James Wilson had shown he has the potential to be a top centre-forward but following the serious knee injury which took him the best part of a year to come back from, you could not be sure that the young Manchester United forward could regain his old form.
After Chris Wilder secured the deal to bring Wilson to Bramall Lane, the Blades boss wasted no time in throwing on the Man Utd forward as a second-half substitute to face arch-rivals Sheffield Wednesday last weekend.
While Wilson did not score he looked surprisingly sharp considering his long lay-off and looked like he would vindicate the decision to sign him.
By allowing Wilson to join Sheffield United, Jose Mourinho and Manchester United are essentially endorsing the work of Chris Wilder and his club.
After moving back into the play-off places with the 0-0 draw with Wednesday, the Blades followed that up by beating Norwich City 2-1 away gaining revenge for their home loss to the Canaries early in the campaign.
Wilder started James Wilson against Norwich and within 7 minutes of the start of the game the forward responded by notching his first Blades goal which laid the foundation for what was ultimately a tightly contested 2-1 win for Sheffield United as Clayton Donaldson’s goal proved to be the winner.
The Blades manager had this to say after the win which saw his side retain their 6th position in the Championship:
“The lad, like the rest of the lads out there, worked ever so hard. He tired towards the end, as you would expect because he’s not had much senior football this season. He’s fit and he says he feels good but, as his fitness improves, so will his displays.”
“It’s been an emotional week back home because my father-in-law, who is a big supporter of me and The Blades even more so, isn’t very well.
“The lads worked so hard and played some really good stuff against a side which, all credit to them, gave everything they had too and kept on going right until the end. They’re a good team, they’ve got some really good players, but we like to think the same goes for us too.”
“Some of the boys who didn’t get on the pitch have every reason to feel disappointed because of the way we’ve performed lately. We’ve not always been able to marry a good performance with a good result recently but, I’ve got no doubt, that as hard as Norwich tried we deserved it out there.”
So the Blades can prepare for the 4th round Emirates FA Cup tie with Preston North End feeling like they have turned the corner with their form and that they can now approach the rest of the season with confidence.