Success on the pitch despite uncertainty off it
This is the third time the Blades have been promoted to the Premier League, with all coming via second-placed league finishes.
They have spent the vast majority of the season in second place behind champions Burnley.
It is two days short of four years since Chris Wilder, who had guided them to the League One title in 2017, ended their 12-year top-flight hiatus.
The Blades-supporting boss then led them to an impressive ninth-placed finish in 2019-20 in their first season back in the Premier League.
However, things fell apart the following campaign both on and off the pitch. Wilder left the club in March before they finished bottom of the table with just 23 points under the caretaker charge of Heckingbottom.
Serbian Slavisa Jokanovic was appointed that summer but was sacked in November after a slow start to the new Championship season and further disagreements behind the scenes.
To the surprise of some, Heckingbottom was immediately installed as his long-term successor and oversaw a run of form that saw them go from 16th to fifth by the end of the 2021-22 campaign.
Although they fell to a penalty shoot-out defeat by Nottingham Forest in the semi-finals they carried on where they had left off when this season started and won seven of their opening 10 matches.
A run of six games without a victory followed but they quickly returned to form with seven wins in eight, including a 5-2 shellacking of Burnley, either side of the World Cup break.