Sheffield United ownership claim made - there is 'hope' under COH Sports despite 'poor' decisions | OneFootball

FLW's Sheffield United fan pundit has marked COH Sports' ownership performance out of 10

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Sheffield United's American ownership group, COH Sports, have endured an extremely mixed and fairly chaotic first 12 months inside the boardroom at Bramall Lane.

Indeed, the Blades' recent fortunes have been well-documented ever since they returned to the Championship in the summer of 2024 after a dismal solitary campaign back in the Premier League.

Last season was one which looked to be heading towards yet another tale of success for the Steel City side under Chris Wilder, who had managed to remould his side in terms of personnel and tactics.

However, whilst the campaign had somewhat marked a new era in S2 after Steven Rosen and Helmy Eltoukhy completed a £111m acquisition of the club from Prince Abdullah in December 2024, it would end in heartbreaking fashion at Wembley Stadium, as United surrendered a first-half lead courtesy of Tyrese Campbell and lost the play-off final at the expense of Sunderland, who have since gone on to break records for the amount of money spent by a newly-promoted side in the Premier League.

Meanwhile, the final months of the calendar year for Blades supporters, players and, indeed, the ownership group, has been one of chaos, as they looked to continue the new dawn at Bramall Lane with an AI-based model of recruitment - one which has yielded extremely mixed fortunes so far.

Wilder, of course, was relieved of his duties shortly after the aforementioned North London loss and replaced by former Hull City boss, Ruben Selles, whose tenure proved to be nothing short of disastrous.

The Spaniard lasted just six games in charge across all competitions, losing all of those before Wilder was quickly reinstated in his position as manager.

Given the drama which has ensued over the past 12 months, Football League World's Sheffield United fan pundit, Jimmy - of the Blades Ramble YouTube channel - has issued a mixed rating towards Rosen and Eltoukhy, when asked to rank their boardroom performance on a scale of one to 10.

Sheffield United owners COH Sports handed mixed rating after Bramall Lane chaos

Unsurprisingly, the aforementioned dramatic set of circumstances were widely considered by Jimmy before issuing his concrete rating to FLW.

Like many supporters, he is very much aware of the way in which COH Sports want the club to be run, which has included being advised by ex-professional poker player, James Bord, when it comes to the data-driven recruitment strategy, albeit the Londoner has also been heavily linked with takeover talks of both Derby County and Steel City rivals, Sheffield Wednesday.

Given everything which has taken place in recent times, Jimmy eventually settled on a rating of five out of 10 for the Americans, stating that there are still some clear elephants in the room.

"It's quite a loaded question, I suppose, because some will be OK with the ownership, others will be very concerned. I am going to go with a very middle of the road, five out of ten," Jimmy told FLW.

"That is considering some big moves already made.

"The obvious thing to be concerned about is the way they handled the managerial situation and the recruitment strategy in the summer," he added.

"It's led to a really poor start for Sheffield United, and has knocked us back significantly. We've got a seriously uphill task now to save the season.

"That is a significant mark against them, really," Jimmy stated.

"Obviously, they'd have done it with the best intentions. But, it shows a slight lack of nous.

"What I will say, going the other way, is that they haven't been too proud in admitting they'd made a mistake, most notably by going back to Chris Wilder," he claimed.

"Not only that, but they've put their hands in their pockets when it comes to transfers.

"Japhet Tanganga is the standout, but we've also brought in a lot of players. Even after bringing in a significant number of players, they've still backed Chris Wilder by bringing in two strong free transfers in Jairo Riedewald and Patrick Bamford.

"It's a middle of the road five for me," said Jimmy.

"There's certainly some poor things you can point to. But, there's also some good things that give you hope that things may be changing."

Sheffield United will hope for a brighter 2026 under COH Sports' ownership

At this point in the season, it is hard to gauge where the Blades go from here, having failed to be consistent throughout the opening half of the campaign.

Wilder has made it no secret that changes will be made to his squad, evidenced by the fact that three of Selles' summer recruits in Ben Godfrey, Tyler Bindon and Louie Barry, are set to see their loan spells imminently cut short, as exclusively revealed by Football League World.

United will hope that the opening months of 2026 can point towards a much more successful year, even though a finish outside the top six, which appears to be the case, will be a distinct failure in comparison to their pre-season aims.