Chris Wilder preparing Sheffield United sales pitch as Blades look to repeat successful transfer trick

Chris Wilder is preparing his crucial sales pitch to top-flight sides and starlets ahead of a crucial transfer window for Sheffield United’s future. The Blades are facing a huge rebuild after last season’s poor relegation season, with a number of players and former loanees leaving the club this summer.

Although Wilder, and the rest of United’s fanbase, will hope that the group of American investors looking into taking over the Blades will dramatically improve the funds at his disposal, funds remain tight as things stand and until the wheels start to move in terms of expected departures, the United chief is focusing his attention on the loan and free transfer market.

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It is an area he and United have both had considerable success in before, with the likes of Dean Henderson, Morgan Gibbs-White and James McAtee impressing at Bramall Lane after arriving on a temporary basis. United’s work with those players has only strengthened their reputation amongst top-flight clubs, who see United as a good environment for their young stars to develop.

But that doesn’t mean that Wilder doesn’t have to pitch cleverly to both clubs and players, especially with competition for top young Premier League starlets as fierce as it has ever been. Loan rules in the Championship are much less strict than they were in the Premier League last season, when the Blades were limited to two domestic temporary transfers and brought in McAtee and Mason Holgate.

"I do think the top loan signings will have opportunities and options, so we have to ‘sell’ the club. I want players to come to us for the right reasons. They won’t be coming because we have blown teams out of the water financially. They will come because of ambition, and hopefully because of who they are working with from a coaching and managing point of view.

“And the ambition of the club and the players who will still be here to drive it on. We are going to have to be really smart with it but I feel we can be one of the outstanding clubs in the Championship for young players to come to. We must make sure we don’t overuse that [loan] system, but I think it’s important."