Sheff Utd owners 'have learned from Selles mistake'

Ruben Selles lost all six of his games as Sheffield United manager after being appointed in June

Sheffield United chief executive Stephen Bettis has said the process to sack Chris Wilder and bring in Ruben Selles in the summer was "not correct".

The club's American owners COH Sports surprisingly replaced Wilder with the Spaniard in June after they had lost to Sunderland in the Championship play-off final.

However, Selles lost all six of his matches in charge and they re-hired the 58-year-old last month.

"I think ultimately they realised that the decision they made was a mistake and they've been open and honest about that and put their hands up," Bettis told BBC Radio Sheffield.

"I think you have to give them a lot of credit for that because they did that in a short period when they realised it wasn't working. They were big enough to say 'we've made a mistake'.

"They haven't lied about the situation, they are inexperienced in terms of their footballing history. They've come in and they want the best for the club but, like everyone, they will make mistakes along the way."

He added: "Did they go out and interview loads of potential managers? No, they didn't. Ruben was recommended to them, they met with him and got a really good feeling about him and the way he worked. They felt like he was aligned with where they wanted things to go.

"The process wasn't correct with how we made the change and we've discussed it and reviewed it since and the guys have learned a lot from it. The process wouldn't be the same in the future."

Wilder led the Blades to a third-placed finish before they were beaten by the Black Cats at Wembley in what proved to be the final game of his second spell in charge.

Their disastrous start to this season has seen them lose eight of their opening nine matches and they sit bottom of the division.

Since sacking Selles after a thumping 5-0 defeat at Ipswich in mid-September they have lost three of their subsequent games by a single-goal margin and Bettis is hopeful they can start to turn results in their favour.

"Chris has picked the team back up and I think there's maybe a lack of confidence and belief and he has to get that re-instilled into the players," he said.

"You take our most recent game [1-0 defeat at Hull City] where Harrison Burrows misses a penalty in the 87th minute. Last season he scores that and we maybe go on and win the game.

"You can see it's coming. Yes we're not winning many games but the results are getting a lot closer.

"We're becoming more competitive and hopefully those games start going the other way and we start getting some results on the board."