Chris Wilder hits back at Championship promotion 'cheap shot' involving Leeds United, Sheffield United & Burnley

Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder has hit back at the ‘lazy assumption’ linking three Championship promotion favourites and their Premier League parachute payments.

The Blades currently sit top of the Championship and are among the hot favourites to go up, following last season’s top-flight relegation. Burnley joined them in the Premier League’s bottom three last season and are right on their tails this time round, with Leeds United between the pair in second having been relegated in 2023.

All three teams were in receipt of parachute payments this summer, a system in which relegated clubs receive a portion of Premier League revenue each season for three seasons to help ease the financial issues that come with dropping into the Championship. But many believe those additional cash injections give newly-relegated clubs an unfair advantage.

Richard Keys recently pointed to the current promotion race as evidence of that theory, agreeing with EFL chairman in suggesting those payments ‘distort competition’ in the Championship, with Sheffield United, Leeds and Burnley leading the way. But Wilder strongly snapped back at those claims.

“Absolute nonsense. It's just a lazy, lazy assumption,” Wilder told the Star. “Listen, we have a competitive wage bill. The work we did in the summer was small fees, frees and loans and we brought some decent figures in as well. It's always a cheap shot that people can use, if you do a bit of digging you'll see.

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“We've got some good players and kept some decent players, there's no doubt about that. And the owner and the board backed us getting those players in. But you just have 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're doing. It doesn't distort it.

“Look at that West Brom team; there are some boys still there that we couldn't touch a few years ago. The [John] Swifts and the [Jed] Wallaces and Mikey Johnston, and other players that we went after. I'm not going to get into all that, but it's a lazy assumption.”

None of Sheffield United, Leeds or Burnley had things their own way over the summer, although it cannot be denied they have stronger squads than those who have been in the Championship for several years. Leeds in particular lost more than £120million worth of talent in the form of Archie Gray, Georginio Rutter, Crysencio Summerville and others.

Those assets had to be replaced at a far lower cost with Summerville’s successor, Largie Ramazani, arriving from Spanish second-tier side UD Almeria for around £10m. Gray’s exit left a hole at right-back which was filled by £5m arrival Jayden Bogle, while Brenden Aaronson’s return from a loan spell saw him take the No.10 role at no cost, with Manor Solomon also brought in on loan.

Glen Kamara was sold to Stade Rennais for around £8m, with less than half of that amount spent on his replacement Ao Tanaka or fellow midfielder Joe Rothwell, who joined on loan from Bournemouth. Leeds were able to spend big on Joe Rodon, who cost £10m, but significant profit was made overall as Elland Road chiefs worked hard to balance the books and remain compliant with profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).