In Focus with Chris Wilder
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If I've got this right, maybe I got you wrong, but I think you were manager when you beat Cambridge 3-1 in the FA Cup. Craig Midgley scored twice and I interviewed you outside the stadium down there. A few years ago, yeah. That would have been... Eight? Two thousand and... Less? Six, seven, eight?

Yeah, I left in eight, so it had been five or six, yeah, something like that, yeah. Do you know who might have been the Cambridge manager that day? I know exactly who it was. Yeah, it was manager of Saudi Arabia or something like that. Yeah, there was an article on it. Laferve or something like that, yeah. Oh, was it Laferve? Yeah. How? Yeah, he ended up the blonde-haired guy. Yeah. Ended up being in the World Cup. Mind you, you've not done badly for yourself. No.

And there's so much I remember. I remember us having, at Oxford United, having to quiet that drunk down. I can remember distinctly. You were trying to do post-match, I was waiting for you, and he was being lippy, so I went to quiet him, and then you stopped the interview and went, I had too much to drink, pal, have you? I had too much to drink. You gave him the wilder look. A little stare. You gave him the wilder look.

Well, it's nice to see the festivities have extended to the Manager's Matchday office here, Chris. I'm loving the tinsel and the baubles and the lights in here. Are you a bit of a Christmas curmudgeon or something?

Well it's not my gig is it? So it's somebody else to do. So I put the pictures up, I had an hand in the pictures. Yes I can imagine, particularly the one just over your shoulder there which I'm sure... What was that one? Oh yeah, I'm sure the good people of Sheffield will recognise the winner against the opposition a few weeks ago. It feels like it's been a really dramatic summer of change. It was, yeah it was.

We just talked about it, some incredibly difficult decisions to be made and some players who started the journey when I was first here that took us to ninth in the Premier League from six years in League One and then after me as well when

Paul was the manager as well, FA Cup semi-final, play-off semi-final promotion as well. So, yeah, some tough decisions to be made, but I think that as soon as really I stepped back into the building in December of last year, really a nigh on was...

what I needed to do in the summer as well because it was something that needed to happen and yeah, difficult but necessary.

I mean, you're obviously steeped in this football club, you'll always do what's right, but do you have to be very firm within yourself to steer something like that through? Because it's traumatic for the people that are no longer going to be coming in the training ground every day. I was emotionally attached to those players as well, yeah, of course we were, because we'd been through an incredible period of this club's history as well. Success-wise, you know, of course there was...

There was a relegation involved in that, so that has that emotion tied into it as well. So, of course, you know, it's... And I said it regarding from the passing of George, George Baldock, you know, you lose people through your life, you know, aunties and uncles and people you know that are coming to the end of their life, you know,

But from George's point of view, you know, incredible situation to lose somebody of that magnitude and that personality and character. And really somebody that was living with us for 11 months out of 12, you know, from 9 o'clock till 5 o'clock.

through training periods, through matches, through coach journeys, through hotel stays, right the way through. So I never underestimated how tight everybody was through that. But for the benefit of the football club, these decisions had to be made and they were. It needed freshening up. It needed a bit of a culture change. It needed some legs, some...

some athleticism into the team, some youth into the team which we managed to do in terms of promoting four or five of the young kids through our academy which takes an enormous amount of credit as well for what they've done for a long time to promote those young players, to bring new players into the group as well from our point of view. How have you been able to bind the new squad because it seems to have clicked very very quickly?

I think you've just got to give credit to those boys as well, coming into the group and wanting to learn and wanting to be part of a fabulous football club. So a lot of hard work went into the recruitment and always, from a personality point of view, I think that was the biggest thing that we needed to adjust and amend

It was an incredible difficult season last year for everybody, the Premier League. It's just ruthless and it exposes you and it punishes you. It ridicules you as well at times. Does that shock you? No. Maybe what happened to us last year might happen to a few of those other clubs this year as well. So they might get a little bit of that. But it's not nice and it's painful. We have to roll with it. The

the team and the club in my opinion wasn't set for a tough Premier League season and got exposed and paid the price for that and the supporters were the biggest

ones that had to deal with that. So getting them back onside was a major ambition of mine. And what I wanted it to look like, what they wanted it to look like was key and we've managed to do that in the first part of the season. I'm going to give you a very open question. You can take your answer off where you want to. Where is this football club?

