Chris Wilder claims the Sheffield United players and fans hated each other when he took over at Bramall Lane.

Wilder has transformed United in his three years in charge and he has led them from mid-table in League One to eighth in the Premier League.

The Blades boss says the club was broken when he succeeded Nigel Adkins in May 2016 and that relations between the supporters and the players were at an all-time low.

The players were sick of being abused from the stands by fans who felt they did not care about the club.

Lifelong Blade Wilder had played for the club in the top flight under Dave Bassett and knew he had to re-connect all the warring sides at Bramall Lane.

Chris Wilder has brought Sheffield United back together as a club (
Image:
Getty Images)

“When I came back to the football club, the connection between the supporters and the club was at an all-time low,” he said. “There wasn’t a connection. 

“The players hated the fans and the fans hated the players. Every part of the club hated each other. 

“That was the biggest thing I had to do was re-connect every part of the football club and the biggest part was re-connecting the players with the supporters.

“The players by producing fully-committed performances, 100 per cent, trying to win. I knew from my experience having played here, that this is a powerful football club when we’re together. 

“The fans know the journey we’ve been on and they will give us their backing like never before this season because they appreciate what we’ve done.”

United’s rise under Wilder has been remarkable and after six years languishing in League One, they went up as champions in his first season before winning automatic promotion back to the top flight in May.

Chris Wilder and his players celebrate winning automatic promotion in May (
Image:
PA)

Wilder, who has won promotion to the four top leagues, has done all this on a shoestring and feels this makes their rise “unique” in recent years.

“This has not been a normal journey,” he said. “It’s very rare that teams go from League One to Premier League in this short space of time.

“In some of the cases where they have done so, it’s because of huge financial backing. That hasn’t happened here, so it’s a unique story.

“We’re not a team that was knocking on the door in the Championship for years. We were in League One for six years.

“We’re not a team that was in the Premier League a year or two ago, came back down, had the parachute payments, gone back up, like a West Brom or a Burnley or teams like that.

“From the financial point of view and from an experience point of view, the speed of going from 11th in League One to at the moment in the top 10 of the Premier League has been incredible.

“People recognise that locally and take it into account and rightly so.”