STUART McCall admitted the chance to manage Sheffield United was the right job at the wrong time.

The City boss is excited to be taking on the Blades at Valley Parade this afternoon in a game he has already described as the biggest in League One.

But if things had worked out differently, McCall could have been lining up in the away dugout.

McCall was in the running for the Bramall Lane hot-seat in the summer of 2013 but turned it down after a lot of soul-searching to stay in Scotland with Motherwell.

"It came at a time where it would have been right to move on from Motherwell," he said.

"We'd lost seven first-team players, including Nicky Law. We also lost Michael Higdon, our top scorer, and Darren Randolph.

"The next season was going to be a huge challenge and everyone said I must have been crazy not to go to Sheffield United. It really hurt me to knock it back because it was something I was so excited about.

"But unfortunately it was during a period when they were having to tighten their belts and have a five-year plan instead of a there-and-now plan. So in the end, I knew it wasn't right."

David Weir took the job instead and lasted only four months – but his brief spell in charge did coincide with a financial injection from the arrival of Prince Abdullah from Saudi Arabia's royal family.

McCall said: "If I'm honest, it was never going to be a three or five-year plan. Not when Sheffield United are getting top crowds.

"I knew Bradford and Rotherham had just come up and I knew their budgets. Sheffield United weren't going to be matching that but you can't sell that to your fans when you get 20,000 each week.

"Because I'd had such a disappointing time at Bradford, Sheffield United were close to my heart as well and I didn't want to go there and have to struggle.

"Then, lo and behold, two months later a prince comes in and the budget is flying again. That's my only regret, that he hadn't come in earlier, because I would have taken it.

"But there were also other things to consider. I had a sense of loyalty to Motherwell because they'd helped me get back in (to management).

"We were going into European football again that season and I could still do my Scotland job as well."

McCall, who finished as a player at Sheffield United before moving into coaching there, is now plotting the downfall of the team with the division's hottest current form.

This will be the first time he has directly crossed swords with Blades counterpart Chris Wilder, who played 36 times at full back in his one season at Valley Parade.

But they did business when McCall first took the City helm in 2007 over his assistant Wayne Jacobs.

McCall said: "I nicked Jakes off him when he was at Halifax. I think we kept them afloat because we had to pay.

"Chris is a good football man and he's got his dream job at Sheffield United. He has done terrifically well at Halifax, Oxford and then Northampton. They were stepping stones to where he probably wants to be.

"I haven't come across him (as a manager) but I probably skinned him a few times when I went past him on the pitch!"