The Blades have four local friendlies lined up to start pre-season, as confirmed by the official Sheffield United site.

United's first game is away against Stocksbridge Park Steels.

They will also travel to face Bradford City, Mansfield and Doncaster Rovers. Therefore, these are the usual local friendlies which make up some of the pre-season matches.

None of these should be too taxing as they help build up match fitness for the season because they are all League One level or lower.

They also have plans for two friendlies to be announced with one of them in Europe, as well as a pre-season camp.

Chris Wilder's men finished the season in 10th place, but were hoping for higher after a really strong start to the season. They finished the season poorly which caused them to drop out of contention for the play-off spots, but they will be aiming to build on that next season.

The Verdict

These fixtures are nothing different from the usual pre-season preparations, although there are other games to be announced.

Managers use these games to try out new personnel as well as different set-ups, so they should help show whether Wilder intends to keep the 3-5-2 which has brought such success this season.

Wilder has a lot of pressure on him because they will want to build on this season, but the squad started to reach its limits last season, so his transfer business will be key in determining how successful they are next season with the clubs around them set to spend as well in order to improve.