Sheffield United owner Prince Abdullah has announced the return of Chris Wilder as manager, replacing the sacked Paul Heckingbottom.
The Blades chief has explained to talkSPORT why he decided to part ways with Heckingbottom in the Premier League’s first managerial exit of the season, and why he has gone back to a boss he gave the boot in 2021.
Wilder is on his way back to Bramall LaneGetty
Heckingbottom initially replaced Wilder on an interim basis in March 2021, but now leaves the club bottom of the table with his last result a hugely worrying 5-0 defeat to fellow relegation-threatened side Burnley.
“Yes [I have made the decision].” the Prince confirmed to White and Jordan on talkSPORT.
“Chris is practically an honour of the club, he’s part of Sheffield United history. One thing I always like to do, not just in football but all of my businesses, is to keep a good relationship with my ex-employees no matter how it ended, I think you should get over it.
“At the end of the day we’re all passionate about what we do and we believe Chris is the right Man for the job.
“Chris has done great things for the club and in my opinion he’s the best guy on planet earth to take over the club right now in these circumstances.”
Asked what he would say directly to Blades fans about the call, the Prince said: “Listen to Chris.
“Chris is very optimistic he can save the season, he doesn’t think it’s easy, but he thinks it’s still possible.
“When you look at the table it’s a very special year, a very weird year when it comes to the standings, so it’s still early, the season is still long and we have every chance to achieve our goals.”
Heckingbottom led Sheffield United back to the Premier League, but has found things tough back in the top flightGetty
Sheffield United owner Prince Abdullah insists there is still hope for survival now WIlder is back at Bramall LaneGetty
The owner also discussed the January transfer window, saying: “We will look at where we are in the table and what we can do.
“It’s very early to talk about that but I can assure you one thing: me and Chris are on the same page when it comes to January and after January.
“We know what we have to do, we’ve looked at all scenarios and we know we’ve made mistakes in the past but if we need to do anything at any time we will do it.”
Discussing the decision to part ways with Heckingbottom, Prince Abdullah said: “I have mixed emotions about letting Paul go.
“I really have a lot of respect for Paul and everything he did for the club, he’s a very classy guy.
“I’ve been at the club for five years and we changed one manager and that was Slav [Slavisa Jokanovic], so we believe in sticking with the manager and supporting him.
“But I felt like after the last few games it was a necessary decision and the replacement has done great things for the clubs and knows the club, so I feel good about the decision in one way but I really have a tremendous respect for Paul.”
The Baldes owner came under particular criticism this summer for the sales of two of the stars of their promotion campaign, Sander Berge for £12million to Burnley, and Iliman Ndiaye for £20m to Marseille.
Explaining those calls, Prince Abdullah said it shows how much he and his ownership team care about the club, due to both players’ expiring contracts.
“If I was an owner looking only at my interests I would have not sold the two players,” he said.
“We were negotiating with more than one party to sell the club, the club is worth much more in the Premier League than relegated.
“We all knew that if we kept Iliman and Berge we would have had a better chance of staying in the Premier League and getting a better price, but I looked at the long-term interests of the club, not only me, and that’s why I’m very proud of the club.
“We came to the decision that with one year left on their contracts we looked at the long term interests of the club, we didn’t look at only this year and think ‘who cares about next year we won’t be here?’ we couldn’t keep those players and lose the club a lot of money
“Everything we do is for the benefit of the club. We have not taken money out of the club.”
