Chris Wilder gives passionate 6 minute speech on Henrik Pedersen after relegating Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend.
Speaking to the media ahead of this week’s game against Coventry, Wilder backed his counterpart Henrik Pedersen, feeling sorry for Sheffield Wednesday and offered his sympathy.
The Owls sit on -7 points, and with 13 matches remaining, this is the earliest a team has been relegated in English Football League history.
🗣️ “Henrik is there and he’s inspiring everybody. He should get judged when he’s got a team in place that has an opportunity to win games of football.”
Chris Wilder spent nearly 6 minutes speaking passionately about Henrik Pedersen today…#SUFC #SWFC pic.twitter.com/bIRcZSlu2I
— Football Heaven (@footballheaven) February 24, 2026
Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I agree with everything Chris Wilder says. Very honest, balanced and hopefully informative words. #SWFC
— Symon Quick (@symonq) February 24, 2026
He said in his press conference: “My respect has always been there with Henrik, not for the other one, but with Henrik, and that was the reason for my outburst before cards on the table and certain things leading up to that, to the first Sheffield derby and what happened during the game and what happened after the game and comments and stuff like that. So I’m a reactor. I think a lot of people in Sheffield or from Sheffield or this part of the world are reactors. They don’t usually instigate it, but they react to it, so I did.
“But Henrik is somebody I’ve always got on really well with. I managed to have 30 seconds with him after the game there because of the media commitments by both of us. I didn’t have the opportunity of seeing him in my office because he came in and he always has done, which I like.
“And I spoke to him this morning and I said to him from a manager-to-manager point of view, and people talk about this, is he good on the grass? Is he good doing this? Is he good tactically?
“We’re all decent to get to the stage of our careers that we’re in, to be good on the grass, some are better than others, to be tactically astute and aware and proactive, of course.
“Henrik’s had a few offers as well, but he took the opportunity of managing Sheffield Wednesday when the other guy jumped.
“And then obviously the situation at the start of the season as well when a lot of players left, which they have to in terms of the direction of the football club, to protect their careers and protect their families. Henrik took the decision to take the job on. I know how I feel after every defeat.
“So, to have the amount of defeats that they’ve had, and I said it afterwards, to be so ill-prepared, to have a team that’s not ready for the Championship, possibly not even ready for League One, if you look at it, and not being disrespectful to it, they’ve had some injuries as well, they’ve had that continual losing feeling, and he has to get up every morning, his kids are there in his house, then he walks into the training ground, and there’s a receptionist and there’s a groundsman and there’s a guy on the door, he has to inspire all them lot, because if he walks in feeling sorry for himself, people are looking at him, people look at managers all the time, so it ain’t just about the grasp bit, it ain’t just about the tactics bit, it’s about inspirational attitudes and how he’s got to inspire people when they’re going through a disappointing period, and they have.
“He has to inspire his coaches, he has to inspire his staff, he has to inspire his players, and he has to inspire his supporters.
“And they’ve been competitive in every game, and as I said, a group of players, no disrespect, but if you looked at that group of players maybe on Sunday, and you go, and a lot of them have had unbelievable careers, Liam Palmer’s been a fabulous servant to Sheffield Wednesday, Liam Cooper’s had a great career, coming to the back end of it, he understands that, promotion with Leeds United, playing in the Premier League, unbelievable, Ingelsson is a player that we all like, really surprised that nobody came in for him in the window, he’s there, he picked a couple of free transfers up, that’s it, that’s their senior players.
“Then you go on to the academy players. Again, no disrespect, they’re not at the standard where our academy players have been when they’ve come through. Whether it’s Jebbison, Osula, Lankshear, whether it’s boys to Man City, whether it’s Faxon, Seriki, Brooks, Arblaster or Peck, who have played 20, 30, 40 games in the Championship at the top end and achieved. Then you look at the loans. They’re not top loans like Rak-Sakyi, Tommy Doyle or James McAtee. They’re loans that might go on and have careers, but a first loan is usually a difficult one and they’re getting thrown in. Henrik has got to try and get a tune out of that team. How hard is that? You’ve got to inspire everybody — your staff, your supporters. You’ve got to put together a team that’s competitive every game and they’ve been losing games right the way through the season. As I said before the start, they were relegated before the ball was kicked. Then they lose Barry [Bannan] as well. And Henrik is there, inspiring everybody.
“You’ve got inspiring staff, you’ve got inspiring supporters, you’ve got to put together a team that’s competitive every game, and they’ve been losing games right away through the season.
