Ruben Selles: Sheffield United boss says he has board’s support

Talk that Selles’ predecessor Chris Wilder could make a swift return to the Bramall Lane dugout is rife in the Steel City – and BBC Radio Sheffield’s Rob Staton says there is substance behind it.

Boyhood Blades fan Wilder was sacked in June despite leading them to the Championship play-off final last season, with Selles brought in as his surprise replacement.

“It’s more than a rumour,” Staton told BBC Radio 5 Live on Saturday. “Chris Wilder loves Sheffield United and I think he would be interested in coming back.

“Let’s not forget, he got 92 points last season and should have won that play-off final against Sunderland. They were the better team for 70 minutes and blew it at the end.

“This has been a mistake by the owners that they can rectify, and perhaps they will go down that road and it can happen quite quickly. We will see.

“The problem is that at Sheffield United you don’t have one person making the decisions.

“You have a number of different people who all have their say and I suspect that what happened in the summer was you had some people wanting to go in one direction, some people who wanted to carry on in the direction they were going, and everybody was having their say.”

However, the nightmare nature of Selles’ start could persuade the Blades boardroom to make a quick U-turn on that decision, Staton believes.

“The expectation is there’s going to be a change, after six straight defeats at the start of the season with a club that is expected to be up there,” he added.

“If you are sounding out your former manager, you would imagine the writing is on the wall and maybe this is now about going through the process of making that change.

“Perhaps those voices who had the strongest say in the summer are not quite as loud now because the plan they have gone with, of Selles and a transfer policy using AI, has not worked.

“So they’re going back to the plan that did work. Chris Wilder is Sheffield United’s greatest-ever manager alongside Dave Bassett and the players that are playing so poorly for them at the moment played very, very well under Wilder last year.

“If they rectify this and move quickly they can still salvage this season.”