I didn't want him back

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I think it is fair to say Hecky was a good manager but he had found his level once we were promoted from the Championship but Wilder has been there and done it at all levels. Hard to say what went wrong with the Covid season or at Middleborough, at Watford he says he had a set of players who didn't want to be there. If we get the Mk1 version of Wilder we'll be fine even if we do get relegated
 
To quote a well known British statesman : This is not the beginning of the end, it's the end of the beginning.
 
One of my criticisms of CW last time was I felt he was very poor at bringing the younger players through. To see him pick Andre Brookes straight off and give Peck his debut is refreshing. Has he learned? Also gave Slimanie a go. Not sure Hecky ever did? Looked useful to me.
 
CrookesBlade said:
Encouraging signs but plenty of work to do, especially with both players and the manager in repairing their respective relationships with the fans.

Hecky clearly limited as a manager at this level but those players really let him down this season. I tend to think the players saw him more as a mate than a manager but performances this season have been inexcusable.

Didn’t see Wilder as a long term solution and personally I’ve gone right off him but I said if nothing else we won’t be rolling over and accepting 5-0 defeats every other week.

2 highly likely defeats at Chelsea and Villa and the mood could easily swing again.

Ultimately though it’s been good to see us compete in a game for 90 mins, never mind the fact we actually won it. Let’s hope for a few more memorable moments this season.
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The more of a mate than a manager is something I thought since the day Hecky took the job. Every player calls their manager "Gaffer" "Coach" or "Manager" they don't usually call them Hecky.
 
metalblade said:
I think it is fair to say Hecky was a good manager but he had found his level once we were promoted from the Championship but Wilder has been there and done it at all levels. Hard to say what went wrong with the Covid season or at Middleborough, at Watford he says he had a set of players who didn't want to be there. If we get the Mk1 version of Wilder we'll be fine even if we do get relegated
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Surprised he even bothered with the Watford job. Even if he did well it was never going to last long with their bizarre ownership.

I do feel he should have done more at Boro though.
 
Anyone know anything about this? Got sent it earlier but I'm not on Facebook.
IMG-20231210-WA0003.jpg
 
HarryHaslam said:
Mate that is the reason why he was in the job longer than he should have been, people making excuses for him. He was so far out of his depth it’s unreal and Wilder has shown that in only two games his tactics, organisation, shape, in game management are a world apart from Hecky.
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That was the problem, realistically we had two opportunities to get rid before we did. Either after the Newcastle game which given the circumstances the club were in at the time, I don’t think that would have been appropriate or after the Arsenal away game, which was an expected type of result. When we beat Wolves and drew with Brighton, Hecky wasn’t going anywhere but it was obvious after the Burnley game he had to go. Realistically how the fixtures fell and how we were so close but so far in a lot of them, there weren’t many chances to offload. I still think the plan would have been targeting the Wolves game if we had lost that heavy he would have gone then.
 
DJR said:
I did want Chris Wilder to return, but more than that; this time last week it was evident that a change was needed.
Hecky was a great manager for United and when he looks back in years to come he will see that he served the club well.
But this season has been bad. I didn’t expect much, but we had some awful games and seemed at times to lose heart.
Football players are well paid and enjoy celebrity status, but they are sensitive creatures and they need confidence. Against Bournemouth and Burnley we watched a team incredibly low in confidence. Over the past seven days there has been a major boost in the players’ confidence. And that’s down to Chris Wilder. There’s a long way to go but we aren’t a push over any more and that’s a great thing after weeks of misery.
Well done Chris!!!
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With all due respect to Hecky, you always got the feeling that the ceiling under Wilder was always far higher.

He’s pretty much improved each club he’s been at.

Boro might be the exception but he gave them an initial lift and even when they were doing poorly the xG was suggesting it was only a matter of time until things clicked. They did. Just not under him.

Watford I suppose he can easily dismiss. 11 games, was it?

I’m sure I can find a post of my own painting the above in a different light (!) however it is a small sample size of a career that saw him win everything at Alfreton, constantly keep a financially struggling Halifax afloat, took Oxford back into the league, kept Northampton up and despite off field difficulties have them win League Two. Then comes his highly successful stint at United.

He has a track record and a very good one.

Hecky doesn’t really. His time with us will have done him no harm at all. Before that the jury was still out but a promotion won’t hurt his CV. But he was more evolution than revolution. Perhaps you can argue that is what it needed in the circumstances. Aside from going back to Wilder’s 3-5-2, he didn’t really evolve the playing staff that much or enhance the style.

He was a steady hand, nothing wrong with that, rather than an Inspirational Leader. That’s what Wilder can be and especially at his club.

In all honesty, he never should have left. So let’s hope he can kick on from here.
 
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I am a massive fan of Heckinbottom and I believe he managed a decent group of players very well. In his time in charge he eventually got the team promoted, including a transfer embargo and a crippling injury list.
His time in charge in the EPL was very difficult, with top players sold and the rug pulled from under him financially. He did the best with what he had available at the time.
Having said that, he reached his ceiling in the EPL and he has been replaced.

Well done to all those fans who backed Wilder as his replacement. I did not.

What Wilder has done is good for the fans and for the club. He has taken the same group of players and got them firing and full of self confidence.

