When Paul Heckingbottom was announced as Sheffield United manager back in November, the majority of fans called it “the cheap option”. But how wrong they were.

The Change In Mentality

United were sat 16th place in the table at the time of his appointment. Most fans had already settled for a season of consolidation.

Heckingbottom, Stuart McCall and Jack Lester very quickly reintroduced the squad back to its roots. They switched back to a wing- back formation, one that had served them well previously across 5 seasons.

Before a mid-season change in management, United had adopted a losing mentality which consisted of 37 losses across 57 league games. The new coaching staff had a very tough job on with trying to snap United out of this losing habit.

The Blades got a taste of the “new manager bounce” and went 3 wins from Heckingbottom’s first 3 games, one of which was against outstanding champions elect Fulham.

But then came a stagnant December for United. 3 league games were called off due to covid outbreaks in the opposition camps, add to that a new years day game against Middlesbrough.

After almost 3 weeks of no matches, United’s fixtures began to flow again, and so did the football. They went on a streak of 9 league matches  unbeaten.

Eventually the team managed to fight and claw their way into the play offs at the back end of the season. They did this with a number of key players injured, including every senior striker at the club.

Heckingbottom accumulated 1.77 points per game without the likes of Rhian Brewster, Billy Sharp, David McGoldrick, Jayden Bogle and Oli McBurnie for large periods of his tenure.

United gave everything in the play-off semi final tie against Forest. They managed to draw level on aggregate, even from being 3-1 down away from home. The dreaded penalty shoot-out ultimately saw defeat for Sheffield United.

What an incredible mid-season turnaround led by Hecky, Jack and Stuart McCall. They made fans proud to be a Blade again, even in defeat.

Contract Situations

We know that David McGoldrick, Luke Freeman and Lys Mousset have been confirmed as departing this summer.

Jack Robinson and Ben Osborn have had their contracts extended by an additional year, along with Billy Sharp. The stalwart Chris Basham will remain at the club until 2024.

As things stand, back up goalkeeper Adam Davies will be out of contract this summer also.

Player Loans

The senastional Morgan Gibbs-White will return to boyhood club Wolves. Fans will be hoping to see him return on loan for one more season, but that does seem slightly out of reach.

The recruitment team will have to find a way how to replace his 20 goal contributions in the league for next season.

Charlie Goode will return to Brentford. A signing that on paper was a ‘good’ one, but it turned out to be not so ‘good’. A red card on his full debut, then suffered a long-term injury.

Ben Davies will return to Liverpool. One player that had a mixed bag of performances. His game time was also reduced due to a number of injury issues throughout the season.

Conor Hourihane won’t return to Aston Villa, as he has been told he won’t be retained by the club this summer.

Filip Uremović’s future remains uncertain due to the current world affairs. The Croatian looked more than good enough at this level during his appearances for United.

Oli Burke will return to Sheffield United from his loan spell with Millwall. Burke managed 2 goals in his 17 league appearances for the London club.

Max Lowe will return to Sheffield United from his loan spell at Forest. Lowe had a great few months before suffering a season ending injury. His performances were encouraging, and Steve Cooper likes him.

Summer Plans

Pretty obvious but this summer is vital. Getting injured players back on the grass which will be a big boost. Loans returning to their parent clubs, so there’s gonna be gaps needed to be filled. 


We don’t have much funds available unless we sell valuable assets, so how could we be astute this summer?

Smart Sales

Selling Berge is an obvious one. When he’s up for it, he looks unstoppable, whenever he gets on the ball. But he is a luxury type player to have in this league. The Norwegian reportedly cost the Blades £22M in 2019, and he now has a release clause of £35M.

I believe United could see bids in excess of £22M this summer for Berge which would make it a profitable piece of business for the Blades. A small percentage of that transfer fee could provide a source for new players in the summer.

Another player that Sheffield United may part ways with is Max Lowe. The Blades brought him in for a reported sum of £3.5M back in 2020. Lowe enjoyed a successful loan spell with Nottingham Forest before sustaining a season ending injury.

It is said that Steve Cooper wants Lowe to stay at Forest, and vice versa. The sale of Lowe to Forest would be another profitable sale this summer for the Blades.

There is also potential of the sale of George Baldock this summer, who has been linked with a move to Greek giants, Olympiacos.

The sale of these 3 players would certainly balance the books, but United can’t just sell without having replacements lined up.

Efficient Signings In English Market

The first player I want to suggest is: James Bree

As it stands James Bree is out of contract with Luton this summer. A consistent player that can play anywhere down the right, whether it’s traditional full back, wing back or even right midfield. He provides  great energy down the sides, and he is an accurate crosser of the ball in advanced areas.

I think the sale of George Baldock and replacing him with James Bree would be smart business. Freeing up funds, whilst recruiting an adequate younger replacement. Paul Heckingbottom managed Bree whilst he was at Barnsley and rated him very highly.

Another suggestion is: Joe Rothwell

Rothwell is out of contract with Blackburn this summer. A versatile midfielder, he can play a number of roles. He’s played down the left, he’s played as a 10, he’s also played more of a box-to-box role more recently.

