Sheffield United confident Manchester United will allow Dean Henderson remain loan star at Blades

Chris Wilder believes Manchester United will let Dean Henderson stay on loan at Sheffield United this season to allow the Blades to continue their unlikely challenge for a Champions League place.

Goalkeeper Henderson’s loan at Bramall Lane expires on June 30 and both Sheffield United and Manchester United are in the battle for a top-four – or top-five – finish which would send them into the European football's premier competition next season.

Henderson has conceded just 22 goals in 27 games to give Sheffield United the second-best defensive record in the Premier League and Wilder feels he wants to stay in Yorkshire.

“We’re looking to extend,” he said. “I’m confident that Manchester United will let Dean stay with us until the end of the season, I don’t think it’s worth asking Dean what he wants to do because I think you know the answer.

"I’m sure Dean wants to finish an outstanding season that he’s already had playing for Sheffield United.”

Wilder is also looking to extend the deals for his other three loan signings – Muhamed Besic, Richairo Zivkovic and Panagiotis Retsos – to keep his squad together for the rest of an extended season but believes his transfer budget will be cut because of the impact of coronavirus on football’s finances.

“We are going to take a hit,” he said. “I think the top clubs will continue spending and I think other clubs will cut the cloth accordingly.”

Wilder said his squad had relished a return to training as, unlike the footballers at other clubs who have had reservations about playing again, they all want to and he is convinced of the safety of the Premier League plans.

He said: “My players have been led brilliantly by the skipper [Billy Sharp] and have all shown the same desire to get back to work.

"They possibly didn’t enjoy the running aspect of it when they were doing 2000m run. But everyone is on the same page at Sheffield United: they want to get back to work.

"The Premier League experts wouldn’t lead us down a path of danger and the players are so disciplined not to put anybody at risk.

“There’s an enormous amount of enthusiasm in this country regarding our game and I should imagine that anybody that loves or is involved in it, we’ve all missed it.

“It’s not just about what happens on a Saturday afternoon. It’s what the club is about, it’s the 700 people the club employs, the effect it has on our great city, the effect on the supporters and even the most hardened of Sheffield Wednesday fans.”

Wilder also believes the vast majority of his managerial peers want the Premier League to return after joining them on a conference call.

“The media coverage that came out that it was split, that’s not the feeling I had about it,” he said. “My call to the LMA the day after was not the feeling they had. There might a couple of people that have fears and questions.

"For me, the attitude is to get it back, getting back to work and getting back playing.”

Wilder, who has managed in each of the top six divisions, also urged the Premier League to help ensure no lower-division clubs go bankrupt.

He used to manage Halifax, who went into liquidation in 2008, and was assistant manager at Bury, who were expelled from the Football League last year.

Wilder said: “There’s always going to be money invested into the top flight and I think we all have a huge responsibility to look after every club in the pyramid because of the importance to community and the supporters.

"A club that I used to work for went out of business, which is ridiculous with over 100 years of history.”