Sheffield United receive transfer boost as key decision widens new players search

Sheffield United have privately welcomed a change in strict eligibility rules that will make it easier for them to sign players from overseas this summer, as they continue preparations for their return to the Premier League.

With a modest £20m budget in place for permanent signings, boss Paul Heckingbottom has accepted that he must focus on loans and free transfers this summer after promotion. The United chief recently admitted that the Blades are not in the market for Premier League-ready players, with emphasis placed on value-for-money signings from overseas that can hopefully cope with the top flight of English football.

The template is there with the signing of Anel Ahmedhodzic last summer, for a fee of £4m that looked even more of a bargain with each passing game. But United's recruitment search overseas was previously complicated by strict Home Office rules governing eligibility to play in this country, with a points system used to govern whether or not a player would qualify for a visa.

It was that system that forced United's hand in bringing Ismaila Coulibaly back from sister club Beerschot, whose relegation meant that Coulibaly would otherwise not qualify for a visa. But in a development that will give United a transfer boost this summer, clubs in the Premier League and Championship will now be allowed to sign up to four overseas players who would not ordinarily qualify for a visa under the points system.

Clubs will be permitted to have two such playgers in their squad but the limit could rise to four if enough playing time is given to English-qualified players - which is not expected to be an issue at Bramall Lane. FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said: "As English football's governing body, we oversee the whole football ecosystem, and we wanted to create a new model which would meet the different objectives of our football stakeholders.

"We worked closely with the clubs and the leagues, and have designed a progressive solution which will give clubs additional access to international talent and incentivise playing opportunities for English talent."

Put simply, it means that United can now bring in players even further under the radar from overseas, who don't necessarily play in "top leagues" or have international caps - two previous areas of the Governing Body Endorsement (GBE). The Blades can only secure two domestic loans at one time and so are also expected to look abroad for temporary transfers, with the new rules widening the scope of Heckingbottom and head of recruitment Paul Mitchell's search.

"I think it is going to be more difficult this season," Heckingbottom has previously admitted on the recruitment front. "We probably can't attract the ready-made Premier League players, so we are going to have to be really good and clever in the recruitment and unearth some talent and some players with potential that can go and cope with the level that we are playing at."