Opinion: Chris Wilder needs to be careful that his new signings don’t ruin his good work

Well at least someone is confident.

And not that I’m going to tell Chris Wilder what to do after the incredible season he’s had so far in the Premier League, but there is just one thing in the back of my mind that is leaving a little room for doubt.

Sheffield United were quite active in the January transfer window, and Blades boss Wilder recently spoke during the team’s winter break about the sort of impact that the club’s new signings Panos Retsos and Richairo Živković would be able to have on the team:

“Richairo hasn’t played much football since the end of the Chinese season but has had a mini-pre-season and Panos has been on the bench in the Champions League. Panos can play right centre-half and right wing-back and can also play in the middle of the park too. He’s played for his country as well as two big clubs in Olympiacos and Bayer Leverkusen. Rich has obvious pace and a stretch in the team, which we wanted. And we’ve all seen what Sander is capable of. They’re all good kids, really nice lads, who want to do well for themselves and fit in seamlessly.”

Whilst he thinks that they can come in and slot in seamlessly, I do think that Wilder needs to be careful with how he integrates them into the team.

Given that United have gone for more or less the same team every week, creating a very settled side, I think that there is a risk that if you introduce them too quickly or too many of them at once, then that structure that the team have built up over the course of the season is in jeopardy. Then all this talk about the club finishing 5^th and making the Champions League might slowly start to drift away.

Perhaps it’s best to bring these guys in with a view to what’s going to happen next season, rather than what they might bring to the table for this campaign.