Bristol City v Sheffield United: I'm making plans for next season, says Chris Wilder

MANAGER Chris Wilder takes his Sheffield United side to Bristol City tomorrow uncertain over his Blades future.
Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder (Picture: Steven Paston/PA Wire).Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder (Picture: Steven Paston/PA Wire).
Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder (Picture: Steven Paston/PA Wire).

The United chief wants answers from co-owners Kevin McCabe and Prince Abdullah Bin Mosa’ad Abdulaziz Al Saud, who are locked in a battle for control at the Lane. After last week’s 1-0 defeat to Preston, Wilder questioned his own future at his boyhood club unless there was “direction and clarity” from the boardroom.

He has already been linked to the vacant Sunderland job, and yesterday revealed he was still waiting to talk to the club’s owners.

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“I have not thought about this being my last game. I have focused on getting the group right to win a game of football,” said Wilder, who takes United to Bristol City tomorrow for the final Championship game of the season.

“The unpredictability of football, who’s to say the club is not taken over tomorrow and the new owners want to bring their own manager in. Anything can happen, nothing surprises me.

“What I have tried to do all season is get a team with a bottom-six budget into the top six. For 45 games we have been in and around it, which is an outstanding achievement.”

United’s summer recruitment plans are in limbo – due to the ownership tug-of-war – but the club will release their retained list of players early next week. Only striker Clayton Donaldson is out of contract.

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“We have a few decisions to make, the two loans (Jamal Blackman and James Wilson) go back, and we have a decision on Clayton to make,” Wilder told The Yorkshire Post.

“I am making plans for next season. I have been for the last 12 months because of the contracts we have offered.

“We have potential lists of 
potential targets, dialogue is going on – not club to club – but I have not given the club a list of players. As I have always said, it’s up to the football club to come to me and can we maximise the budget?”