The 'nonsensical' ruling hampering Sheffield United's bid for Premier League survival

United entered the international break having lost four straight Premier League outings and having collected only 11 points out of a possible 42 since fans were banned from attending games last term.

With the authorities’ refusal to reopen the gates, despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson encouraging people to visit indoor venues such as pubs and cinemas, appearing increasingly nonsensical, critics of the controversial policy have launched an online petition calling for it to be reversed.

Wilder, who recently admitted to be “baffled” by the country’s increasingly complex and often contradictory social distancing guidelines, is convinced they have also been a factor behind United’s disappointing results - even though he admitted the form of several key players is also a concern following Sunday’s defeat by Arsenal.

Outlining the challenges United faced when they returned to top-flight competition 14 months ago, and describing how they overcame them, Wilder said: We came into this division as favourites to go down and we used our support to our advantage, which we had to do because we can’t compete financially with the others.

“We had to find other ‘wins’ and one of those was our support because of how great it is.”

Although United have sporting reasons for hoping supporters are allowed back inside Bramall Lane sooner rather than later, there are financial reasons too after Wilder recently admitted his recruitment budget had been revised because of losses incurred during lockdown. Despite breaking their transfer record to capture Liverpool’s Rhian Brewster last week, the amount placed at Wilder’s disposal pales into insignificance compared to the sums the likes of Aston Villa and newly promoted Leeds have lavished on new players.

“I haven’t enjoyed it but I don’t think my attitude has impacted upon the players because we had some great results last year,” Wilder said, reflecting upon United’s ninth placed finish last season. “But the Bramall Lane faithful, right behind us, is certainly an advantage we are missing.”

An important note: Thank you for reading this article, one of dozens we publish every single day to provide you with the best, most up-to-date and most informative coverage of YOUR club. This depth of coverage costs, so to help us maintain the high-quality reporting that you are used to from the football team at The Star, please consider taking out a subscription to our new discounted sports-only package. You'll find all the details at https://www.thestar.co.uk/subscriptions/sports.

Your support is much appreciated.

Chris Holt, Football Editor