'A BRAIN OP? YOU'D WANT DOCTOR WITH EXPERIENCE!'

CHRIS Wilder knows perfectly well that he doesn't fit the mould of a modern, progressive young manager.

- Chris Dunlavy

“Well, I haven’t got a designer beard,” deadpans the vastly experienced boss, whose managerial career began at Alfreton in 2001, continued at Halifax and has since taken him to Oxford, Northampton, Middlesbrough and Watford, the latter pair sandwiched between spells at hometown club Sheffield United.

“I’ve never been able to grow one of those. I don’t wear polo necks and I don’t have a pair of white trainers. Well I have, but they’re ancient Stan Smiths that are old and battered!

“But you know, I have managed 1,000 games. If you were having brain surgery, would you want someone who’d only done a couple of operations? Or would you want someone with years of experience?”

It’s a point eloquently made by Sheffield United’s lofty berth in the nascent Championship standings.

Unbeaten ahead of this weekend’s fixtures, the Blades lay sixth and would have been level with third-placed Blackburn but for a two-point deduction imposed for defaulting on transfer payments during the 2022-23 season.

Few would have predicted such a prodigious start following last season’s brief and brutal tenure in the Premier League.

Promotion was won against a tense backdrop of financial distress, and the subsequent sale of key players Iliman Ndiaye and Sander Berge left United desperately under-equipped.

Thumped 8-0 at home by Newcastle in mid-September, they sank to the bottom of the table and stayed there for the rest of the season, eventually going down with the thirdworst points total in Premier League history.

Overhaul

By that stage, Wilder - the boyhood Blade whose arrival from Northampton in 2016 sparked a glorious renaissance - had replaced Paul Heckingbottom in the dugout.

Nobody expected a repeat of past heroics, not least because reluctant owner Prince Abdullah had failed to find a buyer and an ageing squad required a total overhaul.