Chris Wilder on Sheffield United

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Scargill said:
Absolute bollocks what he said, He was big-in up Steve Cooper to be the next Manager.
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That he was.

It's almost as if Mr Wilder knows that a big proportion of the BDTBL faithful are not overly bothered about him anymore and he has felt the need to demonstrate that it was his "legacy planning" that has got us to where we are now.

Complete bollocks, the mans ego knows no bounds.
 
FallowfieldBlade said:
You really are extremely bitter towards our greates ever manager

He spoke more sense than Paul southgatebottom has in the last 12 months in that one video
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Can I just sat Wilder is definitely our greatest ever manager! He could have been but sadly for reasons we don't entirely know yet, it went belly up. Meaning that in my lifetime Dave Bassett is without doubt out greatest ever manager. From Div 3 to 1 in successive seasons and kept us in the top flight on a shoestring for 4 years. Never given the backing that Wilder enjoyed at times. Bassett also turned down numerous approaches and didn't give it the "I've nothing to say on this it's just speculation" which is what Wilder did when Sunderland rumours were around.

So as much as I like Wilder, he's no Bassett as a manager or person in my view. Harry also mortgaged his house to get a deal over the line! Can you imagine a manager doing that today! I would say that Wilder clearly had much of Harry's influence in him, there's no doubt on that. But as I said at the time when it was going really well for Wilder and many of our fans were saying he was the best I thought then it's too early to judge. Sadly the end ruined that title as the best ever. It may not have been Wilder's fault, who knows at this point. But Bassett is out on his own in my view as the best. Some may not have liked the football but when you're signing players from Sutton United to go into your first team then that shows where we were at as a club!

Harry also finished 9th in his second season which is the same as what Wilder achieved in the great season, admittedly we were up there for longer with Wilder.

Also got to mention Warnock as he gave us some amazing memories and was very unlucky not to keep us up that first season, again on a budget relatively much less than Wilder got too.
 
Wilder will once again rise to the top! Just a matter of time. I appreciate everything he did for us Blades
 
Booker4 said:
Can I just sat Wilder is definitely our greatest ever manager! He could have been but sadly for reasons we don't entirely know yet, it went belly up. Meaning that in my lifetime Dave Bassett is without doubt out greatest ever manager. From Div 3 to 1 in successive seasons and kept us in the top flight on a shoestring for 4 years. Never given the backing that Wilder enjoyed at times. Bassett also turned down numerous approaches and didn't give it the "I've nothing to say on this it's just speculation" which is what Wilder did when Sunderland rumours were around.

So as much as I like Wilder, he's no Bassett as a manager or person in my view. Harry also mortgaged his house to get a deal over the line! Can you imagine a manager doing that today! I would say that Wilder clearly had much of Harry's influence in him, there's no doubt on that. But as I said at the time when it was going really well for Wilder and many of our fans were saying he was the best I thought then it's too early to judge. Sadly the end ruined that title as the best ever. It may not have been Wilder's fault, who knows at this point. But Bassett is out on his own in my view as the best. Some may not have liked the football but when you're signing players from Sutton United to go into your first team then that shows where we were at as a club!

Harry also finished 9th in his second season which is the same as what Wilder achieved in the great season, admittedly we were up there for longer with Wilder.

Also got to mention Warnock as he gave us some amazing memories and was very unlucky not to keep us up that first season, again on a budget relatively much less than Wilder got too.
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So to recap, wilder is our greatest ever manager, or is it Bassett or is it Warnock? I'm fairly sure I think I'm not sure whether or not I don't understand
 
Not_a_Cheat said:
So to recap, wilder is our greatest ever manager, or is it Bassett or is it Warnock? I'm fairly sure I think I'm not sure whether or not I don't understand
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Tried editing but too late! Decided against proof reading and that was the result!

I think it's clear though that I don't think Wilder is our greatest ever manager! Up there, but not the best. Warnock just worthy of a mention as to how well he did, bit again not our greatest. In my humble opinion.
 
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BouncinBlade said:
Wilder will once again rise to the top! Just a matter of time. I appreciate everything he did for us Blades
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I really doubt that at the minute to be honest. I can't see him getting many jobs at clubs where he'll find he has the backing to get to the Prem. His next job could well end up being Blackpool or similar team near the foot of the Championship with limited budget. He's 55 now and whilst that's not old teams prefer younger managers generally, hence why QPR went with Critchley and Huddersfield went with Foderingham, the latter of which will definitely not end well in my opinion and Wilder would have been ideal for them.
 
