Chris Wilder names £8m star Sheffield United ‘missed out’ on as he hails summer signings

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Considering that Chris Wilder tends to prioritise players with a proven track record in the Championship, it should come as no surprise that he likes much of Sheffield United’s summer business.

Chris Wilder made an emotional Bramall Lane return this week, re-appointed less than three months after he and the Blades parted ways in the aftermath of that devastating play-off final loss to Sunderland at Wembley.

He puts pen to paper ahead of a third spell, his beloved Sheffield United rock bottom in the Championship and on a dismal run of six straight defeats. Wilder did show some sympathy for Ruben Selles – every manager has ‘been in that situation’ at some point or another, he admits – but the strength of this Blades squad makes a tally of zero points from a possible 15 even more difficult to come to terms with.

While Selles said Sheffield United had no answer to Jaden Philogene’s brilliance during Friday’s 5-0 drubbing at Ipswich Town, Ben Godfrey was playing Champions League football with Atalanta only eleven months previously. Japhet Tanganga, meanwhile, was one of the division’s standout centre-halves at Millwall.

Speaking at his official unveiling, Wilder admits that he would have been fully behind the acquisitions of Ben Mee, Mark McGuinness, Danny Ings, Tahith Chong and Chiedozie Ogbene too, had the Blades board not embarked upon that ill-fated Selles experiment at the beginning of the summer.

Chris Wilder delighted with Sheffield United’s summer transfer business

Defender Mee and striker Ings were a massive part of the Burnley side which earned promotion to the Premier League for the first time back in 2014. Former Man United starlet Tahith Chong and Mark McGuinness both suffered relegation with Luton Town in May but both are capable of far better things.

Ogbene, meanwhile, was one of the most feared forwards at Championship level at Rotherham United not so long ago.

“Obviously, [I know] a lot of the players who have been kept on and were here last season, and know a lot of the players that have come into the building,” says Wilder. “Tanganga, Ben Mee, Mark McGuinness, Danny Ings, Ogbene.

“Experienced players. I know a lot about them. Chongy as well. From a recruitment point of view, I’m excited to get going and hopefully turn around the fortunes of the football club.”

Wilder opens up on AI-lead squad building at Bramall Lane

While much has been made of the Blades supposedly AI-driven approach to the transfer market – see the additions of Jefferson Caceres, Ehije Ukaki and Mihail Polendakov – Tanganga, Ings and co felt like a return to the tried and trusted method of bringing in tried and trusted Championship operators.

“There is a lot of talk about AI and whatever. I always think it is a collaboration of everything. I think they’ve made some smart signings in the back end of the window, in the likes of Chong, Tanganga, Danny Ings, Ben Mee, Ogbene, to give the group that experience,” Wilder adds.

“They were the third-youngest group in the division last year, so [these new signings should] bring it all together and build on that.”

Wilder admits Blades wanted Chiedozie Ogbene before he joined Luton Town

Wilder unsurprisingly plans to get Gus Hamer back to his Championship Player of the Year-winning best. He also reveals that Sheffield United tried to sign £8 million Ipswich loanee Ogbene before his move from Rotherham to Luton back in 2023, while praising the additions of less-proven talents such as Nils Zatterstrom and Alex Matos.

Swedish giants Malmo were disappointed to lose Zatterstrom so early in his career, while fellow youngster Matos joins from Chelsea after spending last season on loan at Oxford.

“We will give [the players] a process and a belief and an encouragement to go and get back to the standards they’ve shown, whether it’s Gus, Harrison [Burrows], whoever it is,” Wilder adds. “They are all underperforming at the moment.

“There would always have been, in my opinion, the necessity of signing some of the players that the club have signed. I’ve got to say, I think they’ve been incredibly ambitious. Would I have signed Tanganga? 100 per cent. Would I have signed Ben Mee? 100 per cent.

“I knew the club tried to sign [Ogbene], who I like, before he went to Luton. The club tried to do it but they missed out. You see his career and his profile, and he’s a good Sheffield United player.

“Chong, we know all about. McGuinness, we know all about. He’s a good player, an experienced championship player. So, yeah 100 per cent I would have [made these signings].

“And Nils, I would have signed Nils. These are good signings who we can develop with our academy players. The likes of Alex Matos, a great CV from Chelsea, he would have been on the radar as well.
The group that has been put together is a talented group.

“Now, the key is for them to show it and for me to bring it out of them.”