Sheffield United promotion rivals Leeds United, Sunderland sent 'game on' warning after crucial transfer work

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Sheffield United's promotion rivals sent 'game on' warning after crucial transfer work sets Blades up for run-in

In a January transfer window so unrecognisable to many Sheffield United supporters, it was somewhat fitting that it ended with a bang. Three deadline-day arrivals took United to seven new faces in all, covering all of manager Chris Wilder’s priority positions with two bonus gambles on little-known wingers thrown in for good measure.

The proof of the pudding will be in the eating but there can be little doubt that United end the window in far better shape than when they entered it. Back then they were running on fumes and stretched to within an inch of their collective lives, with a reasonably-strong XI and not a great deal of top-end Championship-level depth below it.

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This window was never going to be about huge upgrades to the first team but about strengthening the group and that has undoubtedly been achieved. Ben Brereton Diaz, Hamza Choudhury, Harry Clarke and then Rob Holding are all vastly experienced operators who have been around the block, while retaining the youthful balance that Wilder had prioritised. Even Tom Cannon has had his fair share of experiences at the tender age of 22, as part of the Leicester City side that won the Championship title last term.

The frustration, if there was any, came towards the end when United’s centre-half search went right down to the wire. There was a sense of confidence over Jimmy Dunne that reared its head later in the day when QPR indicated that they may be willing to do business for the Irishman after all, after rejecting two bids from the Blades.

But that depended on them getting in a right-back replacement and United had already moved on to Holding, ending his Crystal Palace exile in the process. Dunne, incidentally, is out of contract in the summer and may well end up at Bramall Lane on a free.

Holding is a curious case. He is 29 years of age but he has not yet made 200 senior career appearances; a statistic not helped by his period in the wilderness at Palace. But there is undoubted pedigree there; he helped Arsenal win two FA Cups and three Community Shields during his time at the Emirates and players do not survive that long at a club like Arsenal if they do not have something about them.

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His career may not have gone to plan since but having players with something of a point to prove can be a powerful thing and Holding will be determined to seize this chance after his frustration at Selhurst Park. He may not have been United’s first choice but it is a solid signing, providing some valuable cover and experience to that back line. With a player like Holding, the word from those who’ve worked with him is that you know what you’ll get.

The opposite is true of the two players who joined him at Bramall Lane late on deadline day; 19-year-old Nigerian winger Christian Nwachukwu and Peruvian wideman Jefferson Cáceres, 22. The two are the first test cases of the new statistical recruitment model introduced by the club’s new ownership group and driven, we understand, by Marvel director Joe Russo.

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Based on their stat graphs and short YouTube clips there is potential there but football is played on grass rather than spreadsheets and only time will tell if the gambles pay off. It would be harsh to write them off without seeing them kick a ball in England but at the same time it is a huge leap from the Peruvian Primera División and the Bulgarian top flight to the brink of the Premier League.

That’s before the off-field differences are taken into account. In Lima today the temperature would hit a tropical 29 degrees. Cáceres’ new home of Sheffield? Highs of a balmy 10. But both young men have a remarkable opportunity in front of them and one they will hopefully grasp with both hands. If so, it may be no exaggeration to suggest that they will go down in United folklore as something of a turning point towards an AI-driven scouting future.

It has also gone under the radar a little but the window slammed shut at 11pm last night without any of United’s main actors, as Wilder calls them, leaving the building. Deadline days of the past have rarely passed without some sort of late speculation over a key man, with Sander Berge usually the subject of that for what felt about 14 windows running. But the new ownership were firm on protecting what Wilder has built at Bramall Lane, and were true to their word.

But forget all the talk about buying the league or Parachute FC or whatever other nonsense is chucked at United after their seven-signing spree. All the Blades have done, in reality, is address an issue that should have not been there, by restoring parity with the teams around them with infinitely deeper squads and subsequently more options.

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When Leeds, for example, lost two key central midfielders, they called upon Japanese international Ao Tanaka and Championship veteran Joe Rothwell. A few injuries in midfield of late saw Wilder forced to deploy left-back Harrison Burrows in the middle of the park.

"We have restored parity,” said Wilder, “so it's game on. There have never been excuses, but it’s been a fact. We have had a fabulous window and restored parity with the likes of the teams who are after being promoted and getting out of the league.

"We are well into the second part of the season and are coming into the last third. And you need experience, players who have been through that process, and strength in depth to cope with the schedule and injuries and suspensions and loss of form.

“Now we are in a position when I am looking and selecting and going: ‘That's a difficult decision.’ ‘What do we do, can we do something tactically as well to change the way we play to give us the best opportunities to win a game?’ And that’s where we want to be.”

Game on, indeed.

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