Chris Wilder to be fired as Sheffield United manager today

Chris Wilder is locked in talks about his impending departure from Sheffield United on Friday morning and is expected to be gone by the end of the day.

Tensions between Wilder and the club’s owner Abdullah bin Musa’ad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud have reached a point of no return.

Sportsmail revealed last week that Wilder would almost certainly leave by the summer and can now disclose that the manager’s deteriorating relationship with his boyhood club has got so bad this season that he and the club first held talks over his departure back in January. At that stage both parties stepped back from the brink.

However the relationship between Wilder and the club’s board have only got worse since then.

Indeed the League Managers’ Association have been aware that they were about to be asked to mediate for weeks. Wilder and the club are expected to come to a mutual consent agreement for his exit.

Wilder – who led the club to the Premier League from League One and almost qualified for Europe last season – was last week still clinging on to hope last week that he could stay beyond the summer.

Even after Sportsmail broke news that he was certain go, he was sending the board a list of four circumstances under which he believed he could stay and move the club forward.

Specifically – he indicated last week – he wanted to keep his best players when bottom club United go down this summer, bring in four loans to improve the squad, improve the training ground and keep in place the existing structure for selling and buying players.

In relation to the last point, that was key to Wilder’s chances of staying.

He had feared for some time that the club wanted to take responsibility for buying players away from him and suspected the club would appoint a director of football.

Senior sources at Bramall Lane told Sportsmail last weekend that this would not happen.

What is not in doubt is the fact the club were unhappy with Wilder’s work in the transfer market last season. They did not give him a penny to spend in January window.

Wilder, for his part, could if he wished point to his identification of targets who have subsequently gone on to do well at other Premier League clubs. These include Jesse Lingard – starring at West Ham after a loan from Manchester United – Aston Villa duo Matty Cash and Ollie Watkins and defender Ben Davies who could have come to South Yorkshire from Preston in early January prior to eventually moving to Liverpool.

Work to upgrade the club’s tumble down training ground had been promised by the Sheikh but so far nothing has happened.

Wilder’s players have been training on just one and a half pitches during the winter and his frustration with that reached a peak recently when part of a roof at the facility caved in. The owners had reassured him that they were still committed to the work.

The terms of Wilder’s departure may well take time to thrash out. He was due to take a significant contractual pay cut for next season if it was to take place – as expected – in the Championship.

The Blades are bottom of the Premier League having won just four of their 28 matches this season. They sit 12 points from safety.

Back in December, Wilder admitted he would walk if he thought it was the right thing to do for the club.

‘I’d only do that if I thought it was the right thing for Sheffield United,’ the 53-year-old told Sky Sports. ‘That’s the only time I would do that.

‘The club means far too much for me for it to be about me. It’s about what happens for the club. Whether people above me are giving me their support, or the decisions or whatever, I understand and respect that. I’m working away. I talk with the owner and we’re not happy with the results, of course. He isn’t and I’m certainly not.’

Wilder took over at Bramall Lane in May 2016 and took them from League One to the Premier League in three years.

In their first season back in the top division they were a breath of fresh air under Wilder with their overlapping centre backs and resolute back-line guiding them to ninth – but things have not proven so straightforward this season.

Defeat to Southampton in their last league match left Wilder dismayed and of the belief that something has to change.

It was their fifth defeat in six and they produced only two shots on target in a 2-0 loss that dealt another huge blow to their survival hopes. After the game Wilder was unequivocal in comments their needs to be a ‘shake-up’ at Bramall Lane.

‘It needs a bit of a shake-up in terms of a few bodies going out and a few bodies coming in,’ he said. ‘There are a couple that need to go. They have to go at the end of the season.

‘I’d like to shake it up a little bit more quickly but the rules and regs now, for that, don’t allow me to. Obviously, the hand that I’m given at the moment is a pretty tough one with some of the players that we have to go with.’

Read Also: Spanish club celebrates Sadiq Umar debut Super Eagles invite

The Blades travel to high-flying Leicester City on Sunday before an FA Cup quarter-final against Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea a week later.

Under-23s boss Paul Heckingbottom is set to take charge at the King Power stadium.