Wilder sacked: Blades owners put their heads above the parapet

Chris Wilder’s second spell at Sheffield United ends not with failure, but with fallout. Sam Parry unpacks what happened and why.

Sam Parry:

What just happened?

COH Sports used no shock and awe tactics to sack Chris Wilder. The rumour had been loud and getting louder since the final whistle at Wembley. There will now be reprisals and reappraisals at Bramall Lane, not because of Wilder’s failure, but his success.
Having kept quiet since the takeover, the owners have no doubt made their first misstep. Not necessarily in the dismissal itself, as that will be judged on results, but the manner of it. Their sharp-suited professionalism and clean-cut image was abandoned for melodrama, amateurism and dreadful comms. If you’re going to cut loose a figure like Wilder, you have to approach the task with a sharp knife, not a blunt instrument.

Talks of a split on the board, some for and others against Wilder’s sacking, may go some way to explaining the leaks and murmurs. By midnight on 12 June, the scale of the reporting made it impossible to pull back from the brink. I can’t help but feel that was the plan all along. We’ll never know the true extent of the cock-up or the conspiracy. But once you boil the equation down to one of employer and employee, then no sane person would argue against the fact that Chris Wilder was treated abominably.

Why did it happen?

No employer sacks someone for their success. There has to be a failing or a perceived failing, whether personal or professional. Wilder has always been brash. But a lack of subtlety and an inclination for dancing on tables after big wins, whilst it contrasts sharply with the image presented by COH Sports, is surely not the cause.

Was it the play-off final defeat? Given the owners’ clear and unambiguous preference for data analysis, it would be odd if they judged Wilder on the 49th game alone. Neither do I think the four-game slip-up towards the end of the season was enough to conclude that Wilder’s management risked a points tally capable of promotion. The 92 points would have secured promotion in almost every previous Championship season.

Was it general performance? Sheffield United finished the season with an xG lower than Sheffield Wednesday. Wilder was dogmatic about playing the most influential player, Gustavo Hamer, on the left where his influence would naturally wane. There are question marks over how Jesurun Rak-Sakyi was used. With 49 carries into the penalty box, more than double the second-highest player by that metric, the Palace loanee provided a threat nobody else could. Instead, we saw Brewster or Ben Brereton Díaz pushed there, providing much less of an attacking contribution.

Perhaps those against Wilder in the boardroom were watching the wins against Watford (H), Derby (H), Swansea (A), Bristol City (A), Sunderland (H), Millwall (A), Plymouth (H), Swansea (A), Derby (A), Portsmouth (H), Luton (A) and wondering, like many fans, how, on the balance of play, we ended up with three points. Perhaps, like many of us, they saw a team who almost certainly can’t repeat the trick by playing in the same cautious manner next season. And to be fair, I don’t believe it is a repeatable trick. If it were possible to copy each level of performance from Gameweek #1 to Gameweek #46 in 24/25 and paste them onto every game week in 25/26, then we could feasibly have 20 fewer points, especially if Michael Cooper and Gustavo Hamer are no longer present. Wilder said, “Stick your data where you want to stick your data.” It’s possible to construe that data as counting against Wilder in the end.

And yet, for all that Wilder got wrong, you cannot get away from 92 points. You just can’t. It is an achievement that outpaced expectation. If there is a manager out there to take a squad and maximise the number of points it can accrue, then it’s Chris Wilder. And that leaves one reason: a stark difference in Wilder’s and the owners’ approach to running a football club.

Put the reins in his hand and let him steer; that’s how Wilder flourishes. Contrary to many assumptions, he’s actually loosened that grip since his first reign at Sheffield United. Stints at Middlesbrough and Watford were proof enough. But even in his second coming, the Prince is reported to have stopped the signing of the injury-prone Oli McBurnie and Andre Dozzell in favour of Kieffer Moore and retaining Sydie Peck. The new owners too have operated outside of Wilder’s zone of influence. But both, until now, have only skirted around this battle for control. The sacking then reflects a change in how the club operates. And for Wilder, he not only leaves with his head held high, but on his own terms; terms he almost certainly was unwilling to compromise on.

That, ultimately, was the wedge. But what is the new process? It’s the economy, stupid, or rather the trades. It’s players and recruitment. Who plays? Who signed them? It’s a power move, for good or for ill.

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What does this tell us about the new owners?

COH Sports have now raised their head above the parapet.

We have so far only glimpsed the owners’ approach to running Sheffield United Football Club. Their emphasis on data as the principal method of recruiting young players suggests a more casual relationship with risk. AI-led recruitment isn’t necessarily reckless, but in our case, it’s speculative. Cáceres, Nwachukwu, Cannon and Ukaki aren’t sure things, they’re bets. Their arrival is a gamble on their future. Ask any professional gambler, and you lose more bets than you win, whilst winning more money than you lose. They only have to nail one to get a massive return.

However, their signings so far are deeply questionable on two levels. First, there is no proof that AI has been used in any meaningful way. Fans should question its presence. Second, the quality of signing—Cannon aside—is so clearly flawed that if the much-talked-about AI processes have been deployed, they’re clearly deficient. The three overseas players lack the physical quality to ever play at the top end of the Championship, never mind the Premier League.

Still, these are early steps in the process. There may be a superstar on the horizon. But there also may not. Either way, the consequences of their recruitment—foisting young players ill-equipped for the level upon a football club—could impact on what is a quality academy by blocking pathways for others to rise up the age bands and, eventually, get into the first team. That’s something to watch.
Tom Cannon’s arrival is the more interesting wrinkle. Assumed to be a Wilder signing, the signs were there from the outset that he was identified by the owners. Wilder’s boilerplate statement at the time pointed in this direction:

"This significant signing is a collaboration of the work of the recruitment team, our own eye and the data we have, because Tom is right up there with his stats – he is also the style of centre forward we believe will boost the squad. A number of aspects have come together and the result is we have another very good player as we embark on the second half of the season."

How the Blades now recruit first-team players is going to tell us a lot about COH Sports and whether or not they are in any way serious. Whilst Cannon’s start to life at Bramall Lane hasn’t been an overwhelming success, his profile—a young striker with time on his side to grow—is one that most fans welcome. At the same time, to achieve anything like the 92-point haul of 24/25, Sheffield United will need experience. Will the new manager be allowed the room to bring his own targets in? Will the owners’ reach stretch closer and closer to the Bramall Lane pitch? Who will the new manager be, and how much control will they really have?

It’s a chaotic moment. And embracing the chaos can be fun. But if the starting XI on the opening day is full of owners’ picks and players who clearly aren’t up to the task, then the reason for the sacking is going to be bell clear.

What does this mean for the club’s identity?

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, what does this tell us about the identity of the football club? More than any other football club, Sheffield United’s identity has been tied to that of its manager. In my lifetime, Adrian Heath, Steve Thompson, Neil Warnock, Kevin Blackwell, Micky Adams, Danny Wilson, Chris Morgan, Chris Wilder and Paul Heckingbottom all managed Sheffield United having had prior association with the football club or the city. We have a type.

We have a story we tell ourselves that this is the only type of manager who can be successful. It’s not a story based on reality, but none of the best stories are. But make no mistake, Wilder’s ousting isn’t a new chapter but a whole new book, and we can only judge it on its cover.

All football clubs are rooted in the history of their own existence. But over the past 30 years, few teams have worn nostalgia and suspicion like Sheffield United. Unless we can break that chain, we will probably never grow beyond the 9th-place top-flight finish that Chris Wilder delivered. That is presumably the new owners’ intention. And so the question is no longer whether COH can take us further. Rain or shine, it’s whether we like what we see when we look in the mirror.