Sheffield United determined not to risk ruin by gambling with high wages on Championship return

The Blades clinched promotion at the weekend with four games to spare and are odds on to go up as champions.

Amid this air of jubilation at Bramall Lane and a desire to lift the title later this month, minds have started to turn to next season and the return to a level at which United last competed six years ago.

“The Championship is a tough division,” Wilder told The Yorkshire Post. “But I do believe we can be competitive in a league where the money situation has, in my opinion, become ridiculous.

“Some people gamble and end up ruining a club. We won’t do that. We will be sensible in our approach. This is a club with its feet on the ground.

“Changes will have to be made, we all know that. The competition is going to be huge next year, as there are a lot of big, big clubs up there. But we are going to be up there on merit and ready to face the challenge head on.

“That is what this club is all about, facing what needs to be faced. I am sure we will invest in the right way and ensure we keep progressing.”

United’s push for promotion has been relentless for most of the season. A tally of 26 victories from 42 matches is testament to that, as are the 50 points that the Blades have taken from 22 outings since early December.

Impressive recruitment has been at the heart of this success along with a work ethic that Wilder worked hard to instal from the moment he succeeded Nigel Adkins last summer.

As a lifelong fan and former ballboy, the 49-year-old appreciates just what promotion means to a group of supporters who have been put through the emotional wringer in recent years. This affection for the Blades is also why Wilder, a member of the squad that won back-to-back promotions under Dave Bassett in 1989 and 1990, will not put the club’s future at risk with a spending spree.

“Football has changed a lot since we went up under ‘Harry’ (Bassett) from the old Third Division and then went straight up again,” he added. “The money situation has become ridiculous.

“The Premier League is a different world to what it was like back then. But so are the other leagues, to be fair.

“There are so many teams who gamble everything in the hope they will strike lucky. But it often doesn’t work out and then these clubs get in a mess.

“We won’t be doing that. The club is the most important thing. Everyone knows how I feel about Sheffield United and I would not do anything that could put us in danger.

“To be fair, we have adopted that approach in the last two transfer windows. We have had players offered to us that we have said ‘no’ to because of the wages they wanted.

“Big players, too, who we felt would have been a good fit for the club. We get offered players all the time and, obviously, if they aren’t the right fit then that is the end of it. These would have been good for Sheffield United, but the deals just weren’t right. It is not a road we will be going down.”

Bassett gives his views on Wilder: Page 18