Sheffield United v Watford: We're all in now, insists Chris Wilder as Blades emerge from summer rebuild
With 11pm Friday transfer deadlines there is unfortunately no other way but just like newspapers printing before it, so managers holding afternoon press conferences risk egg on their face.
With 2024's wheeling and dealing nearing its end and an important Sunday Championship game against Watford to focus on, manager Chris Wilder felt able to look at his Sheffield United squad and declare "We're all in."
He could have said that last season too, only he would have been fibbing then.
After months of talking about resets and questions about star players being whisked away, the focus is back on the pitch.
The most important thing the man steeped in Bramall Lane wanted to achieve this summer was a squad which was... well, united. He thinks he has.
Anis Slimane was waved off on Friday and as Wilder spoke to the media, Auston Trusty was fully expected to go too, without a tear shed for either. The Tunisian joined Norwich City on a loan with an obligation to buy, the American was bound for Celtic in a permanent deal.
But at the end of a difficult summer where the readjustment to Championship life was complicated by yet another still-unresolved takeover saga, Anel Ahmedhodiz, Vinicius Souza, Gustavo Hamer and most significantly of all, the homegrown talisman the rebuild was meant to be around, midfielder Oliver Arblaster, are expected to be in red, white and black stripes at Bramall Lane on Sunday.
Celebrating keeping your stars can come back to bite you if they strop about it, but Wilder is adamant it will not be the case, whatever some attitudes may have been in last season's feeble relegation battle.
"Anel had his issues after Christmas and it wasn't a good second part of the season for him but I thought his performance at Preston was absolutely outstanding," says Wilder. "He played at QPR, he was genuinely ill for the game, in bed for six days. He played off the back of that illness at Barnsley in a very young side.
"Once the window shuts he understands what happened after January was not great and he needs to fix that by showing the performances he has over the last two games in the league, especially Preston.
"Gus’ attitude to the game on Tuesday night, I could have left him out of the squad but he wanted to be involved, I asked him. He couldn't wait to get on the pitch.
"You saw the reaction of Sheff United fans before the game with Vini, you saw the reaction to Gus' performance for 20 minutes.
"He got us going, played with urgency and at times he was trying to win the game on his own – a second-round Carabao Cup game."
Souza attracted ridicule last season for complaining Brazil were not considering him because he played for Sheffield United, but has impressed recently.
"Maybe with a few older players gone that character and personality has been able to grow, which it definitely has," reasons Wilder. "He's a really popular guy.
"I thought his performance on the first day at Preston was all over the place in a good way. I'm telling him to calm down, the same with the QPR game. He broke up a tackle for our first goal.
"At Norwich he was flying into tackles and getting around the park and he's a good footballer.
"He's a massive player for us, not just on the pitch but off it as well."
Those who did not have the necessary desire have been sacrificed.
"I've seen a couple of players who didn't want to be here – see you later," says the manager, who has brought in Callum O'Hare, the fit-again Jamie Shackleton, Sam McCallum, Michael Cooper, Harrison Burrows, Kieffer Moore, Tyrese Campbell and loanees Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, Alfie Gilchrist and Harry Souttar.
"Anis came as an eight (box-to-box midfielder) and a six (holder) and we said at the start of pre-season I said I thought it'd be pretty difficult because we had Vini, Blaster and Gus who can play in there. I don't think he's a six and we're not going to play three midfield players.
"He made it perfectly clear to everybody at the football club he wanted to go and work with an old manager of his (Johannes Hoff Thorup) who wanted to play him as an eight, which is not an issue.
"He was down to play on Tuesday and at 4.30 we had a conversation and he said he didn't want to play.
"Auston, we picked the team for the first game of the season and he wasn't in it. There was interest from Celtic and he wanted to explore it.
"One of the things we talked about is are we all in?
"Were we all in last season? No. I do know results sometimes dictate that and sometimes when you're not in the team or don't feel like you're in the team but everyone's got to be all in at this football club and they are now.”