Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder was giving little away when asked about his interest in Nottingham Forest midfielder Ben Osborn.
But he has made it clear the Blades are ready to keep splashing the cash in a bid to get the squad Premier League-ready.
The Reds have already rejected one bid from the newly-promoted side for Osborn, who has a year left to run on his contract -
United have already smashed their transfer record twice this summer, and are reportedly on the verge of doing so again as they close in on Bournemouth’s Lys Mousset.
Wilder was asked about the players he has been linked with – with Osborn, Mousset, Swansea City’s Oli McBurnie and Neal Maupay, of Brentford, all mentioned – but remained tight-lipped.
“We’ve been linked to so many players it’s been frightening,” he said on journalist Alan Biggs’ Sheffield Live! show. “Whether it’s been agents, whether we’ve had an interest in players…
“We have to show an interest in some players.
“I think what you can go on is there isn’t going to be many Phil Jagielkas coming into the football club.
“I can’t stop speculation.
“There’s a lot of good players out there.”
“We have to build the group around the players we’ve already got and add some exciting players; and we’ll continue to keep doing that within the budget that I’ve been given,” he added.
Ravel Morrison, Jagielka, Luke Freeman and Callum Robinson have already been added to the ranks at Bramall Lane – the latter two for club record fees.
Mousset is today said to have passed a medical ahead of completing a move reported to be around the £9-10m mark.
If that deal does go through, Wilder has hinted that wouldn’t be the end of the summer spending spree.
Speaking before the latest development with Mousset, he was asked if any more business was close, responding: “We’re really close. We’re quite excited.
“With every player that we bring in we’re trying to formulate a squad that goes well and covers positions, covers different formations, gives us the cover if people are out injured to change things up – because we know the intensity of the division we’re going into.
“It’s important that we construct a squad and fill a lot of positions with quality and competition all over the park.”
He added: “I think we’ll break the record a third time and we might break it again. That’s exciting news for us as a football club.
“But we’re not going to go silly with it, where we put ourselves in a situation that hurts us down the line.
“We’re possibly looking at another one, two… maybe another four to come in.
“That would give us a 23 or 24-man squad, which I think is about right. We don’t want to overbloat the squad.
“We have to make sure it’s a nice number to work with.”
