Southampton v Sheffield United - Chris Wilder refuses to sit comfortably

Chris Wilder does not go in for five-year plans, realistic enough to know predicting what will happen next month is difficult enough in football. But even in the disappointment of missing out on qualifying for the Blades’ first European campaign on Monday night, he was looking ahead, warning his club needed to catch up with its team.

The words did not fall on deaf ears, and yesterday plans to upgrade the Shirecliffe training ground with a new headquarters, constructed off site, were signed off.

It had been planned for some time but although coronavirus pushed it back from being ready for the start of next season to the start of next year, the financial hit has not seen it mothballed.

The team has to keep progressing too, with the much-fabled “second season syndrome” one of the game’s great mantras. Avoiding it is all in the mind, according to Wilder, which is why he will demand everything when the season concludes at Southampton tomorrow, and again when his players reconvene after a short break.

“When you see people get comfortable and get the carpet slippers on, you think they’ve changed a little bit and got arrogant,” says a manager who deserves all the pats on the back he will get for a tremendous season of over-achievement. “I’ve got people around me to make sure that won’t happen but the biggest one is myself.

“I know what the game’s about and how it can smack you if you take your eye off the ball. That’s got to be the challenge for everybody at our football club.

“We’ve always got to up our standards. We’ll be having the same meeting at the end of the season as we had last year, we’ll be having the same meeting at the start of the season that everyone needs to up their game right the way through.

“We have to up it in terms of recruitment, facilities, the things that you don’t see and from the players’ point of view, physically and tactically. We’ll look at how we can improve the team. It’s about technically players improving their skills individually and as units, and from a mentality point of view having that drive, desire and hunger to go again.

“It’s about not being comfortable footballers. They certainly haven’t got a comfortable manager in terms of attitude, and as you can imagine I will drive that message into the players, into the next season.

“For me the sign of a good player and team is they don’t sit back and admire the view. We’re looking for the next challenge.

“In terms of the second season and being sussed out playing-wise, there’s too much video analysis around now for us to be a surprise. We weren’t a surprise in the Championship, we weren’t a surprise in the Premier League and I think it’s completely naive of people to assume they (opponents) wouldn’t have done any work on us when they were playing us.

“We have to be bang on with our work on other teams too but certainly it’s the attitude that will drive us forward.”

Not that anyone doubted him, but captain Billy Sharp confirmed it was not just words.

“He’s already been onto us about next season,” says the centre-forward. “We need to look after ourselves in the time we have off and come back well, there will be teams who slip off and we need to make sure we’re not one of them.”

Those unaware of Wilder’s demanding personality before he clambered onto English football’s biggest stage this season have quickly realised what a hard school Bramall Lane is. When players do not meet his standards, he is not shy of calling them out in public. There are both sides to the tough love, though, with Lys Mousset granted an early finish to his season last week to spend time with his girlfriend and their newly-born child in France.

“We’re here to create mentally tough footballers because that’s what the game is about, the physical side of it is big, the tactical and technical side is big but the mentality is huge from my point of view,” he argues. “Being consistent in your approach is huge for me. That’s the key and it will be moving forward.

“When the players come back do they feel they’ve landed in the Premier League or have they still got that desire, aggression and drive to go again?

“I certainly have that, and now the players have to show those qualities. They’ve got themselves here and now they’ve got to make sure they maintain it.”

Wilder’s drive is all about the next win. He wants it to be at St Mary’s not because it will put the Blades eighth, their best finish in 45 years, but simply because it is a game of football he is a part of.

“There has to be that fire in your belly to go again, and it’s certainly there from my point of view and the staff, and I’m sure it will be from the players,” he argues.

“You want that five o’clock feeling. It’s not usually five o’clock now (when games finish), it’s all different kick-off times, but you want that feeling of job done with a beer in your hand having won a game of football when your team has been good and produced a performance.”

Sharp wears the armband because he shares that mentality.

“We want to finish strongly and eighth if we can, then target that next season,” he explains. “We’ll try and get better.”

“If it’s not to be on Sunday it’s not to be but it can’t be on an attitude thing,” says Wilder to the media. He does not need to tell his players.