Sheffield United: 'We're happy with squad' club insists, despite "six or seven" vacancies
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Although the former Barnsley, Leeds and Hibernian chief has identified six or seven positions in need of strengthening before the new season gets underway, the majority of these are ones where players have departed following spells on loan or been released according to chief executive Steve Bettis.
“I think we are pretty much there with the existing squad,” Bettis said. “"I think we're pretty much there with the existing squad. We sat down at length with Paul and went through who went and who's staying. It was actually quite a good season in terms of there being quite a lot of players who were out of contract but not out of contract.
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Hide Ad“It frustrated me at times that people thought they were out of contract when we had options for another year. When we announce it, we say we've done a three-year deal but quite a lot of them are three-plus-one, so there were quite a number where people were panicking that people were out of contract but they're not. Time was on our side.”
Although United’s contractual dealings with some of their leading names were not quite as serene as Bettis painted - captain Billy Sharp expressing his frustration about the length of time it took to extend his deal - officials at Bramall Lane were able to exploit it by releasing those deemed as being surplus to requirements. Lys Mousset, David McGoldrick and Luke Freeman were all told their services were no longer required before United’s defeat in the Championship play-off semi-finals by Nottingham Forest, who went on to beat Huddersfield Town in last weekend’s Wembley showpiece.
"We had a lot of players either out of contract or where we could exercise that option so it gave us a lot of flexibility in terms of deciding who stays or goes,” Bettis said, after Chris Basham, Ben Osborn and Jack Robinson were also handed fresh terms. "Paul's happy now with where we are. Now there's just positions Paul feels need strengthening.”