Steve Rosen confident Sheffield United will not be deducted points as they look at free agent signing

Whilst that rumbles on, manager Chris Wilder is looking to add a forward to his squad who will not be eligible to face Norwich City on Saturday, but could feature at Blackburn Rovers on Tuesday.

Last month the Saudi prince had the holding company which bought the Blades from him, COH Sports, would up in the High Court over £35m he claimed to be owed over the December 2024 sale.

Not long before, ownership of the Blades was transferred to 1919 Partners, a company with very similar leadership, prompting a debate over how liable Sheffield United should be for the failings of COH Sports and therefore whether they have broken league rules which carry a punishment of up to 12 points deducted, as Prince Abdullah's company, United World, have suggested.

Rosen believes the Blades have a strong defence.

"There's noise around points deductions, sporting sanctions, and what Prince Abdullah put out," acknowledged Rosen speaking on a Blades in America podcast carried on the club's website.

"At no point was the football club insolvent. We pay our creditors on time, we pay our bills on time.

"COH is not a group company. It's not the holder of Sheffield, it's not the holding company (now). So I can't see in any scenario where the club gets a points deduction because of that insolvency rule.

"It wasn't like Sheffield Wednesday where they had an administrator and it went into insolvency, couldn't pay their bills and all that."

But after a summer of tight transfer restrictions as the club went without Premier League money either as members of the league or recipients of parachute payments for the first time since 2019, Rosen is confident the move to 1919 Partners will bring about better times.

"The patient's struggling, at some point you need to restructure," argued Rosen. "We wanted to move away from COH became of the dispute with one of the individuals looking at (buying) the club with us (Tom Page). Prince Abdullah and United World still wanted to look at us in the past and we couldn't make an arrangement.

"We're unhappy, I believe him to be unhappy at this point as well but what was in the best interest of the supporters, the employees, the footballers, the whole club was to reorganise and restructure.

"I look to a much brighter future. We moved on from COH into this new world."

The Blades saw Callum O'Hare join Wrexham in the final hours of the transfer window, and were unable to get a replacement in before Tuesday's 11pm deadline.

But with free agent signings still possible, Wilder is hoping to have a new forward in time for Tuesday's Championship game at Blackburn.

"We're working extremely hard now to try and get in another a player who had his contract terminated," revealed Wilder.

"We've talked to his agent and touched base with the player.

"He's extremely enthusiastic in wanting to come. We feel the same about the player and it will just give us that number that we are short on at the top of the pitch. It feels a little bit heavier when you lose (Tahith) Chong and Ryan One (to injury).

"It makes it a little bit more difficult for us when we're trying to make substitutions.

"(There are) some finer details to be sorted out but we're close to that player registering before 12 o'clock on Monday to be available on Tuesday night."

The Blades added six players, three of whom had played for the club and all of them English born, as well as re-engaging Jairo Riedewald.

"We've looked in all markets in Europe from the start," he said. "We've been in for a couple of foreign players that we didn't get over the line and there were a couple of players we worked extremely hard to get in when Callum went to Wrexham."