'Proper' - Tony Pulis makes Sheffield United prediction and shares Chris Wilder verdict as new season looms
Sheffield United have ambitions of climbing the Championship table this season after finishing in the bottom half in 2025/26.
Former Sheffield Wednesday boss Tony Pulis is backing Sheffield United to be a ‘proper Chris Wilder team’ this season, praising the club’s hierarchy for standing by him this time around.
After being sacked and replaced by Rubén Sellés in June last year, Wilder was back in the Bramall Lane managerial hot seat as soon as mid-September, answering the club’s SOS call after a disastrous start to the season under the former Hull City and Reading boss.
Sellés was sacked just six games into his United tenure after overseeing five Championship defeats and a Carabao Cup first-round exit at the hands of Birmingham City.
Although Wilder needed time to turn the Blades’ fortunes around, his side pulled well clear of danger and briefly flirted with the play-off places before eventually finishing 13th in the table. Incomings have not been as forthcoming as Wilder and the supporters would have liked so far this summer, but the Blades chief’s presence means that almost everyone believes United head into the new campaign in a much better condition than they did the previous one.
Pre-season results were encouraging, with Wilder overseeing four wins and two draws from United’s six friendlies, and they will be hoping to take that winning mentality into Sunday’s season opener against Mansfield Town in the Carabao Cup first round.
In the opinion of Pulis, who had a brief spell in charge at Hillsborough during the latter stages of 2020, he is confident everyone will see the version of the Blades that supporters have grown to expect under Wilder’s management.
“I think before the season even got underway, there was a real, widespread feeling among a lot of people that they were going to have a very good campaign, so the way things started was definitely a bit of a surprise,” Pulis told Midnite.
“It has been great to see that there has been no knee-jerk reaction from the hierarchy and that they have chosen to stick with Chris, but he will know as well as anybody else in the game that he has to be successful this year. If the results do not come, the pressure is inevitably going to build on him.
“You look at what happened previously and you wonder if the owners learned their lesson after trying to replace him, only to end up bringing him back into the fold quite quickly. In terms of expecting to see a proper Chris Wilder Sheffield United team again, I certainly hope so.
“I like Chris a lot, he is a good manager, and Sheffield United is a big, historic club. Sheffield is a fantastic football city overall, and for the sake of the area, they really need both of their clubs to be thriving and successful.”