Chris Wilder and the Poisoned Chalice

A common scene at Bramall Lane - A new manager.
(Left to Right: Chris Wilder, Kevin McCabe, Alan Knill)

The past couple of days as a Sheffield United fan have been eventful, to say the least. At 10am yesterday, the club released a statement announcing the official departure of Nigel Adkins, the fanbase-splitting, platitude-spouting laser beam of positivity that has overseen a decidedly miserable season and guided Sheffield United to their worst final league position since the early 80's. When I first heard the news, I bristled and prepared myself to type out a blog bemoaning another knee-jerk sacking from a trigger happy board. Adkins had only served 11 months with The Blades, and I thought he deserved at least another 6. However, I feel that most of what I would have said was already stated in my similar blog from this time last year R.E: the sacking of Clough. Adkins' departure is a repeat of all the failings of a year ago, and I hope I'm not the only Sheffield United fan with a serious case of déjà vu.

One thing that is welcome is the club acting quickly and appointing a new helmsman barely 7 hours later, in contrast to the months (Weir) and weeks (Clough, Adkins) we have had to wait for recent managerial changes. The club released an official statement mid-afternoon. Our new manager is Chris Wilder, coming straight from winning the League 2 title at Northampton, along with his assistant, Alan Knill.

Fans of a certain age will know Wilder well. He is a former player, serving as an adequate defender for a number of years in the Dave Bassett era, and then being brought back briefly by Thompson in 1998. He is explicitly and unequivocally a Blade - He has lived in Sheffield his entire life, is often seen mixing with fans on away days, and was known to have sat in the stands during his playing days when not selected for the squad. As a further sweetener to the deal, he has appointed fan favourite and fellow Sheffield United fanatic Billy Sharp as the club captain. This has already scored him plenty of brownie points with a large section of the fan base.

If only life were so simple, and that was the end of it, as while there are plenty of positives to take from the last 48 hours, there are also many key points to be considered. The board have made it clear in recent years to our managers that anything but promotion will result in a sacking. Wilson was ousted 6 weeks after having Sheffield United top of the league table, Clough was gone after finishing 5th last year, and Adkins, though finishing 11th (An unmitigated disaster any way you look at it) was often merely a point away from the play-off places. If Wilder is to keep his job in a year's time, he will have to get Sheffield United into The Championship. No pressure then, old boy?

Wilder faces a number of problems.  Firstly, it has been made clear that he will have a lower budget than previous managers to play with. While some clubs (Burton, Rotherham, Yeovil) have proven that promotion in this division can be achieved on a small budget, it certainly helps to have more cash floating around. He will need to sign a handful of players on the cheap, then fill out the squad with loans and youth players. This, coupled with the promised clear out of this season's dead wood, will give the squad a major overhaul. That's a gamble. It may pay off. It may ruin the club. Either way, it's rolling the dice.

Chris Wilder breezed to last season's League 2 title as manager of Northampton

Wilder will also have to coax a positive reaction from the Sheffield United fan base, who are currently going through several shades of anger, frustration and apathy from the elongated stay in League 1 and the serial ennui of the drudgery of missing out on promotion and seeing managers and players consistently under perform. Adkins contentiously alluded to the toxic atmosphere at home games in his final interview as Sheffield United boss, and unpopular though it may sound, he's pretty much dead-on. To play in front of almost 20,000 people every 2 weeks and have them boo and jeer you most of the time, deserved or not, must be demoralising. The fans will give Wilder his due time, (and maybe a little more because he's a Blade,) but if Sheffield United aren't top 6 by Christmas, the atmosphere at Bramall Lane could start turning sour. That's going to be hard to overcome once it's set in.

Wilder has never managed in this division before, and it's uncertain how he'd be able to adapt to the higher quality level. His performance last season was exceptional - He managed Northampton to the League 2 title on 99 points, 13 above the best of the rest, achieving promotion at a canter. Recreating this in League 1 is almost impossible. Wilder will have expected to finish around 10th with Northampton next season. This is more than acceptable for a newly promoted side, but for Promotion-hungry Sheffield United? He'd be gone. Wilder therefore has to perform to an exemplary standard in his debut League 1 year just to meet expectations. It's a mammoth task for any manager.

All these issues need time and patience to address. Wilder will probably fail to reach the top 6 in his first season. That's not an indictment on him in any way; it's not a failed season if he doesn't get promoted at the first time of asking. He needs to bed in and develop. It's a gradual process, that needs time to fail as well as succeed. Unfortunately, as said earlier, the board will not see it that way, and Wilder will be sacked, thus completing the annual cycle at Sheffield United. As I said in my blog on Clough's sacking, there is only one common denominator in all this failure the past decade, and that's the board. I'll get behind the new manager, like every good fan should, but he's been given a poisoned chalice to drink from.