Sheffield United's hits and misses in the January transfer window

MISS: Despite having three Sheffield United managers, striker Luton Shelton made little impact at Bramall Lane

Chris Wilder: Sheffield United hoping to make three more signings this month

Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder falls into the latter category, and by the time the 2020 window closes at 11pm on Friday, he hopes to have made five additions to the squad.

All signings come with a risk, but in January even more so, without the luxury of pre-season to bed new players in.

HIT: Kieron Freeman played a huge part in getting Sheffield United out of League One, despite initially being transfer-listed by manager Chris Wilder

Transfer windows have only been a feature of English football since Uefa brought them in for 2003, but the Blades have tended to be busy wheeler-dealers in them.

Some have been more successful than others. Here we look back at the best and worst of their mid-season dealing.

MISS – Luton Shelton, 2007

In January 2007 two strikers left Helsingborgs for the Premier League but unfortunately Sheffield United got Luton Shelton, not Henrik Larsson.

The Blades released Neil Shipperley to make way for the £1.8m signing of a 21 year-old Jamaican who had scored nine goals in the Swedish season just gone, but it was not until April that he made his full debut, at Manchester United, and given that the Blades were in a relegation battle, they needed a quicker impact than that.

His only league goal for the club came against Colchester United in the following season's Championship, and Shelton was sold to Valerenga in the summer of 2008 for £1m after seven league starts under three managers.

"He wasn't what I was looking for, he's a maverick type player and I wanted someone to work within a team," explained then-boss Kevin Blackwell.

Although the £2m the Blades spent on Leeds United's York-born Matt Kilgallon in the January 2007 window would prove money well spent in the long run, injury delayed his debut until March 31.

At least £1m signing Jon Stead made a fast start, scoring five goals in the second half of the campaign, but it was not enough to stop the Blades being relegated on goal difference. Stead was another moved on by Blackwell, and is now at Harrogate Town.

HIT – Kieron Freeman, 2015

Sheffield United's big-money signing of 2015, John Brayford, disappointed, but free transfer Kieron Freeman was much more successful and is still at Bramall Lane now.

At the time, Brayford was the most expensive player in third-tier football as Nigel Clough spent part of his summer's Harry Maguire windfall on bringing the right-back in for a second spell having previously impressed on loan. That Brayford took a pay cut to come, even as a record signing, looked promising.

Hampered by injury, he never lived up to his billing, and followed Clough back to Burton Albion for a fourth spell working together, initially on loan in 2016 before being released at the end of that season.

Clough signed Freeman and Paul Coutts on January 23, 2015. Like Brayford, Freeman had previously been on loan at Bramall Lane, while Coutts had been with Clough at Derby County.

Clough's successor Nigel Adkins was not a fan, loaning Freeman to Portsmouth, and the next Blades manager, Chris Wilder, transfer-listed the defender. Freeman, though, won him over and was named in the PFA Team of the Year as the Blades ended their six-year stint in League One with promotion.

A broken leg in 2017 set Coutts back, but he still won two promotions at Bramall Lane and although he was released last summer, Wilder often namechecks the midfielder as having played an important role in their journey.