Sheffield United Sack Manager As They Turn To Familiar Face To Save Them From Relegation

The first Premier League sacking of the season has arrived as Sheffield United confirmed the departure of Paul Heckingbottom.

The Blades also wasted no time in announcing Heckingbottom’s replacement, with Chris Wilder returning to the club.

The Blades have won just once in 14 matches this season, and this weekend slumped to an 11th loss in a 5-0 thrashing from fellow relegation candidates Burnley.

That saw Burnley leapfrog the 10-man Blades, who now sit bottom of the ladder and four points from safety.

It has been a torrid return to the top flight, with Sheffield United losing nine of their first ten matches with a goal difference of -22, the worst start from any side in Premier League history.

That included bruising defeats such as an 8-0 thumping from Newcastle at home, and a 5-0 loss away to Arsenal.

But Heckingbottom had been dealt a rough hand at Sheffield United since taking over at Bramall Lane in November 2021, with the club battling financial issues and being placed under a transfer embargo in January 2023.

The team has been mired in financial uncertainty since Saudi Arabian owner Prince Abdullah announced his intention to sell the club prior last season – even before they over-achieved by winning promotion with a second-place finish in the Championship.

A deal has still not been concluded, but the financial struggles saw the club sell its two best players – Iliman Ndiaye and Sander Berge – in the off-season.

Heckingbottom was given hardly any funds to reinvest in new players.

Former Blades manager Wilder makes his return roughly 1000 days after he was sacked by the club. Wilder led the Blades from League One all the way into the Premier League in 2019.

He secured a ninth-place finish in the top flight in 2020 with an innovative overlapping centre-back strategy.

But the next season United slumped miserably and Wilder was sacked with ten games remaining in the 2020-21 season, the club sitting dead last.

Now he’ll arrive with the club in a similarly dismal position, with no team conceding more than Sheffield United’s 39 goals this season.

Wilder was out of a job after a couple of ill-fated stints in Middlesbrough and most recently Watford, where he left in May after a short-term contract expired.

Heckingbottom is the first manager to lose his job this Premier League season. This time last year, five managers had already been sacked – Scott Parker (Bournemouth), Thomas Tuchel (Chelsea), Bruno Lage (Wolves), Steven Gerrard (Aston Villa) and Ralph Hasenhüttl (Southampton).

Sheffield United host Liverpool on Thursday