The Blades new head of performance Tom Little is regarded as one of the best in the English game at his role. Little has only been with the Blades for a few weeks so will properly begin his work when United kick off their pre-season in Portugal in July.
Little joined United from Preston earlier this summer and he comes with a reputation of being successful at every club he has been at previously. Additionally he comes with a reputation of his sessions being ‘heavy’, his training methods are a mixture of old school and modern techniques.
Little was fitness coach at Manchester City when they secured successive promotions to the Premier League. He’s previously worked in South Yorkshire having been promoted during his time at Barnsley, he’s also worked for fierce rivals Sheffield Wednesday where they achieved the best wage-to-point ratio for three seasons running.
On top of this, his work at Burnley meant they had the lowest injury record in the Premier League. Another Yorkshire club he worked with is Huddersfield, where he was the senior fitness coach during their 2012 play-off win over the Blades. Since then, he’s been working at Preston for the past 9 years or so.
The 43 year-old has already been on record saying that he wants to take United’s performance levels to the ‘highest possible’, he told Yorkshire Live.
Heckingbottom and Little have already discussed plans for their future work:
“I am overseeing the department but Hecky was clear the first time he met with me that he wanted me on the training pitch every day, going to matches.” [YorkshireLive]
The newcomer to the Blades will have to get to know his surroundings a little bit, but he already knows some of the coaching staff, he told Yorkshire Live:
“I am fortunate enough now that I have got to a ripe old age where quite a few of the players that I have worked with have become coaches. Jack was actually a player under me at Nottingham Forest as well.” [YorkshireLive]
He added:
“The manager Hecky is a bit different. I have been quite struck with how intense and focussed he is. That intelligence that you could see back then is certainly coming to fruition now. I think he will be a fantastic manager.” [YorkshireLive]
The new head of performance is said to already be delighted with the current operations taking place at the training facilities, as he told Yorkshire Live that he is “super impressed with everything that is going on.”