Chris Wilder is in talks with Sheffield United to return for a fifth spell at the club after the sacking of head coach Rubén Selles.
The 57-year-old was dismissed in June after United missed out on promotion back to the Premier League, having lost to Sunderland in stoppage time in the play-off final at Wembley.
He was replaced by Selles, an appointment that did not go down well with the majority of fans, with the Spaniard having been sacked by Hull City after avoiding relegation on goal difference in the previous campaign. The 42-year-old lost all six of his matches in charge, leaving one of the Championship’s promotion favourites bottom of the table and without a goal in their past four matches.
Played six, lost six — the dismal 5-0 defeat away to Ipswich on Friday night proved to be Selles’ final game in charge of a miserable spell
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The final straw for Selles came after Friday night’s 5-0 defeat by Ipswich Town at Portman Road. Sheffield United supporters have made their thoughts clear, booing the team off the pitch after home defeats to Bristol City and Millwall.
A return to Bramall Lane would be Wilder’s third stint in charge at his boyhood club, for whom he also had two spells as a player. The decision to sack him this summer was contentious, with many fans feeling that Wilder had been treated harshly by the club’s American owners.
In his first spell in charge, from 2016-21, Wilder guided his team to the League One title at the first attempt before, two seasons later, taking them into the Premier League, where they finished an impressive ninth in their first campaign back.
The second season proved to be more difficult than the first, and Wilder was sacked in March 2021 with relegation all but confirmed. Short spells at Middlesbrough and Watford followed before he returned to Sheffield United in December 2023, with the club bottom of the Premier League. Wilder was unable to turn the team’s fortunes around in that campaign, before a 90-point haul last season took them into the play-offs and that agonising Wembley defeat.