Paul Heckingbottom has been speaking about Sheffield United for the first time since leaving the club a few months back.
Heckingbottom paid with his job after a dismal run of form culminated in a 5-0 hammering at the hands of Burnley. That was enough for Prince Abdullah and the Blades board to pull the trigger and bring back Chris Wilder.
Since then, things haven’t gone too much better. Wilder has won just the two games – plus one in the cup – and the Blades are all but relegated.
Of course, things might have been different this season had a few different decisions been taken by individuals and the club as a whole.
And speaking to TalkSPORT today, Paul Heckingbottom has pinpointed clarity from the board following promotion as being a real turning point.
“Hands were tied in terms of what we could’ve done differently. The one looking back is the day we got promoted against West Brom and we start planning for the Premier League, it’s that moment and real clarity on what money we have got and what the plan is going to be and then trying to deliver because that was the only moment we had any sort of wiggle room. Everyone knows I wanted to keep the whole group together and if we didn’t have any money we didn’t have any money, we would’ve tried to have got the best loans,” Heckingbottom said (quotes transcribed by The Bladesman on X)
Prince Abdullah is a big problem for Sheffield United
This isn’t to say the Sheffield United owner doesn’t have the club’s best interests at heart or he is willing to see us suffer like other owners. But more to the point that he doesn’t have the money to finance a Premier League club, or even a top end Championship club, and some of the decisions at board level have been poor.
Sure, you can argue hands were tied in terms of the Sander Berge and Iliman Ndiaye sales. However, better planning before that could have easily prevented such a situation even arising.
You have to feel a bit sorry for Hecky really. He did such a marvellous job of getting United back up, only to then be left with little to no chance of performing.
Looking back, the summer was an absolute disaster and the club has paid for it massively since.