Billy Sharp makes Sheffield United managerial admission after Chris Wilder revelation
Billy Sharp is planning to step into coaching following the end of an outstanding playing career - and he wouldn’t mind following in Chris Wilder’s footsteps one day.
Billy Sharp has reaffirmed his desire to manage his boyhood club one day in the future - but admits he has plenty of work to do before he can consider taking the reins at Bramall Lane. The former Blades skipper officially hung up his playing boots over the weekend.
Coaching has long been an ambition of the 40-year-old former forward, who was offered the chance to rejoin United in a backroom capacity in the summer. There was also talk of Sharp returning to United as a striker coach in recent times, but that didn’t materialise.
He is now targeting his pro licence as he looks to take the next step of his career post-playing, with current Blades chief Chris Wilder paying tribute to his former captain earlier this week and revealing the conversations they had had about a potential return earlier this summer.
But the timing wasn’t right, with the arrival of a newborn baby for Sharp and his wife Jade a factor in his decision to take some time out before committing to his next move.
“I’m not going to hide away from it, I’d love to be the Sheffield United manager one day,” Sharp said. “But I know that I’ve got an incredible amount of work to do before I get to that and before I would like to do that as well.
“I’m not shying away from hard work. I know I’ve got to go and put the hard yards in, which I love. I’m passionate about football and I will do that. I’ve been planning this for 12 years, where I’ve been getting my coaching badges. The next one on my list is the pro licence.”
Part of the appeal of coaching for Sharp, who scored more than 100 goals for United across his three spells at the club he grew up supporting, is the possibility of recreating the feeling he enjoyed so much as a player over his long playing career.
“I’m determined to get that adrenaline rush - or as close to it as possible anyway - of scoring goals,” he added, speaking to BBC Radio Sheffield. “I think the only way you get that in football is to manage a team, work on something and it come off on a weekend.
“I’ve been on a diploma that does test you and it puts you off. Do you really want to do it? But yeah, if I have to go down the line of coaching, I’m more than happy to do that.
“I think Chris Wilder alluded to it in the last few days, about the opportunity that was offered by Sheffield United.
“Yeah, it was a coaching role in some capacity; maybe not with the first team but with the academy. And it’s not that I didn’t want to do it and it’s not that I don’t want to do it.
“It’s the fact that we’d just had a newborn baby come along and I was making this big decision to retire, and I feel I needed time to reflect and enjoy this time of retiring. But who knows? Maybe one day in some capacity I will be back … and it’s certainly something that I want to do.”