Sheffield United can't afford to blithely pretend the clock isn't ticking to get transfers done

But the key takeaway from Bramall Lane’s latest accounts, which cover the 2021/22 Championship campaign, is just how important Premier League status is when it comes to balancing the books. Or balancing them as much as is possible in a competition where the average wage is north of £60,000 a week.

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Having regained their elite level status, 12 months after recording losses of around £15m, United find themselves in an awkward position as they begin preparing for next month’s return to top-flight action. Unless they are bought-out by a generous benefactor - and current owner Prince Abdullah bin Musa’ad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is speaking to what he believes are three of those right now - the board must spend in order to give themselves a fighting chance of survival. But doing that could leave the club exposed if results don’t go as planned.

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Earlier this week, when England’s leading teams resumed training, Paul Heckingbottom was one of only three managers in the division yet to complete a signing during the transfer window. Okay, at the time of writing Erik ten Hag had yet to make a breakthrough with Manchester United. But Mason Mount’s switch from Chelsea is about to fix that.

Heckingbottom will put a brave face on things if the situation still hasn’t changed when he is next interviewed. Indeed, aware that a bashfully modest recruitment budget was about to be placed at his disposal, the 45-year-old has already warned supporters that progress could be slow during football’s latest bloodstock market.

“We might be looking more at the back end,” he admitted, following May’s dead rubber against Birmingham City. “That’s when a lot of what we want to do, for different reasons, is more likely to start falling into place.”

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With fitness exercises currently dominating the agenda at PL training grounds, Heckingbottom, Everton’s Sean Dyche and Marco Silva of Fulham won’t be overly concerned by their respective employers’ failure to unveil a new face. But with the focus switching to technical matters during their forthcoming visit to Portugal, United’s coaching staff would prefer to have at least a couple in place by the time they land in Lisbon on July 16th.

Anis Ben Slimane, Mason Holgate and Benie Traore feature on Heckingbottom’s wanted list. The same goes for Tommy Doyle and James McAtee, who spent last term on loan from Manchester City.

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But with United planning to borrow more players than they buy, Heckingbottom could be forced to wait until others do business before United secure their targets.

Heckingbottom’s powers of diplomacy and persuasion will be tested ahead of Crystal Palace’s visit in less than six weeks’ time. He must apply pressure on his paymasters to get things done, without causing the ructions which did for his two most recent predecessors, whilst acknowledging their fiscal restraint. The alternative, blithely insisting ‘There’s nothing to worry about’ as the big kick-off edges closer, invites disaster.

Heckingbottom knows what is a vitally important reprofiling exercise must be largely completed by the time Palace travel north. Because that will enhance United’s prospects of laying strong foundations for the rest of a season which can leave them in rude’ish health.

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