Sheffield United reveal future strategy

United’s flying start to the season - Wilder’s side are sixth in the table with only 12 matches remaining - has prompted fears other teams impressed by their success will attempt to lure away members of the 52-year-old’s squad at the end of the campaign.

Having identified the threat during a series of strategy meetings with United’s hierarchy, Wilder instructed his employers to open contract talks with several veterans of last term’s promotion winning side, including John Lundstram and Enda Stevens.

Despite breaking their transfer record five times since climbing out of the Championship, culminating in last month’s £22m swoop for Norway midfielder Sander Berge, United still lack the resources to match the wages on offer elsewhere or, as Wilder recently noted, the prestige of the competition’s leading names.

But that has not diminished his ambition to build upon the progress United have made since winning the 2017 League One title during his first season in charge.

“In our first year in the Premier League we wanted to keep all our best players – the players we've brought in and the likes of (John) Fleck, (John) Egan, Lundstram, Stevens, (Chris) Basham and (Oliver) Norwood,” Wilder said. “The boys who have been on the journey.

“We understand as well financially we have a ceiling that isn't as high as quite a few of the other Premier League clubs.

“Sometimes it's difficult to accept but there are bigger, more famous and more historic clubs that our ambitious players might want to play for. I'm not embarrassed about that.”

Wilder will use the prospect of European football - United could climb into the Champions League places if they convincingly beat Brighton and Hove Albion this weekend - to help convince those with suitors elsewhere to commit themselves to United.

But he warned: “If a player wants to go, the negotiations start. We won't hold them against their will but it becomes a question of the best price we can get for these players because at times they might be doubling or trebling their salaries and we're not in that ball park.”