I feel like this should be the lead in to some US Presidential campaign, ‘Four More Years’.
Because that’s the sense that I’m getting from the amount of responses to the club’s tweets from yesterday. And in all honesty, you’d be struggling to find someone who disagrees.
Yesterday marked the four-year anniversary of a very special day at our club, it was the day that Chris Wilder was appointed as manager at Sheffield United, and boy what a journey it has been since then, both for the club and for the boss himself.
Taking us from League One all the way to being within touching distance of a Champions League spot in such a short time span is nothing short of incredible, and even more impressive when you look at the numbers that went into it.
Does Chris Wilder deserve a statue?
Yes
No
So yesterday the club dedicated more or less the whole day to a celebration of the time that Wilder has spent at the helm at Bramall Lane, with fans never going to be far away when it comes to the opportunity to pile praise on him.
And what a journey since chaps!
— ⚔️ (@S_M_R___) May 12, 2020
Best signing ever getting Chrissy Wilder back at the Lane.
— Andrew Birch (@AndrewB89653525) May 12, 2020
Don’t mind admitting I thought it was a poor appointment. Never been happier to have been proved wrong…
— aLeX (@M4Nt2) May 12, 2020
That is some win percentage. The man is a magician.
— Kerrie roebuck (@KerrieRoebuck) May 12, 2020
The best times these past four seasons 👍 UTB
— Sarah Jane (@Georgiecrumble) May 12, 2020
Only one word- GOD⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️
— Simon1889 (@Simon18891) May 13, 2020
Statue update?????
— Ben Burkinshaw ⚔ (@sufcben) May 12, 2020
I’ll say again, four more years?
I have to admit that I thought this appointment would fall flat on it’s backside.
Not because he wasn’t a good manager, but because I thought the boardroom squabbling and petty small time attitude would eventually wear him down and turn him into another jabbering wreck incapable of putting a decent sentence together.
Never mind trying to manage a crap football team that would stay crap if the boardroom had anything to do with it.
I just thought that as a fan he’d lose his s**t, admit it’s impossible, and walk.
I didn’t doubt he would be good, however I just thought back to the championship not close to champions league. The reason being his stints at Northampton and Oxford. Our useless board could be surpassed by Chris Wilder as he managed to get Northampton promoted and saved them from relegation with worse upheaval than even BDTBL. His “Apey?” speak at Northampton made me realise he was no patsy. He obviously had a plan, could adapt and bring the best out of players before he arrived. And biggest of all (I already knew the depth of his support before he came back through mutual acquaintances) he understood the club.
I didn’t think we would rise this far this fast but I knew he would be a success. I sent a message to Jim Phipps to go and get him before the end of the Adkins season as Northampton had already won Promotion and it would have given Chris Wilder a chance to see what he had before the start of the next season. But he had to go through those first trying games at the beginning of the League 1 season it didn’t do any harm, and perhaps the beers on the way back may not have happened.
His success is mainly because of his humility.
Unlike many other players and managers.
I wish Chris to keep his asset, humbleness is something that is very easy to loose.