The day Nigel Adkins all but asked for the sack at Sheffield United

Or, two of the best decisions if you want to look at it in a harsh-yet-very-fair way.

For on May 12, 2016 United announced in the morning that they had sacked Nigel Adkins. By dinner time Chris Wilder was the new man in charge.

The rest is history.

Adkins sacking should have come as no surprise and the writing was on the wall a few days earlier. Indeed he all but talked the board into his own dismissal.

A week previous their chances of making into the League One play-offs had gone at Coventry, thank to a 3-1 defeat. On final final day, a ‘lap of appreciation’ saw a handful of fans at Bramall Lane only hang around long enough to vent their fury after watching a dismal display in losing 2-0 to Scunthorpe.

Immediately afterwards, the normally unflappable and almost-too-nice Adkins let his feelings slip when asked about an atmosphere at the Lane that didn’t reach toxic because the place was overcome with apathy.

"I've come with, today's opposition for example, as a visiting manager and you know what the atmosphere is going to be like here. Always has been, probably always will be...that's just the nature of it," he said.

"You've just got to get on with it."

Those words didn’t go down well with supporters.

And the manager would go on to give the Board at United plenty to think about too.

"It's straight after the game, we've got a little period of time to go and reflect to make sure we give ourselves an opportunity to come back better and bigger and stronger next season,” he said.

That period of reflection lasted a couple of days and it led to the belief that if the club were indeed to ‘come back better and bigger and stronger’ they had to bring in someone new.

It proved to be the perfect call, helped in no small part to a slight delay in Wilder’s proposed move to Charlton.

One day, two big decisions and the beginning of a fantastic adventure.

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