Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder has said he wants to keep his squad intact should the club, as looks likely, be relegated from the Premier League.
Chris Wilder said: “For me, the model of the club is we keep (players) and go again, I don’t want to lose anybody. Obviously, there’ll be discussions between now and the end of the season but I certainly don’t want to lose anybody. That’s not the model that I’m working on. I’m working to the model of we keep everybody unless a fabulous bid comes in for one of our players and I feel it’s right that we can’t stand in their way and it’s good business for the club. That’s been the same, right the way through my time here. I didn’t really want to lose David Brooks but we had to do that bit of business to fund a promotion push, which it did. We signed John Egan and other players. We had to move David on and he wanted to play in the Premier League so the decision at that time was beneficial for the football club. Of course we have to have an eye on what might happen, but only a little one. If the inevitable (relegation) does happen, then we try and keep players and we move forward. I want to keep everybody in the building and if we do go down, we want to try and have a successful season with those players.”
The Blades are rock-bottom of the division and are 14 points adrift heading into Saturday’s trip to fellow strugglers Fulham. Only a miraculous, near-perfect run of form over the next few months is likely to keep United in the division. Whilst still hopeful that a truly great escape can be manufactured by his players, Wilder is also a realist.
