Sheffield United transfer notebook amid former player interest and Borja Sainz clarity after “green light”

Sheffield United are focused on their Premier League push in the final seven games of the Championship season - but some at Bramall Lane are keeping half an eye on what could be a crucial summer at Bramall Lane, especially if they can hold on to their current automatic promotion place. The Blades are top of the table ahead of this weekend’s trip to Oxford United.

No-one in South Yorkshire is taking promotion for granted, however, amid what is sure to be a tense battle with rivals Leeds United and Burnley that will probably go right to the wire. But if they do get back in the Premier League, the hope amongst Unitedites is that their side will make a better fist of it this time around - both on and off the pitch.

The purse strings could be loosened somewhat under new ownership COH Sports, after Prince Abdullah took a pragmatic long-term view when United were last promoted, but the focus will still be on value for money, with boss Chris Wilder always keen to squeeze a pint out of a half-pint pot, to use a local expression, and maximise the value of every pound he is given.

One interesting link this week was with a player who came through the ranks during Wilder’s first spell in charge, in Hull City’s Regan Slater. The boyhood Blade saw his pathway to the first-team blocked at the time but has forged a career away from Bramall Lane, with his versatility impressing in East Yorkshire after filling in at wing-back as well as in the middle of the park.

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United have kept tabs on Slater, as they do with all their former young players who have moved on - including Ben Whiteman, who recently returned to Bramall Lane with Paul Heckingbottom’s Preston North End. If Hull drop out of the Championship this season - they are currently 20th and three points clear of third-bottom Derby County - the 25-year-old could move on, with Championship interest expected.

Speaking back in September, before United travelled to face Hull, Wilder admitted of Slater: “Yeah, I like him. He's done fantastically well, we chart and we track progression from players as well and there's been a couple of those boys, like Regan and Ben at Preston.

“A couple have moved on and done well, and I'm delighted. He's a Sheffield United boy at heart and I wish him well. He's been good. He was good for Liam [Rosenior, the former Hull manager], and he's developing his career as a Championship player.”

State of play with Sheffield United’s Borja Sainz transfer ‘interest’

Another player linked with the Blades recently was Norwich City’s Borja Sainz, the winger whose 17 goals so far this season sees him top the Championship top-scorer charts. The Spaniard is set to enter the final year of his Carrow Road contract in the summer, with no public indication yet as to whether he will sign a new one.

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Sainz began the season in ridiculous form, scoring 12 times in his first 15 appearances in all competitions before his campaign was derailed by a six-match ban handed down in January after he admitted spitting at Sunderland’s Chris Mepham, the former Blades transfer target, in December.

The prospect of a fourth consecutive season in the Championship could see belts tightened again in Norfolk, with sporting director Ben Knapper admitting recently that he was “relaxed” about Sainz’s future. However, despite the speculation, The Star understands that Sainz is not a player on Chris Wilder’s radar and unless things change dramatically, he won’t be coming to Bramall Lane.