The now Hull City boss led Sheffield United to their worst league finish in 33 years in 2015-16.
Sheffield United’s Paul Coutts has lifted the lid on the Blades’ failed campaign under the now Hull City manager, Nigel Adkins.
A key member of the United side that won last season’s League One title and is on the verge of a Championship play-off place with three games remaining, prior to suffering a campaign-ending broken leg last November, Coutts only started 26 of the Blades’ third tier fixtures with Adkins in charge.
And many of those appearances came out of position – as Sheffield United ended the 2015-16 season in a disappointing 11th place – a topic Coutts was asked about while appearing on Sheffield Live TV.
“Sometimes (Adkins played me on the wing) – sometimes he didn’t play me!” said the Scot. “I think we had too big a squad under Nigel Adkins and I don’t want to criticise previous manager or anything, but it seemed a bit like in the process of trying to keep everyone happy, he ended up with no one happy.
“There wasn’t a settled 11, people were playing out of position and we couldn’t pick up results. The fans were unhappy, they weren’t enjoying the football they were seeing, so yeah, it wasn’t a great time to be fair. The gaffer now (Chris Wilder) he turned everything around and it didn’t take him long to do it.”
Asked if he ever felt as though he was scapegoated under Adkins, who has since gone on to lead Hull away from relegation danger, Coutts added: “I felt like the whole campaign under Nigel Adkins was just so disappointing. It was half-merited for everyone involved in it, we’d all played a part, no one can affect the results more than the players on the pitch.
“What did we finish, was it 10th (11th) in League One? For a club like this, it’s nowhere near good enough.”
Adkins was sacked as a consequence, with Wilder – a lifelong Sheffield United supporter – taking his place at Bramall Lane.
Yet despite Coutts’ success under Wilder, it did not always look as though things would transpire that way, with the 29-year-old beginning his current manager’s reign on the transfer list.
He continued: “To be fair to him he phoned me, the gaffer, before we’d gone to pre-season and he was making changes. (He said:) you’re sort of a victim of that, you’re going to be moved on. That was fine. There had to be changes from the previous year, but he also said: you’ll come in pre-season, you won’t be treated any differently, if you work hard, show yourself, the door’s not shut. I thought: great, I’ll prove him wrong then.”
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