of the season.”
For United, hopefully markedly so.