Sheffield United: Everything Yusuf Giansiracusa, Stephen Bettis and Paul Heckingbottom said as Slavisa Jokanovic is replaced as boss

I want to see people take responsibility but see people with smiles on their faces. You only do that by winning games. And that’s the priority

There’s a scouting network across United World but it will be club led, we’ll be looking for players appropriate to us. There may be times we can share info which may become valuable. Sheffield United’s recruitment will be headed up by Sheffield United and where we can get help, we will do. We’d be foolish not to. It’ll be based around what Sheffield United need.

I’m not approaching it any differently apart from there will be more conversations, which can only be a good thing. If you speak to any owner or manager when things go wrong, it’s often because of a lack of communication. The football side of things will be approached the same way. Try and develop the players, work with the staff but alongside that there’ll be a lot more conversations up and down the chain.

We have been consistently impressed every time we meet Paul and speak with him, I am more and more impressed with his maturity and intellect and those qualities are sometimes underestimated. We tend to like short term results, leadership and character in my opinion matter. Not to say any of Paul’s predecessors didn’t have those but Paul has them in abundance and we’re confident with the decision we’ve made.

If we don’t achieve promotion we’re about £100m worse off in trms of revenue coming in next season. The club’s prepared for that, we run cashflows for all circumstances. Promoted, staying in the league and dare I say it relegation. The club’s in a position where it will remain sustainable going forward, whatever happens.

Slav was hired as a coach of the first team and that was his responsibility. Paul is now responsible for football development in the club. From a board perspective, we see Paul as leading our football strategy in all of its dimensions. He’ll have a direct line to the board and to me, he has an excellent relationship with Stephen. A key part of the plan is leveraging the synergies with United World and Paul will play an important role with overall group stategy.

PH: It’s all encompassing, the role. One of the big things with the role is getting the team around me right. I’ve been a coach but you can get distacted, you get judged on everything. You have to get that into your head before you start. There’s a lot of responsibility on me and I have to get the team right, which is why I brought in Stuart and Jack, and another coach as well. I may have to relinquish a bit of time on the training ground, this role is a bit different and maybe a bit of a throwback to a football manager.

SB - When there’s a period of change sometimes you still think, is this the right decision etc? But this one, it just feels right and it feels that there’s no doubt there, we know each other and have worked so well previously.

We’ve signed a contract through 2027, we’ve done things in the contract and made every effort contractually to keep him for the full duration and beyond, we hope. I think if you look back, it’s understandable that some may say this is your third manager since taking full control. There were special circumstances in the first one [Wilder] which I think we’re all aware of and we have nothing but appreciation for Slav and his team. their role was very narrowly defined and Paul is our guy for the long term. We hope he will remain with us for the long term and we’ll be the better for it.

SB - We spoke at length to Paul and he won’t be judged on what happens on a Saturday afternoon. He’ll be judged on the whole football department, not just what happens on a Saturday afternoon.

At Barnsley, the resources meant we had to take young players. We got pats on the back but had no choice. At Leeds, we had a clogged pathway for the young players and needed to remove a lot of first-team players. We want to make sure we create that natural pathway but you’re not going to get in unless you’re good enough. It’s about driving that and there’s nothing better for a fan of the club to get one of your own through. The boys have got to get in and stay in. I enjoy working with young players but results have to be at the forefront of our minds.

I believe so. We’ve handicapped ourselves but I think we can. I could have stayed where I was but I want to work with the boys and think this season can turn out to be a successful one.