Chris Wilder’s return to Sheffield United doomed to fail despite no-brainer decision on Hail Mary
Chris Wilder is set to return to Sheffield United, but it may not be third time’s a charm for the beloved club legend at Bramall Lane…
It says a lot about how poor Sheff Utd have been this season that they have fewer points than the basket case down the road and are currently the worst team in the Championship.
Four months since being one game away from the Premier League, the Blades have lost their first five Championship games of the 2025/26 campaign, conceding 12 and scoring only once in the process.
This dire start has cost Ruben Selles his job, with the former Hull City and Reading boss dismissed after only 88 days at Sheff Utd.
Selles was facing an uphill battle at Sheff Utd from day one as he was tasked with replacing Wilder, whose exit following a 90-point season and near-miss on promotion split the fanbase.
New owners COH Sports decided to part ways with Wilder and take Sheff Utd in a different direction, with Selles ushering in a modern playing style.
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Sheff Utd have retained a top-six squad, but the defensive resoluteness that they prided themselves on under Wilder went away under Selles, whose side’s shambolic capitulation in Friday night’s 5-0 loss to Ipswich Town made the head coach’s position untenable.
Now, COH Sports are closing in on a dramatic U-turn, with Sky Sports reporting that Wilder is ‘expected to be re-appointed as Blades boss’.
For the new owners, it is embarrassing that their first major decision at Sheff Utd has gone badly to such an extent that they feel it is necessary to sanction Wilder’s return after only three months away.
Though, understandably, they have come to this conclusion, with the return of Wilder an easy way to appease a disgruntled fanbase.
As for Wilder, he will rightly be trepidacious about coming back, especially given the manner of his exit. But at this stage of his career, the Sheff Utd vacancy is comfortably the best job he can hope to land due to the huge potential of the project and that it’s a club close to his heart.
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There is also evidence to suggest that Wilder’s return could reap rewards, with Sheffield United Way reporting that he has ‘still maintained a good relationship with the current board members’.
Wilder has also shown that he can rebuild relationships, as he infamously had a fallout with former owner Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad Al Saud, who has reportedly been ‘sounded out’ over a shock return in an ‘advisory’ role, before achieving success in his second tenure.
However, you can’t help but feel that Wilder and COH Sports would be kicking their issues down the road with his third spell in the dugout.
As proven by the switch from Wilder to Selles, COH Sports and the head coach clearly have a very different preference with regards to playing style, and the 57-year-old is not suddenly going to change his ways to align himself with younger managers.
More conflict is to come, and it’s hard to see Wilder’s third spell in charge being as successful as his first and second due to the complicated situation of an ongoing reshuffle behind the scenes, the already broken trust between him/COH Sports and their differing wants.