Where it is, is another journey, I believe. The first one happened in 2016 after six years in League One. That started and for me personally ended, but still carried on. Three seasons out of six in the Premier League is not to be laughed at. It's a fabulous achievement. We need to try and get ourselves back in there. We're not afraid. We're not fearful of the Premier League.

It has moved on incredibly. It really has, hasn't it? It has from a financial point of view, from a physical point of view, tactical and technical point of view. It is so difficult for the promoted teams to get a foothold in the division as seen now with the likes of Ipswich and Southampton who've spent a couple of quid in the summer as well to...

to establish themselves in the Premier League. I think the narrative is that the teams that go up are going to come straight back down and

I should imagine two out of the three that go up will come straight back down. So that shows you how difficult it is. But when the door opens, you have to take the opportunity to step through it, as we did in the 2018/19 season, and go and attack it as we did. I don't think that'll happen again for a promoted team, especially how we went about it to get to ninth in the Premier League was an incredible achievement.

and obviously disappointing the season afterwards. But that's where we all want to be and that's where the players have set their goal and set their standard so far this season. But after, what, 20 games, we're in a fabulous position. You really are in a fabulous position. Yeah, we're in a great position. And I don't go along with any manager who would not want to swap positions with us. We're all after a win.

Yeah, we all want our teams to play well, but nobody ever wants to turn three points down and we've managed to gain quite a few of those so far this season. Yeah, but there's a point as well, isn't there, as we approach the halfway mark, where actually you can't play it down. There's a point where you have to ride the momentum and the 'we could be promoted' ticket as opposed to trying to go softly, softly. I think you must have been in one of our team meetings because that's the approach that I've gone with. You've got to embrace it, you've got to accept it, you've got a target on your back.

West Brom came after us last Sunday, put us on the back foot. We got through that challenge. Millwall were the same on Wednesday night. They came for us. So we've got to accept that and embrace it and enjoy it. Where would we rather be? We've worked extremely hard as a coaching staff in terms of the summer work, in terms of the preparation physically that we've had to put into the players from a tactical point of view in terms of changing the way we played. We've gone from

This 3-5-2 that everybody talks about and possibly sticks that on me, but I've coached quite a few formations as well through our career to get to the level that we get to, to do B licences, A licences, Pro licences, you have to coach all different sort of formations.

And the biggest thing from our point of view is we've changed the way we've played and the players have taken an enormous amount of credit of how they've accepted it, wanted to learn and wanted to get on with it. I've known you a long time now. I mean, we go back to Halifax days and through Oxford and Northampton and United the first time and Borough. The two and a half years you had away from here, how has that period changed you?

In the game you do a lot of reflection, you know, you do a reflection on your week's work, on the team that you picked, on the performance, through periods of season, through a season and when you're out of the game as well you do quite a lot of that. So you try and improve and I'm not fat and full. That's a great phrase, mate. Yeah, I've got a lot of enthusiasm. I think if you want to speak to any of the players they'll recognise that straight away, my drive, my ambition, my

personally and from the attachment to my football club is as big as it's ever been. A couple of difficult periods at Middlesbrough and Watford. I took the Watford job because I wanted to work. I'd like to think that my career won't be defined on 10 games at Middlesbrough, our club, your club at the time. So, yeah,

And you want to get back to winning games of football and especially going back in last season, I knew that it would be a difficult ask to keep Sheffield United in the Premier League. We tried our best, we were short on a lot of things, but reflection is huge in football and I've done a lot of that and trying to keep improving. There's no way I ever feel that I think I'm a worse manager than what I was five or ten years ago.

through experience I'm sure that I've learned through it and I'm keen to learn on that Well listen you worked for a long time to get into the upper echelons you put a decade and a half in there didn't you to get there Yeah over a thousand games so you know I think it's like a My god you look magnificent on that number of games The little Vaseline touch now and again on the lips and on the eyes Yes thank you

