Billy Sharp's Sheffield United contract admission with dozen players facing uncertain futures

The Blades legend, now 37, has played a supporting role this season as the form of strikers Iliman Ndiaye and Oli McBurnie has helped United push for automatic promotion – and reach the semi-finals of the FA Cup for good measure.

But Sharp has still impressed when called upon and was inches away from his 250th league goal when a stunning effort cannoned off the post away at Norwich earlier this month. Only a superb save from Wigan’s Ben Amos denied him in the following match and Sharp goes into this weekend’s Sky Bet Championship clash with Cardiff City at Bramall Lane hoping for another chance to reach that remarkable landmark.

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Doing so in a Blades shirt would make it extra-special but the bigger picture is that Sharp is also playing for his Bramall Lane future, with his current contract scheduled to expire later this summer.

“I’d love to extend,” Sharp insisted. “I still feel as though I’ve got a part to play at the club, still a big help around the boys.

“I may not have had as much impact as I have done in the last five seasons, but I’m still ready and waiting for when I’m needed. Hopefully, I can keep chipping away this season, help the boys get over the line in the league, and get one step closer to the final.

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“There is quite a few of us in the same boat, it’s a waiting game, and we’ll find out a little bit later in the season.”

Sharp, who saw the one-year option in his contract exercised last summer to tie him to United for this current season, is one of a number of players facing uncertain futures at Bramall Lane. As many as a dozen senior members of Paul Heckingbottom’s squad are currently set to become free agents at the end of June and although United are understood to have options to extend in most cases, the ongoing transfer embargo placed on them for non-payment of transfer funds has not helped.

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