Joe Rothwell is a player that provides a creative spark for his team along with a high intensity performance. A fan favourite at Blackburn for those reasons. With Morgan Gibbs-White highly unlikely to return to Bramall Lane, Ben Rothwell is the type of player that would help fill the void that the Wolves man will be leaving.

A number of Championship clubs are currently looking to sign Rothwell, United are said to be one of them.

The third suggestion: Scott Twine

The 22 year-old has had an exceptional season in League One with MK Dons. Scott Twine can play down either side and just behind the striker. Twine always looks to operate between the opposition lines and will look to thread the ball behind the defence. He also has the quality to find the net from distance from open play and freekicks.

Without question MK Dons will be demanding a fee in the millions for the young man. Twine would be a realistic target for United if they do inevitably sell. The attack-minded player would be another one that would add something similar as to what Gibbs-White did.

Reports of Nottingham Forest being interested in Twine. Though United may intrigue MK Dons more because there is the potential of United loaning out one of their future stars to them, such as Daniel Jebbison and Will Osula.

Another suggestion: Yoann Barbet

Barbet as it stands will be a free agent this summer. A player that has been consistent throughout his time in the Championship. He has played left back, but more recently the left side of a back 3.

Barbet is a much more composed player on the ball than Robinson and is more mobile, however Robinson is the better overall box defender of the two. As a free agent, the 29 year-old would be a good signing for the left side of the defence and it would provide great competition for the position.

Player suggestion: John Swift

Swift, a player United always seem to be linked with every window. He’ll officially be a free agent at the end of next month, however Reading have recently just offered the midfielder a 3 year deal. Though Swift hasn’t yet made a decision on his future, and no doubt will be weighing up his options over the next few weeks.

John Swift has tremendous dribbling ability, and has proven to be a great architect from central positions for Reading over the last few seasons. As a bonus, he does offer dead ball ability.

I think signing John Swift would be the best possible replacement for Berge that we could hope for.

Summarising My Suggestions

I know a lot of fans demand new signings early on every summer, but realistically that’s not always possible. Especially if the club is looking at the loan market, they will have to wait longer into the window to do their business.

Last season that was the case with us. But this summer for United I think will be different. I think inevitably Berge will be sold for a hefty fee, and I’m fairly confident Lowe will be sold too. This will provide healthy finances for United to operate with.

Though I must stress, just because a team sells a player for £25M for example, doesn’t mean that it makes sense to spend a large chunk of that sum in the first window possible. That wouldn’t be smart.

My player suggestions above are based off of the departures happening that I listed above. We need to add more variety and energy in the midfield area whilst maintaining that creativity, and I think Rothwell and Swift both fit that criteria.

My suggestion of James Bree definitely depends on the sale of Baldock. I think it would be a very smart signing for us as it would free up funds for elsewhere/the future. Also we must accept that another excellent individual season from Bogle would see him being heavily linked with a move away from United. With Bree, we’d have a ready replacement for him in that case.

The prospect of Scott Twine signing is a very intriguing one. It will be hard to replace Gibbs-White’s goal involvement, but I think Twine would certainly come close.

We definitely need cover for the back 3 positions. Yoann Barbet would be a good option for LCB. I’d also love it if we could bring Uremović back to cover RCB and the CB position.

Tactically

I think United will continue to play a WB system of 5-2-1-2. It allows us a solid foundation at the back as well as giving us the attacking midfield position where our number 10 can roam the middle and final third. Whilst it also allows us to overload wide positions.

The picture above has been mostly how we shape up/reset when the GK is on the ball, with Egan having it rolled out to him to start the build up. This shape allows us to play out from the back much more easily, as there will always be a free pass on to one of the side CB’s. We have also seen it where we have been able to draw out the opposition thus allowing a free pass into the likes of Norwood, Fleck and Berge, where they can get on the half turn and advance up the field.

Essentially what United attempt to create is a triangle down either side. This is so that they can overload the wide areas, and occupy the opposition in front of them. But while occupying the opposition in front of them, they will get one of the forwards to make a run into the channel. I’ve also circled Norwood, here’s why…

For e.g one of our patterns of build up is: Basham to Baldock, Baldock to Berge, Berge back to Basham, then Basham will attempt to play it inside to Norwood (if free), then Norwood will attempt to play the ball into that channel for the runner.

United also look to drop one of their forwards deeper in some situations in the build up. This is so that we can outnumber the opposition in this area.

Another great plus of playing a back 3 is that it opens much more passing angles/options up as the wide CB’s can get more wider in the progression phase.

In the picture above, ideally United want to try and get the ball into the half space (Fleck) and get him to turn on the ball to thread a pass in behind the defence, or for him to drive towards the back line in order to split that shape.

These are just a few common patterns that United have created under Paul Heckingbottom, and I expect the same for next season.

As a plan B, I think United will look at bringing in a couple of wingers or inside forwards, in the summer, so that they can shift into a 5-2-3 or a 5-2-2-1.

Ideally I would also like to see us recruit players that could fit into a 4-2-3-1 shape. I think this would be a great option to revert to if the opposition are mostly counterattack threats. As it would provide a screen in front of the back line, and be more equipped to handle a swift counterattack.