After being relegated from the Premier League the previous season, Sheffield United has made a name for themselves as a contender for the Championship crown and may be headed for an instant return to the top level.
The Blades have had a number of outstanding performances, including a 1-0 victory over rivals for the Steel City Derby, Sheffield Wednesday, and fellow automatic promotion contenders Sunderland last month, despite having a difficult season the previous season and beginning the current one with a two-point deduction.
Former Coventry City players Callum O’Hare and Gus Hamer are among the outstanding players in manager Chris Wilder’s team, and starlet Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, who is on loan from Premier League Crystal Palace, has drawn attention with his performances on multiple occasions.
Football League World examines the two players who will depart Bramall Lane next summer if nothing changes between now and the conclusion of the season, even if it is still unclear which level the promotion-threatened Blades will play in:
Rhian Brewster
Rhian Brewster, a former forward for Liverpool, was signed by the Blades in 2020 on a five-year contract that will expire at the end of the current season.
The Englishman has never scored more than four goals in a season for the South Yorkshire team, so it wouldn’t be unjust to claim he hasn’t lived up to the £23.5 million price tag.
After leading England to victory in the 2017 Under-17 World Cup in India, he has fallen short of his promise. Meanwhile, Wilder’s team must be jealous of Brewster’s 2019–20 loan stint with Swansea City, another Championship team, where he scored 11 goals in 22 league games.
Liverpool doesn’t appear to be planning to take use of the 15% sell-on provision they agreed to with the Bramall Lane team when they sold the striker, since the 24-year-old’s Blades contract expires next summer.
Jack Robinson
Jack Robinson, a defender, signed a two-year contract extension with the Blades in 2023 after joining from Nottingham Forest, a Championship team at the time, in January 2020.
He made nine top-flight appearances for Wilder’s team in the second half of the 2019–20 Premier League season, which helped them secure an unexpected ninth-place finish.
During the 2020–21 Premier League season, Robinson made 11 league appearances, but his efforts were insufficient to keep the Blades from dropping back to the second division.
The former Forest player, however, was able to display his class after relegating to the Championship and was instrumental in the Bramall Lane team’s 2022 playoff run.
When the Blades were automatically promoted back to the Premier League in 2023, the 31-year-old was just as important. He went on to make 34 appearances in the top level last season, but his team was once again unable to prevent relegation.
One could argue that Wilder and company should be more willing to extend Robinson’s contract before the end of the current campaign than Brewster’s because the defender has proven to be a dependable asset for his team in both the Premier League and the Championship over the years.
Leave a Reply