The Sheffield United boss is said to have had an agreement with Charlton Athletic.
Roland Duchatelet has told Talksport that Charlton Athletic fans are to blame for the club’s failure to appoint Sheffield United’s Chris Wilder as manager.
A former Charlton loan player, Wilder was targeted by the Addicks after their relegation from the Championship in May 2016.
But when he did leave Northampton Town later that month, it was for boyhood club Sheffield United instead.
In a rare interview, conducted by Jim White over the weekend, the estranged Charlton owner Duchatelet claimed: “We selected, in our view, the most interesting English coach at the time, Chris Wilder.
“We flew him to Belgium. In fact, we met with him, he agreed to come to Charlton. He was very optimistic, we signed also with him. And the day that he was due to give a press conference, he didn’t show up.
“Now I will ask you [White] to read something aloud [from the coalition group Campaign Against Roland Duchatelet (CARD)].”
Wilder in turn did proper due diligence on the approach, contacting a variety of people with insight into the situation at The Valley so that he could understand what he would be walking into. Their advice was hardly going to be positive, but he did nothing to abort the process as it gathered steam this week with co-ordinated announcements by the two clubs and further discussions with Katrien Meire [the former Charlton CEO, now of Sheffield United’s rivals, Sheffield Wednesday] herself.
Duchatelet continued: “And then if you look at the same time at one of the important forums, which is Charlton Life, you see what the reaction of the fans was before he was coming and what they felt when it was more or less coming close. And then I want you to read also this sentence and that one from the fans on the forum.”
Personally I think he must be mad. Why, oh why, would anyone want to come to Charlton under this toxic regime? Has he seen what’s going on at our club, and the reasons why we’re in such a bad position? The customers complaining, an interfering owner and a CEO who lies. Whoever comes in needs the same treatment as Roland, the liar.
“He found the fans were against him and he didn’t come,” declared the Belgian.
Wilder has since led Sheffield United to the top of the Championship standings, having achieved one League One title and a 10th-placed second tier finish in his previous two seasons at the helm.
In the meantime Charlton have remained a third division side, and currently sit 13th under the management of Lee Bowyer – their third boss since Wilder’s apparent rejection.
Would Wilder have turned Charlton around?
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