“We couldn’t touch” - Sheffield United: Chris Wilder namedrops West Brom in parachute payments swipe | OneFootball

Wilder has had his say on a hot topic surrounding the Blades.

Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder has slammed people who have undermined Sheffield United's achievements so far in the 2024-25 season by putting it down to the fact they are handed parachute payments.

Parachute payments are a hotly debated topic. Clubs who are relegated from the Premier League can receive parachute payments for up to three seasons, with the percentage that they receive decreasing with each season that goes by.

If they are promoted to the Premier League during the parachute payment window, as United were in 2022/23, they will not receive the payment.

The Blades did receive £44.9 million in parachute payments in the 2021/22 season, and that's on top of the 12 other Championship clubs who have received similar funds in the past eight seasons, on either one or multiple occasions.

They can provide a big financial advantage to clubs over their league rivals who have not reached the top flight in recent seasons, and has led to a yo-yo effect of the same clubs coming up and down, and challenging at the top of the Championship in recent seasons.

Chris Wilder responds to Sheffield United, parachute payments claims with West Brom name-dropped

Some believe this is why a club like the Blades have had such a turn around, even though they haven't had any such payments since being relegated. It's safe to say that the manager doesn't subscribe to that theory.

"Absolute nonsense. Just a lazy, lazy assumption," Wilder said, via Football Heaven, when asked about these claims.

"We've got a competitive wage bill. I think you have seen the work that we did in the summer; small fees, frees and loans. And we brought some decent figures in as well.

"So I think there's always a cheap shot that people can use. If you do your bit of digging, we've got some players on decent wages, and we've kept some good players, there's no doubt about that.

"The board and the owner backed us to get those players in, but, listen you've just got to take that with a pinch of salt and crack on. I'm just interested in the group, at the moment, and how well they are doing.

And interestingly, Wilder chose to bring up Championship rivals West Brom as a case of teams who perhaps don't have parachute payments anymore that are still paying their players good amounts of money.

The Baggies were last in the top flight in 2021, meaning that 2024-25 is their fourth season in the Championship, and in that time they have beaten United to several players in the transfer window - including winger Mikey Johnston.

"It (parachute payments) doesn't distort it. If that was the case, I'm not so sure, as I said, regarding wage bills and stuff like that," Wilder added.

"There's some really competitive (teams). You look at that West Brom team, there's some boys there that we couldn't touch a few years ago that are still there; the Swift's and the Wallace's, the Mikey Johnston's, who we went after, and other players.

"I'm not going to get into all of that. But yeah, I think you understand that it's a lazy assumption."

Chris Wilder has to be credited for Sheffield United's turnaround - parachute payments or not

The Blades certainly recruited smartly in the summer. The areas where they did decide to use some of their transfer kitty were essential ones: a left-back - Harrison Burrows from Peterborough United in a deal that could be worth up to £6 million - and a goalkeeper, Michael Cooper from Plymouth Argyle for £2 million, which could rise to £4 million.

Other than that, they were quite cute, and obviously convincing, in their recruiting.

The squad now is a better one than last term, for sure, but it's not brand new. Wilder has been able to get some of these players back to their best this season, and he deserves huge plaudits because of that.

Admittedly, it's against a lower standard of competition, but had the United players who were there last season continued on the path that they were on, the Blades would not be in the midst of a promotion battle.

Wilder's management has been a big help in getting those members of the team back to where they should be, but more still needs to be done in order to get back to the top flight of English football at the first time of asking.