Nothing to be gained from internal strife at Sheffield United - Alan Biggs

And the good news is I don’t see this as a risk, however far apart owner and manager might seem in planning for the Premier League.

Blunt but never personal in style, Paul Heckingbottom is simply doing the job he is paid for in pushing for the needs of the football operation.

Important lessons have been learned on all sides since the painful and acrimonious split with Chris Wilder just over two years ago.

Fans may be unaware of this but I understand all the parties involved, including owner Prince Abdullah and chief executive Stephen Bettis, have long been back on cordial terms.

There is a recognition, I believe from everyone, that things could have been handled differently.

Certainly Wilder privately accepts that his approach could have been less confrontational.

So it follows that there is a need to disagree without making it personal amid the current uncertainty over the club’s future.

And from what I saw on the touchline after the win that clinched promotion, the key figures could hardly be described as at loggerheads.

They are coming from two completely different positions.

Heckingbottom needs to know, not least for the sake of his own career when promotion to the Premier League can be so perilous, that he has at least a fighting chance of staying up.

Prince Abdullah, who I had a rare conversation with after the West Brom game, has spoken of the personal strain he has endured and the difficulties of financing the club.

Public opinion seems to be divided on him. Some fans are openly grateful he has not rocked the boat on their dreams and kept the best players, though if Iliman Ndiaye had said yes to a potential move to Everton in January it might have been different.

Others are suspicious, suggesting the owner shielded himself from any pressure to sign players by agreeing to sell the club just before the last window and that he is engineering the same ploy for this one.

Whatever, there is nothing to be gained from internal strife.

The football operation remains a tight-knit unit and Heckingbottom, while speaking honestly and without rancour, will make the best of what he has. For now.

It’s for the good of the club and fans, rather than personalities, that a firm course has to be set sooner rather than later.