Chris Wilder has a habit of bloodying the noses of football's so-called 'big guns' - and he wants to continue that theme this weekend.
Wilder's Middlesbrough side welcome Chelsea in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in a mouth-watering clash between one of the Championship's in-form sides and a Blues team dogged by off-field dramas. Much of the pre-match build-up has been dominated by Chelsea's ongoing off-field troubles regarding sanctions imposed on their owner Roman Abramovich.
There was a bizarre episode midweek with the London side calling for the cup clash to be played behind closed doors due to 'sporting integrity' concerns amid them being unable to sell more away tickets.
After being widely condemned, Chelsea then backtracked and withdrew said request. Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Friday, Wilder said he has little sympathy for the Blues' situation as he believes another mega-rich owner will soon come along.
He said: "Somebody comes into your football club, invests hundreds of millions of pounds and turns it into - it had history before - what it has turned into, serial trophy-winning teams, world-class managers, world-class players, world-class infrastructure, a women's team that wins everything, and youth team and an academy that's the best in the country, that wins the Youth Cup.
"It will go up for sale and it will be bought by a billionaire, who will possibly invest more money into it, they'll possibly invest in the stadium, invest in the facilities, so I don't think there's, in the football world, an incredible amount of sympathy over what's happening, really, and I don't think Chelsea supporters would expect that as well. It will be a sort period before the takeover and Chelsea will go again and they'll go on from strength to strength."
Chelsea are also operating on a restricted budget while Abramovich's funds are frozen, but Wilder doesn't expect it standing in the way of their preparations for the trip to the Riverside Stadium. "They won't make a long coach trip," he said. "They'll be looking down the back of the settee this afternoon to see if they can find a couple of quid - I usually look at the golf bag, that's where I keep a couple of quid just to keep it away from people - and chuck it into a pot to get up on the plane.
"They'll be up here, they'll be alright. There's not a lot of sympathy from my point of view towards Thomas and their players. I'm sure their preparation will be absolutely spot-on."
That saga has added a further layer of intrigue to what promises to be a fascinating match-up. Wilder will again be hoping to add another scalp to his lengthy list as a manager. Back in the 2019-20 season, Wilder's Sheffield United took the Premier League by storm in their first year after promotion. The Blades posted a superb ninth-placed finish and key to that was some stellar results against the big boys.
His side took four points off Chelsea in that first season back. They came from 2-0 down at Stamford Bridge to rescue a point early on in the campaign before a superb 3-0 win at Bramall Lane. That season also saw United take four points off both Arsenal and Spurs whilst running eventual top-two Liverpool and Manchester City close across four meetings.
Despite the Blades running out of steam in their second campaign, Wilder still showed his knack for an upset in 2020-21 when he masterminded a shock 1-0 win away at Manchester United. He repeated that same feat with new employers Boro in the the FA Cup fourth round last month, winning on penalties at Old Trafford before impressively dumping out Spurs in the next round.
Now, ahead of a meeting with the world and European champions, Wilder is hopeful that a carnival atmosphere on Teesside can spur them on to another famous win.
“I’m sure the occasion, the emotion of playing in the quarter final of the FA Cup against European champions and World champions, the environment, the atmosphere, it will give our players a lot of energy," he said. "So that doesn’t bother or worry me - we can just go and give it a real good go.”
That aforementioned 3-0 win over the Blues, back in July 2020, earned plenty of praise from Wilder at the time. "We had a plan, we had to be structured, disciplined and aggressive and we had to be clinical as well," he said. "There was a desire to keep the ball out the net and the goals we scored, and the timing of them, was fabulous from our point of view.”
His current team will surely need all those credentials, and perhaps more, to pull off another shock against Thomas Tuchel's side on Saturday.
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