Sheffield United: Co-owner repeats budget comment

Speaking after the club secured automatic promotion from the Championship, Wilder told The Star he was not planning to make wholesale changes to the squad which finished second in the table.

Although United's co-owner Kevin McCabe refused to name the exact amount set to be placed at the 51-year-old disposal, he said: "Let’s just say it’ll be a healthy one. We’re not in the Premier League for fun and when you play in any market, you can’t buck it.

"So it’s about considering everything carefully. We’re not going to be rash, we’re not going to be stupid."

McCabe controls a 50 per cent stake in United's parent company Blades Leisure Limited while his fellow co-owner, HRH Prince Abdullah Bin Mosaad Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, holds the other half.

Having both launched takeover attempts two years ago, a hearing set to decide who owns United moving forward is set to begin in earnest at the High Court in London next week.

Echoing Wilder's sentiments about the importance of balancing ambition with prudence, McCabe said: "We’ve got to plan in the Premier League to have a nucleus of a squad that will maintain its position, but that if we did come on hard times, we wouldn’t go down with a massive, massive tumble."