Chris Wilder: Sheffield United return is ‘a unique situation’

Returning Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder has said he would probably not have come back to a different club in the same situation.

Wilder was reappointed Blades boss on Monday, just three months after he was sacked and replaced by Ruben Selles.

Selles lost all six of his games in charge of the Championship club and was himself sacked on Sunday with the team bottom of the league after a dismal 5-0 loss at Ipswich.

When asked by BBC Radio Sheffield if he would have said no if it had been “any other football club” he said: “Possibly yeah. This is a special and unique club for me.”

He added: “I wasn’t looking for an apology [from the owners].

“I’m not looking to come in here and be smug about the situation. It’s my football club and we’re bottom of the division. We’ve played six, lost six, that is not a good place.

“There’s a lack of respect to the football club which has to be owned at the moment. I have to help the players and change that around.

“I’m not smug about the situation. I’m not sitting back and saying ‘oh, it’s great they lost’ I think some managers might be but I’m not. It’s my life, it’s my family’s life and it’s my pals’ life. We want the club to succeed.”

Wilder is now in his third spell as manager of his hometown team, having led them from League One to the Premier League in his first stint between 2016 and 2021.

There was speculation that part of the reason for his June departure was American owners COH Sports wanting to lean more heavily on AI for recruitment, but Wilder said he was enthused by the talks he had with the club’s ownership group.

“They could have gone in another direction and they didn’t, so huge respect to them on that,” he said.

“I enjoyed my conversations with the owners when there was the possibility of coming back and collaborating with them.

“There’s a lot of talk about AI and whatever but I always think it’s a collaboration of everything.

“I love working with people. The attitude of the owners to initially approach me and have that chat sort of gives a good feel and vibe about the place.”