Chris Wilder has been Sheffield United’s manager three times and played for them twice, but these aren’t his only jobs there.

Sheffield United’s decision to fire Chris Wilder after his team lost in the Championship play-off final at the end of the 2024-25 season proved costly for the club’s owners.

Wilder was replaced by Ruben Selles, and the squad was overhauled; however, after a disastrous start to the season, Selles was fired, and the club’s owners were forced to go back to the man they let go and ask him to return to the club that let him go at the end of last season for a third spell as manager.

Wilder’s return has at least steadied the Blades, who have moved out of the relegation zone and appear to be much more at ease in mid-table. And the fact that Wilder returned for a third term with the club came as no surprise, given his obvious affection for Sheffield United.

Since turning professional as a player forty years ago, Wilder has had two spells as a Sheffield United player and three as their manager, but these aren’t his only roles at the club.

Chris Wilder spent time as a ball boy for Sheffield United.

Chris Wilder’s professional career began forty years ago this year, when he returned to South Yorkshire after a stint with Southampton in which he failed to break into the first team.

But one of the more intriguing aspects of Wilder’s early career as a Blade is that he worked as a ball boy at Bramall Lane. According to Blades fan site The Pinch, he is not the only Sheffield United player to have done so, as previous Blades great Billy Sharp and Kyle Walker have also done so for the club.

Using youth players for this purpose is not commonplace in the game; some prominent former ball boys who went on to play for their teams include Phil Foden of Manchester City and Callum Hudson-Odoi.

Chris Wilder just can’t stop returning to the club that he loves.

Chris Wilder’s entire career is defined by the fact that he has always returned to Bramall Lane. It will be 40 years this year since he made his first-team debut against Shrewsbury Town in January 1987.

Wilder’s first time with the club as a player lasted until 1992, with loan spells at Walsall, Charlton, and Leyton Orient before moving on to Rotherham United. Over the next four years, he made well over 100 appearances for the Millers before moving on to Notts County and Bradford City before returning to Bramall Lane for a second tenure as a player in 1998-99.

Wilder is most intimately identified with the club as a manager, however. His current tenure at Bramall Lane is his third, having previously led the club from 2016 to 2021, as well as the two years preceding his dismissal at the end of last season.

His first exit as manager occurred when the club was at the bottom of the Premier League table. This was not surprising given the modern game’s emphasis on results. But his second sacking was surprising because his team was only narrowly pipped to a position in the top division via the play-offs after missing out on automatic promotion to two teams with 100 points each, which is clearly an unrealistically difficult standard for any manager to meet.

Sheffield United fans were outraged by the club owners’ decision to fire Willder at the end of last season because it revealed a basic misunderstanding of Chris Wilder’s relationship with the club. Whether as a ball boy, a player, or a manager, Wilder has always given his all to the club he loves.

At the very least, the owners recognized their blunder and rehired him in September. However, reversing the damage created by their disastrous start to the season has been difficult, and a playoff spot is unlikely this season. But Wilder is constructing something at Bramall Lane, and it is founded on a love connection with this club that spans more than four decades and has been felt as a manager, player, and even ball boy.