Lee Bullen has the backing of Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder to become the permanent Sheffield Wednesday manager.
Bullen was placed in temporary charge of the Owls’ following Steve Bruce’s decision to quit for his boyhood club Newcastle United earlier this month.
And Wednesday announced earlier that the Scot will remain at the helm for Saturday’s Championship opener at Reading.
Bullen – who has now stepped in three times in less than two years – is among the bookies’ list of contenders for the full-time job.
And after one Sheffield United fan asked Wilder how it feels to be a Premier League manager, having jokingly aimed the question in the former Sheffield Wednesday captain’s direction, the lifelong Blades fan told BBC Radio Sheffield: “I’ve got to say, I’ve known Lee a long time and why not? Why can’t he manage the team that he loves and give 100 per cent.
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“There’s a lot of snobbery involved in football. People look for different answers and different names and whatever, and I think there’s somebody sat right under their noses that would give it a great job.
“Paul (Warne)’s got an affection to Rotherham, obviously, the big man (Darren Moore) has (to Doncaster) and Daniel (Stendel, the German), obviously, was a diehard Barnsley fan all his life. And everybody knows where I’m from.”
The Sheffield Wednesday caretaker Bullen. (Photo by Pete Norton/Getty Images)
Asked for his response to the Sheffield United fan’s jibe, Bullen replied: “What I will say is a lot of people will probably take offence to that but I think that sums football up, because without rivalries, without banter, without joking with each other, the game’s dead.
“So no problems with that. Good luck to you.”
Meanwhile, one bookmaker has suspended betting on the former Brighton and Hove Albion manager Chris Hughton landing the Sheffield Wednesday vacancy.
