Oxford United head coach Des Buckingham believes the club might not be where it is today had it not been for the work of Chris Wilder.
The U’s visit Wilder’s Sheffield United in the Championship on Tuesday with Buckingham coming up against the man who gave him his first senior coaching role.
Wilder promoted Buckingham into his first-team coaching group ahead of the 2013-14 season, when he was just 28, after he had spent time in the club’s academy.
Wilder led Oxford back into the EFL during nearly six years in charge at the Kassam Stadium and Buckingham says everyone should be thankful for what he achieved.
“Chris Wilder was the first manager who brought me into the senior coaching space so I’ve got a lot of time for him just for that alone,” Buckingham told BBC Radio Oxford.
“I look back now as the head coach of this football club and look at what Chris did at a hugely important time in 2010 to get us back into the Football League and it was a moment where I don’t know if we’d be where we are now if he hadn’t have done that.”
Buckingham takes his Oxford side to Bramall Lane in the midst of a run which has seen them lose four of their past five Championship matches, including a 6-2 hammering by Middlesbrough on Saturday.