• 2 hours ago
Chris Wilder's 11-minute Sheffield United answer after doing the double over Sheffield Wednesday
Transcript
00:00I'm a local boy, I haven't played in the Sheffield derby and I've been involved in six derbies now, so I understand the emotion of everyone, now I do, in terms of the build up and everything.
00:13I feel it, I breathe it, everything regarding it, so I totally understand, knew what was going to happen today, understood it, knew how the game would go.
00:26I spoke to the players before, about a moment where, 2016, surprisingly, which you might understand Dan, I was in a pub and I was watching Bull City vs Sheffield Wednesday and I'd just got the job at Sheffield United.
00:51For six years we were in League One and I'm watching all these fabulous players sign for Sheffield Wednesday and I'm a Sheffield boy and I've watched in the 90s when Mauds and Ches and Hurstie and Nero ripping it up and they're signing all these players and we were nowhere.
01:13The feel was quite derogatory towards us as a football club, pub league and this, that and the other. They're there, they're in that little corner, don't worry about them, they're not coming back from that.
01:29There's a big moment when the boys are most lucky in the top corner, it's a big moment and I said to a couple of pals, if Wednesday win today, they're possibly 10, 15, 20 years ahead of us.
01:46Because the chairman who gets grief had put absolutely everything into the players and they'd signed some fabulous players, Boris Thierry, Barry Bannon, who's a good player by the way and he loves his club and I get that and he doesn't like us.
02:01He doesn't like us, I love my club and he's a fabulous player, puts everything on the line and he's the heartbeat of Sheffield Wednesday. For him to be playing 400 games and playing 35, that's top that.
02:17I see in what he does and what he does off the pitch and whatever, I'm all over that, there's a respect there. So yeah, going back in terms of all the players that they signed, we were there and we watched it and pulled.
02:32Wednesday we were in the same division, we got 100 points, put a little bit of pride back into the shirt and then the next season we're playing in the same league and then it starts. The journey started that League One campaign and it started and I wanted us to dominate the city.
02:55It didn't happen because of money. For us to get out of the division, we had to sell, sell Dominic, had to sell Che, we had to sell Ramos. So we didn't get out of the division by buying our way out of the division.
03:17We didn't get out of the Championship, so that season, so the season there, long story, the season there where we put a little bit of pride coming here on that day, big for us, gave the supporters something to hang on to a little bit more and then the season afterwards.
03:39Didn't do it by cheque up and obviously Sheffield Wednesday, I know they're living in the city and it's not my club but Sheffield has put a lot of dough into the football club to try and get them out of the division.
03:53So we started that journey, the first season, second season, we sold players, we had the 13-40 highest budget in the division and we finished second so it can be done.
04:07The team finished in the division at the time, some big clubs in the division, finished second in that division. Then we had the season in the Premier League. So the money that we've earned, we've earned it the hard way, it's not been given to us.
04:21So we're starting that, we're starting that, not domination, because it'll swing back. It'll swing back in, it might be five years, it might be two years, it might be five years, it might be ten, whatever it is.
04:35But it'll swing back because it has done for the past 125 years or whatever it is, 130 years and it'll swing back because that's how it's always been.
04:44But we were there, we were there and they were there so we tried to adjust it a little bit and try and put a bit of pride back in the shirt and then we went up to the Premier League and we've been down but we've earned money.
04:56So we had the right to whatever we do with the money to be where we are and I wanted us to have the best team, highest standing in the division, best academy, best ground, best training ground.
05:11All new training ground now, now we've got owners that are coming in that have seen us as there's life in us, there's a future in Sheffield United, so it's a great time to be a Sheffield United fan.
05:24So that was a tool that I put to the players today and you can be part of that journey because there's been players that have been part of that journey and I've been part of that journey and Eki's been part of that journey.
05:36And there's going to be other players being part of that journey but we wanted to dominate the city with 31 points clear of the opposition.
05:42We hadn't done it by just bashing it up to, who are we bashing it up to? Calum O'Hare and Rhian Brewster.
05:47I'm bashing it up, so we're here to win, we're here to win and we've won another tie at Sheffield Derby.
