Chris Wilder revealed he has a soft spot for Norwich City after his latest run in with home fans in Sheffield United’s 1-1 Championship draw.

Wilder had plenty of verbal spats with Daniel Farke during his Carrow Road tenure, after his now infamous ‘coach driver’ rant following a particularly spicy Championship game at Bramall Lane in 2017.

But the experienced boss revealed after Saturday’s stalemate he was a guest of long time majority shareholders, Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones, last year when he was out of work – complete with Norwich City scarf.

“I was getting battered by Norwich fans again,” he said. “It's become come quite a regular thing, which I find quite funny, because I had a Norwich City scarf around my neck last year at Rotherham. I got invited by Stuart Webber to a game, and I was sat next to Delia and Michael with me and (my wife) Francesca having a glass of wine with them and enjoying their hospitality.

"I was on their table and just pinching myself, really, because I'm thinking, ‘What if 25,000 Norwich fans are looking at this and thinking, What's going off here?’ But I got on well with Stuart. He was very, very kind to me when I was asking advice.

"I know the work that he did down here and obviously the fabulous connection that he had with Daniel (Farke). And Daniel is somebody that I speak to and text pretty regular. I texted him last year when he was at Leeds and told him to go well.

"It's quite funny how things sort of turned around. But still to get the annual abuse, which, you know, I will take and give a little back. That is just my character. I can't help it.”

Wilder sees plenty of similarities between the former Premier League clubs.

“Never an easy place to come, as I know through recent travels. And if you can't win, you don't get beat,” he said. “And we've managed to take a decent point against a tough, tough side. Two well-coached teams.

“I believe that we had control of the game up to that period they scored, knowing that Norwich was still dangerous. They had two moments, the first moment early on, and obviously the goal which was a brilliant round the corner, a great bit of play and a fabulous finish by an excellent player (Josh Sargent).”

Wilder extended the comparison to the challenge both clubs now face in the final days of the summer transfer window to ward off any interest in their best players.

“I know there's been noise about Sergent as well as there's been noise about Anel (Ahmedhodzic) for us,” he said, with the Blades' chief insisting the Premier League-linked centre back missed out with illness. “So that hasn't been easy for the manager here, as much as it's not been easy for me as well.

“There could be some outs. We understand that, and we have to deal with it. We are not alone in that. If somebody puts a puts a bid in for their centre forward that Norwich can't turn down, then they can't turn it down.

"They have to do what they have to do, just as much as if we get any bids for our players we look at and assess it.

"But I’m the coach and I don't want to lose anybody. I'd love the opportunity of just sticking a little bit of icing on the cake to make us better. If we do, then great, fabulous. And if we don't, we'll go with the group that we've got and keep working with that.”