Sheffield United confirm sacking of manager Ruben Selles with Chris Wilder expected to make remarkable return

Selles' time as Blades manager came to an end after just six competitive matches – all of them lost.

Wilder is expected to return for a third spell in charge. If he does, it will be the second time he has come back to work for the Blades owner who sacked him.

It was Selles who only replaced Wilder in the summer – five of them in the Championship.

The most recent was the worst of the lot, a 5-0 defeat at Ipswich Town on Friday.

A club statement read: “After a disappointing start to the EFL Championship campaign, Rubén Sellés has been relieved of his duties as manager.

“Following a review of recent performances, and taking into account the feelings of supporters, the timing of the change has been made to give the club the best possible opportunity to improve the current league position. The board of directors wish to thank Mr Sellés for his hard work. A new manager will be named in due course.”

Selles, who was sacked after leading Hull City to Championship safety in May, was undermined by the club's slow recruitment policy.

They paid transfer fees for two unproven Bulgarian league players identified by artificial intelligence – the main bone of contention which led to a parting of the ways with Wilder – but by the time the season started, Selles had only been able to loan three players for the first team, and suggested he was not in a position to pay transfer fees at that stage, despite the sale of Vinicius Souza.

That changed when Anel Ahmedhodzic and Kieffer Moore were sold, but his last seven signings came in the final seven days of the transfer window, by which time a rot had already set in.

He started badly by picking an unbalanced team and seeing them lose 4-0 to Bristol City, who they had beaten by a 6-0 aggregate margin in the play-off semi-finals in May. Afterwards Selles gave a team talk on the pitch, drawing criticism from ex-professionals.

Last season the Blades finished third in the Championship after winning 92 points – two of them deducted for past financial misdemeanours – and lost the play-off final to Sunderland. They were expected to challenge strongly for the title but instead were the only club in the Football League not to win a point in August.

That even crisis-torn Sheffield Wednesday manager that only made the situation worse.

Away fans voiced their anger after the defeat at Middlesbrough at the end of August.

But with his new signings available at Ipswich – albeit some were yet to train with the squad having been away on international duty – the Blades looked as disjointed and unbalanced as ever in a defeat to an Ipswich side who were also yet to win a game that season.

Even more damagingly for Selles, members of the club's ownership were at Portman Road to witness the job first hand.