Sheffield United’s American ownership group, COH Sports, has had an exceedingly mixed and somewhat turbulent first year in the boardroom at Bramall Lane.

Indeed, the Blades’ recent troubles have been well-documented since their return to the Championship in the summer of 2024, following a disastrous lone season in the Premier League.

Last season appeared to be another success story for the Steel City side under Chris Wilder, who had reshaped his squad in terms of players and tactics.

However, while the campaign had somewhat marked a new era in S2 after Steven Rosen and Helmy Eltoukhy completed a £111 million 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 Premi

Meanwhile, the closing months of the calendar year have been chaotic for Blades supporters, players, and, indeed, the ownership group, as they attempted to begin the new dawn at Bramall Lane with an AI-based recruitment process that has produced exceedingly mixed results thus far.

Wilder, of course, was stripped of his duties immediately after the aforementioned North London defeat and replaced by former Hull City manager Ruben Selles, whose stint became nothing short of disastrous.

The Spaniard lasted only six games in charge of all competitions, losing all of them, before Wilder was promptly reinstated as manager.

Given the drama of the past year, Football League World’s Sheffield United fan pundit, Jimmy – of the Blades Ramble YouTube channel – has given Rosen and Eltoukhy a mixed rating on a scale of one to ten for their boardroom performance.

COH Sports, the proprietors of Sheffield United, received a mixed grade following the commotion at Bramall Lane.

Unsurprisingly, Jimmy carefully analyzed the aforementioned dramatic set of circumstances before awarding a concrete rating to FLW.

Like many supporters, he is well aware of the way COH Sports wants the club to be run, which has included advice from ex-professional poker player James Bord on the data-driven recruitment strategy, despite the fact that the Londoner has also been heavily linked with takeover talks for Derby County and Steel City rivals Sheffield Wednesday.

Given everything that has occurred in recent times, Jimmy eventually landed on a grade of five out of ten for the Americans, adding that there are still some obvious elephants in the room.

“It’s a loaded subject, I believe, because some will be fine with ownership, while others will be really concerned. Jimmy told FLW, “I’m going to give it a five out of ten.

“That takes into account certain major moves that have already been done.

“The obvious thing to be concerned about is the way they handled the managerial situation and the recruitment strategy in the summer,” he told reporters.

“It’s resulted in a very poor start for Sheffield United and has set us back significantly.” To rescue the season, we now face a formidable challenge.

“That is a significant mark against them, really,” Jimmy said.

“Obviously, they would have done it with good motives. However, it demonstrates a small lack of intelligence.

“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 told me.

“They have also placed their hands in their pockets when it comes to transfers.

“Japhet Tanganga is the star, but we’ve also added a number of guys. Even after bringing in a large number of players, they have continued to support Chris Wilder by bringing in two strong free transfers, Jairo Riedewald and Patrick Bamford.

“I give it a five in the middle,” Jimmy added.

“You can probably point out some negative aspects. However, there are some encouraging signs that things may be changing.

Sheffield United will aspire for a better 2026 under COH Sports’ ownership.

At this point in the season, it’s difficult to predict where the Blades will go from here, having been inconsistent during the first half of the season.

Wilder has made it clear that changes will be made to his team, as indicated by the fact that three of Selles’ summer arrivals, Ben Godfrey, Tyler Bindon, and Louie Barry, are about to have their loan periods cut short, as exclusively revealed by Football League World.

United will hope that the early months of 2026 hint to a much more successful year, even if finishing outside the top six, as appears to be the case, is a clear failure in comparison to their pre-season goals.

As a result, supporters will be hoping Rosen and Eltoukhy have learned from their previous mistakes.