Why Sheffield United boss has no concerns about his key players' commitment to Bramall Lane after a summer of transfer speculation
Why Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder has no concerns about his key players' commitment to Bramall Lane after a summer of transfer speculation
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00:00You touched on there a lot of talk this summer about players, players leaving.
00:03Now you've sort of put the shutters down.
00:05Are you confident that the players who are here are here all in mentally?
00:08Yeah, absolutely.
00:10So, you know, let's just talk about the three sort of big hitters I would classify.
00:16We're not sort of tiered as football players at this football club.
00:21It's a real together group.
00:22But if you looked at the big hitters, you would say,
00:27Anel, you know, he had his issues after Christmas,
00:29and it wasn't a good second part of the season for him.
00:33His comeback for his performance at Preston was absolutely outstanding.
00:37And he played at QPR.
00:43He was genuinely ill for the game.
00:45He was in bed for six days.
00:47I'm not trying to spin anything.
00:48And everybody thought, you know, the situation, and it was interesting him.
00:52He played, coming off the back of an illness at Barnsley on Tuesday night,
00:57in a very, very young side.
00:58You've seen the amount of changes that we had, and, you know,
01:01you've seen that, you know, a lot of the young players there.
01:04And from a physical point of view, it was a difficult night for us as well,
01:07because the amount of minutes that some players have had.
01:11And once the window shuts, he understands that maybe, you know,
01:16what happened after January here was not great.
01:22And he needs to fix that by showing the performances he had
01:28over the last two games that he's played for us in terms of the league campaign,
01:32especially Preston.
01:33He was absolutely outstanding, his commitment,
01:36and he has been right the way through the preseason.
01:38So I've had a chat with him today.
01:39Head down, get on with it, and go and produce your best performances.
01:43Absolutely no issue with him.
01:46Gus, we talked about, from a league's point of view and what they did,
01:49you know, and, you know, I'll always be honest with you,
01:52and, you know, what I thought about it.
01:55They sell two players for £40 million, and low ballers,
02:00ridiculously low ballers, and our best player.
02:02So, you know, I'm not here to appease anybody up the road.
02:09I'm here to talk about what I feel and think for Sheffield United Football Club.
02:14And the number was ridiculously low.
02:16So, his attitude to the game on Tuesday night,
02:22could have left him out of the squad, but I didn't.
02:26He wanted to be involved.
02:27I asked him, do you want to be involved?
02:29He wanted to be involved, and he couldn't wait to get on the pitch.
02:32Vinny couldn't wait to get on the pitch.
02:34And if it wasn't for physical substitutions,
02:35Vinny had to go on the pitch and help his teammates.
02:38You saw the reaction of Sheffield United fans before the game with Vinny.
02:42You saw the reaction to Gus's performance for 20-25 minutes.
02:47He was the one that, you know, got us going,
02:50played with intensity, played with urgency, and wanted to do...
02:53I mean, at times, he was taking the game on his own shoulders
02:58to try and win the game of football.
03:00A second round calling cup game, Carabao Cup, sorry.
03:03My apologies to Carabao.
03:06In terms of, he wanted to win that game on his own.
03:09I'm not seeing anybody who wants to get away, and this week as well.
03:13So, that's the three.
03:16I've seen a couple of players who don't want to be here.
03:18See you later.
03:20I said that won't work with you, will it?
03:22Won't work with me, you know, and I get it.
03:24You know, one player, you know,
03:28Anis, from his situation, he came as an eight and a six.
03:33You know, we said at the start of pre-season,
03:36I think it's going to be pretty difficult because Vinny and Blaster
03:39and Gus, who can play in there, and I don't think he's a six,
03:42and we're not going to play three midfield players.
03:45So, you know, this is the position that you need to play.
03:47He got on the pitch in the first three league games.
03:51He made it perfectly clear to everybody at the football club in that period
03:55that he was accepting and wanted to go, which is not an issue.
03:59He's going to work with an old manager that wanted to play him as an eight.
04:02He was down to play.
04:04He was down to play on Tuesday night,
04:05and at 4.30, we had a conversation and he didn't want to play.
04:08So, you know, I'm not saying that that's the right way.
04:12I would have done it a different way,
04:13but, you know, everybody has their own way of doing things,
04:16and he didn't want to play for my club
04:18and he didn't want to play for Sheffield United.
04:19So, we did our best to facilitate that.
04:23And Austin was another one.
04:29We picked a team for the first game of the season and he wasn't in the team.
04:33It was an interest from Celtic, and he wanted to explore it.
04:39Both boys wanted to explore those interests.
04:42And, you know, I think one of the things that we talked about,
04:47are we all in?
04:47Were we all in last year?
04:49No, and I do know that results sometimes dictate that,
04:55and sometimes when you're not in the team
04:58or don't feel that you're in the team, dictate that.
05:01Everybody's got to be in all in here at this football club,
05:04and they are now.
05:06And if they're not, it'll be the same situation.
05:09Sometimes you have to bide your time.
05:10Sometimes you have to get the best deals,
05:13but everybody's got to be all in.
05:15And for me, now, whether they're a kid coming through the academy,
05:19who we're still, you know, like I said, we've promoted four of the kids
05:24to the first team squad, training with us regularly.
05:28And you've obviously got Brooksy and Blaster from here from last year.
05:32Another thing that we've done, you know, six kids,
05:35six kids, drag the age down,
05:36and we've got six young kids that will benefit medium and long term.
05:40You know, they might struggle at this moment to get into the team,
05:43but they'll get the little cameos and then being around it,
05:46they'll learn.
05:46They'll learn from the intensity, how we train.
05:48They'll learn from the mindset of me and the coaches and the senior players,
05:52and they'll understand the all in attitude that has to be
05:56and needs to be at this football club if we're going to win games football.