Sheffield United’s resolve is the measure of Jamie Vardy’s rise

But their ability to draw strength from adversity and prosper in their own careers, does.

The Blades lock horns with Leicester City’s Steel City-born talisman tomorrow in a Premier League fixture of key significance in the push for Europe.

It was in Wilder’s birthplace of Stocksbridge where Vardy cut his teeth in non-league circles and began his epic journey to becoming a top-flight champion and England international.

The Blades chief is full of admiration for the remarkable footballing story of Vardy – a Sheffield Wednesday fan who was released by his boyhood club – but is also proud of his players’ own rise to stardom, even if it is not quite as spectacular.

Wilder said: “Not many people have a stellar career. Everyone has to deal with disappointments and how do you do that?

“Injuries, managers that do not fancy you – it is how you recover. Our boys have had plenty of experiences and will do going forward, either during games or seasons or parts of their career.

“It is the measure of you as a player and a person how you deal with that. From a professional point of view and watching him (Vardy) in his career, it has been a magnificent effort.

“I go to the pub after a win and people say: ‘I could have made it but had an injury’ Well, it was not you because you did not do it. You did not prove it like Vardy did, so you deserve to be in the pub and have the career you had, not the one Vardy had.

“He keeps going, so he deserves everything that comes his way, even though it is from a Blade to an Owl.”

Meanwhile, Wilder has called on the perpetrators who targeted David McGoldrick for racist abuse on social media to be punished severely and believes that the authorities who monitor all outlets must do more to stamp out the sickening trend.

On Monday morning, the Blades shared an image from McGoldrick’s Instagram account showing the abuse, with the Blades player writing “2020 and this is life”.

“The severest of punishments need to be handed out. I am a big believer in education, but there has to be a price to pay for people who do this,” added Wilder.

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