Sheffield United flop linked with Championship return after rival sacked boss

Sheffield United managerial flop Slavisa Jokanovic is in line for a Blades reunion after being named as the favourite for the vacant Hull City job following the sacking of Tim Walter earlier this week. The German was axed on Wednesday after a 2-0 home defeat to United’s rivals Wednesday, which was Walter’s 17th and final league game in charge.

He left with Hull third bottom in the table - and with fans chanting for his exit with derogatory chants about his style of football - and with former Coventry boss Mark Robins the bookies’ frontrunner to be appointed as his successor after being sacked by the Sky Blues earlier this month. Steve Cooper has also been mentioned after losing his job at Leicester City recently while Steven Schumacher and Turkish coach Ismail Kartal have also been linked.

But Talksport have today claimed that Jokanovic is a frontrunner for the job, after a spell at Dynamo Moscow after his short time with the Blades came to an end. He was appointed as Chris Wilder’s permanent successor after relegation from the Premier League but failed to inspire a push for promotion and won just six of his 19 league games in charge.

Jokanovic was replaced by Paul Heckingbottom and a stunning turnaround saw the Blades climb the table and qualify for the end-of-season play-offs, where they were beaten on penalties by eventual Wembley winners Nottingham Forest. Heckingbottom then took essentially the same squad into the Premier League the next season.

Jokanovic was an overwhelmingly-positive appointment at Bramall Lane after his previous promotion success with Watford and Fulham but couldn’t repeat the trick at Bramall Lane, as he tried to implement his preferred style on a squad built to play a different way and was frustrated in his attempts to add to it with some natural wingers.