Booker4 said:
I really doubt that at the minute to be honest. I can't see him getting many jobs at clubs where he'll find he has the backing to get to the Prem. His next job could well end up being Blackpool or similar team near the foot of the Championship with limited budget. He's 55 now and whilst that's not old teams prefer younger managers generally, hence why QPR went with Critchley and Huddersfield went with Foderingham, the latter of which will definitely not end well in my opinion and Wilder would have been ideal for them
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Many people forget how successful he was before United. He's only really had one bad job at Boro. He probably still needs more time out & when the right club comes along he will hopefully have learned from some mistakes and become a better coach/ manager. Possibly wishful thinking but I'll always wish him the best
 
I feel a little bit stressed and deflated after reading this thread so far.

I cannot understand why people let the bad outweigh the good.

Anyway, I am going to comment on the actual point of this thread. The video.

It is meaningless to watch, to Blades fans anyway. He just says things that most of us already knew and actually happened. (Hecky as caretaker, bringing Lester in).
 
finlaytheblade said:
I think any fan would agree covid was the main factor ! Losing our twelve man killed us .
Just so disappointing CW
kinder lost his way ! The fans and club would have stuck by him after relegation.
A lot of what he built came crashing down when he decided to resign and ask for a golden hand shake,
That is what disappoints me most! the squad was strong so getting straight back was on the cards.
The fallout with the prince seems to be crucial here!
He was supported well in the market and he made some poor signings (no manager gets em all right)
It seems the prince couldn't support him to the level he wanted.
He did a great job for us! I find it hard to understand why he demanded a big pay off to go.
I don't beleave the prince wanted him to go(what CW did he could have done again the players were there).
I don't know all the facts but to go out the back door, ( that's something he said he wouldn't do ) as he did tarnished his image.
I feel sure the club and CW regret what happened really.
We now have another good manager who is doing a great job (the squad is stronger now than CW,s was ) and have a great chance of promotion! hopefully we can bring in a player or two in the window to give us a push!
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Excellent post sire
 



idleurchin said:
I’m not particularly for, or against it. Just have a feeling he’ll be back
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Around this time yesterday I wouldn’t have thought that to be likely. Then I clicked on a post “Blades Sold” and I’m now a lot less sure of that.
 
Booker4 said:
Can I just sat Wilder is definitely our greatest ever manager! He could have been but sadly for reasons we don't entirely know yet, it went belly up. Meaning that in my lifetime Dave Bassett is without doubt out greatest ever manager. From Div 3 to 1 in successive seasons and kept us in the top flight on a shoestring for 4 years. Never given the backing that Wilder enjoyed at times. Bassett also turned down numerous approaches and didn't give it the "I've nothing to say on this it's just speculation" which is what Wilder did when Sunderland rumours were around.

So as much as I like Wilder, he's no Bassett as a manager or person in my view. Harry also mortgaged his house to get a deal over the line! Can you imagine a manager doing that today! I would say that Wilder clearly had much of Harry's influence in him, there's no doubt on that. But as I said at the time when it was going really well for Wilder and many of our fans were saying he was the best I thought then it's too early to judge. Sadly the end ruined that title as the best ever. It may not have been Wilder's fault, who knows at this point. But Bassett is out on his own in my view as the best. Some may not have liked the football but when you're signing players from Sutton United to go into your first team then that shows where we were at as a club!

Harry also finished 9th in his second season which is the same as what Wilder achieved in the great season, admittedly we were up there for longer with Wilder.

Also got to mention Warnock as he gave us some amazing memories and was very unlucky not to keep us up that first season, again on a budget relatively much less than Wilder got too.
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Shame I can only like this once.

Bassett was the best ever and inspired my love for the blades. Those years from 3rd division to 1st and then beating the pigs twice in a season were sheer magic. Personally I loved the football and found it so exciting home and away. As a teenager standing on the kop and then john st west terrace those were special, special times.
 
idleurchin said:
I’m not particularly for, or against it. Just have a feeling he’ll be back
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Would be a big mistake for the club and him. It would be like drunkenly sleeping with your ex again.
 
