New Sheff Utd boss Selles: This club should always be reaching for the top

Ruben Selles is not your average Championship manager.

His coaching journey has already taken him to all four corners of the European continent, and now the newly-appointed Sheffield United boss is entirely focused on returning last season's beaten play-off finalists to the Premier League.

Let go by Hull City after only keeping them up on the final day, the call to replace Chris Wilder may have surprised a few, especially after previous struggles at Southampton and Reading. However, Selles is excited by the opportunity to compete at the right end of the table for a change.

"We have been in the last three years fighting for different targets than the target that we have here right now, that's what's making it more exciting," he says.

• Selles appointed Sheff Utd boss after Wilder exit
• Watch your EFL team 20 times next season with Sky Sports +
• Choose the sports notifications you want!
• Not got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW 📺

"Sheffield United is a well-known club. It's a massive fan base supporting the club, a city that likes the football at the club with a big heart, and a club that has been successful in the last years.

"That's the thing that we identify, and that's why we want to do it, because it's very powerful."

Managers are often described as wearing their hearts on their sleeves, but on his arm, Selles carries a literal reminder of how far he's come.

Not good enough to be a professional player, he embarked on a coaching career that began in Spain, took him to Greece and Russia, and then from Norway to Denmark, via Azerbaijan. It is a legacy he has chosen to ink permanently onto his right bicep in the form of a tattoo showing a map of the world.

"The first thing that I learned is that I need to make things happen, I cannot wait. If I was waiting at home for the opportunity to come, I will probably not be here to sit with you today, and that has been a big lesson.

"If you want to make something happen, you need to go trying to be brave and try to go and get it.

"As a coach I worked in a class, for example, (at) FC Copenhagen, where you would expect to win the Danish League almost every single year, or other clubs like Qarabag where you are expected to be dominant almost every single minute there.

"So I know what the pressure means and I'm really happy to be able to have the chance to have that pressure here."

The tattoos extend to both elbows, where stars represents each of his two children, a crown for his wife on his wrist, and on his back an image of a lion for himself, something to give him courage.

"When I made my tattoos, and I hope to make some more during the near future, I want to put something that I will be really meaningful. So when I do the lion, it was some of the characteristics and out of something for the specific moment.

"I didn't consider myself as a brave character when I was a kid. I just think that I wanted to do it, and I wanted to work in football. I was not good enough of a player, so I wanted to be as close as I can to the players, so I decided to go through the university.

"At some point, that went also with the way that I should support my family by working, so it was kind of brave. It can be a big word. I don't know if it was brave, but I decided to do it and I did it."

For a man who has plotted such an epic route just to get to this point, it perhaps should not come as any surprise he is already looking beyond winning promotion with Sheffield United, to giving themselves a fighting chance in the Premier League.

"The target for this club should always be to reach for the top and we will, I'm not going to hide on that," he adds.

"Not a lot of clubs have been able to achieve that promotion and then stay in the league, so it's about how we are sustainable.

"I think right now, in terms of football and everything… we are away from that level, we will fight to be back into that level."

It is also clear that he would rather make the jump with Championship Player of the Year Gustavo Hamer in his side, whose performances have, understandably, led to links with a summer move.

"I want him to be a Sheffield United player when the market closes. Obviously, I cannot control what will happen with the future because the market is so fluid and dynamic, but my intention is just to keep him as one of our key players.

"If we can keep him that will mean that we will be in a really powerful place to achieve our target"

Not that Selles is taking anything for granted in a league that is notoriously difficult.

He will begin work with the players next week when they report back for pre-season training, before a warm-weather camp in Spain where no matches are scheduled, and it will be all about hours on the training pitch.

"It's ruthless and you need to be able to keep that level for full nine months or 10, almost 11, if you go to the play-offs.

"Expect a very difficult competition this year, but we expect my team also to be very difficult to beat this year."