Wilder leaves Sheff Utd as Selles takes over

After failing to secure a full return to the Premier League, Sheffield United have appointed Ruben Selles as their new head coach.

Selles, 42, was hired as the new Blades boss less than an hour after Wilder’s exit was confirmed, along with former Southampton, Reading, and Hull City.

In the Championship play-off final last month, Sheffield United defeated Sunderland in stoppage time in the championship title match.

Wilder, 57, was in charge of his boyhood team for the third time and had been trying to help them advance.

With coaches Alan Knill and Matt Prestridge also leaving, the club announced that he had “mutually agreed” with the club.

In a statement made via the club, Wilder stated, “I’m obviously disappointed to be leaving, especially given how close we were to returning to the Premier League.”

“I love this club and this city, and that feeling will never change,” says the Sheffield native.

Selles took over Sheffield United when the club was in the bottom three, leaving Hull in May, despite leading the Tigers to avengeance.

Before taking over as manager of Reading, the Spaniard previously spent 18 months in charge of Southampton and two interim stints in the Premier League.

Selles’ comments after taking the Bramall Lane role suggested that wilder’s claims of being uneasy with AI-led recruitment strategies may not be true.

It was crucial at the beginning of the discussions that everyone was on the same page, Seles said, “This is a very powerful and ambitious project.”

The most crucial thing is to remember the football spirit, even though we need to embrace data and new technologies.

In his first season in charge, Wilder led Bramall Lane to the League One title in May 2016.

Two years later, they were promoted to the Premier League, and they finished ninth overall in their inaugural season.

However, they struggled badly the following year, and Wilder abruptly left with relegation.

Prior to returning to Bramall Lane in December 2023, he had stints with Middlesbrough and Watford after Paul Heckingbottom was fired from the Blades’ Premier League bottom.

Before the narrow inability to secure a top-flight return at the first opportunity of asking cost him his job, Wilder was unable to stop their relegation.

The legacy Chris and his staff left behind here will never be forgotten, going back to when he first started out with the League One club when he first started out, according to a club statement.

He led the club to two promotions and a ninth-place finish in the Premier League between 2016 and 2021, evoking a period that will be remembered as one of the most fondly remembered moments in the history of the organization.

In December, Wilder completed a long-awaited takeover by American-based COH Sports, and he signed a new three-year contract in January.

They were two points clear at the top with seven games left. However, they then lost to Plymouth Argyle, Millwall, and Oxford United in three games in eight days.

Despite finishing the regular season with 90 points, Burnley were forced to reach the play-offs after another defeat, which was fourth in five games.

They won the play-off final against the Black Cats in the final at Wembley with a thumping 6-0 overall win over Bristol City.

The only Championship game in which the system was in use all season, VAR controversially ruled out a second goal, and Sunderland came from behind to win.

Andy Giddings from BBC Radio Sheffield

After Paul Heckingbottom’s disastrous summer of recruitment, Wilder’s second assignment was initially intended to be a salvage job.

In the end, it failed, but the seeds of change were planted.

Wilder, who is renowned for having a good plan, decided to change the course and, despite a sluggish, nervy start as a result of the club’s protracted takeover, put together the makings of a strong squad that managed to accumulate 90 points (92 without the deduction), which surprisingly wasn’t enough to earn automatic promotion, and which was ultimately defeated in the Championship play-off final.

Following that final game against Sunderland, it is believed that a split board decided to discuss a “change in direction” last week, which ultimately resulted in the dismissal of one of United’s most successful managers.

The delay in discussing his future and how long it has taken to figure out the matter demonstrates a lack of respect for Wilder, in my opinion, as well as a lack of clarity at the club’s top, and naivety in agreeing to offer him a new three-year deal in January, when it was widely known that significant changes to the club’s hiring practices were about to occur.