T’is the season. Not only the season for Whamageddon, a freshly-defrosted Mariah Carey and 14 quid currywurst from the Christmas Markets. But also the season for managerial sackings. As the nights draw in and the celebrities choke down their first kangaroo appendage in a far-flung jungle, now is the time of year where football chairmen take stock. We are past the point of the cliched “I don’t look at the league table until…” hand-wringing. Bad results are no longer down to “a slow start”. The well-worn football idioms hold no more water. It’s put up or shut up time and for a number of managers, their chairmen have decided its time they did the latter.
Sheffield United have parted ways with Paul Heckingbottom. The former Manchester United youth teamer got the Blades promoted from the Championship last season as runners-up. The year before, Heckingbottom took them to the play-off semi-final. All this despite spending some of his playing career with bitter rivals Sheffield Wednesday.
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But those second-tier achievements count for little when Premier League survival is at stake. Right now that feels like a far-off goal. The Blades are bottom of the table with just one win and five points accrued after 14 games. A goal difference of -28 tells you all you need to know about how they have coped with the step-up in class.
Sheffield United have turned to a familiar face in Chris Wilder in order to try and right the ship. During his first spell with the club between 2016 and 2021 he steered them to promotion from the Championship and their highest finish of the Premier League era the following year. Taking the top tier by storm, Wilder finished 9th with an innovative system relying on overlapping centre backs. The following season, opposing teams worked the Blades out, and Wilder was sacked after winning just 14 points across 28 games.
Wilder’s appointment this time is probably as much for what he did for United during their promotion season than their Premier League campaign. Survival is not yet impossible, but it would need some turnaround to keep Sheffield United in the league now.
What Wilder can do is implement a style of play and an ethos, something they have lacked recently. The 56-year-old can also get them back out of the Championship, as he has proven before. They say you can never go back, but it’s hard to think of many realistic appointments United could have made that would have been better.
Heckingbottom wasn’t the first sacking of the season and he won’t be the last. But his departure has come right in the thick of the traditional sacking season. Even this week, he is not alone in losing his job. Swansea City have parted company with head coach Michael Duff. Tony Mowbray has been let go by Sunderland. The end of the year is when a lot of us take stock and look to the future. Football chairmen are no different. Heckingbottom, Duff and Mowbray won’t be the last managers to pay the price during this winter of discontent.
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