Chris Wilder pinpoints Steve Bettis’s return to Sheffield United as pivotal

Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder talks to Oliver Norwood after last month's win over Leeds United at Elland Road (Picture: Richard Sellers/PA Wire).

Such a prospect is as good as it gets for lifelong fan and current manager Chris Wilder.

But had things panned out differently a year ago when he delivered an ultimatum to the board over the club’s future direction the chances are the top flight would still be a distant dream for both the 51-year-old and United.

“My words were honest,” Wilder says after admitting there was a chance he would have left last summer had those assurances from joint owners Kevin McCabe and Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud not been forthcoming, “as they always have been and always will be.

“I was open about it. I had a clear vision of how I wanted this club to go forward.

“I think what the players and staff had achieved allowed me to give my opinion.

“I have always said that I am an employee and I respect that status. But I am the type of guy who walks in the front door and I will walk out of the front door if it is not right.

“There were no threats, but it had to be right. I have to say the two owners got together and gave me an opportunity to improve the squad.

“We lost David Brooks (to Bournemouth for £11.5m), but with that money we strengthened and improved a little bit.

“The key for me, though, was Steve Bettis coming back as chief executive at the start of the season.

“We worked very closely with him in our first season. He then had a year out so for him to come back was key.

“That connection to the owners at any club – and especially at this club – is key. It needed to happen and it did.

“I didn’t go on the record and say I would leave, but we had to see what path the club wanted and what the owners wanted to do.

“Thankfully, to their credit, they got together and we improved.

“It is such a difficult league that if you stand still you go backwards. We had to move forward.

“We have to keep improving because everyone else is and if you don’t you will suffer and struggle, as we have seen.

“I didn’t want to undo the hard work of the first year and go backwards.”