Wilson will need to sell to make move for Williamson

The Blades boss is a big admirer of the midfielder, who netted 19 goals in 59 league starts for United before leaving the club in the summer to join Portsmouth.

The 30-year-old was one of a group of high-profile players who exited the Blades after failure to gain promotion to the Championship meant the club’s wage bill had to be cut severely.

But after Williamson’s release this month by Pompey, again due to cost-cutting measures at the troubled south coast club, the midfielder is available.

United’s squad is being tested with injuries to key players like Neill Collins, Matt Hill and Shaun Miller and Wilson admits he would like to bring Williamson back to the Lane.

But his hands are tied due to budget restrictions and he can only sign new players if he sells one of his current squad.

“Willo did fantastic for us, we can’t hide from that fact he did brilliant for us last season,” said Wilson.

“His contribution from midfield for goals for himself was great.

“Can we get him again? No, we can’t bring anybody in.

“If it changed, are you asking would he be in my thoughts? Then yes, of course he would.

“Would he come back? I have no idea, it’s not even a question anybody I know has asked him.”

Former Rotherham United and Watford midfielder Williamson is one of several players who have left Pompey this month, including former Blades and Barnsley midfielder Brian Howard, Mustapha Dumbuya, centre-back Lubomir Michalik, once of Leeds United, and former Rotherham and Sheffield United defender Jon Harley.

“I am very aware of Portsmouth’s situation, they have released some very good players,” said Wilson.

“But we are not in a position to take anybody; until someone goes out we are not in a position to bring anybody in.

“That’s where we are and we are happy to go with what we have got.”

Centre-half Harry Maguire and goalkeeper George Long are United’s most high-profile assets, but Wilson is eager to keep hold of the former Academy duo.

The Blades boss did admit though that the club received interest for a couple of his “fringe players” this week.

“We have had a couple of sniffs on one or two players, but nothing concrete,” said Wilson.

“There’s nothing imminent at this moment in time, but we are pretty thin on the ground anyway so would certainly have to look at replacing people that go out. If that’s not the case, then it’s going to be difficult to let them out.

“There’s nothing concrete, but whether that will change in the next week or so, I don’t know.

“I would like nothing to happen. To keep everyone together is important to us, but there’s other things that dictate that and we will have to move along with how it develops.

“As I have said before, we want as many players at our disposal as we can. It’s an important part of the season and we want all the players available to us.”

United will head to Notts County tomorrow – weather permitting – looking to steady the ship after just four wins in the last dozen League One games, and no victories in their last three.

This run has seen them fall off the pace for automatic promotion, with Doncaster Rovers and Tranmere Rovers now six points clear.

A 2-0 defeat last weekend at Bramall Lane to Yeovil hurt Wilson, and the Blades have had several team meetings this week to try to identify what went wrong.

“Is it a wobble? I think it’s a situation where we are not playing as well as we can,” he admitted.

“At home we didn’t put in a good performance in the last one, that’s for definite. We can do a lot better than we did on Saturday.

“I have heard a lot of people talk about the pitch. The pitch is not an excuse, the pitch is a fact and has caused a problem in the way we want to play.

“But at the same time, the endeavour and commitment is nothing to do with the pitch, that’s down to ourselves.

“Certainly, we were massively below those standards on Saturday against Yeovil, but we have a chance to rectify it again (at Notts County). We have bounced back before and will do it again.

“When you have had a setback like we have, there’s a lot of soul-searching to do.

“We were very poor on Saturday, we have to admit that. I can’t sit here and say it was because of this or that, there were a lot of factors involved.

“More importantly, it’s down to ourselves – the players and the staff as well – to soul search.

“We have had a good few conversations this week about areas we can improve and we will try to put that into action on Saturday.”

With heavy snow due today, Wilson is hoping the game will survive.

“We believe that have had triple covers on the pitch, they are desperate to get the game on because they haven’t played for a number of weeks,” he said.

“We are desperate to play too, to get last week out of our system and to try and bounce back on.”