Why Sheffield United have found making progress in this summer's transfer market particularly slow

The trend, sparked by the losses incurred when competition was suspended in March, also extends to the Premier League - where it is understood a number of managers must sell before they can buy in order to help balance the books.

The situation has slowed negotiations with a number of potential targets, according to one source at Bramall Lane, while efforts to offload John Lundstram should the midfielder continue to refuse a contract offer from United, are also likely to be affected.

Despite leading his team to a ninth placed finish in the top-flight last season, only a year after being promoted from the Championship, United manager Chris Wilder admitted his employers had also lost “a chunk of change” due to social distancing measures introduced to help fight the spread of the respiratory disease. With matches being staged behind closed doors since elite level football returned to action in June - and many within the game predicting it could be October until small numbers of supporters are allowed back into stadia - United are estimated to have lost more than £6m in ticket sales and matchday revenues alone, prompting Wilder to redraw his wanted list before the window reopened. The situation coincided with confirmation that United arranged a mortgage to help purchase property assets from former chairman, owner and co-owner Kevin McCabe, as required under the terms of the High Court ruling which handed HRH Prince Abdullah bin Musa’ad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud control nearly a year ago.

“It’s slow out there,” one person, involved in several of the deals United are attempting to negotiate, told The Star last night. “Everyone is jockeying for position and they know who they want. A lot (of clubs) effectively need to sell before they can bring anyone in because of the money situation.”

With the purse strings being tight, many teams also want to identify replacements first, to avoid being drawn into an auction, before selling members of their squads.

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