Paul Heckingbottom worked wonders for Sheffield United, but was given no support - Stuart Rayner

That should not damage the way fans view a two-year spell where the former Barnsley and Leeds United manager worked wonders for their club, but could not stretch to a miracle too.

With a budget nowhere near Premier League standards until two of his three best players were sold in August, he was never likely to keep a club which had stumbled a touch over the promotion line last season in the world's best league.

That will now apply to a new manager – almost certainly Chris Wilder – who, if he is lucky enough to make it to next season, will kick if off with another six months of punishment to recover from.

After losing some characters he wanted to keep and selling Iliman Ndiaye and Sander Berge, the 2023-24 Blades were not as good as the 2022-23 version, yet they were chucked into a far higher standard of football and asked to keep their heads above water.

Forget staying up this season, beating Derby County's 11-point tally from 2007-08 was and still is the first realistic target, then go from there. They won five points on Heckingbottom’s watch.

At times they competed, pushing Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United closer than they had any right to, given their respective budgets.

They caved in during the 8-0 and 5-0 defeats to Newcastle United and Arsenal, but in truth it was no surprise. What really hurt them was the shocking lack of fight in back-to-back games against relegation rivals Bournemouth and Burnley. Those matches were lost by an 8-1 aggregate. The Blades went into them on the back of an overdue first win of the season, against Wolves, then a battling point at Brighton.

They had battled back in both of those games after poor starts but when morale should have been at its highest – they lifted a place on the back of them thanks to Everton's 10-point deduction – they could only replicate the second half of the equation. Having taken so many punches, there was nothing left in the tank.

It was painful to watch because fighting was what Sheffield United had been all about during Heckingbottom's two years.

He had even inspired some futile resistance when stepping up from under-23 to caretaker manager of what was again, in 2021, a damned United out of its depth in the Premier League. Heckingbottom won three of his 11 games and gave debuts to Ndiaye and Daniel Jebbison. The latter was more promising, the former more significant.

After that Heckingbottom was snubbed, sent back to the juniors so Slavisa Jokanovic could take the reins in the Championship. When the Serb was sacked in November, it felt like Heckingbottom was the default, cheap option, but it proved an excellent choice. Because with the Blades in danger of being dragged into a Championship relegation battle and the millstone of their attempts to cement themselves in the top-flight dragging them back, they were a club in trouble.

Heckingbottom knew, of course, but his lack of moaning was one of his trademarks, the foundation for the "no excuses" culture he fostered.

He turned the 2021-22 season around but felt he had missed the boat when the play-off final was missed in a penalty shoot-out which led to chaotic and distasteful scenes.

He made the only two paid-for signings of his Championship tenure – the brilliant Anel Ahmedhodzic and back-up goalkeeper Adam Davies – and took the team to automatic promotion and an FA Cup semi-final despite a mid-season transfer embargo.

Ahmedhodzic's form sidelined Chris Basham and loanee Tommy Doyle's blossoming reduced Oliver Norwood to a bit-part but, promoted to vice-captain, Basham was being heavily leaned-on back in the Premier League before breaking his ankle at Fulham and Norwood wore the armband as a key figure.

It spoke volumes for the character of both, but said more about the club's inability to kick on.

Heckingbottom had wanted to keep Billy Sharp for the same qualities but lost that argument and was given an insulting £20m budget to make the squad Premier League-ready before the sales of Ndiaye and Berge boosted the kitty.

He had to start the season with fifth-choice centre-forward Will Osula. Alongside him was Benie Traore, the striker you expect when you pay £4m for a 20-year-old with a handful of senior appearances in Sweden to be.

Again, he did not complain. A serious injury to his captain, John Egan, quickly followed Basham's.

The constant blows never seemed to knock the fight out of Heckingbottom but for whatever reason, he could not inspire it from his players as the winter grew bleak.

For that reason he is gone, but his contribution should not be forgotten.