Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder challenges his players to become history makers and comments on Callum Robinson and Ly Mousset

United complete what has been a remarkable campaign when they visit Southampton on Sunday - entering the fixture ranked eighth in the table despite being told to prepare for an immediate return to the Championship after being promoted 15 months ago.

With their hopes of reaching the Europa League only vanishing when they were beaten by Everton in the penultimate match of the revised schedule, the achievements of Wilder’s side has prompted some supporters to hail them as the greatest team ever to represent the club.

Although he declined to accept that title, the 52-year-old said: “We’re here to make history and achieve things. We have done and to be talked about in the same breath as people like TC (Tony Currie), Badge (Len Badger), Ted (Hemsley) and Alan Hodgkinson, for me that sends a shiver down the spine. Even Harry (David Bassett) and the lads he had, that came into the old First Division.

“We work in the present but, in 20 or 30 years time, we want to be talked about in the same way as that team from the early Seventies."

Given the gulf in financial resources available to United compared to other top-flight clubs, Wilder added: “It’s a different landscape now. The money invested at this level makes it very difficult to get results now."

Speaking ahead of the trip to St Mary’s, Wilder confirmed he is already planning for the new season, which begins on September 12. Warning “we can’t think we’ve cracked it, we’ve got to drive on”, Wilder conceded several existing members of his squad are poised to leave South Yorkshire but refused to reveal if Callum Robinson, who helped West Bromwich Albion gain promotion after moving to The Hawthorns on loan, will be among them.

“I’m not going to talk about individuals,” he said, after learning United will build a new first team complex at their Steelphalt Academy training ground later this summer. “He’s under contract with us.

“I’m delighted for Callum and for West Brom. Callum is our player and we’ll deal with that accordingly.”

Wilder did, however, shed further light on Lys Mousset’s situation after revealing the centre-forward returned to France before Monday’s defeat by Carlo Ancelotti’s side. Despite sitting out the Covid-19 pandemic in England, Mousset travelled back to his homeland earlier this month.

“It’s been a tough time for the foreign boys in lockdown,” Wilder said. “Lys has had a few knocks and niggles and his girlfriend has just given birth so I made the decision to let him go home .

“I believe that was the correct decision to let him go back. The advice we got from the Premier League and our medical staff was that it would be difficult during lockdown so I made that decision."

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