Sheffield United preparing to take on 'by far the best player ever to come out of this city' as Chris Wilder reveals Man City admiration

Sheffield United are gearing up to take on some of global football's most recognisable and best players on Saturday and in amongst them is a man who grew up about a five minute walk from Bramall Lane.

Kyle Walker was born a raised a Blade in Sharrow and still sees United as his club, despite the honours he has picked up at Manchester City over the years. And it's those honours that Chris Wilder says puts the England international head and shoulders above anyone else as the best player to come out of Sheffield.

"We talk as my pals, when we are talking football, I don't think I'm being controversial, I think he's by far the best player ever to come out of this city now, in what he's achieved," said Wilder ahead of United's trip to the Etihad on Saturday. "There's been some good players that have represented United and Wednesday and represented other clubs as well who were born and raised in the city but Kyle Walker for me is the best footballer that's come out of Sheffield. Obviously we can take a small part in his development early on."

Wilder has clearly spoken a lot with Walker, not necessarily this week, about what it is that makes City so successful. Yes the resources available to them have helped to make them treble winners and more recently world champions, but there's a lot more to it than simply having the ability to attract some of the world's best talent.

The Blades boss went into detail as to what sets them apart from others, but put simply, "they do the basics better than everyone else" and then the technical ability takes care of the rest.

"It was a conversation I had with the group at my last club [Watford] when they [City] played Bayern Munich," Wilder recalls. "I talked at length ... did you watch the Man City v Bayern Munich game? There was not many that watched it which I thought told a story.

"Then I talked about did you see how they played in their positions? Jack Grealish played wide left, sometimes the game breaks up and it takes him inside, Bernando Silva played wide right. And did you see the centre forward who was clean through and had scored a thousand goals in three years where everyone expected him to out his foot through it but he turned his foot to Bernardo Silva who had the easier option of scoring - a team player. And then the next moment in the next clip, he's back on the edge of his box defending.

"So these players, and I know through certain people at Man City, the standards they set, you see it, you watch it, you can feel it and you hear it through people I know, there's an obvious connection that talks at great length and great feeling and enthusiasm for how they roll as a group as well and that shines through.

"I've always said that, take away the technical brilliance, tactical, how they change their game, they do the basics better than everyone else and that's the reason they are in the position they are in and the manager is in the position he is and quite rightly so."