The Pinch Podcast

Back-to-back promotions had taken Sheffield United into the top flight. Staying there was another matter entirely.

In part two of our Dave Bassett special, Andrew Hague, Paul, Deadbat and Richard pick up the story with United winless in their first 16 games, seemingly doomed by Christmas and Bassett insisting, against all available evidence, that they would stay up.

Well, that didn’t age brilliantly.

Last week, we asked whether we were being too harsh on Sheffield United. Results were decent to good. The table looked healthy enough. Maybe we were spending too much time worrying about performances and not enough time enjoying the points.

After back-to-back losses, let’s invert the question.

Are we being harsh enough?

Because if the underlying performances were already setting off alarm bells, what happens when the results don’t provide cover?

How do you tell the story of the Dave Bassett era? You don’t. Not in one podcast, anyway.

In the first of a special three-part Memory Lane, Andrew Hague is joined by Paul, Deadbat and Richard to go back to where it all began: a struggling Sheffield United side and a manager who initially made things worse before changing the club completely.

This is the story of how Bassett took United from the third tier to the top flight, and created one of the most beloved Blades teams of a generation.

There’s one big question this week: are we being too harsh?

United haven’t exactly set the Championship alight, but they’ve lost just once, sit four points off the top and are already in a far healthier position than they were at this stage last season.

So does any of the rest really matter?

Sam, Riley and David look at the gap between results and performances, whether underlying numbers should temper the mood after a win, and whether fans sometimes need to simply enjoy three points rather than immediately ask how sustainable they are.

Because a win is a win.

But if that’s all that matters, why bother watching the game?

On this episode of Hang It in the Louvre, we welcome lifelong Blade Paul Kemp into the Pinch Wing to curate three defining Sheffield United images.

Paul has been going regularly since 1987, watching from the Kop and carrying the red-and-white flag into exile in south Derbyshire. And he has brought some marvels along with him: the Kop without a roof, the Blades without a care in the world, or so it seemed, and the sweetest taste of the century.

David, Sam and Riley pick through an unbeaten start that still doesn’t feel especially convincing. There’s plenty on Romelle Donovan, Sheffield United’s midfield problem, whether the underlying numbers can possibly hold up, and what the transfer window has actually left Chris Wilder with.

Plus: Kalvin Phillips, Liam Kitching, free agents, the ownership vacuum and a Norwich side whose numbers look almost the exact opposite of United’s.

Thanks to everybody who submitted a question - we’ve done our best to answer them along the way!

One great goalkeeper is a luxury. Sheffield United somehow ended up with three.

On this episode of Memory Lane, Andrew Hague is joined by Ian Parkes to revisit the remarkable early-90s era of Simon Tracey, Mel Rees and Alan Kelly: three keepers who, at their best, could each make a claim to being among the best the Blades have ever had.

The first Formline of the season proper has actual form to discuss - a sliver, at least.

Sam, Riley and David dig into the tactical shift behind the Blades’ start: far less possession, far fewer chances, a much tighter defensive shape and some eye-catching numbers at both ends of the pitch.

Is Wilder building the foundations of a play-off push, or has the correction gone too far? Where are the goals supposed to come from? And how long will supporters tolerate percentage football if the wins don’t follow?

Plus: Swansea, Cardiff, the curious case of the central midfield, deadline-day risks, Adam Webster, Ben Brereton Díaz, Tom Cannon and the Premier League loans that could still shape the season

Some transfers happen. Others don’t. Some spend years living on forums, back pages and in the collective imagination of Blades fans.

For Memory Lane Episode 17, Andrew Hague, Sam Parry and Tyrone James pick an XI of Sheffield United’s greatest transfer rumours: the players who were definitely signing, nearly signing, spotted at the training ground, touted by ITKers, or simply discussed for so long that they started to feel like they actually did play for us.

There’s Warnock’s love of strikers, followed by more Warnock’s love of strikers, goalkeepers who never were, and defenders responsible for page upon page upon page on S24SU.

Eleven players. Absolutely no guarantees any of them were ever coming.

Predictions are a losing game. So naturally, we’ve done 24 of them.

Riley takes centre stage for our annual Championship 1–24 (until his line cuts out, and Sam treads water for five minutes). He ranks every team from relegation certainties to title winners, while Sam and David do their best to pick holes in it.

We get into the Championship’s tactical meta, the strongest and weakest squads, the teams we think could surprise, and why Sheffield United might just have enough to sneak into the expanded play-offs.