Chris Wilder completed a Quadruple in his first six months as a manager and has since won promotion into all four divisions.
It was a shock to the system when he was sacked by Middlesbrough last October – the first time his contract had been terminated in 21 years working at six different levels of English football's pyramid. And at face value the Watford job, where the average shelf life of the last eight head coaches has been 20 games, looks more like a motorway pit-stop than the long-stay car park.
But at 55, Wilder believes a three-month deal to the end of the season at Vicarage Road could yet be a short-cut back to the Premier League. If he can get a tune out of the Championship's most under-achieving squad, and if he's still at Watford in August, Wilder could join the four ex-Hornets bosses currently working in the penthouse – Marco Silva, Javi Gracia, Brendan Rodgers and Sean Dyche.
Woe betide any players who coast through the last 11 games on autopilot. “They have to be committed, they can't just dip their toe in the water,” he warned. But the journey home from away games could be fun. As Sheffield United manager, he once ordered the team coach to stop outside an off-licence, on the retreat from a gut-wrenching, last-gasp defeat at Millwall, and told his captain Billy Sharp to get the beers in.
The Blades had just sunk to the bottom of League One, but instead of cracking the whip and confining his wooden spoonists to mung beans, kale and cucumber juice, Wilder convened a knees-up from Tower Bridge all the way up the M1.
He said: “In this job, when you are stood in that lonely box on the touchline and you're 3-0 down, you have to remember that you are managing people. I've got a few old-school qualities in terms of how I was brought up, and we didn't stop the bus like that every week, but there's a time and a place to give the players some freedom.”
Wilder's team promptly embarked on a 15-match unbeaten run and he led them to two promotions in three years. If Watford “catch fire” - as most managers in the Championship have been expecting all season – it's still not too late for him to add a fifth promotion in almost 650 games in the dugout.
Old school or not, his methods have worked since he took his first job at non-League Alfreton Town back in 2001. “We won 23 out of 27 games and lifted four trophies. That will do me again,” he grinned.
“I'm not saying we are going to win all 11 games left this season, but we need to go on a run if we're going to end up where we want to be. I've signed until the end of the season, and I'd like our season with me walking up the steps at Wembley to get a trophy.
“I'm not naive – I know the history of this football club. Every club has its own model and I know the model at Watford. When this chance came, I made the choice to come in and galvanise a group of players who have - cards on the table – under-performed.
“Watford should not be 10th in this division, but we have an opportunity to kick-start things, put a winning mentality in place and get going. I've won games for the majority of my career, wherever that's been, and I want to win here.
“It did sting having my contract terminated at Middlesbrough, but I also understand that the Premier League is where the gold is. Clubs want to get there, they need to get there. And financially it makes a huge difference. I think the whole division has been expecting Watford to catch fire and go on a run. If we get things rolling in the right direction then other clubs will be thinking ‘Oh, here they come, we’ve been expecting it.'
“With the right attitude it's not impossible – we have the experience and we certainly have the talent.”
