Chris Wilder was relieved of his duties as Sheffield United manager this morning and the next man to take charge has already been chosen.
Under 23s coach Paul Heckingbottom will take over in charge of the first team for this weekend’s trip to the King Power and will likely be interim coach at least until the end of the season.
It looks almost certain that Sheffield United will be relegated and it isn’t uncommon for relegated teams to keep their temporary manager for the following season. Bournemouth did it this season with Jason Tindell, who got sacked last month. West Brom tried it 2 seasons ago with Darren Moore, who got sacked partway through the season.
Heckingbottom doesn’t have any Premier League experience and his recent jobs haven’t gone particularly well. He was sacked as Hibernian manager after just 9 months with the Leith club 10th in the Scottish Premier League. He was sacked as manager of Leeds in 2018 after just 4 months in charge before being replaced by Marcelo Bielsa.
His role probably won’t be to try and keep Sheffield United up, but it will be to see them through to the end of the season and if things go well, try and get them back up again next season.
