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One Sheffield United fan wants his side to lose Saturday’s play-off final(Image: Ryan Pierse\/Getty Images)<\/p>\nSheffield United will face Sunderland on Saturday in the Championship play-off final, though one Blades fan has made it clear he does not want the Blades to earn promotion<\/p>\n
12:17, 21 May 2025Updated 12:19, 21 May 2025<\/p>\n
One Sheffield United fan wants his side to lose Saturday’s play-off final(Image: Ryan Pierse\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
A Sheffield United fan has bizarrely admitted he wants his side to lose Saturday’s play-off final to Sunderland<\/a>. The Blades will face the Black Cats at Wembley for the chance to be promoted to the Premier League<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Yorkshire side were last in the top flight in the 2023\/2024 campaign, but it proved to be a miserable season. The Blades picked up just 16 points, winning only three times and conceding a record number of goals for a Premier League side.<\/p>\n They missed out on automatic promotion this year by 10 points, though comfortably finished third in the Championship table. They will face Sunderland on Saturday, with R\u00e9gis Le Bris’ side having finished fourth.<\/p>\n Chris Wilder’s Blades smashed Bristol City in their play-off semi-final, while Sunderland edged past Coventry with a last-gasp extra-time winner. But one Sheffield United fan will be hedging against his side this weekend.<\/p>\n Dan Atkin, of Four Blades In The Pub podcast, has made it clear he does not want to see Wilder’s side promoted. Atkin is concerned that should they get promoted, a season back in the Premier League would be hard to watch.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Sheffield United X account hacked with message to Sheffield Wednesday legend<\/a>READ MORE: EFL slammed as decision finally made on \u00a3220m Championship play-off final<\/a><\/p>\n “The last two Premier League campaigns of ours have pretty much broken me to be honest. Just the fact we’ve not been competitive. We’ve been borderline embarrassing at times,” Atkin told BBC<\/a> Sheffield.<\/p>\n “We’ve been close to setting record low points totals. We’ve set records for the number goals conceded and I’ve just not got the stomach to go down and spend a day in London. A couple of hundred pounds in a game I’ve got no real interest in the outcome.<\/p>\n “And I know that sounds strange. I’ve been a Blade for 40 odd years, I’ve seen us be rubbish more than I’ve seen us be good. But I’ve just got to the stage where the Premier League just doesn’t do it for me in the slightest.<\/p>\n “The prospect of a season with a points total in the mid-teens. It’s not there for me anymore. I’ve been a season ticket holder for 40 odd years. I’ve already renewed my season ticket for next season.<\/p>\n “And if we’re there then we’re there and I’ll support them as I always have done. But, realistically, whichever team loses on Saturday, their fans hare going to have a more enjoyable season next year.”<\/p>\n It is fair to say that Blades manager Wilder does not share Atkin’s view. He said this week: “We\u2019re a winning football team. We\u2019re going for wins. We know how to win, and that has got to be our focus. On Saturday, we\u2019re going to go for a win and we back ourselves.<\/p>\n \u201cThey [the players] are ultra positive, they\u2019re focused, and they\u2019re excited as well, and they\u2019re really looking forward to the challenge of going to Wembley. And then after that it\u2019s about getting that win.<\/p>\n \u201cTo lead the club out at Wembley Stadium, in front of over 80,000 supporters, one of the biggest games in world<\/a> football, it\u2019s a great honour and privilege and responsibility, but we\u2019ve got to do the job right. That\u2019s the first and foremost, and we\u2019re ready to win.\u201d<\/p>\n Join our new WhatsApp community<\/a> and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sheffield United will face Sunderland on Saturday in the Championship play-off final, though one Blades fan has made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,393,14590,4884,1620,11840,8900,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-119843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-football-league-championship","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-sheffield","13":"tag-sheffield-united-fc","14":"tag-sunderland-afc","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114545972375796135","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_JS368740936.jpg\")
The Blades will face Sunderland at Wembley for a place in the Premier League<\/p>\n