Sheffield United warned to avoid "ultimate nightmare" involving Michael Cooper | OneFootball

A fan perspective on what would make a nightmare scenario for Sheffield United in this summer's transfer window.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more.

As they embark upon what could be quite a busy summer transfer window, Sheffield United supporters, and the club’s hierarchy, may well still be reeling from how their season finished.

Collapsing in the hunt for a top two finish, the Blades then collapsed in the second-half of the Championship play-off final to lose 2-1 to Sunderland at Wembley Stadium.

Since then, Chris Wilder has left the club and been replaced by former Hull City and Reading boss Ruben Selles, with uncertainty over several big name players now coming to the forefront of attention at Bramall Lane.

There are plenty of things to be concerned about, and it isn’t entirely unrealistic that United endure a nightmare scenario over the course of the next couple of months.

Big names linked with moves away from Sheffield United

Key players for the Blades in the last 12 months, such as Gustavo Hamer and Michael Cooper, are among many names to have already been touted for a move away, having missed out on Premier League football next season.

The idea of those players leaving, and the players coming in via their new AI-led recruitment strategy not being up to the standard, is something that is worrying FLW Fan Pundit Jimmy, of Blades Ramble.

Jimmy said: “The nightmare scenario would of course start with losing our key men. I want Gus Hamer to stay but Michael Cooper would be the ultimate nightmare, that would shatter the foundation of what we’ve started to build in defence.

“I want to keep hold of Harrison Burrows, Vini Souza, all our big hitters we want to keep hold of.

“It may not realistic to keep hold of them all but losing someone like Anel Ahmedhodzic, Ryan One might be something we could look at if we need to sell.

“The other side of it is praying that these AI, data signings are a success because there is an element of risk in every signing, but the signings we’ve brought in previously under previous regimes, and certainly Chris Wilder, were usually, on most occasions, a known quantity to the fanbase.

“We had a firm opinion and weren’t nervous about whether they were going to succeed or not. It was a case of what we knew about them because they were usually domestic players.

“This foreign AI, data-driven approach is absolutely great if it works but we’ll be nervous until we see that it absolutely does work.”

Selles must hit the ground running

Selles’ appointment in South Yorkshire is perhaps a bit of a surprising one given that Hull let him go after the Tigers survived relegation to League One on the final day of the season last month.

He has shown himself to be a coach of immense promise both at Hull and with Reading, but this is the first time he is arriving at club with lofty ambitions of a promotion challenge to the top-flight.

He will be under pressure from the get go because, despite their collapse last season, United still collected 92 points from their 46 games last season as they finished third.

Selles will need to hit the ground running when the season gets underway in August, but the prospect of a bit of a nightmare summer transfer window does loom at Bramall Lane.