Over the coming weeks, Chris Wilder will attempt to complete the long climb from the base camp of English football's bottom place to the peak of the Premier League. As managerial ascents go, this has been a truly remarkable one.
There have been no leg-ups for the 51-year-old. Quite the opposite, in fact, since February 1, 2014, when he first took his place in the dugout for Northampton Town — a club six points from safety at the bottom of League Two. Winding-up orders, players not being paid and budget restrictions are some of the obstructions negotiated with the obstinate spirit the Yorkshireman instils in his teams.
Five years on, life is good and destiny is in Wilder's own hands. With eight matches left in the Championship promotion race, his beloved Sheffield United are second, a point above Leeds, on the back of seven wins in an unbeaten sequence of 10 fixtures.
Aficionados have it that the more aesthetically pleasing duo of Norwich City, under the German Daniel Farke, and Leeds United, guided by the global coaching guru Marcelo Bielsa, will secure the top-two spots, leaving United in the play-offs.
They should be warned, Wilder loves nothing more than proving people wrong.
'It's Northampton and one other going down,' he said himself in 2014, on quitting an Oxford United team looking to get out of League Two via the preferred route for one heading in the opposite direction. Those close to him knew this was merely kidology. Not only did he save Northampton — they were champions, with 99 points, within two years.
In fact, since inheriting the country's 92nd-best team, no manager in the top four divisions can match Wilder's 127 league victories and his 52 per cent is the highest win ratio of any Brit to have taken charge of 100 matches or more.
Success with Northampton landed him his dream job. Despite a hotchpotch accent caused by his family's move to London as a boy, his initial years were spent in the terraced houses that back on to Bramall Lane. He inherited a mid-table Sheffield United team that had just finished below Walsall, Gillingham, Rochdale and Scunthorpe United and, despite a slow start, bettered the Northampton points tally, making it to a round 100.
United fans serenade him with 'he's one of our own'. A self-made manager, he is also on the threshold of becoming one of a rare breed — an Englishman in the top flight.
If he does so, he will undoubtedly have to make adjustments. He does not take defeats well. After the FA Cup loss to non-League Barnet in January, he slammed his own team for arrogance and advised them to find a side door to sneak out of. Then again, as the all-time great American football coach Vince Lombardi said: 'Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser.'
Yet despite this willingness to hang others out to dry, his great skill has been to get players 'playing for him' on a journey that has taken in every level of football and experiences good and bad — sometimes both ends of the spectrum simultaneously.
Against a backdrop of a £10million debt, a winding-up order and wages not being met at Northampton, striker Marc Richards turned down moves elsewhere, while defender David Buchanan — who played every minute of the promotion season — calls it his career highlight.
Across 300 National League matches with Halifax Town, Wilder barely had a budget worthy of the name as the club plunged towards liquidation, meaning he had to use the people skills he developed in the Sheffield Sunday leagues with Bradway while still a journeyman full-back.
Loyalty and camaraderie are key elements of the success. He has known Alan Knill, his assistant, since their days as trainees at Southampton in the early Eighties. This week, a harmonious squad — Wilder spends as much time profiling character as ability, when making signings — has spent a few days team-bonding in Valencia.
Twelve months ago, United lost their legs on the Championship promotion home straight. Mindful of this, Wilder made key loan acquisitions in January. In came strikers Gary Madine and Scott Hogan plus Everton midfielder Kieran Dowell. Despite the recent surge being founded on 'a basic desire to keep the ball out of the net' and seven successive clean sheets, converting the chances at the end of what Bielsa dubbed a 'new style' of playing could be crucial in the run-in.
Rivals have struggled to cope with what might be termed United's 'false-five' system in which defenders Jack O'Connell and Steve Basham are given licence to leave the back three and get outside their wing-backs, creating overloads down each flank.
Opponents are left with a decision to make on whether to stick or twist. Ignoring it can leave the defence undermanned, while getting an attacking player to track back lessens the effectiveness of their own counter-attacks.
Wilder said: 'Our job is to try and organise them to try and win games. I totally respect all the clubs in this division but we don't fear anybody. We go after every game and I think one of the biggest compliments I can give my team is they give themselves an opportunity in every game to get a result.'
If he can keep his winning habit up, those tactics will soon be scrutinised in a higher class.
