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Sheffield United's transfer and pre-season plans
The Star, Sheffield
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19/06/2025
The Star's Danny Hall discusses the weeks ahead for Sheffield United as everyone comes to terms with the exit of Chris Wilder and the arrival of Ruben Selles
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Sports
Transcript
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00:00
So Danny, we've got a new manager in place. The old manager's gone.
00:07
It leaves a few things up in the air in terms of transfers because we know that Chris Wilder had
00:12
set his sights on a number of players. A couple of them have actually already gone to other clubs
00:17
or stayed at the club that they were at. Plus we've got pre-season and everything else to go at.
00:26
What's the land of the club so far? What's the timeline over the next three or four weeks?
00:35
Yeah, dearie me, where do we start? So yeah, your first point about transfers, Chris had a
00:43
pretty definitive list of players that he was hoping to bring in this summer. Harry Darling was
00:47
one of them as we as we wrote about in the star, excuse me, made a lot of sense, championship
00:53
experience, free agent, good age, ball playing centre-half, all that sort of stuff. You can
01:00
see exactly why he would have been a priority signing. But with the uncertainty, Chris couldn't,
01:08
nobody could guarantee what was going to happen. So Harry, understandably for his career,
01:12
has gone to Norwich City, where he's got a three-year deal with a manager he knows well.
01:16
So United missed out there. Jimmy Dunn was another one that looked pretty nailed on signing after
01:22
they tried to sign him in January. QPR held firm. For all the world looked like he would move on this
01:28
summer. Our information is that there was a disagreement about whether he would be a worthwhile
01:36
signing and he's ended up staying at QPR. No doubt with a hefty pay rising there as well. So who
01:43
can, who can criticise him for that? But yeah, as we stand, there's been no, as I said, no signings,
01:49
no senior signings, obviously signed. The boy, Okaki from Bulgaria, who, you know, I'll admit,
01:57
I don't know a great deal about. You'd imagine that, or you'd hope that the people who signed him
02:02
know a lot more about him. But I think that's seen as very much a development signing in the mould
02:08
of the other two who arrived in the winter window. But I think it's really important to
02:15
sort of almost separate the two sides of it, isn't it? It's all right signing these players
02:20
for development purposes or for development squads. You've got to keep sight of the here and
02:25
now avenue and not lose sight of what is ultimately really important. And that is getting Sheffield United
02:31
into the Premier League sooner rather than later. So they need to almost separate the two aspects
02:38
of transfers, I think. Focus on some players for the here and now and some for the future,
02:44
as they did in January, signing five players for the first team and two for the development squad.
02:51
But yeah, Ruben's got to hit the ground running, hasn't it? Because the season,
02:54
the fixtures are out in a week. Pre-season starts in less than a fortnight as it stands.
02:58
You know, we've got some friendlies coming up to hopefully get ready for the season. A trip away
03:04
to Girona, which I think will be important for him to live in the pockets of his players and the
03:09
other way around as well for a week or so, get to know the staff, get to know the methods and really
03:14
sort of drill into what he wants to do. Because as I say, it's quite a departure from the style that
03:19
a lot of these players will be used to. And that's not saying one's right and one's wrong. It's
03:23
just a change in approach and how they want to go about things. So I think that will be important
03:29
to really drill into that. And yeah, obviously, you know, as it stands, six players went back,
03:36
lone players. We still don't know whether Rhian Brewster is going to re-sign. Jack Robinson signed
03:42
for another year and El Admin Hodges in his last year. So there's two senior centre-halves at the minute,
03:47
both in the last year of the contract. So there's an obvious sort of succession plan need there.
03:54
Right back is another area. You know, there's Femi Siriki there. There's
03:58
Sy Satchdesk going back from his injury. Sam Colchin's a highly rated young player.
04:02
But I think you need someone in there who's a little bit more sort of hardened
04:05
championship football. Midfield's another one, obviously, with Hamza Chaudhry going back.
04:11
Uncertainty about Vinnie Souza, I think that's fair to say. Olly Arblaster coming back from injury.
04:15
You know, I think he'll probably do with a body or two in there. And then I guess it all depends
04:20
how Ruben is going to play it. You know, last season, we saw a transition to wingers.
04:25
He's played a sort of narrower formation with attacking fullbacks in his last couple of jobs.
04:30
Will he continue that? Will he change it up at Bama Lane? Will he look at what he's got and
04:34
adapt to that? Or will he suit what he has to how he wants to play? That's another sort of question mark
04:39
in the air. There's a lot we don't know. There's a lot of things in his, it's that cliche,
04:44
isn't it? But in his entry, as he starts at Bama Lane, there's a lot of things that he has to
04:49
figure out. And United have got to figure out about him as well. So, yeah, there's a lot of
04:54
uncertainty. But, you know, as you said, time's ticking, isn't it? I'm just looking at the time
04:58
there and the date, you know, that August 8th start date of the new season will come around
05:04
very quickly, won't it? United were a month behind, a month or so behind everyone else,
05:08
or three weeks or so behind everyone else going with the playoffs. So they've had a bit more time to
05:13
plan. Yeah, and they have to get going, don't they? Because, you know, the rest of the league won't,
05:19
they won't sort of feel sorry for United or give them any leeway for what's happened with the turmoil.
05:24
They'll be looking to, they'll be looking at themselves and their own sort of
05:29
season hopes and dreams, and they'll be focusing on themselves. So United have got to do that.
05:33
What I will say is that he walks into Ruben Seles a really good group, isn't he? You know,
05:38
it doesn't seem to need a great deal of sort of surgery. I look back to last year when,
05:48
look back to last year when that last pre-season friendly at Huddersfield, when Chris had basically
05:53
an under-21 team to sort of work with, and he was incredibly frustrated about what, you know,
05:58
the sort of pace of transfers and stuff like that. And that was a week before the start of the season.
06:02
This time the group is a little bit more settled, a little bit of uncertainty about what's going to
06:07
happen to some key players, you know, whether there's interest in Gus Harmer and Anel, Amir Hodzic
06:11
and Vinnie Souza and, you know, that sort of narrative. But I think things are a lot more
06:16
settled this season. I think it's a better base to sort of work from for him to go from. I'm sure
06:21
we just want to put his stamp on things, maybe change a few things around, tweak a few things,
06:25
bring a few players in, perhaps move a few out who are not going to be a part of his plans.
06:31
And then, yeah, we'll see what happens from there. So yeah, he's got a busy six weeks or so,
06:36
I think, for the start of the season.
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