It might seem like I’m banging the drum a little too often on this subject.
But it’s something I feel incredibly passionate about and something that I really think is going to be crucial going forward for the club as we start to make plans for next season.
Speaking to Football Insider, former Premier League defender Alex Bruce has said that it’s difficult to pick out who the key or best individual has been for the Blades this season, because there is one group of players in particular that should be the ones receiving praise rather than one player in particular:
“I think Fleck’s done very, very well, Lundstram’s been brilliant for them, O’Connell and Basham. They’re the four players who’ve been with Chris for such a long period of time now, they’re the nucleus of the team and they’ve been fantastic. They’re well drilled, sometimes by keeping a core of players, and fair play to Chris for doing that and sticking by the players that he’s got, it would have been easy with the money of the Premier League to go and improve the team and chop and change. They’ve grown together, improved together, they all know their jobs and they’ve been unbelievable.”
Is John Fleck our most important player?
Yes
No
And this all goes back to what I have been saying about keeping a core of players together as we progress from one season to the next and then try to look to the future and what the club can achieve from then on.
These players have been with the club through the years in League One, then the Championship and now the top flight, so we need to get every use out of them as we can as we stabilise ourselves in the top flight, rather than simply discarding them too quickly and potentially damaging everything that the club have done up to this point.
It’s not sentimental reasons, it’s tactical. There are some players from years gone by that need to be replaced, like Billy Sharp at the age of 34, but not these guys. That’s why the club need to be extra careful with how they go about their business in the summer, not to upset the apple cart too much.
They have been rewarded but they need to sign long term contracts like fleck has same money
The most valuable player this season has been Dean Henderson. Reaching an agreement in his future is as, if not more, important than the other players mentioned.