Sheffield United and Leeds: Very Yorkshire rivals with more in common than meets the eye

As the crow flies, almost 7,000 miles separate the home towns of Marcelo Bielsa and Chris Wilder although, in real terms, the difference between Santa Fe and Stocksbridge, the industrial town which sits atop one of Sheffield’s highest hills, can probably be more accurately measured in light years.

There are fascinating contrasts between the two throughout their respective stories, from Bielsa’s background managing some of the best players in the world with Argentina to Wilder battling the odds, financial and otherwise, in Sunday pub football before working his way up through non-league.

Now, though, they are equals in the English Championship; United, literally, by the common goal of taking their respective clubs back into the big time of the Premier League.

Four games, three points

Bielsa’s Leeds United lead Wilder’s Sheffield United, with just four games of the season left, by three points ahead of a potentially-pivotal Easter weekend of fixtures: Leeds play relegation-threatened Wigan on Friday before facing Brentford on Monday, and Wilder’s men go up against Nottingham Forest on Friday and another Yorkshire rival, Hull City, on Monday.

Read more: Leeds debunk idea of ‘Bielsa burnout’ with relentless win against Sheffield Wednesday

Although there is little love lost between the respective sets of fans, both these proud, historic Yorkshire clubs have attracted great plaudits this season for both their playing styles and their relentless assault on promotion.

Indeed, after weeks of to-ing and fro-ing, only last weekend – when Sheffield United conceded a last-minute equaliser at home to Millwall and Leeds beat Sheffield Wednesday at Elland Road – did one side take a definitive step forward in the race for second place.

Race for the Premier League

In some ways, it does seem a shame that one of the two appears destined to miss out on automatic promotion, although that prospect does owe more to Norwich City’s consistent brilliance than any failings of their rivals. In the absence of a runaway leader, like Wolves last season, the trio have led the way.

Read more: How Norwich City have gone from Partridge clichés to cultured cool under Daniel Farke

Not many leagues in world football could surely rival the Championship as the most entertaining but still, there is little appetite amongst as many as a dozen clubs in the second tier to stay there as desperation to jump on the gravy train of the Premier League grows by the season.

Wolves’ calculated gamble last season of splashing the cash on talent like Ruben Neves paid off with the Championship title; that approach of others, including Derby County and United’s city rivals Wednesday, have not.

It’s somewhat refreshing, then, to have seen Sheffield United and Leeds go about their business somewhat differently to so many of their contemporaries. The Blades broke their transfer record in the summer to spend £4m – a pretty inconsequential amount, by modern football standards – on defender John Egan while Bielsa splashed £7m on Patrick Bamford. Otherwise, at both clubs, the focus was largely placed on transforming players already on their respective rosters into revelations.

Despair, success… and overlapping centre-backs

Blades skipper Billy Sharp, at 33, scored 24 goals until he succumbed to a hamstring injury last weekend while another elder statesman, in Pablo Hernandez, has driven Leeds on all season. Kalvin Phillips and Kemar Roofe have been transformed under Bielsa’s leadership while Wilder’s penchant for attacking, overlapping centre-halves in Chris Basham and Jack O’Connell even had the legendary Argentinian purring.

Read more: How Sheffield United have quietly become the story of the Championship season so far

The final straight, though, will be about holding nerve and showing character as much as ability but the long absence from the top-flight of at least one of these clubs is four games away from ending. Premier League relegation hit in 2004 for Leeds and 2007 for the Blades, with more despair than success in the long years since.

Not this season, though. Bielsaball has taken English football by storm in more ways than one while, 30 miles down the M1 in the Steel City, Wilder’s Blades have gone about their business in a manner more humble, but no less impressive.

Statements about “belonging” in the top two won’t be heard from the mouths of the Blades, who incidentally were one of the sides who refused to push for further sanctions for Leeds over the “Spygate” saga.

Perhaps Bielsa and Wilder have more in common than their backgrounds suggest; proper football men, in charge of proper football clubs. The Premier League would be a richer place if both – rather than just one – were operating there next season.