Wilder would never have got another job in the premier league, or the top half of the Championship. SUFC is different. SUFC is his club, and his experience before managing United was very good at lower league teams like Halifax, Oxford and Northampton.
At Sheffield United, he is truly, ‘One of our own’.

Not just the best place for him, but probably the only place for him. So far he has galvanized a group of decent players into a useful side, with great purpose and inspiring performances. PH was never capable of that!

Happy to eat humble pie or whatever else is required. A great start but more needed.

If you look at PH and Wilder going into an away game at Chelsea, we have a chance and under Wilder, Chelsea look vulnerable. That’s quite a turn around when you keep PH in charge for the same game.

From ball boy to player, to manager, it’s been quite a ride, but hopefully Wilder is now more reflective and flexible, with same red and white striped blood running through him. That’s the difference.
 
I thought at the time that bringing Wilder back was a massive backward step after the shambles of the last season in the Premier League and the way he slinked out of the proverbial back door without a word.

We're in prime Wilder territory at the moment where it's a free hit for him, just like it was when he first took over from Adkins where the situation couldn't get a lot worse, like it was when we went up to the Championship and into Premier League for the first season - all of these were when there weren't a lot of expectations to achieve anything, no pressure and they went and performed with a team of players, some of which we had barely heard of and became heroes. After the crap we'd endured in League One, being a floating Championship side like a Bristol City/Preston/Millwall would have been a success, never mind what we went on to do.

The fact that the formation has been changed and the attitude of the team is a breath of fresh air. How much is down to Wilder and how much is down to Knill is open to interpretation but Chris will have seen plenty of us while he's been out of the game and known what needed to change and he and the staff have gone and done it and might have been what was needed when in 2020/21, he couldn't see the wood for the trees, hence the lift in results when Hecky took over. Unless, you're Alex Ferguson, groups of players eventually tire of the message coming from the manager and sometimes the only way to change things is to change the manager. Even Clough's Forest team were relegated in the end.

The starters, outside of Wes and Robinson are Hecky's players but so far, Wilder's getting a tune out of them which points more towards the previous management than anything else and that they needed something new and Wilder, to them, is a new voice and a new approach.

Plenty of games still to go but to at least avoid embarrassment is the first port of call and if we start to reel in the likes of Forest and Palace in the coming months, then all the better but there are some very small shoots of encouragement (cue a 5-0 drubbing at the weekend!).
 
I thought Wilder's reappointment smacked of a lack of longer term planning but it isn't surprising he's had an initial impact as the dressing room was obviously crying out for a different managerial voice.
But it's only two games. Liverpool was a bit of a free hit with players desperate to impress and Brentford were missing a number of key players.
It's a bit early to declare the right choice was made.
 
I think many people forgot that the main reason we go to the match is to enjoy it, and the fact of the matter is that under Chris Wilder's entire tenure it was an enjoyable way to spend your time (when we could). There's no guarantee that will return long term, but the first two games have already been back to that for me.
 
Working Class Hero said:
I think many people forgot that the main reason we go to the match is to enjoy it, and the fact of the matter is that under Chris Wilder's entire tenure it was an enjoyable way to spend your time (when we could). There's no guarantee that will return long term, but the first two games have already been back to that for me.
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You enjoyed the games in the relegation season?
 
Juries still out for me. Really enjoyed the game on Saturday, and it felt for the first time in ages, we had a system to suit the players rather than the other way round. Like any manager though, i'll give them 10 games to see what they can do.
 
It's not about being proved wrong for me, we should all realise what we're going to get from CWAK etc is what we've seen before..

I know we all know that we can't compete financially in this division, so we need to be fighting, pressing, and working for the 90 leave it all on the pitch and make up some of the quality gap that way, level the playing field as much as we can through the decent players we have giving a higher work rate.

Luton are having a right go, haven't been pummelled yet I don't think, they were in the game with Arsenal last week and Man City yesterday they played like we did when we came up under wilder last time just giving100% from kick off..

Edit : I'm behind him cause he's the manager, hope he sorts out some of those mysteries in the treatment room, hope the interviews ask about Jebbo and whats with him..
 
On Saturday we looked like we'd spent some time on organisation and shape on the training ground compared to the last 2 months of Hecky where we've looked anything but.
 
I thought it was a backward step but We have looked a lot more organised and competitive in the two games

We can only say it’s a success though if we

1. Avoid an embarrassing total.. get to more than 20 points would do

And

2. Are promotion contenders next season.

No one can save us from relegation now unless there. Is a miracle but achieving no 1 on the above list looked impossible two weeks ago
 

Harry's Game said:
I thought it was a backward step but We have looked a lot more organised and competitive in the two games

We can only say it’s a success though if we

1. Avoid an embarrassing total.. get to more than 20 points would do

And

2. Are promotion contenders next season.

No one can save us from relegation now unless there. Is a miracle but achieving no 1 on the above list looked impossible two weeks ago
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At least we only need 4 points now to be safe from Derby's record. I've no doubt we'll get more than Derby under Wilder. Under Hecky it was a potential, arguably a guarantee that we would set the new record. If we go down now, at least we'll unlikely go down without a fight and without embarassing ourselves, which is all I want.
 
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