YorkBlade said:
We managed to get our man Oli on the inside (as it were) of a new League of 72 programme, the highlights of which our below and feature Chris Wilder talking about Sheffield United.


CHRIS WILDER ON HECKY

👉

Chris Wilder reveals the succession plan for when he left Sheffield United
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He still looks like an “‘Oyl int’rohd” tramp.
 
He certainly has an ego. A well deserved one at that. Wilder joined us when we were at our lowest ebb in decades. He turned us around, had us playing fabulous football and had us vying for a place in Europe before COVID hit.

As for him walking ‘out of the back door’ with a handsome pay off. Why did he have to sign an agreement not to tell his side of the story for an X amount of years?
 
Mag-83 said:
As for him walking ‘out of the back door’ with a handsome pay off. Why did he have to sign an agreement not to tell his side of the story for an X amount of years?
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Probably to keep hold of the handsome pay off he walked out the back door with I’d have thought
 
Trying to knock off Heckys great work as part of his ‘succession plan’.

Forever grateful for Wilder and what he did but Hecky is his own man and doing things his own way with great success.
 
BouncinBlade said:
Many people forget how successful he was before United. He's only really had one bad job at Boro. He probably still needs more time out & when the right club comes along he will hopefully have learned from some mistakes and become a better coach/ manager. Possibly wishful thinking but I'll always wish him the best
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I've a mate who's a big Boro fan and pretty much everything United fans say on Wilder seems to be echoed by his spell there too. Started brilliantly, they thought he was amazing, Then there were issues with recruitment, Wilder became more dissinterested, or at least that's how it seemed to the fans. Then he wouldn't put the rumours with the Burnley job to bed and when the form dropped he couldn't turn it around. Until we get the full picture from the players and Wilder it's difficult to form an overall opinion but ultimately as I've said a few times I find it hard that he left us, I don't know why as clearly he had his reasons but it was hard to take at the time. First of all I blamed the Prince, then as time went on I became less sure. One day the truth will come out.

As for Wilder now he may well have to pick a job in League One or a run of the mill Championship club. I can't see him getting a top end job in the Championship, but he still is a good manager as you say.
 
Sounds like he wants to get back into management:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...lder-proud-what-done-much-better-manager-now/

Chris Wilder was already “four or five” drinks in when the warning arrived from League Managers’ Association chairman Howard Wilkinson. It was too late.

On a shortlist for the Manager of the Year award that included Pep Guardiola, Jürgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino, Wilder had assumed he was safe to enjoy himself. “I always remember getting a phone call from Howard Wilkinson on the train down to the LMA awards and he said ‘don’t have too much to drink’. The only problem was that it was too late! I think we were four or five in and we didn’t stop, so it was a bit of a blur,” said Wilder.

That was four years ago after Wilder had guided Sheffield United to promotion to the Premier League. Over the last 10 years, the only English winners have been the 55-year-old and Eddie Howe, and over the past five years only three men have been named Manager of the Year – Klopp twice, Guardiola twice and Wilder.

“I’m very proud of that achievement. You look at the names who have won it and it’s amazing,” said Wilder. “In a weird way, the biggest achievement was actually the following year when we finished ninth in the Premier League.”

While Guardiola and Klopp have continued to dominate English football, and Howe has managed to reinvigorate his career at Newcastle United, Wilder has been out of work for four months after being sacked by Championship club Middlesbrough.

He is aware that 11 League games at the start of this season with Boro will currently be more relevant to some than the previous 900-plus of his managerial career – which included three titles, five promotions, eight trophies and ninth place in the Premier League – at Alfreton Town, Halifax Town, Oxford United, Northampton Town and his boyhood club Sheffield United.

“I’m a much better manager now than the one who won the LMA,” said Wilder. “Miles better, there’s no way I can’t be. I’ve got people like Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Gareth Southgate as references on my CV. I’ve built and forged relationships with some top operators, who I like to think recognise the work I’ve done.

“At the moment, I know some people will want to judge me on the last 11 [League] games that I managed and they will just say ‘well he lost five, drew four and only won two’ without looking into it at all because it bores them.

“But I also know that after a while other people will start to look at my body of work again and Eddie Howe, whose last job before Newcastle ended with a relegation, is probably the best example of that now.”

Wilder believes that a narrative has been built of him being a difficult character, who is better managing his players and staff than the relationships with his employers.

