Bramall Lane, the home of Sheffield United Football Club. (Photo by Lee Smith- Pool/Getty Images)Bramall Lane, the home of Sheffield United Football Club. (Photo by Lee Smith- Pool/Getty Images)
Bramall Lane, the home of Sheffield United Football Club. (Photo by Lee Smith- Pool/Getty Images)

Sheffield United star poised to leave this summer as pundit compares Chris Wilder to Manchester United legend

The fallout from Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United departure continues – and will do for some time.

Wilder parted company with his boyhood club officially on Saturday evening, with Paul Heckingbottom taking care of first-team duties until the end of the season.

And life without the 53-year-old began in the worst possible fashion following a 5-0 defeat at the hands of Leicester City.

The result and Billy Sharp’s emotional and honest post-match interview, has a number of pundits fearing for the club’s future.

As former defender Martin Keown put it on Match of the Day 2: “They were in shell shock, weren’t they? He was their messiah, their Sir Alex Ferguson really.

"You think of what he did at that football club – he was their leader.

"Today, they didn’t look like they were really up for it, they almost seemed to be mourning.”

Jermaine Jenas added: “The fear now is, what next? This feels like a team to me that could potentially be completely dismantled.

"Chris Wilder was the one who dragged them up from League One, held them all together and they’ve lost that now."

And one player who is already linked with a summer exit is defender Kean Bryan.

According to The Sun via HITC, the 24-year-old is poised to leave Bramall Lane at the end of his contract, three years after joining on a free transfer from Manchester City.

Here are the latest headlines from Sheffield United and their Premier League rivals: