Why are Sheffield United, Watford and other clubs turning to their former friends?

So why come back? For some, it’s a case of being flipped over the head.

Steve Cotterill has returned to his hometown club Cheltenham Town 23 years later last month.

The 61-year-old, who led the club to the Football League in 1999 and took them back to the bottom of League Two, said Robins “will always be in my heart”.

“Most weeks I knew within an hour of the match finishing, where I was, how Cheltenham were doing, who their team was – that never left me,” he told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

“When I wasn’t working, I would go watch the matches.”

If Cottrell’s return after an absence of more than two decades evokes a fairytale feeling, the arrival of Chris Wilder III is timely. Sheffield United Seems like a bug correction.

Wilder led his hometown club from League One to the English Premier League in his first period between 2016 and 2021, then led them to 90 points and the championship play-off final last season in his second period.

He was then surprisingly sacked and replaced by Ruben Seles in June, but the Spanish coach lost all six of his matches and Wilder was reinstated in September.

When asked by BBC Radio Sheffield if he would have said “no” if it were “any other football club”, he said: “Probably yes. This is a special and unique club for me.”

Blades are welcome Watford on Saturday, with the Hornets back under Javi Gracia for the first time since he replaced Paolo Pizzolano last week.

The Spaniard, by Watford standards, spent a long spell in charge of the team from January 2018 to September 2019, his first time in the most important seat in English football.