Prince Abdullah makes January transfer pledge amid fresh Premier League survival confidence under Chris Wilder

Prince Abdullah has suggested that he will make funds available for Chris Wilder in the January transfer window if Sheffield United are still in with a chance of pulling off an unlikely survival bid. Wilder has returned to Bramall Lane to replace Paul Heckingbottom, with the Blades bottom of the Premier League table with five points from 14 games.

But the situation is far from irretrievable, with United four points adrift of fourth-bottom Luton Town with 24 games remaining, with Wilder "optimistic" that he can still turn around his boyhood club's fortunes. Speaking on national radio this morning, the prince agreed that United have "every chance to achieve our goals" after making the decision to replace Heckingbottom with one of his predecessors, who twice led the Blades to promotion before leaving in 2021.

“We will look at where we are in the table and what we can do," the prince said when asked about the next window, which opens in less than four weeks. "It’s very early to talk about that but I can assure you one thing: me and Chris are on the same page when it comes to January, and after January. We know what we have to do. We’ve looked at all scenarios and we know we’ve made mistakes in the past. But if we need to do anything at any time, we will do it."

Wilder's last two January transfer windows in charge were markedly different. In 2019/20, with the Blades adjusting superbly to life in the Premier League after promotion to the Championship, United splashed £22m on Sander Berge despite Wilder initially being informed his budget would be a fraction of that amount. Then a year later, with loan deals for the likes of Jesse Lingard lined up, the United owner pulled the plug on any signings - effectively resigning himself, and everyone connected to the club, to relegation.

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“Chris is very optimistic he can save the season," Abdullah said this morning. "He doesn’t think it’s easy, but he thinks it’s still possible. When you look at the table it's a very special year, a very weird year when it comes to the standings, so it’s still early, the season is still long and we have every chance to achieve our goals.”

The United owner was also asked about the summer decision to sell Iliman Ndiaye and Sander Berge, who had entered the final year of their United contracts and could have walked away this summer for nothing. Their departures were a huge blow to United's survival hopes and Abdullah said: “If I was an owner looking only at my interests I would have not sold the two players.

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“We were negotiating with more than one party to sell the club; the club is worth much more in the Premier League than relegated. We all knew that if we kept Iliman and Berge we would have had a better chance of staying in the Premier League and getting a better price, but I looked at the long-term interests of the club, not only me, and that’s why I’m very proud of the club.

“We came to the decision that with one year left on their contracts, we looked at the long-term interests of the club. We didn’t look at only this year and think: 'Who cares about next year, we won’t be here?’ We couldn’t keep those players and lose the club a lot of money. Everything we do is for the benefit of the club. We have not taken money out of the club."