Why Sheffield United must learn lessons from Sander Berge situation ahead of Burnley reunion

Paul Heckingbottom agrees that Sheffield United need to learn the lessons from the costly summer departures of Iliman Ndiaye and Sander Berge, as they prepare to face the Norwegian midfielder this afternoon for the first time since. Berge and Ndiaye were two key men in United's promotion last season but were both subsequently sold, Berge joining Burnley just days before the new season kicked off.

With both men in the final years of their contracts at Bramall Lane, Heckingbottom conceded that United could not afford to risk one, or both, walking away for free at the end of the season and risk undoing the good work United had done in getting back into the top flight. While the decision was sound from a business point of view, it was not as clear-cut from a footballing perspective - with United robbed of two key cogs in their wheel with two strokes of a pen.

United are in a similarly concerning contractual situation this time around, with more than a dozen members of their first-team squad scheduled to become free agents at the end of the current campaign as things stand. Although the situation is thought to be mitigated somewhat by the presence of options in the club's favour in some of those deals, some - including key men Oli McBurnie and Wes Foderingham, plus starlet Daniel Jebbison - could agree pre-contract moves abroad as soon as next month.

Although United have begun negotiations with McBurnie and Foderingham, Heckingbottom confirmed that no progress has been made with Jebbison - who burst onto the scene during United's last Premier League season and was subsequently the subject of a rebuffed bid worth around £5m from Everton. Asked if that was a source of frustration, Heckingbottom admitted: "Yeah. It is. But it's part [of his job].

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"We've discussed a lot about what the job's involved in the last two years and that's been a big one as well, because of the situation we got in. Frustration of the Iliman and Sander situations. Massively frustrating, but it's happened. A lot of the time hands were tied because of the situation we were in and now there's a big desire for that never to happen again. We have to make sure we get strong enough as a football club and strong enough behind the scenes so that doesn't happen again."