Sheffield United VS Portsmouth: A Brief(ish) Review

Not much of review, more of a lamentation of where United are as an organisation

Whilst the funding for the men’s team has been fairly good, especially this past January, the same cannot be said for our women’s team. The past year, in fact scrap that, the past four years has seen us go from a team on the precipice of the WSL, with players who have gone on to establish themselves as top flight regulars, to where we find ourselves today. One point off dropping into the National League. Whilst there is still the possibility that we stay up to fight another day in the Championship, the loss this weekend does feel like the horse that has been threatening to bolt for the past few years, has finally cracked barn doors open and fled. Where exactly has it all gone wrong?

Five years ago, during the COVID curtailed 2019/20 season, Sheffield United would finish the season in 2nd position on 34 points. Six points behind eventual champions Aston Villa. Our final game before COVID eventually saw the postponement of all English football was a 5-1 home win against Blackburn Rovers. The team was as follows:

Emily Ramsey

Sam Tierney

Alethea Paul

Naomi Hartley

Sophie Barker

Mollie Green

Jade Pennock

Maddy Cusack

Veatriki Sarri

Olivia Fergusson

Katie Wilkinson

Within that starting XI includes a gluttony of players who would go on to establish themselves as top flight players. Sarri, Tierney and Pennock would (and still do in Sarri and Tierney’s case) play meaningful minutes in the top flight. Barker would go on to play a crucial role in getting Leicester to the top flight a couple of years after this game. Wilkinson is our all time top goalscorer in the second tier and would go on to keep bagging goals in the Championship before a move to Rangers. Hartley, Paul and Cusack would be mainstays of our team over the next couple of years. Basically, we had a very decent squad. But this was as good as it got for United in the second tier. After that second placed finish, our league positions where as follows:

2020/21: 4th

2021/22: 7th

2022/23: 8th

2023/24: 7th

20/21 aside, that is a major drop off from a team that was contending for promotion to the top flight. It’s not like we’ve not had decent players or decent teams since our 19/20 near brush with success. A short list of players we’ve had in the intervening years and what they’ve gone on to achieve since they left United.

Fran Kitching: won Crystal Palace’s Player Of The Season award, and played a role in helping them achieve promotion to the WSL.

Bex Rayner: After making over 100 appearances for United, Bex left in the summer and is currently playing for WSL high flyers Brighton.

Lucy Watson: Highly talented youngster who came through our academy system. Left United to join Chelsea. Currently on loan at Ipswich

Ellie Wilson: Another stalwart of our team. Left United for Wolves, now playing in the A-League for Melbourne Victory

Mia Enderby: Another highly rated academy product. A blistering 22/23 season saw Mia picked up by Liverpool where she has gone on to establish herself as one of the best young talents in the WSL.

Those are just a few of the players who have come and gone. I could also have mentioned Fran Stenson, Tara Bourne, Rachel Brown, Charlotte Newsham and Izzy Goodwin. All have come to United, and then gone on to better things.

The overarching problem is the fact that, as a club, since that 19/20 season. We have been caught flat footed whilst other teams have invested and evolved. Since being granted entry to the Championship in the 2018/19 season, United were one of the final clubs in the Championship to go to a full time model. Only going full time in the 22/23 season, four years after promotion to the second tier, saw a lot of our talented players leave because they were getting those guaranteed full time contracts from elsewhere, in the case of players like Wilkinson, it was to teams in our own division. The fact that we weren’t able (or, willing) to compete with teams in our own division in offering financial terms is a little bit embarrassing.

I accept that to some funding for the women’s team might not rank highly on the lists of priorities. But for a club that has said so much about wanting to be at the forefront of the women’s game and investing in opportunities, especially after the success that was The European Championships in 2022; what we are now, and what we have been for the last few years, is a shadow of the promise that was shown five years ago. We've sold a player for a believed six figure fee, but where has that funding actually gone? If it has gone into keeping the team alive which, after this past summer is entirely believable, then why not say it? The communication between fans and the club has been laughable at best, and derisory at it’s worst. There has been no statements made about what the future of the club looks like, or how the women’s team (part of the deal that COH made to purchase the club btw) will do. The women’s team feels like it’s been left in a state of limbo where United say the right things on social media and seem to act like they care, but then peeling away that façade reveals a club that doesn’t seem to be that bothered at all.

I feel like I’ve lost this article a bit. Partly through the fact that there’s so much ground to cover in how poorly we as an organisation have let down the women’s team that this article will become a novel, and partly because I’ve not felt as downtrodden about a United result as this weekends as I have for a long time. So I’m going to try and be as cohesive as I can in the closing statement. Ultimately, Sheffield United the organisation has failed our women’s team. The investment has been almost none existent, the way we’ve just let talented players leave the club with a shrug of the shoulders has been infuriating. We are for want of a better word, a mess. If we are relegated this season, which is a real possibility, what will the future of Sheffield United women’s team look like? At the heart of the matter is this. We’ve got a team of professional athletes who’s futures currently don’t look secure at all. It would be nice if, just for once, we acted professionally and let us and the players know what the future of this team looks like. Otherwise, the limbo state will continue and we as fans, and the players who’s livelihoods depend on playing professionally deserve so much better.