Chris Wilder has been sacked as Sheffield United boss close to a month on from losing the Championship play-off final to Sunderland.
Failing to guide the Blades back to the Premier League at the first time of asking, Wilder’s second stint at Bramall Lane ends after 18 months, having taken over midway through their relegation-doomed 2023/24 campaign.
The Independent understands his dismissal comes following a disagreement over recruitment plans and other issues.
Wilder spent five years at the club between 2016 and 2021, where he led Sheffield United from League One to the Premier League and even to the brink of Europe, finishing five points off the Europa League places in their first season up.
He took his total tally of games managed at the club to 305 during his second spell in charge in the Steel City, rejoining the Blades after stints at Middlesbrough and Watford.
The 57-year-old has now been let go three years before the expected expiry of his contract in 2028.
Sheffield United were part of three-horse race for automatic promotion from the Championship last term, but were pipped to the top two by Leeds United and Burnley, who both finished the campaign on 100 points.
The Blades, meanwhile, ended the normal season on a tally of 92, leaving them a sizeable 16 points ahead of fourth-place Sunderland as they headed into the ever-precarious play-offs.
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After dispatching Bristol City over two semi-final legs by an aggregate score of 6-0, they set up a Wembley showdown with the Black Cats, confident that they could emerge victorious in football’s richest game.
But after taking the lead in a dominant first-half, they failed to make chances count and would succumb to a dramatic comeback from Sunderland, with Tom Watson firing in a 95th-minute winner to send Regis Le Bris’s side back to the top flight for the first time since 2017.
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It leaves Sheffield United resigned to another year in the Championship, where they will be expected to join recently-relegated Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Southampton in the race for promotion.
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