One-of-a-kind Wilder can write new Blades chapter
- Published
Love him or loathe him, football would be boring without people like Chris Wilder.
"I'm a big boy; you give it, you take it," was Wilder's response this week to a video on social media of Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford starting a chant about the Sheffield United manager, as their Yorkshire rivals celebrated promotion to the Premier League.
Pre-match, on the touchline, post-match or dancing and singing on a pub table, you never quite know what to expect from the Blades boss.
Barely a day goes by at the minute without a new soundbite, video, meme or AI-generated image featuring Wilder, whether that's from his own fans or rival supporters.
He's always been outspoken and opinion-splitting, whichever club he's managed, but add his boyhood love of Sheffield United, his journey from Sunday league to non-league to the Premier League, his history with the Blades as a player and multi-promotion winning boss, and you get a fascinating, box-office character in modern football.
Too often players, managers and executives reel off a string of clichés and bland statements, fearful of their words being taken the wrong way while trying to appease everyone. It can work, as some teams go under the radar and achieve success away from the limelight.
But football is about stories, moments and memories, winning and losing, and as everyone knows, every good story usually has a hero and a villain. And Wilder plays both roles, brilliantly.
Does he occasionally let his emotions get the better of him? Does he go too far with some of the things he says? You can argue he does, on both counts. But should he change his approach? Absolutely not, in my opinion.
Easter Monday's narrow defeat at Burnley brought an end to Sheffield United's hopes of automatic promotion to the top flight and confirmed a third-place finish in the Championship, and a place in the play-offs.
It was Wilder's 300th game in charge of his football club, across two spells, and the loss at Turf Moor now gives the Blades boss a chance to write another new chapter in his ongoing saga at the United helm.
It's a chance to end the club's long wait for play-off success, with nine failed attempts stretching back to the late 1980s. What a chapter that could be.
Chris Wilder has already started to set his stall in his interviews on changing the Blades' play-off narrative, and you can guarantee what he says, how he says it and what he does in the next few weeks, will elevate the drama and the intrigue, both in Sheffield and across the country.