With Chris Wilder back, Sheffield United should at least be guaranteed to fight - Stuart Rayner

There can be some shuffling of the deckchairs in January but it would be a major surprise if their owner, Prince Abdullah Bin Mosaad Al Saud, opened up any sort of transfer window warchest.

Blades fans are not stupid. They know every week they are right up against it in the Premier League. Even Burnley way outspent the side they destroyed 5-0 on Saturday.

But they at least want to see fight. Chris Wilder will bring that in a second spell as manager.

It was the limpness of consecutive defeats to Bournemouth and Burnley which did for Paul Heckingbottom, sacked on Monday after just over two years in the job.

Respectful though he was of the privacy of the Turf Moor dressing room, it did not take much reading between the lines to know Heckingbottom told his players he would not stand for it. There were heavy hints he would drop people on Wednesday. He had to, really.

But there comes a point where results fatally undermine a manager's authority. It is harder to be frightened by the fallout from upsetting a manager you know in your heart of hearts you are likely to outlast.

Wilder has the goodwill of a fanbase not only desperate to see him do well, but with fond memories of him dragging them up from League One to ninth in the Premier League.

The same will go for the likes of Oliver Norwood, George Baldock, Oli McBurnie, John Fleck, and when they get fit, John Egan and Chris Basham – leaders of this team as they were in Wilder's last great side.

He is a demanding coach at the best of times, but will be even less forgiving of a lack of effort if someone is representing the club he has always supported, who he played for and managed.

Out of their depth in the Premier League, Wilder is sipping from a poisoned chalice but he will drink it up and take his chances because this is Sheffield United.

He will certainly not start cold. Even if he had not been approached months ago about the possibility of returning if and when the time came, he would still have been keeping a beady eye on his beloved club, and not just from the outside – his Shirecliffe informers will have fielded plenty of phonecalls and text messages.

Although there are plenty of members of this squad he has never worked with, he will know who the shirkers and leaders are, he has seen the problems.

And despite the league position, he will not need to rip things up and start again either. Heckingbottom played a variant of Wilder's favourite formation. He may have to compromise because, like when he was unable to prevent the foundations of relegation being laid in 2020-21, he has no Jack O'Connell but maybe he can stir Anel Ahmedhodzic into being the Chris Basham replacement as an overlapping right-sided centre-back the Bosnian was last season.

Wilder faces an extremely difficult task but the long odds are shortest with him in the dugout.

If he cannot defy them, Blades fans should be able to say, "At least we went down with a fight."