“We have to” – Chris Wilder’s strong message to Sheffield United board amid lack of signings

Sheffield United completed their pre-season campaign on Friday evening with a 1-1 draw against Huddersfield Town.

There’s now less than a week to go before the Blades’ first kick-off of the Championship season and it’s fair to say the squad is extremely underprepared from a squad depth perspective.

United have only made five signings thus far while getting rid of over a dozen players this summer.

Speaking after the Huddersfield draw on Friday night, Chris Wilder spoke to the media about the lack of transfer incomings.

Chris Wilder on lack of signings for Sheffield United

“I said at the end of last season it was a huge summer for us: one of the biggest we’ve had for a number of years. Ideally you want your players in early and want to work with them but that hasn’t been the case. We’ll just keep working away and try to add to the group,” he told Football Heaven.

“All I can do is be really complimentary about the young players that have come into the group earlier than expected. I think they’ve been outstanding and they’ve grown into that preseason and the senior players have been excellent in terms of nurturing those boys and keeping their attitude up and their spirits up.”

Due to the lack of player arrivals so far, Wilder has been forced into increasing his squad depth by promoting several youth players throughout pre-season. And the United chief knows he needs to trim down the amount of inexperienced players in his squad, but for now he has no choice.

“[There were] 14 players under the age of 22 [that were involved] I think it was. Of course yeah, I’m not going to get drawn into anything. We’ll coach the side that was out there and do what we do best: concentrating on the football and getting them ready and getting them motivated. When players come in we’ll happily accept them into the group.”

Sheffield United are in that stage where they’re expected to be challenging for the top six at least, having only just dropped out of the Premier League. Last season we saw Leicester City, Leeds United and Southampton dominate the vast majority of games due to their squad depth and talent at their disposal thanks to the pleasures of parachute payments.

The Foxes and the Saints gained promotion straight back to the top-flight while Leeds finished third and failed in the play-offs. And the Blades will be hoping to be towards the top end of the table come May. However, there is a clear difference between United and the three teams mentioned above: they lack considerable squad depth compared to those from last season.

“I believe we have to; we all know where we want to be, the return to the PL in year one or two is the ambition. It has to be. There’s going to be some kids who are going to come through and we’ll happily bring them through and work with them but when you look at all the teams who have got promoted in the last four or five years, they have that sweet spot in terms of numbers, competition, age, experience and that’s what we’re all looking to put together.”