Paul Heckingbottom wants his future and that of Sheffield United’s next permanent manager resolved as soon as possible, so the club can start preparing for an immediate attempt at returning to the Premier League.
Heckingbottom, in interim charge since Chris Wilder’s departure in March, has overseen three wins from six games since relegation was confirmed last month.
Now he wants to know if that will be enough to earn him a crack at trying to build a side good enough to get them promoted back out of the Championship.
“I hope the decision is made quickly,” he said. “It’s really important we do, because the staff and players need to know who is going to be manager next season.
“We’ve had a decent wins return in this league since we came in, but we’ll need somewhere between 20 to 25 wins in the Championship. But whoever is in charge next season will take over a good, hungry group. The players will still need driving forward but they can be successful.”
David McGoldrick grabbed the winning goal midway through the first half when he found space to curl a fine finish past Will Norris, Burnley’s stand-in goalkeeper, from outside the area.
Centre-half Chris Basham was unlucky not to add a second when he hit the woodwork as Sheffield United rounded off a season to forget with a deserved victory.
Burnley were never really at the races as they signed off their campaign in 17th place, although 11 points clear of the relegated clubs, with a third defeat in a row since victory at Fulham two weeks ago assured their survival.
Sean Dyche will look for reinforcements to flesh out a thin squad over the summer, but this was a case of job done in a trying campaign.
“The edge came off for us after the Fulham game,” he said. “But you have to be careful to question the players too much as they’ve given a lot to the cause this season.”