Chris Basham decision helping to shape Sheffield United recruitment plan as clear targets emerge

It's a measure of just how important he has become to Sheffield United in recent years that we often refer to the right-sided defensive position as the 'Chris Basham role'. To put it simply, no one has been able to perform that better than the 33-year-old.

He was recently among a handful of players who had their contracts at Bramall Lane extended and his eight-year reign will now become 10 after putting pen to paper on a two-year extension.

The club did have the option to trigger an extra year but there was a reason why the former player of the year was given 48 months instead. Heckingbottom was keen to emphasise the need to think long-term about this position.

A big believer in succession planning, he is cutely aware of how difficult it will be to replace Basham in that position and it has bought the club time. That Jack O'Connell's loss is still being felt down the left two years after his knee injury is perhaps no better indication of the size of the task facing the recruitment team in this department.

Jack Robinson has managed to nail down the spot after a strong finish to the last campaign but many had tried and been unsuccessful before the latter's emergence.

Heckingbottom knows the talent pool for defenders who can tick the boxes required for this position is not that deep and that was behind the thinking with Basham's contract extension.

"If I wanted to be selfish all my decisions would be about next season. If it was just about my win ratio all my decisions would be about 'give me the best players to win as many matches as possible'. I will just be working for next season and that's it, done.

"But it's not. The role is more important than that and has been asked to be in terms of making better decisions for