“We do all get pigeonholed and mine is probably as a northerner in a tracksuit who’s aggressive,” said Wilder, “By the way, Mikel Arteta is quite aggressive, Jürgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel both wear tracksuits and they’re quite aggressive. They don’t take any prisoners.”

Wilder left the tracksuit at home for our two-hour meeting in central London, preferring a black roll neck sweater, designer jeans and black boots, and spent half-an-hour being told where to stand and look for photographs. On his combative image, Wilder continued: “The second season in the Premier League with Sheffield United became difficult and, with it being my club, I probably took on too much. At Middlesbrough, the summer transfer window didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but I never had an issue with Steve Gibson and I’d like to think if people did their homework on me then they would find out what I’m really like.

“It’s the first time in 20 years I’ve had my contract terminated. I think I’d have been sacked a few more times if I was that difficult to work with! I want things done right and I want to win, that’s all.”

In Wilder’s opinion, those at the top of English football for the past decade – Guardiola, Klopp, Antonio Conte, Tuchel and now Arteta – have all been managers of their football clubs, despite the trend for chairmen and chief executives to try to seek out head coaches.

Wilder sees himself as a manager, but that is not to say he cannot coach or innovate – best proven by his overlapping centre-backs at Sheffield United, who had opponents scratching their heads.

“It wasn’t a chequebook era at Sheffield United,” said Wilder. “It was about improving players. We took players who weren’t getting a game and developed them, and played a system as well.

“We started off with 4-4-2, but we quickly realised that we needed to go to three at the back. I’ve always played different types of football and different formations at the clubs I’ve been at. Primarily to win.

“We wanted to break teams down and overload teams, whether it was wide or whether it was central. The two wide centre backs were comfortable on the ball and wanted to get forwards, so we came up with something that allowed them to and I like to think it was really effective.”

Asked if he thinks people see him as a tactician, Wilder replied: “No.” And is that fair? “No, it’s not. You can’t go to Manchester United [with Middlesbrough] and get a result. You can’t beat Tottenham and not be tactically astute. You can’t go into the Premier League [with Sheffield United] without knowing what to do, what to change and how to change it.”

Wilder was accused of “dinosaur management” by one radio host for saying goalkeeper Dean Henderson, who spent two seasons on loan at Sheffield United, had to do “a bit better” after gifting Liverpool a winning goal.

Henderson later called on the club to build a statue of Wilder, which supports the former right-back’s claim that he knew exactly what he was doing.

“He let one through his legs, live on Sky, and he wanted to play for Manchester United and he wanted to play for England,” said Wilder. “Of course, I wouldn’t have done that to all the lads, but I knew the boy.

“Is it any different to what Guardiola did to Kalvin Phillips about his fitness the other week? Of course it isn’t, but he knows the boy. You know the players who can take it.”

'It's quite lazy to say that I took my eye off the ball'​

Wilder was open enough to admit that he should have handled speculation linking him with the Burnley job while he was in charge of Middlesbrough better, but described suggestions he took his eye off the ball as “bull----”.

“Looking back, I should have shut it down, I accept that,” said Wilder.

“But I think it’s quite lazy to say that I took my eye off the ball or anything like that. It’s bull----. Ask those players if I took my foot off the gas in pre-season or in that changing room. We had a difficult summer window, but in my opinion the team was playing OK and everything was telling me results would turn.

“Michael Carrick will get recognition for the job he is doing now and quite rightly so. But I think we left the team in a good place for him. We had a brilliant Cup run last season, beating Man United and Tottenham and, a bit like Michael got 25 points in his first 12 games, we took 24 points from our first 12 games.”

Having insisted on making the journey down to London to see me, rather than the other way round, Wilder sat with a notebook of pre-prepared facts and figures he did not want to forget.

One of those was that his was the eighth Championship sacking after just 11 League games. But Wilder is optimistic there will be years and seasons in front of him in management that rival or better than one that earned him his LMA award.

“Relatively speaking, I’m delighted with the career I’ve had so far,” he said. “But my hunger is as big as it’s ever been. I remember someone once saying to me ‘just bank it’ about being sacked. But, no, I want to win and once you’ve had a taste of the Premier League, you want it badly – even if it means some hard work to get back there.”
 
sufc323 said:
Sounds like he wants to get back into management:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...lder-proud-what-done-much-better-manager-now/

Chris Wilder was already “four or five” drinks in when the warning arrived from League Managers’ Association chairman Howard Wilkinson. It was too late.

On a shortlist for the Manager of the Year award that included Pep Guardiola, Jürgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino, Wilder had assumed he was safe to enjoy himself. “I always remember getting a phone call from Howard Wilkinson on the train down to the LMA awards and he said ‘don’t have too much to drink’. The only problem was that it was too late! I think we were four or five in and we didn’t stop, so it was a bit of a blur,” said Wilder.

That was four years ago after Wilder had guided Sheffield United to promotion to the Premier League. Over the last 10 years, the only English winners have been the 55-year-old and Eddie Howe, and over the past five years only three men have been named Manager of the Year – Klopp twice, Guardiola twice and Wilder.

“I’m very proud of that achievement. You look at the names who have won it and it’s amazing,” said Wilder. “In a weird way, the biggest achievement was actually the following year when we finished ninth in the Premier League.”

While Guardiola and Klopp have continued to dominate English football, and Howe has managed to reinvigorate his career at Newcastle United, Wilder has been out of work for four months after being sacked by Championship club Middlesbrough.

He is aware that 11 League games at the start of this season with Boro will currently be more relevant to some than the previous 900-plus of his managerial career – which included three titles, five promotions, eight trophies and ninth place in the Premier League – at Alfreton Town, Halifax Town, Oxford United, Northampton Town and his boyhood club Sheffield United.

“I’m a much better manager now than the one who won the LMA,” said Wilder. “Miles better, there’s no way I can’t be. I’ve got people like Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Gareth Southgate as references on my CV. I’ve built and forged relationships with some top operators, who I like to think recognise the work I’ve done.

“At the moment, I know some people will want to judge me on the last 11 [League] games that I managed and they will just say ‘well he lost five, drew four and only won two’ without looking into it at all because it bores them.

“But I also know that after a while other people will start to look at my body of work again and Eddie Howe, whose last job before Newcastle ended with a relegation, is probably the best example of that now.”

Wilder believes that a narrative has been built of him being a difficult character, who is better managing his players and staff than the relationships with his employers.

“We do all get pigeonholed and mine is probably as a northerner in a tracksuit who’s aggressive,” said Wilder, “By the way, Mikel Arteta is quite aggressive, Jürgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel both wear tracksuits and they’re quite aggressive. They don’t take any prisoners.”

Wilder left the tracksuit at home for our two-hour meeting in central London, preferring a black roll neck sweater, designer jeans and black boots, and spent half-an-hour being told where to stand and look for photographs. On his combative image, Wilder continued: “The second season in the Premier League with Sheffield United became difficult and, with it being my club, I probably took on too much. At Middlesbrough, the summer transfer window didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but I never had an issue with Steve Gibson and I’d like to think if people did their homework on me then they would find out what I’m really like.

“It’s the first time in 20 years I’ve had my contract terminated. I think I’d have been sacked a few more times if I was that difficult to work with! I want things done right and I want to win, that’s all.”

In Wilder’s opinion, those at the top of English football for the past decade – Guardiola, Klopp, Antonio Conte, Tuchel and now Arteta – have all been managers of their football clubs, despite the trend for chairmen and chief executives to try to seek out head coaches.

Wilder sees himself as a manager, but that is not to say he cannot coach or innovate – best proven by his overlapping centre-backs at Sheffield United, who had opponents scratching their heads.

“It wasn’t a chequebook era at Sheffield United,” said Wilder. “It was about improving players. We took players who weren’t getting a game and developed them, and played a system as well.

“We started off with 4-4-2, but we quickly realised that we needed to go to three at the back. I’ve always played different types of football and different formations at the clubs I’ve been at. Primarily to win.

“We wanted to break teams down and overload teams, whether it was wide or whether it was central. The two wide centre backs were comfortable on the ball and wanted to get forwards, so we came up with something that allowed them to and I like to think it was really effective.”

Asked if he thinks people see him as a tactician, Wilder replied: “No.” And is that fair? “No, it’s not. You can’t go to Manchester United [with Middlesbrough] and get a result. You can’t beat Tottenham and not be tactically astute. You can’t go into the Premier League [with Sheffield United] without knowing what to do, what to change and how to change it.”