05:54It hasn't been luck, it hasn't been fortune, we didn't come here expecting it to be a slow start because I've been in football a long time, it was going to be a fast start, it was going to be a direct start and it was a big start from then and we got through that, then we got control back of the game.
06:09We made a few poor decisions just after half-time but we win games in football, we're on 82 points, 82 points after 38 games.
06:21Sheffield Wednesday are on 51, the season's done, ours is still alive.
06:26So those supporters that had bets with Sheffield Wednesday fans in the summer about who finished highest, you've cashed in and nearly enjoy your winnings with 31 points clear of them, so that's quite big.
06:43So there's a lot of things I'm talking about there, so then you go on to my responsibility and I'm proud to manage the club and my responsibility and it weighs heavy on me, no doubt about it, we've been 24-7 and today was a big game for us all.
06:59And it's amazing, we weren't even thinking about going joint top of the division today, it wasn't in our head, it was you have the opportunity of doing a Sheffield double.
07:10So I've won, I've won a Sheffield double, been part of that.
07:16And somebody else will come in, somebody else will come into my job, two years, three years, five years down the time and hopefully continue the start for the last seven or eight years.
07:28But it might change, because Sheffield Wednesday something might happen and they might come again, so it's part and parcel.
07:33So when I enjoy it, I didn't enjoy it for a long time, no Sheffield night fans didn't enjoy it and you were there, didn't enjoy it.
07:42We were really called, what was I called? I was called the Meadowhall League Manager and Carlos was called a Champions League Manager when we beat them 4-2.
07:52I'm the Meadowhall League Manager, LMA Manager of the Year I got and I've had five promotions and we're on course in the mix against unbelievable opposition at the top of the division to try and get a seat.
08:05We might not do it, but we put ourselves in a good position.
08:08So a lot, but when I went for a run this morning, cleared my head at half five, six o'clock or whatever time it was just to get out of the house and the sun was shining and I'm running around Sheffield and I'm thinking,
08:20I think all I'm thinking about is winning a game of football today and we've won a game of football and we've got a lovely habit.
08:27No matter what anybody says about how we play or this, that and the other, we've won a game of football and the opposition today would swap that in an RB, an absolute RB to be in the position.
08:38We haven't done it financially, somebody's seen us 1-2-5, they must have been on transfer market and gone 1-2-5, we've earned the right for that because of the work that we've done over the past six years to be in that position, they'd swap it in an RB.
08:55And those players, you must be so proud because there was a lot of emotions in the game today weren't there, but to stand up to that and produce out there.
09:01We're not naive enough to not think that, even if it rolled reversed and we were on 51 points and Sheffield Wednesday were on 79 points, we'd have had chances here today at Bramall Lane or wherever it was rolled, do you understand what I'm saying?
09:22I'm not naive enough to think that their players don't want to fight, you've got players there that are passionate.
09:28Mendes, Paddy Bannon, he'd have been into them, we've seen it all along, all the boys, all their players.
09:34They don't want to be in a losing side, they don't want to be known as a team that's lost two games in a season.
09:41So, the manager doesn't, he doesn't want to be in charge of a team that's had a Sheffield double done over him, so we knew what the passion was going to be.
09:52Sheffield are a fan but they're all from the same area.
09:57The feeling and the emotion in the ground at Bramall Lane would have been exactly the same as what it was today, for their players, for our players.
10:04I remember back in 88 or 89, when Wednesday came and they were top of the division, Chris Woods, Ron Neeson, Scherz and Nersty and all the players and United won 2-0.
10:17So, I understood they would have chances, but I thought we'd control the game just after that 20 minute period.
10:25We created not a great deal but had control of the game and had the game where we wanted it to be.
10:31We just needed to find that little bit of quality and from the quality of the players that we have bought, that we have the right to buy by doing what we've done over the last eight years.
10:44So, there's a bit of a theme to it.
10:45So, the flip side of it, so off the back of that and then they're going to chuck everything at you late on, we understand that.
10:54We'd have done exactly the same but we defended well enough.
10:58Their best threats are the attacking threats, we've got a clean sheet, we've got decent players at the top of the pitch and we found the moment.
11:06We win and we all walk away happy.

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