Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder makes admission on Sheffield Wednesday future after Dejphon Chansiri exit
Chris Wilder admitted Sheffield Wednesday can springboard out of administration and into a ‘bright future’.
The passionate Unitedite, who has made no secret of his natural dislike for the Owls across his three spells as Blades boss, spoke at length to pay tribute to the job opposite man Henrik Pedersen and senior Wednesday players are doing at the club in tremendously difficult circumstances.
The blue side of Sheffield is sat in administration, with new ownership on its way after the ousting of outgoing chairman Dejphon Chansiri. The identity of Wednesday’s new owners remains a long way from revealed, though there is a sense of optimism around the club that fortunes at Hillsborough can be turned around despite the likelihood of relegation to League One.
Wilder is something of a chief villain at Wednesday, with passions having been raised to new heights last season after post-match derby win celebrations had seemed to mock his former Owls counterpart Danny Röhl. Following the completion of their 1-0 Steel City double last season, the United boss started his post-match press conference with a passionate recital of his club’s leapfrogging of the blue side of the city in terms of league position and infrastructure.
United have had their own issues with ownership decisions in 2025 and though both teams enter the clash in the relegation zone, there seems little doubt that for now, the Blades are better set-up for success. He repeated themes of United’s city ascension in a jovial pre-derby BBC Sheffield special shared with Pedersen - but once again made clear that things can and will turn sooner or later.
Wilder said: “I’m not daft enough to think that’s going to last forever, especially if things positive happen for Sheffield Wednesday and they get taken over by people who want to invest and want to do things properly and not put the club in a perilous position. As I’ve always said, custodians. Maybe the last guy wasn’t really a custodian, he didn’t really have all the feelings of the Sheffield Wednesday public had. It’s really important that owners look after their football club.”
A sell-out crowd is expected for the Sunday clash, a reality far removed from the possibility of home supporter boycott that would have been raised had Chansiri still been running the club. Wilder broke into a grin when asked if the prospect of a bustling Hillsborough was preferable to a barren one; but made clear the opportunity freedom from Chansiri has and will deliver.
“This game becomes a lot more difficult for us,” he said. “It’s always going to become more difficult when you’ve got 30,000-odd Sheffield Wednesday fans after you - personally and as a team. I’m not expecting anything different. The handcuffs have been taken off Sheffield Wednesday regardless of the administration, the points deduction and whatever is set to come as well.
“Everybody understands in the city that there is a bright future ahead and that they are going to be a lot better for it. Let’s talk about this from a genuine point of view; I’ve never celebrated a Sheffield Wednesday victory, as I suppose Barry Bannan has never celebrated a Rangers victory. That’s just the way we’re brought up.
“But for the overall scenario, as a football historian and a football lover, what has happened to the players, staff around Sheffield Wednesday that have worked there for 15 or 25 years; what the players and the manager have to go through. It feels like a new beginning.”
Administration came with a deduction of 12 Championship points that has left Wednesday’s survival mission looking a great deal more difficult than it already did. United’s own summer of madness has cost them dearly and though the re-appointed Wilder sees encouragement in recent performances, not even a win at Hillsborough will be enough to take them out of the bottom three this weekend.
There seems little doubt the situation at S6 will take a great deal more turning around than that at S2, but with fresh ownership en route, Wilder is under no illusion the threat that can provide. Wednesday, he said, is a plum opportunity for a wealthy backer willing to go about it the right way.
“We’ve got our battle and our struggles in terms of the position we’re in and what we’re trying to do to change that narrative and that position from a league point of view. We all have that. We all understand as well that for Sheffield Wednesday to get out of this situation this season is going to be incredibly tough and they’ll have to go on an unbelievable run to do it.
“But what it does give is huge hope for the future. Everybody appreciates and realises, even in the red half of Sheffield, that the football club is an attractive proposition for someone to come in, dust it out, look after the ground, look after the training ground, invest in the academy, invest in the team and the football club. And they’ll come again.”