“And as I said before the start, they got relegated before the ball was kicked, then they lose Barry as well. And Henrik is there, and he’s inspiring everybody.
“So that’s me, I told him to look after himself, because he’s a good guy, and don’t beat himself up too much, because he does, and the amount of work that he puts into his team, into trying to be competitive, and he’ll try and be competitive at Norwich, and he’ll try and be competitive at Southampton, he’ll be competitive.
“He should get judged, when he’s got a team in place, that’s an opportunity to win a game of football, that’s when Henrik should get judged, not now, not at the start of the season, not at Christmas.
“I suppose that’s another rant that I’ve gone on about. But in the rant, it’s just a manager-to-manager feeling, and a respect that I have for Henrik, and just giving an insight to maybe, to the people that maybe don’t understand the game of football, and maybe the manager’s role.”
Sheffield United hold on to relegate rivals Sheffield Wednesday to League One
Here’s how fans reacted after Chris Wilder gives a passionate 6 minute speech on Henrik Pedersen after relegating Sheffield Wednesday
@EliotWilson12: I know we’re not really allowed to like him but fair play to Wilder for that. If he was born a Wednesdayite and was our manager, we’d absolutely love him. Obviously no love lost between him and Röhl though… #swfc
@swfccom: I fear Wilder is another Warnock where sometimes it is hard to despise him despite him being a United fan. He talks honestly & you know it’s just hard facts we have to digest. I respect him to acknowledging these facts especially when his fanbase don’t (i wouldn’t expect them to)
@GP1867: Hes right, but some of our fans are still wanting to call him out and blame it all on him. Absolute madness, he has the hardest job in the efl right now and we should be supporting him not berating him #swfc
@Jinja_Owl: Stop it with the respect and humility! Get back on that table in Banner Cross so I get get back to hating you ffs!!! 🤣🤣
@eliwaspdomehead: Our gaffa has got me on the edge of feeling sorry for Pedersen. Judge him when he’s got a team 👍🏻
@leicsowl: I’ve never really liked Wilder but gained a lot more respect from me for that, fair play. And it seems he wasn’t necessarily wrong about ‘the other one’ either!
@Sufc_alex07: Not even Pep would get Wednesday playing good football, players are starting each week who should be out on loan in the national league.
@MattHall1974: I am a very long way from being a fan of Wilder but this is (unusually) classy. Doesn’t have to stick up for Pederson. Could have kept it private. But chose to speak up. Fair play and all very valid points. Credit where it’s due. 👏🏻 #swfc #sufc
Pedersen said after the game: “This is a sad day for a club the size of Sheffield Wednesday to be relegated in February.
“But this was not a result of today, there is a much bigger picture as everyone knows
“We all feel the pain, the players, the coaches, all the staff at this great club.
“It hurts, of course it hurts, but this club can be great again, that is my message right now.
“We have 13 games to go and we will be giving everything representing this club right to the end.
“Gab will be missing for one game and in the dressing room after this game, Liam said his injury does not feel good. So although it is early to say for sure, he could be out for a few weeks.
“We lost Olaf as well with an injury, he will be out for four or five weeks, and yesterday, Marvelous took a blow to the face in training and could not play.
“We will assess the situation but we will be down in numbers for sure for the Norwich game.
“We must look forward now and I say a big thank you to our fans again today, we heard you throughout the game and this was fantastic.
“Everyone is sad for the fans, they deserve much better than this situation, but I know we will come back.
“After the manager spoke, I said look boys, it’s 10 weeks, 13 games and we must have pride in our work, for ourselves and the fans.
“You’ve got to come in every day and work, and it’s up to the senior players to drive that standard.
“We can’t just fall away now and give up. I think we’ve shown, in big parts of the season, against a lot of teams, that we can compete, but we know we have to be at our absolute best just to stay in games and keep going.
“We’ll never stop fighting for the badge, and as captain, I will keep driving that every day.
“It’s been no secret, all the things that have happened off the field, things out of our control.
“Relegation only tells half the story and nobody from the outside knows what it has taken to get to this point.
“As someone who has been here all of my career and a fan myself, I just feel for them all.
“They’ve been amazing all season, it’s a tough time to be a Wednesday fan, and it’s a tough time to be a Wednesday player.
“The fans know the reasons why we have been relegated, the writing has been on the wall a long time.
“So from me, they know what I think of them. These things tend to run in cycles and I’ve no doubt we’ll be back where we need to be.
“We’ll be back and they will be right there with us.”