I've got a few tips off you as well. Thank you very much indeed. There is a fact sheet if you want it, viewers, the Wilder Clement personal beauty regime. Not sure about that. Yeah, football, let's get back to that. Yeah, you know, you just want to keep going. I always say, you know, experience, if you're not prepared to learn through experience and you just want to, you know, keep on the same track that you've been on then,

then I don't think it gets you anywhere. So I'm prepared to learn. You know, we've got young coaches at the football club that are enthusiastic and I'm learning off them as much as they're trying to learn off me as well. So,

trying to improve all the time and I think that'll always be the case. I mean I guess I just wonder because there was quite a contrast you know you come from the lower leagues and before you know it you're overall manager of the year you beat all the guys in the top division you've even been at one stage linked with the England job but I suppose it's true of life that sometimes it's just our turn for things not to go quite so smoothly our turn to be on the ropes is that fair enough? Were you lost at any point in that

No, I was disappointed because I definitely felt it was the right fit to go to Middlesbrough and we talked about it before. What a fabulous club, great chairman and I'm really disappointed. I made some big mistakes there as well that I look back on and regret as well. So,

I get it, I understand that. You have to own it and you have to get on with it. The Watford one was, I was in for 10 games and I looked at it and I could have gone and seen my mate playing the Ryder Cup or go and play at the Masters and I declined that. I wanted to take the Watford job for 10 games. So that experience, working in a different environment and a different climate with a different group of players that I'd been used to or dealt with before was great for me going forward as well. But yeah,

No, the enthusiasm and the drive and desire, as the players will tell you, and the coaches that I work with, is as big and huge as it's ever been. With all the ownership uncertainty, is there ever more pressure on you to be the figurehead, to try and have a sort of constant there? For those that don't know, Prince Abdullah, we think, has agreed to deal with a US consortium. It's been approved by the EFL, but...

I don't know what to say. Well, listen, I'm the voice of the football club. So, you know, my message to the supporters is, you know, Prince Abdullah's done a fabulous job. So, you know, that's not my remit. My remit was to sort the team out at the start of the season and rebuild and get the culture back to what it is. We feel we've done that. The supporters are enjoying what they're seeing. Of course, we want clarity. Of course, everybody wants to know what direction the club's going in. But,

Maybe a few years ago, Clare might have got involved in that. And now, maybe through experience, I've decided to go on with the main event, which is preparing and looking after the team and giving the supporters something to be proud about. Top of the table as we speak. I know there's a two-point deduction, but I'm not looking at that table. I'm looking at that table through the wins that we've got. More wins in the division than anybody else.

Coming up to the halfway mark, we're in a fabulous place and we want to keep that going and I'm sure that

if we concentrate on the main thing which is the football that we can do. You know what, you seem so remarkably comfortable in your own skin. It was great to see you with all the supporters of the group there and stuff. I think this season there's a little bit of feistiness about you as well. You're standing your ground certainly sort of in interviews and post-matches and stuff as well. When somebody upsets you, you have a little nibble on the ankles. Yeah, it's coming back.

I think that's in your character. I'm not an instigator. Some people might think I'm an instigator, but I'm a reactor. So it's coming back. I think you just get to that stage as well, that northern attitude comes out now and again. You see there's mischief in your face now as you're telling me this. I quite enjoy it, you know, I do.

Yeah, I'm a reactor, so if somebody pokes me, they're going to get it back. I think I've just come to that stage in my career and maybe in life, really. Maybe there's a few clubs out there that I'm not going to manage anyway, so we can write those off. But, yeah,

No, I back myself, I back my team. I'm incredibly loyal to the people that I work with, the players that I represent and the club that I love. So, you know, we have to be unbelievably connected if we're going to do well. This club, at its best, is connected and is all together. And if that gobby Norviner, who likes the sound of his own voice now again, says something that nobody else likes, well...

I think that's up to them to deal with it. Now listen, I've just had a nice lunch with you and your lovely wife Fran. You won't get so busy with football that you forget to nip to Mark's or something, will you? You get her a little gift. Yeah, of course I will. Don't spoil Christmas. Just because you're a Grinch in here doesn't mean you have to spoil it with the family Christmas. I won't do it. As always, brilliant.

The Football Daily Podcast. I'm Ian Dennis, John Murray, Ali Bruce Ball and myself are five live football commentators. We'll be hosting and getting together on a new podcast on the Football Daily feed. Bringing our own insight into what it's like being in the commentary box and in the media areas. If anyone's tuned in for this wondering what commentators we're going to talk about and thought it might be a little bit geeky then they've got exactly that in the first place. It's insight John. From Wembley to Wrexham and from Bradford to the

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