“Hugely disappointed” Sheffield United boss breaks silence over Sander Berge’s Burnley transfer

The Norwegian is expected to be unveiled at Turf Moor today after undergoing a medical with the Lancashire side earlier this week. Berge was in the last year of his United contract, with United hoping to unveil Brazilian midfielder Vinicius Souza as his replacement ahead of Saturday’s curtain raiser against Crystal Palace at Bramall Lane.

Berge’s impending departure follows that last week of star man Iliman Ndiaye, who was also scheduled to become a free agent next summer. United have a vast number of players whose current deals also expire at the end of the upcoming season, but a number of them are understood to have options for the club to extend them by a further year.

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Speaking to Talksport, Heckingbottom admitted he was “hugely disappointed” by Berge’s departure. “The timing of it, and the fact he's going,” he added. “In my mind I'd prepared for both [Berge and Ndiaye] a long time ago and drawn up plans and presented them to the club, saying this is what needs to happen.

“The problem is that when you leave it this long, everything's changed in terms of your targets so that's always been moving. The club have been told, they know who we want to bring in and the sooner we do it, the better.”

Asked if United could have done more to prevent vast swathes of their first-team squad approaching the end of their deals at the same time, Heckingbottom replied: “I'm not going into that as I'll probably say something that gets me into trouble, but everyone knows the situation we're in, I wasn't privy to those conversations but we have got a lot of players in the last year of their contracts, we know that, and it becomes a problem.”