Paul Heckingbottom has praised his “written-off” players for their consistent performance in helping Sheffield United secure promotion back to the Premier League. A crowd of 30,050 filled Bramall Lane to witness the Blades’ success after two seasons in the Championship.
Heckingbottom, who took over from Slavisa Jokanovic in November 2021 with the Blades eight points off the play-offs, has turned United around and guided them to the play-offs last season, losing to Nottingham Forest on penalties. He brought in Anel Ahmedhodzic on a permanent deal, and loaned in Manchester City’s Tommy Doyle and James McAtee to great impact, as the Blades further improved on last season’s form to bring promotion. The Blades also reached the FA Cup semi-finals during this time, despite the distractions of issues such as training facilities.
Heckingbottom’s initial appointment was not universally well-received, but the results have been telling. He won promotion to the Championship during his time at Barnsley, but a move to Leeds did not yield the same success and he was dismissed after only four months in charge. An initial bout of success at Hibernian in Scotland also soured, leading to the 45-year-old’s exit, but his time with the Blades has been an upward trajectory since the start.
Heckingbottom said: “We celebrate every win, and I think that’s why we’ve got 26 of them. From 43 games, that’s tremendous, so we’ll celebrate. We set out a long time ago to achieve this, with a group of players who I already knew, the majority I knew. We’ve been written off, people saying the squad’s too old, he’ll need this or that. No. They deserve all the credit in the world.” He added: “That, from a personal point of view, gives me satisfaction, regardless of changes in each window or what’s being going off. The fact we’ve been able to keep that focus, it’s massive credit to the players who we’ve been pushing, we’ve had lots of conversations around making sure they understand that – if we want an excuse they can have one, but we haven’t.”
Heckingbottom concluded: “There’s never a doubt in my mind about what I do. I don’t try hard and manage a narrative around me out of this. If anyone asks me about me, I just say, just ask people I’ve worked with – staff or players. They’ll know I give them my best, what my expectations are. Working with players in football is the easy bit for me, it’s everything though that comes around it. I take the biggest satisfaction from managing all those other bits, whether it’s protecting the players from it, being able to direct and influence key decisions to help us get this, this moment.”