da betobet： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…
da realsbet： They’re in the pipeline.
That seemed to be the message Chris Wilder was trying to get across when asked about the contract situations for his players and whether or not there is likely to be any negotiations in the near future.
What’s he said?
Speaking during his press conference ahead of the game with Tottenham Hotspur, Wilder talked about a number of players that the club want to build around:
“There’s a number of players that we’re always looking at in terms of improving their contracts… the likes of Enda Stevens and John [Lundstram] and Flecky [John Flecky] and George [Baldock] and John Egan… we’ve got a good group that we want to build from.”
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Giving yourself a safety cushion.
This sort of touches on the same sort of area that we discussed on FFC earlier this week. In there we talked about how Wilder should be given a new contract as a way of holding off interests from other clubs, such as Manchester United and Arsenal.
Now the Blades should be looking to do the same with the players Wilder talks about in that press conference.
If they want to put themselves in the best position going forward, they should lock down the majority of the squad on long term deals as soon as possible, before they lose their leverage.
If they can get these players tied down on long term contracts, they can look at it in one of three ways.
One of which is sticking together as a team and building a project at Bramall Lane that could see them stay in the Premier League for a long stint. Another would be to sign them up to increase their value if they decide to sell the players off at the end of the season if they are relegated. Or finally, they could keep the team together and use them as the foundation for a team trying to bounce back up if they go down.
At the end of the day it’s all about value, either to Sheffield United or to any clubs that may be interested in their players. Obviously they would love to stay in the top-flight and keep this core of players together that helped them reach the Premier League, but that might not happen.