Sheffield United owner Prince Abdullah is one of very few people in football who might be glad that our grounds are still empty.
I’ve got a feeling that those Blades fans who would have normally packed into Bramall Lane next month for United’s next home game, against Arsenal, might have made their feelings known about the decision to part company with Chris Wilder.
And it wouldn’t have been pretty.
Last night Sheffield United finally came out with the long-anticipated official confirmation that Wilder was going – with a club statement describing their manager’s departure as by “mutual consent”.
Nothing that happens in football should surprise us anymore – and no doubt the Saudi prince would point to the Premier League table as a justifiable reason to act.
There are suggestions that Wilder is paying the price for what has gone on behind the scenes, but the bottom line is that he deserved the chance to have a crack at getting his boyhood club back in the top-flight.
Just recording that he won two promotions in three seasons after taking over the Blades doesn’t really do him justice.
He absolutely catapulted the Blades into the big time – and then guided them to their highest finish since 1975.
Talk about being a victim of your success. I’ve no doubt if Wilder had brought evolution instead of revolution then he’d still be in the job.
But then Sheffield United might not have spent two seasons in the Premier League and banked £200million in the process.
Wasn’t Wilder due a bump in the road? Pep Guardiola suffered a dip last season and Jurgen Klopp is finding it tough to defend the title this time.
Klopp has gone on record as saying Liverpool have really suffered from playing in empty stadiums.
I am told that Wilder felt his team have been similarly disadvantaged.
There are certain grounds where the supporters act as a 12th man when you need one most.
Last season, the Blades won nine Premier League games by a single-goal margin. This time, they have lost 14 by one goal.
Those kind of margins can turn on the input of the crowd.
Only last month, Prince Abdullah went on record to say that Wilder’s job would be safe even if relegation was confirmed. So, clearly, other factors have come into play since then.
I am sure that over the coming days and weeks we will learn the details of what caused the relationship between owner and manager to break down.
Will it be a genuine termination by “mutual consent” or has Chris jumped before he was pushed?
There has been talk of rows about the state of the training ground and a plan to bring in a director of football to oversee transfers.
That would certainly have been a blow to Chris. He would have felt he had earned the right to make decisions on who to buy and sell. But he won’t be out of work for long.
He’s a high-quality boss and a class act off the pitch too.
Plenty of chairmen, in England and beyond, will fancy a bit of that.
