Sheffield United boss discusses Kyle Walker future after Man City star transfer links

Paul Heckingbottom has laughed off speculation linking Kyle Walker with a return to Sheffield United earlier this summer as the treble-winning defender prepares to make his latest Bramall Lane homecoming on Sunday. Reports were rife that Walker may leave City earlier in this window, with a long-stated desire to play for United again leading to speculation he could come home sooner rather than later.

In the end German giants Bayern Munich came the closest to luring Walker away from the Etihad, with reports in Manchester suggesting that City are close to tying Walker down to a new deal with his current terms set to expire in the summer. Asked if Walker’s return was ever a realistic possibility, Heckingbottom smiled: “No, some of the names you’ve been throwing at me this summer have made me laugh.”

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But there is a genuine respect for Walker and all he achieved in the game, and asked if he would welcome the chance to work with the 33-year-old in the future, Heckingbottom admitted: “One hundred per cent. I’d be interested to see how fit he looks and what he thinks about the game now. The clubs he has been at and how he has learned. I’m just interested in how long he wants to go on for at the top.

“I speak to any one of the lads I have worked with and still now I say: ‘Keep going, as high as you can, as long as you can.’ Unless you stop enjoying it, then fine. But don’t you be part of the reason you draw your career to an end.”

Heckingbottom has previously been in the position Walker will find himself in this weekend, returning to a former stomping ground and also the stadium he grew up supporting his boyhood team, but the Barnsley native, Reds fan and ex-player and manager doesn’t believe it’ll affect Walker’s psyche on Sunday.

“You get used to it,” he insisted. “It’s there in the build-up, with questions like this and family and friends, but not on game day. It’s a game of football and you are not thinking about it. All the weirdness comes before the games and probably after. It’s different when you’re playing, there’s bit more enjoyment. As a manager, you can’t win. Playing, he will just be wanting to enjoy the game.”