What Sheffield United boss said about Blades’ bizarre EFL Awards snub

Paul Heckingbottom has played down Sheffield United’s bizarre snub in the EFL Awards shortlists, which were unveiled earlier this week.

Despite sitting second in the Championship table with six games of their regular season to go, and reaching the semi-finals of the FA Cup at Wembley, both Heckingbottom and his players were overlooked for the awards.

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Ineligible for the young player of the year award, Senegal star Iliman Ndiaye was not nominated for the player of the season gong while Heckingbottom himself was also overlooked for the manager award, despite guiding the Blades to the automatic promotion places despite battling a series of off-field issues including an ongoing takeover and a transfer embargo.

Burnley’s Josh Brownhill, Middlesbrough goal machine Chuba Akpom and Viktor Gyokeres of Coventry City make up the three-man player of the season shortlist, while Vincent Kompany, Mark Robins and Michael Carrick - of Burnley, Coventry and Boro respectively, have all been shortlisted for the managerial gong.

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The decision has been met with derision from supporters but Heckingbottom, speaking ahead of this weekend’s home clash with Cardiff City, insisted: “I didn’t realise until today, and I don’t know the criteria or who votes for it.

“It would have been great for someone to be in there, representing our club but we’re not playing for that. We’re trying to get in the Premier League and compete for trophies. We know what’s important to us.”

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Asked if he felt there was a better player in the second tier than Ndiaye, who goes into the Cardiff game looking for his 14th goal of the season, Heckingbottom replied: “No, but there might not be people watching us. I don’t know anything about it, and that’s not me belittling it. It’s not what we’re playing for.

“It might be a big deal to some people but it’s not to us. We’d gladly win nothing other than promotion. We play for the team awards, rather than the individual ones. It’s not on our radar, at all. We’ll settle for the other [prizes].”

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