Prospective buyers Steve Rosen and Helmy Eltoukhy of COH Sports announced on December 5 the bid they had been working on since the summer to buy out Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abudlaziz Al Saud had received full clearance from the EFL. More than a fortnight on and with the days ticking down to the opening of the January transfer window, the deal is still to be concluded with the void in news filled by speculative timeframes.
United manager Wilder has previously kept his counsel on the takeover but ahead of taking his Championship-leading Blades to Cardiff City on Saturday, he did admit an outcome was in the offing.
“I live in the city, I speak to you guys, I think we all understand the noise about it, it’s getting pretty close, so we’ll wait and see,” said Wilder.
“The concentration from my point of view, and that of the staff, is as always on the results that we can influence.
“It does feel as if it’s imminent. That’s something I addressed two or three weeks ago, there’s a lot of work still to go into what will hopefully happen in January.”
Time is of the essence for Wilder given the position he has put United in. Despite being saddled with a two-point deduction for failing to pay their debts to other clubs in their previous season at this level, Wilder has piloted the Blades to the top of the Championship with a three-point lead and the prospect of a third promotion to the Premier League in six years well within reach. Having stated this season would be a bit of a rebuild, that puts United ahead of schedule, but if they are to continue competing for promotion, they need extra playing resources in January.
“I’ve been consistent on that because we’re getting stretched a little bit at the moment, my view is we need to strengthen,” said Wilder.
“Not massively, but conservatively, I would say, with a little bit of experience going into the new year, because I think we need that. I’ve made my suggestions to the owners, whether that’s Prince Abdullah or the new consortium that comes in, what do I think, what do I believe.
“The chemistry of the group is really good, the personality of the group is fabulous, but players understand there needs to be competition for places as there is now and the squad needs to be a touch stronger. If that happens…great, it will give us the best opportunity to have a good second half of the season.”
Striker Tyrese Campbell has attracted interested from Bournemouth, according to reports, but Wilder insists they do not want to sell anyone. If anything, they want to enhance their goalscoring options.
Wilder said: “Certainly with how important it is at the top of the pitch and we’ve got players in the likes of Tyrese, Rhian (Brewster) that historically have not done full seasons, we have to be mindful of the fact we could pick up injuries like everybody else does and making sure we’re not relying on an 18-year-old boy (Ryan One) to play centre-forward for us in a game where we had the ability to go to the top of the division – that’s no disrespect or criticism.
“There’s a couple of positions we need to strengthen. It won’t be wholesale changes, it won’t be four, five or six, it’ll be two or three but they have to be of the right mindset, culture, position-specific. If we can do that it boosts our chances of having a successful second half.”
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