Sheffield United: Shock Chris Wilder news throws up more questions than answers over Blades' future direction

Defeat in the play-off final at Wembley last month did nothing to strengthen Wilder’s position while COH Sports’ well-publicised focus on data-led signings and AI utilisation, which has also left several Blades recruitment staff also facing uncertain futures, is not exactly aligned with the manager’s preferred way of working.

But it is not going away, with 20-year-old Ehije Ukaki the most recent recruit earlier this week. With technology supposedly putting the whole of Europe at their fingertips, COH have now signed two Nigerian wingers from the same club, Bulgarian top-flight outfit Botev Plovdiv, and are exploring further players from the Parva Liga as their Bramall Lane revolution gathers pace.

The data-led approach has led to comparisons amongst some supporters with Brighton and Hove Albion and Brentford, the two poster-boys of progressive recruitment who use vast banks of analysts and scouts to identify talent. It helps that their owners, Tony Bloom and his former protege Matthew Benham, were in the analytics game already, with both clubs ploughing both vast resources and time into the project.

Chris Wilder's Sheffield United shock future worry spits out more questions than answers

Brentford, interestingly, also decided to do away with their academy and instead adopt a ‘B-team’ model. Arguably the jewel in United’s crown currently is the Shirecliffe talent factory, with Oliver Arblaster and Andre Brooks and Femi Seriki and Sydie Peck (and Will Osula, albeit in a financial sense after his £10m sale) all more than contributing last season.

It will be fascinating to see how the owners’ recruitment model tallies with United’s own successful production line, and what steps - if any - are being taken to ensuring that the pathway doesn’t become blocked up.

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No-one - least of all Wilder - would decry the value of using analytics to shape their recruitment. It’s something United have always done in the manager’s time, going back to Paul Mitchell’s tenure as head of recruitment. The difference was that data informed, rather than dictated, with expert eyes assessing both a player’s ability and, equally as importantly, his character.

Your view on whether Wilder should remain in post or not will likely reflect your opinion on last season. Was it a failure to not gain promotion, being undone in the 95th minute of the 49th game, or did Wilder do superbly well to guide United to even that close, given the major rebuild work that he oversaw in the summer after relegation, amid a boardroom power struggle and ahead of a minus-two point start?

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The choice, for United’s owners, essentially now boils down to evolution or revolution; tweaking the path the club is currently on, or tearing it up and changing course entirely. It’s difficult to imagine the concerns that have prompted this dilemma weren’t apparent less than five months ago, when they handed Wilder a new three-year deal. If they were there when United lost at Wembley, have almost three weeks essentially been wasted, with less than two months before the new season starts?

Rosen and Co. could do worse than pick up the phone and pick the brains of their predecessors in the Bramall Lane boardroom. After Wilder’s first departure, and Paul Heckingbottom’s ship-steadying caretaker stint, Prince Abdullah and Co. tore up the script and went with the left-field appointment of Slavisa Jokanovic.

On paper, it made a lot of sense but in reality, it proved a spectacular failure. The Serb was supposed to signal the start of a new dawn at Bramall Lane; instead he was sacked 22 games into a three-year deal, with United 16th in the Championship. Is history about to repeat itself with another bold decision in the offing? So many questions persist, with only one real answer; that only time will tell.