Would Chris Wilder consider leaving Sheffield United to become the new Southampton manager?
It’s a hypothetical question, but one that has become slightly more possible with Saints parting company with Mark Hughes.
Hughes becomes the second Premier League boss to lose his job this season. The Hampshire club say they’re already looking for his successor.
Wilder to Southampton?
Back in April, former Blades captain David Holdsworth said Wilder would be well suited to the St Mary’s job.
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At the time the 51-year-old was a frustrated figure because of the disharmony at board level. Those issues between co-owners Kevin McCabe and Prince Abdullah have still not been resolved.
“There’s always a danger of Chris being poached, because he’s had a good season. If there’s a club that see they need a manager that’s proactive and certainly could structure a football club, then you wouldn’t look further than Chris Wilder, without a doubt,” Holdsworth told Sheffield Live TV.
“So if that was a hindrance to him and he got an opportunity to go somewhere else then that’s a big question that Chris is going to have to answer. We know he’s a Blade through and through, there’s no danger about that whatsoever, and it would be very, very tough thing for him to do, to walk away. But if he feels that he can manage in the Premier League, which I’m sure he does feel that, and quite rightly so, then what he doesn’t need is a year of disassociation with a board room that’s fragmented and that would only hurt him.”
He added: “You wouldn’t be surprised (if Southampton or West Brom were interested), would you?
“If you’re a Southampton or a West Brom and there’s a £2 million, £3 million clause in Chris’s contract, you pay it if you want him.”
Leaving Bramall Lane wouldn’t be an easy decision to come to for Wilder. However, with things as they are among the hierarchy then a move to the Premier League would be hard to refuse.