Sheffield United owner Prince Abdullah has revealed that he doesn’t want to sell any of his side’s first-teamers this summer despite the fact Paul Heckingbottom doesn’t have a big budget to work with, speaking to the Blades’ media team.
It was reported by Alan Nixon last weekend that United’s boss will have around £20m to play with during the summer – not a huge amount of money considering the number of positions they need to address during the upcoming transfer window.
Their task of making their £20m budget work will only become harder if some of their out-of-contract players are released during the summer window – and the Blades may be consigned to operating in the free agent and loan markets for the majority of the window.
Who are Sheffield United’s star players?
Sander Berge and Iliman Ndiaye are two players who instantly stand out as United’s key players, even though the former hasn’t been at his best for a chunk of 2023.
Both look set to enter the final 12 months of their contracts and that isn’t exactly a positive for United who have seen them attract plenty of interest in recent windows.
There are Premier League teams scouting Ndiaye ahead of the summer, according to The Sun, who identified Everton, Newcastle United and West Ham as the interested trio.
Berge, meanwhile, could attract interest from teams across Europe, having been close to sealing a move to Club Brugge last September. That’s according to Football Insider, who believe a deal had been agreed.
Both could be set to stay at Bramall Lane if Prince Abdullah’s comments are anything to go by though, with United’s owner saying (via Yorkshire Live): “We want to keep if we can all the squad we have and we don’t want to sell any of our star players.
“We want to bring some players, loan or, whatever players we bring have to fall into one of two categories.
“They have to be young and good, so they be the core for next year because we are getting older in some areas.”
Is this the right stance for Prince Abdullah to take?
No one can doubt that retaining the duo during the 2022/23 campaign was a successful risk that paid off in the end.
This is why some would understand it if they were retained again but unless they have an option to extend the duo’s contracts by a further year, it doesn’t seem logical to keep them.
Losing both for nothing would be an absolute catastrophe so unless they put pen to paper on contract extensions in the summer, then one of them should definitely be departing.
They may not generate too much for either player but if they can make £15m from Berge’s sale or £20m from Ndiaye’s departure, it seems sensible for them to cash in.
Not only would that prevent them from losing both for nothing, but it would also give them the opportunity to spend more in the transfer market and that will be important considering Heckingbottom doesn’t have a huge budget at his disposal.
