Time for Sheffield United to sell well as Blades face end of an era at Bramall Lane - Alan Biggs

Selling players is part of football. The key is either tying them down or plotting to replace them in advance, which is where Bramall Lane fell down last summer. You could make a list as long as this column of good players Sheffield United have sold over the last 20 odd years and we’d all agree it’s too many.

But these are the ones the club COULD sell for decent money, unlike the vast majority of others. And that’s the reality of football, never more so than now as clubs grapple with financial fair play rules that can drag you down from a great height to a great depth. Look at once Premier League Reading, struggling to keep its head above water in the third tier.

Look even at Championship high-flyers Leicester City, chasing a promotion that could either vaporise or lead to an instant relegation laden with a points penalty. And look at top flight pair Everton and Nottingham Forest, desperately trying to avoid potentially devastating sanctions. Then look at Brighton, Brentford and Luton, three clubs who’ve prospered from basically a sell-to-progress policy, which is maybe a pointer to United’s future in alliance with academy development.

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Now we all know the Blades are in no position to crow with their relegation all but certain after posting a £31.4m loss in their latest accounts. But there are more important things and running a tight ship is top of that list. The Premier League certainly isn’t worth going bust over! Selling is not a dirty word.

So if, as United are admitting, they have to trade a player or two in the summer then on this occasion we have to support it, not lament it. Providing workable amounts are reinvested and a revamped squad is in place in good time for the 2024-25 season. It’s good that there’s no pretence about any of this. Or that United will be severely limited financially under the current status quo, barring an unexpected shift on the ownership front.

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What they can’t afford is the half-in half-out inertia of last summer when Prince Abdullah left everyone dangling. If budgets and strategies have been worked out regardless and in advance, following the owner’s summit with manager Chris Wilder, then so much the better. All fans really want is a clear plan and commitment to succeed. They no longer crave unlimited spending, quite the reverse considering clear examples of where it can lead.

Responsible housekeeping has risen to its highest ever point on the wish-list with much needed independent regulation on the game’s horizon. It means a widespread recognition that there are far worse fates than relegation or failing to go up. Keeping a club solvent has to be an overriding demand from now on. And if you are honest with supporters, they will understand that.

As far as I can see, no-one is knocking United’s hierarchy for signposting sales in the summer. But they have a right to expect both some ambition and some joined-up thinking. From what I hear, planning for next season in the Championship topped the behind-the-scenes agenda from the moment Wilder returned as manager. That for me is realism rather than defeatism. The public line has been to make a fight of staying up and not to accept it meekly, which had to be the case. But you can’t go blindly into the sort of overhaul the Blades almost certainly face at the end of an era for most members of what has been an exceptional squad.