Alan Biggs at Large: Time to learn from Lane’s mistakes

There are so many excuses for Sheffield United not planning ahead.

Chief among others would be not knowing the shape of future ownership and not knowing the division the club will be playing in next season.

But none amount to a genuine excuse; not if, as you strongly suspect, Prince Abdullah actually intends to hold the reins for some time, preferring to entice an investor in tow.

And so it’s welcome to see that the Blades are attending to a double figure pile-up of expiring senior contracts, which is more important than any theoretical managerial deliberations arising from events at Turf Moor this weekend.

Whether they survive in the Premier League or not, United can’t afford a repeat of last summer when the two best players were sold on the brink of the new season.

In the approach to that calamity, and with a minimal budget, manager Paul Heckingbottom sought to keep every single member of his promotion squad.

Now we are seeing something close to a re-enactment of that scenario – with the crucial difference that it has started six months in advance.

Amid the onset of talks with striker Oli McBurnie and keeper Wes Foderingham, there was this key quote from Hecky: “We’ve corrected a few issues and now it’s a case of ‘can we get more long term thinking?’”

It doesn’t mean he’ll get to keep all the soon-to-be free agents. Some are on the upper end of the age scale, as was the case last summer when he lamented being forced to part with Billy Sharp and Enda Stevens.

I still maintain Sharp should have been kept for his influence in the dressing room alone but, yes, there has to be a balance and it’s a tricky one.

Certainly, none of the players in the last year of deals are ones supporters would be clamouring to show the door.

Among them are loyal and distinguished long-servers in John Egan, George Baldock, Ollie Norwood, John Fleck and Chris Basham.

Others include Jayden Bogle, Max Lowe, Rhys Norrington-Davies, Ben Osborn and Daniel Jebbison.

You’d surmise the majority still have a future at Bramall Lane and certainly if United drop back to the Championship, albeit with keener wage considerations.

But the important thing is that the club has started to address the issue in advance and contracts can always include divisional provisos.

Being left flat-footed at the starting gate, as United were this season, is not an option.

It’s the main reason why Heckingbottom is at the centre of a raging debate among supporters over whether he should stay or go.

Yes, neither he nor his team can afford a repeat of last weekend’s absolutely woeful surrender to Bournemouth and least of all at close survival rivals Burnley, whose much bigger spending boss Vincent Kompany somehow evades any similar media scrutiny over his future.

But make no mistake, the finger points to the top for any significant change of direction to take effect.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​