Former Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Danny Wilson has tonight parted company with Sheffield United. Wilson, an integral part of the early 90's Wednesday side that enjoyed League Cup success in 1991 has been manager of Sheffield United since the summer of 2011.
The former Northern Ireland international was an unpopular appointment with vocal groups of fans and a car park protest was staged on the day that he took the job.
Despite working beneath a backdrop of a disgruntled fan base, falling crowds and a decreasing budget Wilson managed to lead the club to a creditable points tally of 90 in his first season in charge, narrowly missing out on promotion due to the exceptional form of near neighbours Sheffield Wednesday. The Blades went on to the League One play-off final which ended in predictable fashion for the club who maintained their unenviable record of losing every play-off final they have reached, this being the 4th.
Optimism was high for this season however. League One appeared considerably weaker without clubs the size of Wednesday and Charlton to contend with and United were once again favourites for promotion with some fans appeased by the fact that they had apparently played entertaining football last season.
Despite spending most of the season in or around the automatic places crowds have not swelled and the support remained sceptical, not helped by the Wednesday faithful referring to the United manager as Agent Wilson every time a result went against his side. Tuesday's defeat at home to Crawley was his last in charge with the club still hopeful that they can manage to achieve automatic promotion and avoid the dreaded play-offs. Indeed some fans have spoken of boycotting a prospective play-off final in fear of the perceived inevitable outcome, something they seemingly practised for during last season's poorly attended home leg of the play-off semi-final.
During his spell at Sheffield United Wilson enjoyed a win percentage of nearly 52%, by far the best of his managerial career but evidently not good enough for a club of their stature.