Sheffield United: The presentation being made to potential transfer signings is revealed

Nearly six weeks since identifying around “seven” vacancies within Sheffield United’s first team squad - and three into the latest transfer window - the 44-year-old is still yet to welcome any new faces to Bramall Lane.

But in the meantime, United’s manager has revealed details of the pitch he is using to try and persuade potential targets that South Yorkshire is the best place to further their careers.

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“What is all boils down to, if you want to get someone in, is letting them know what we can do for them,” Heckingbottom told The Star. “We explain what we feel we can do as a coaching team to improve them, because everyone is always looking to get better. We also let them know how we see them improving us as a group, what they can bring to us, because I think that’s important.

“It’s a two way process. If you do it like that, it makes it much easier for everyone to see the bigger picture.”

The names

United were linked with a flurry of names over the weekend, including Derby County’s captain Tom Lawrence and Malmo defender Anel Ahmedhodzic. Some of those claimed to feature on Heckingbottom’s radar have little or no chance of ever arriving, as those responsible for making the connections ignore the financial parameters within which his recruitment gurus must operate.

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“I’ve seen lots of people being put forward,” one senior figure within the club admitted during a private briefing last week. “Most of them, I don’t recognise.”

But others do, as United’s coaching staff attempt to address some of the issues Heckingbottom believes contributed towards their failure to win promotion last term. Despite coming agonisingly close to reaching the Championship play-off final - losing on penalties to Nottingham Forest in the postseason knockouts - a lack of cover and competition in several key areas saw United quickly fall off the pace at the beginning of the campaign. Although they acquitted themselves well from November onwards, when Heckingbottom replaced Slavisa Jokanovic at the helm, the mental and physical stress chasing down the top six placed his side under manifested itself in a series of debilitating injuries during the closing stages of the campaign. Record signing Rhian Brewster, Jayden Bogle and Oli McBurnie were among those to miss the double-header against Forest because of injuries, while captain Billy Sharp was also forced to watch from the touchine as United’s dreams of making an immediate return to the pinnacle of the English game went up in smoke.

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Worryingly for Heckingbottom, his predecessor complained that United’s inability to draft-in reinforcements until just before the deadline contributed to their poor start. Heckingbottom’s decision to publicly acknowledge that it would be “advantageous” not to repeat that mistake during a series of interviews with regional journalists on Thursday was an attempt to subtly exert some pressure on the board.

“By the time you get sat around the table with someone,” he continued, “You should already be able to picture them in red and white. You should already know exactly how they’re going to fit in and what they’re going to bring. Otherwise, why would you be there looking at them?

“The same goes for them. They should already be able to envisage themselves playing for us and know what that looks like. They should already be able to see their role in the mind.”

The inevitable consequence

What Heckingbottom didn’t mention, during a five minute long conversation about the presentations he makes to prospective acquisitions, is the fact that United’s decision to focus on loans and frees means the progress of his latest reprofiling exercise is bound to be tortuously slow.

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Premier League managers and head coaches are unlikely to let their most promising youngsters leave until the closing stages of the window, when the majority of their own business has been completed. One of the challenges facing Heckingbottom and his employers is to ensure supporters remain engaged and the mood in the camp stays high when, on the surface at least, very little appears to be happening.

“We’re working hard, doing things,” Heckingbottom said. “There’s plenty of people on this.

“Often, it’s about getting all the different pieces in place so that you’re ready to move when you get the go-ahead. We know what we want to do and who we want to do it with.”

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“I believe this is an attractive place to come,” he added. “We’re a club with a passionate following, the biggest and the best in the division, and we’ve shown that we can compete right up there. If I was still playing, then I’d want to come here and others do too. It’s the type of environment you’d want to be involved with if you’re ambitious and want to try and achieve things.”

The delays

With more members of United’s squad set to report back for training this week, Heckingbottom hopes a breakthrough in the market is not far away. Next month’s visit to Portugal is the perfect opportunity to help new signings settle in both on and off the pitch. A formal offer has been submitted for one player currently contracted to another club. United are waiting to see if another, shortly set to become a free agent, has a 12 month option contained within his present agreement triggered.

“Obviously there’s things that we tell them and the people they’re working with to try and get them here,” Heckingbottom said. “Because good players, which we obviously want, are probably going to have a few possibilities in front of them.

“Basically it focuses on what what we know we can do for them and how them coming here would help make us even stronger and improve their chances of winning something as well.”

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