Chris Wilder's "rollercoaster" Sheffield United return in his own words after brutally honest admission

Just over 12 months ago, Chris Wilder pulled on a Sheffield United tracksuit again and returned to the familiar surroundings of the Shirecliffe training ground as the Blades’ new manager. He had answered the SOS call from his boyhood club after the sacking of Paul Heckingbottom and with the Blades mired in relegation trouble in the Premier League.

Wilder’s return coincided with an upturn in performances but the damage had already been done, with United going into the season painfully underprepared and ruthlessly exposed as a result. A painful relegation at least allowed the club to reset with so many players leaving Bramall Lane and the subsequent turnover allowing for something of a refresh.

The current season has gone better than many could have possibly imagined, with the Blades leading the Championship table after 18 games with just two defeats along the way. Ahead of Sunday’s trip to West Bromwich Albion Wilder sat down to face the media and opened up on the last year since his return to Bramall Lane...

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“Since I really started supporting Sheffield United in 1977-78, I suppose like every Sheffield United supporter, it's been an absolute rollercoaster with the ups and downs of being involved with our football club. I think I'm quite right to say we weren't in a very good place [last December] and there was a lot of work to be done in the summer.

Initially it was to try and get through to the end of the season and try and get some respectable results. Try and put a little bit of pride back into us as a group. Because we were battered and bruised as a football club, ridiculed in the harsh realities of the Premier League.

I talked about us maybe at the start of the season not really being set for a return to the Premier League and everything that surrounded that. I came in at a difficult time and we had a couple of decent moments, but not enough. I went on record saying the best part of the club was the support and the academy, knowing there was an incredible amount of work to be done in the summer.

That's my reason for not really talking about takeovers and everything else. Because my remit - personally and from the club - was to get us back into a good place during the summer. Whether it was recruitment, the rebuild, the connection back with the supporters, that's been my main focus.

But it was tough. It was really tough. I'm grateful to Prince Abdullah and the board for getting me back in. I'm grateful for that opportunity, but it was a tough time. It wouldn't have been met universally 100 per cent with acceptance but I felt a little bit of unfinished business to get us back into a respectable place in the medium and long term and I think we're well on our way to doing that.

It really was a punishing last four or five months [of last season] for everybody - the players as well. We had to see through that a little bit. I've been involved in the football club for a long time so one of the main advantages - even before I stepped in in 2016 - is that I like to believe I know what good looks like, when we're all at it and on the same page. That was one of the biggest things we had to get back to, being on the same page and ‘at it.’

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Right the way through from the start of the season you've seen that connection. And from the recruitment point of view, the work that's gone in to get the right players into the football club. In terms of the coaching and the preparation of the team, I think everybody would be delighted with our early work.

And most importantly, the personality and characteristics it takes to be a Sheffield United player and a Sheffield United team, we’re seeing in abundance. But there's still a hell of a long way to go. There are no guarantees, no shoo-ins. Nothing is won in early December, but we're in a decent place and I think we can all be happy with the work.

Over the year it's been a rollercoaster through difficult times to hopefully a time where everybody's enjoying their football and enjoying watching the team play. I am absolutely delighted in terms of where we are at the moment. I don't think anybody could have foreseen we would be top of the division at this stage of the season.

People were talking about whether we were going to go through the trapdoor again, is this the slide? Are we going to go back into League One. Which has happened before to other clubs.

Maybe it's been underplayed a little bit. People have this lazy opinion of us being set to go back up. ‘Everything's okay, we've just had a poor season, we've lost one or two players but really the group is a Premier League team that's had a poor season and is ready to go back in.’

The team wasn't a Premier League team last season. It wasn't. It got brutally exposed, there's no hiding place for that. I'm not trying to be controversial but it was miles off it, absolutely miles off it. We had fleeting moments - like the wins against Wolves and Brentford and a couple of other bits and pieces - but we were undercooked, we weren't ready, we were absolutely miles off it.

It was a complete rebuild with the number of players out of contract, the number of players who went back to their parent clubs, the movement of the players I had to oversee and players coming in. And I think one of the biggest things is the changing of the style and how we play.

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I've really enjoyed it, I know the coaches have really enjoyed it. Al [Knill, assistant manager] has really enjoyed it. The feel is there, there's a good feel about it, it's reminiscent of that feeling in 2018-19 when we went up. This doesn't go hand in hand, there's no guarantees because there's a long way to go, a lot of football to be played, but it has got that feel from every aspect, from me walking down the road on a Tuesday afternoon walking the dog and speaking to people. I can see people have got the twinkle back in their eyes and the love of the football club back.

Nobody likes losing, nobody likes being on the end of beatings, nobody likes to be ridiculed. We wouldn't have turned down that opportunity of getting into the Premier League, of course, whether you're ready or not. But the feel of winning derby games, the feel of last-minute winners at Bristol City, the feel of Tom Davies coming off the bench and scoring in a top-of-the-table game...

There's been a bit of pain in there, we understand, like the Middlesbrough and the Leeds game. But for us to be in the position is great credit to the work of the staff and the help I've had from the board in allowing me to drive that recruitment. And most importantly the players, in terms of their attitude towards coming to the football club, whether they were coming from a distance, coming on loan or already here and how they've connected.

Winning is always a good starting block, and we’ve got off to a great start but we've kept it going. We will have disappointing afternoons and evenings but it's how we recover from disappointment and how we keep driving this forward. I would say we're in a good place having seen all of the league, really, whether we played them or we know what's coming in terms of the forthcoming fixtures.”