Chris Wilder furious at Sheffield United team news leaks – ‘It’s an absolute joke’

Wilder believes early team news being leaked out is costing the Blades in their Premier League relegation fight

Chris Wilder has lost patience with the Sheffield United team news being leaked ahead of time (PA)

Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder has hit out at the team news leakers who are undermining the Blades’ Premier League survival bid.

The manager is furious his side was revealed online ahead of Friday’s 1-1 draw at Aston Villa.

The point briefly lifted the Blades off the bottom of the table – before Burnley’s win at Fulham – and they host relegation rivals Luton on Boxing Day with Wilder angry at the leaks.

He said: “It’s an absolute joke. So that person, brilliant. Call yourself a Sheffield United fan?

“Everybody will know the team by the way because it’ll come out on Twitter, apparently, about 10.30 on Boxing Day morning so you’ll know the team pretty early.

“So it’s a decision that I’ve got to make. I will comment about it, I think it’s a joke. It’s quite difficult, obviously, to keep the team pretty much quiet but I’m not happy about that situation.

“If anybody thinks that team gets bandied about pretty easily, they’ve got another thing coming. So whoever did it, I appreciate that. Thanks very much.

“I’m going have to tighten everything up around the training ground. That has not done us any favours as well. Our lesson learned from that.”

Sheffield United grabbed a creditable draw against Aston Villa (PA)

The Blades are without Anel Ahmedhodzic, Rhian Brewster, Chris Basham, John Egan and Tom Davies for the visit of the Hatters.

Wilder added: “We need to get the performance right but you can’t quieten it down, everybody sees league tables. We do go into the next game, like we did on Friday, to make sure we get a performance.

“Rest, recover, a little time to work on the training ground. We’ve had some serious blows we’ve had to deal with leading into going to one of the best teams in the division.

“Hopefully we can have a look and see where the players are, work, recover and go again.”