Alan Biggs: Good to see board and management aligned on Sheffield United transfer saga

Which is not to say that Sander Berge won’t yet be sold this window, but only for a serious amount of money. Preferably not.

Paul Heckingbottom clearly states his opinions strongly privately. He also states them publicly. Not every Blades manager has been well favoured for doing so.

But Hecky, admirably continuing so much of the good work of Chris Wilder and in much the same fashion, appears to have drawn the line well. Firmly enough to carry influence; not so firmly as to be at odds with his bosses.

The Berge situation, amid persistent interest from Club Brugge, is not a simple one.

Heckingbottom wants to keep him. What manager wouldn’t? Or at least until a bid becomes irresistible.

Even when fumbling for form, Berge is one of his better, potentially outright best, players.

Maybe now that he is starting to pull his full weight, we can remove the suspicion that, given any bid pushing the £22m the Blades paid, Hecky would struggle to persuade the board to hold tight.

But I wouldn’t necessarily have blamed the hierarchy for that any more than I’d blame the manager for his stance.

Indeed, I’d be surprised if, during the summer, the club weren’t willing an “acceptable” offer to be made.

And by acceptable I’m thinking a fair bit below the £35m of the Norway midfielder’s contractual release clause.

The fact is his showing thus fair hasn’t justified anywhere near that. The other complication is that only if Berge started, as now, to show his mettle - and reinforce Heckingbottom’s stance - would United be likely to attract the level of interest they appear privately to have entertained.

If it were to go above that to, say, £25m, then, with Manchester City’s James McAtee and Brighton’s Reda Khadra in the building, albeit attacking midfielders of different types, there is a case for cashing in.

Their recruitment is certainly some insurance. The manager’s concern might be how long it takes them to hit the ground running in what their clubs will hope to be a development exercise in the Championship.

Berge is more hardened to it and likely to get even stronger and more influential as the season progresses.

Despite this, I can see the economic sense of trading in the right circumstances. After all, the club didn’t offload any major player during a summer of six signings, including one for a multi-million pound outlay.

But maybe the biggest complication in all this, certainly for the manager, is what happens if Berge is sold this close to the window closing.

How much, if any, of the fee would he have to spend considering the tight rein on his budget? And would he have time to utilise it anyway?

So it’s by no means a simple issue of accepting what is on the table. There’s doubt over whether a significant portion would be redeployed.

And on balance, United are better off both now and in the longer term by standing strong on an irreplaceable player.