Sheffield United's incoming head of recruitment will work with manager Chris Wilder on summer transfers.

The Blades are looking to finalize their plans for next season, which looks as though it will be played in the Championship.

Despite impending relegation, Wilder is focused on the future and knows they must build up the squad to have any hope of coming straight back up.

“It's availability over ability in some ways for me," admitted Wilder to reporters.

“I've got to look at all the players and are they going to give me a 38-game or 46-game season. We have got to look at that. Financially, if we are paying someone X amount of money and they are only available for 50 per cent of games, we are not getting the true value of that player.

“Availability for training is just as important in terms of working on things we need to do - unit work, individual work, teamwork. When these players aren't available, we can't do that, so we cannot improve ourselves on the training ground. Every time people ask: 'What have you been doing in the week?' I could possibly say: 'Well, some of them have not trained until Friday because they can't, we've had two who we have modified training sessions because of past injuries and another two, three, or four on second, third and fourth-day recovery'.

“So they are not training until Thursday or Friday. There are two or three days in there where we cannot do any work with the players and we are coached football team who get coached in pre-season and through the season and hopefully get better through the season by coaching. When players aren't available, it throws that out of the window."