Sheffield United's 5 worst managers ever (Ranked) | OneFootball

There are a couple of surprise names on the list, as we judge who performed the worst as manager at Bramall Lane based on PPG.

Sheffield United have had some brilliant managers in their recent history.

Chris Wilder guided the club from League One to the Premier League - and will be fondly remembered even after taking the Blades back down to the Championship at the end of the 2023/24 campaign.

Paul Heckingbottom is also adored by many supporters despite how his tenure ended. There was a lot of scepticism when he replaced multiple promotion-winning Slavisa Jokanovic, but he was able to guide United to the top flight at the second time of asking.

Another manager who made a real difference for United in the 21st century was Neil Warnock, who took the club to the top level and was unlucky not to have stayed in the top flight for more than one season.

Below though, we take a look at some of the club's poorest managerial spells, based on points-per-game (data courtesy of Transfermarkt).

Both Heckingbottom (caretaker spell) and Wilder (second spell) should be included in this list, but we looked at their time in charge as a whole, rather than those individual spells.

Joe Mercer is one of the most well-known names on this list, having taken charge of some elite clubs before. He also has Aston Villa, Manchester City and Coventry City on his CV, and spent a brief period of time in charge of England as a caretaker.

His move to Bramall Lane in 1955 was his first managerial job, following a very successful playing career that saw him represent the likes of Everton and Arsenal.

He didn't exactly thrive in South Yorkshire, but he spent a valuable three years at the club and that experience would have helped him to be more successful for the remainder of his time as a manager.

4 Adrian Heath - 1.00

Adrian Heath joined the Blades in 1999, but didn't enjoy a successful time at all.

In the November of that year, he resigned from his job following a 3-1 loss against Port Vale, and ended up leaving on the same day as the club's chairman.

Despite his poor spell there, he has gone on to manage other clubs, and was most recently the manager of Minnesota United.

Former Notts County manager Jimmy Sirrel was another man who took charge of the club in difficult circumstances.

The Blades weren't performing well at all when he arrived during the 1975/76 season - and he was unable to prevent them from being relegated to Division Two.

Sirrel continued to decline after that, and with United starting the 1977/78 campaign very poorly, he left the club during the early stages of that season.

In fairness to him, he left the club when they were in Division Two, and four years later, they were competing in Division Four.

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2 Micky Adams - 0.71

Micky Adams had a lot of managerial experience on his CV before his switch to Bramall Lane.

In December 2010, he made the move to South Yorkshire from Port Vale, and there were hopes that he'd be able to enjoy a successful time at United.

However, his spell with the Blades was nothing short of awful, and he won just four league games during his time in charge.

Considering he had been in charge since the latter stages of December, that just goes to show how depressing the results were during his time at the helm.

Following the club's relegation to League One, he was dismissed by then-Chairman Kevin McCabe, with his dismissal coming just days after the end of the 2010/11 campaign.

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1 David Weir - 0.62

David Weir hadn't been a manager at a senior level before, but he was a coach at Everton and, on paper, this didn't exactly look like a disastrous appointment.

Unfortunately, his spell there didn't go very well at all.

He joined in June 2013 and won just two of his 13 games in charge, with one of those wins coming in a penalty shootout in the EFL Trophy.

With United failing to pick up enough points, it was no surprise when he was dismissed in October 2013.

He was replaced by Nigel Clough, who did much better and almost guided the Blades into the play-offs at the end of the 2013/14 season.