Sheffield United's summer recruitment priority as Chris Wilder addresses biggest Blades issue

When Chris Wilder sits down with Sheffield United’s incoming head of recruitment to nail down the club’s transfer plans this summer, any player will be assessed against four criteria. Tactically, how adaptable and intelligent they are. Technically; how they handle a football. Mentally - their character and how they will be able to handle the demands of being part of the Blades’ big rebuild.

The fourth and potentially most important factor this summer will be physicality. One of the big issues Wilder has identified since his return to Bramall Lane in December is the condition of his Blades squad - not just in terms of injuries, although their impact on a squad already relatively threadbare has been well documented already.

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The bigger issue for United in recent weeks has been the number of players unable to complete 90 minutes - plus whatever ridiculous amount of injury time is added on. United have already played the equivalent of 35 full 90-minute matches this season, including added time, with seven still to go in a 38-game Premier League season.

It is an issue that has proven difficult to address in the middle of a season, especially in weeks such as the last one when United played three times in the space of eight days and rest and recovery was important. But whoever remains behind at Bramall Lane for next season, with as many as 18 players set to depart as things stand, can expect a tough pre-season while United, who recently brought back former player and coach Jamie Hoyland as chief scout, scour the market for physically-capable players.

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“It’s availability over ability in some ways for me,” admitted Wilder. “I’ve got to look at all the players and are they going to give me a 38-game or 46-game season. We have got to look at that. Financially, if we are paying someone X amount of money and they are only available for 50 per cent of games, we are not getting the true value of that player.

“Availability for training is just as important in terms of working on things we need to do - unit work, individual work, teamwork. When these players aren’t available, we can’t do that, so we cannot improve ourselves on the training ground. Every time people ask: ‘What have you been doing in the week?’ I could possibly say: ‘Well, some of them have not trained until Friday because they can’t, we’ve had two who we have modified training sessions because of past injuries and another two, three, or four on second, third and fourth-day recovery’.

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“So they are not training until Thursday or Friday. There are two or three days in there where we cannot do any work with the players and we are coached football team who get coached in pre-season and through the season and hopefully get better through the season by coaching. When players aren’t available, it throws that out of the window.”

Wilder recently flew to Riyadh for face-to-face talks with owner Prince Abdullah about their future plans for the club, with the issue of recruitment top of the agenda. “We must have robust, fit, mobile and physically strong players available and strong enough to deal with whatever division we are playing in,” added Wilder, whose side are bottom of the table and facing an almighty task to avoid an instant return to the Championship.

“We know the Championship and now we know what the Premier League is all about, and how physically challenging is it. We’ve talked about tactical, technical and mental, but the biggest one for me is that you have got to go the distance. It’s something I have not been used to here, as we’ve always had that ability to do that.

“There are a lot of moving parts as to why we haven’t and we need to settle all that down and make sure we deal with all those issues so that, whatever division we are in next season, we learn and are lots better from that point of view.”