The Diverging Paths Of Sheffield’s Two Football Clubs

‘Total Brexit’ against the ‘Foreign Legion’, that’s how you could bill this Sunday’s steel city derby.

Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday meet for the first time in five years. While both have similar histories, they have been on different paths for some time.

The Blades controversially dropped out of the Premier League in 2007. After missing out on promotion in 2009, from there it was a slow decline down to League One in 2011. In the dramatic 2011-2012 season automatic promotion was snatched from their grasp by Wednesday in a 1-0 derby loss, and they then lost the playoff final at Wembley against Huddersfield Town in an exhausting penalty shootout. It was only last season, under home-grown manager and local boy Chris Wilder, that United managed to end the rot and snare promotion.

For the Owls the decline has been deeper in the past two decades. They dropped out of the Premier League in 2000 and were relegated to League One three years later. Wednesday got back up to the Championship in 2005, but were relegated again in 2010 amid huge financial troubles. Milan Manadaric bought the embattled club for £1 and saved it from going under.

With manager Dave Jones at the helm promotion out of the third-tier was achieved in that historic campaign five years ago. The Owls were floundering in the Championship until 2015 but then the club was taken over by Thai businessman Dejphon Chansiri and Portuguese manager Carlos Carvalhal.

Under a foreign owner and manager plenty of money has been pumped into the Owls in a bid to get them back into the top flight. With his two years in charge Carvalhal has got the club within 90 minutes in 2016, and within 180 minutes last season, from the Premier League. Pressure is building at Hillsborough for the 2017-2018 to be finally the one where Wednesday is back in the big time. Expectations are high.

For United it is a different story. For years it was a big fish in the small pond of the third division. They want to be in the top flight once more, but need to stabilize in the Championship first. For many years the club has been owned by local businessman Kevin McCabe. In 2013 McCabe sold 50% of the club to Saudi Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad Al Saud, but the Blades have still retained a strong local core. Of the first-team roster none are from outside Britain bar Canadian/Irishman Caolan Lavery. Cameron Carter-Vickers might represent the United States and Clayton Donaldson Jamaica, but they are from Southend-on-Sea and Bradford and respectively.

Predominantly United’s squad hails from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Their captain Billy Sharp was born and raised in Sheffield. A Spanish journalist has even dubbed the club and its team ‘Total Brexit’ because of its devotion to British players. In the football league system Portsmouth are the only other club with just one non-British player, a real rarity in today’s foreign-dominated English game.

Wednesday are in stark contrast. Apart from Braga-born Carvalhal, nine of the club’s 28-man first-team squad are from outside the UK. They boast Italian Fernando Forestieri, three Portuguese players in Lucas Joao, Marco Matias and Frederico Venancio, Dutch duo Glenn Loovens and Joost van Aken, Swiss midfielder Alemn Abdi, Czech Daniel Pudil and Pristina-born striker Atdhe Nuhiu. 

You could say they are chalk and cheese in how they have been designed and set up. But both boast big fanbases and long histories. Wednesday have an average attendance of 25,604 this season, while United have an average of 26,162.

Both desperately want to be back in the Premier League and want dominance in the city of Sheffield. In the Championship every point is precious, so the importance of this derby is massive.

Bragging rights, along with the emotions of supporters and the club’s futures, are up for grabs this weekend. The stage is set for a sublime sporting contest.