Wilder was accused of “dinosaur management” by one radio host for saying goalkeeper Dean Henderson, who spent two seasons on loan at Sheffield United, had to do “a bit better” after gifting Liverpool a winning goal.

Henderson later called on the club to build a statue of Wilder, which supports the former right-back’s claim that he knew exactly what he was doing.

“He let one through his legs, live on Sky, and he wanted to play for Manchester United and he wanted to play for England,” said Wilder. “Of course, I wouldn’t have done that to all the lads, but I knew the boy.

“Is it any different to what Guardiola did to Kalvin Phillips about his fitness the other week? Of course it isn’t, but he knows the boy. You know the players who can take it.”

'It's quite lazy to say that I took my eye off the ball'​

Wilder was open enough to admit that he should have handled speculation linking him with the Burnley job while he was in charge of Middlesbrough better, but described suggestions he took his eye off the ball as “bull----”.

“Looking back, I should have shut it down, I accept that,” said Wilder.

“But I think it’s quite lazy to say that I took my eye off the ball or anything like that. It’s bull----. Ask those players if I took my foot off the gas in pre-season or in that changing room. We had a difficult summer window, but in my opinion the team was playing OK and everything was telling me results would turn.

“Michael Carrick will get recognition for the job he is doing now and quite rightly so. But I think we left the team in a good place for him. We had a brilliant Cup run last season, beating Man United and Tottenham and, a bit like Michael got 25 points in his first 12 games, we took 24 points from our first 12 games.”

Having insisted on making the journey down to London to see me, rather than the other way round, Wilder sat with a notebook of pre-prepared facts and figures he did not want to forget.

One of those was that his was the eighth Championship sacking after just 11 League games. But Wilder is optimistic there will be years and seasons in front of him in management that rival or better than one that earned him his LMA award.

“Relatively speaking, I’m delighted with the career I’ve had so far,” he said. “But my hunger is as big as it’s ever been. I remember someone once saying to me ‘just bank it’ about being sacked. But, no, I want to win and once you’ve had a taste of the Premier League, you want it badly – even if it means some hard work to get back there.”
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He's not lost his self confidence by the sounds of it. Very interesting what and how he does next. Good luck.
 



sufc323 said:
Sounds like he wants to get back into management:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...lder-proud-what-done-much-better-manager-now/

Chris Wilder was already “four or five” drinks in when the warning arrived from League Managers’ Association chairman Howard Wilkinson. It was too late.

On a shortlist for the Manager of the Year award that included Pep Guardiola, Jürgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino, Wilder had assumed he was safe to enjoy himself. “I always remember getting a phone call from Howard Wilkinson on the train down to the LMA awards and he said ‘don’t have too much to drink’. The only problem was that it was too late! I think we were four or five in and we didn’t stop, so it was a bit of a blur,” said Wilder.

That was four years ago after Wilder had guided Sheffield United to promotion to the Premier League. Over the last 10 years, the only English winners have been the 55-year-old and Eddie Howe, and over the past five years only three men have been named Manager of the Year – Klopp twice, Guardiola twice and Wilder.

“I’m very proud of that achievement. You look at the names who have won it and it’s amazing,” said Wilder. “In a weird way, the biggest achievement was actually the following year when we finished ninth in the Premier League.”

While Guardiola and Klopp have continued to dominate English football, and Howe has managed to reinvigorate his career at Newcastle United, Wilder has been out of work for four months after being sacked by Championship club Middlesbrough.

He is aware that 11 League games at the start of this season with Boro will currently be more relevant to some than the previous 900-plus of his managerial career – which included three titles, five promotions, eight trophies and ninth place in the Premier League – at Alfreton Town, Halifax Town, Oxford United, Northampton Town and his boyhood club Sheffield United.

“I’m a much better manager now than the one who won the LMA,” said Wilder. “Miles better, there’s no way I can’t be. I’ve got people like Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Gareth Southgate as references on my CV. I’ve built and forged relationships with some top operators, who I like to think recognise the work I’ve done.

“At the moment, I know some people will want to judge me on the last 11 [League] games that I managed and they will just say ‘well he lost five, drew four and only won two’ without looking into it at all because it bores them.

“But I also know that after a while other people will start to look at my body of work again and Eddie Howe, whose last job before Newcastle ended with a relegation, is probably the best example of that now.”

Wilder believes that a narrative has been built of him being a difficult character, who is better managing his players and staff than the relationships with his employers.

“We do all get pigeonholed and mine is probably as a northerner in a tracksuit who’s aggressive,” said Wilder, “By the way, Mikel Arteta is quite aggressive, Jürgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel both wear tracksuits and they’re quite aggressive. They don’t take any prisoners.”

Wilder left the tracksuit at home for our two-hour meeting in central London, preferring a black roll neck sweater, designer jeans and black boots, and spent half-an-hour being told where to stand and look for photographs. On his combative image, Wilder continued: “The second season in the Premier League with Sheffield United became difficult and, with it being my club, I probably took on too much. At Middlesbrough, the summer transfer window didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but I never had an issue with Steve Gibson and I’d like to think if people did their homework on me then they would find out what I’m really like.

“It’s the first time in 20 years I’ve had my contract terminated. I think I’d have been sacked a few more times if I was that difficult to work with! I want things done right and I want to win, that’s all.”

In Wilder’s opinion, those at the top of English football for the past decade – Guardiola, Klopp, Antonio Conte, Tuchel and now Arteta – have all been managers of their football clubs, despite the trend for chairmen and chief executives to try to seek out head coaches.

Wilder sees himself as a manager, but that is not to say he cannot coach or innovate – best proven by his overlapping centre-backs at Sheffield United, who had opponents scratching their heads.

“It wasn’t a chequebook era at Sheffield United,” said Wilder. “It was about improving players. We took players who weren’t getting a game and developed them, and played a system as well.

“We started off with 4-4-2, but we quickly realised that we needed to go to three at the back. I’ve always played different types of football and different formations at the clubs I’ve been at. Primarily to win.

“We wanted to break teams down and overload teams, whether it was wide or whether it was central. The two wide centre backs were comfortable on the ball and wanted to get forwards, so we came up with something that allowed them to and I like to think it was really effective.”

Asked if he thinks people see him as a tactician, Wilder replied: “No.” And is that fair? “No, it’s not. You can’t go to Manchester United [with Middlesbrough] and get a result. You can’t beat Tottenham and not be tactically astute. You can’t go into the Premier League [with Sheffield United] without knowing what to do, what to change and how to change it.”

Wilder was accused of “dinosaur management” by one radio host for saying goalkeeper Dean Henderson, who spent two seasons on loan at Sheffield United, had to do “a bit better” after gifting Liverpool a winning goal.

Henderson later called on the club to build a statue of Wilder, which supports the former right-back’s claim that he knew exactly what he was doing.

“He let one through his legs, live on Sky, and he wanted to play for Manchester United and he wanted to play for England,” said Wilder. “Of course, I wouldn’t have done that to all the lads, but I knew the boy.

“Is it any different to what Guardiola did to Kalvin Phillips about his fitness the other week? Of course it isn’t, but he knows the boy. You know the players who can take it.”

'It's quite lazy to say that I took my eye off the ball'​

Wilder was open enough to admit that he should have handled speculation linking him with the Burnley job while he was in charge of Middlesbrough better, but described suggestions he took his eye off the ball as “bull----”.

“Looking back, I should have shut it down, I accept that,” said Wilder.

“But I think it’s quite lazy to say that I took my eye off the ball or anything like that. It’s bull----. Ask those players if I took my foot off the gas in pre-season or in that changing room. We had a difficult summer window, but in my opinion the team was playing OK and everything was telling me results would turn.

“Michael Carrick will get recognition for the job he is doing now and quite rightly so. But I think we left the team in a good place for him. We had a brilliant Cup run last season, beating Man United and Tottenham and, a bit like Michael got 25 points in his first 12 games, we took 24 points from our first 12 games.”

Having insisted on making the journey down to London to see me, rather than the other way round, Wilder sat with a notebook of pre-prepared facts and figures he did not want to forget.

One of those was that his was the eighth Championship sacking after just 11 League games. But Wilder is optimistic there will be years and seasons in front of him in management that rival or better than one that earned him his LMA award.

“Relatively speaking, I’m delighted with the career I’ve had so far,” he said. “But my hunger is as big as it’s ever been. I remember someone once saying to me ‘just bank it’ about being sacked. But, no, I want to win and once you’ve had a taste of the Premier League, you want it badly – even if it means some hard work to get back there.”
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I'm surprised he's got time for interviews with all the time he spends on here shitting on the Prince.
 
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