One Sheffield United concern raised with club's transfer business | OneFootball

One Sheffield United concern raised with club's transfer business | OneFootball

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Football League World

·5 February 2025

One Sheffield United concern raised with club's transfer business

Article image:One Sheffield United concern raised with club's transfer business

FLW's Sheffield United fan pundit gives his take on what he wished his club did in the window.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…


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Sheffield United concluded deadline day with several deals as they signed Jefferson Caceres from FBC Melgar, Christian Nwachuku from Botev Plovdiv and Rob Holding from Crystal Palace.

One of the busiest teams in the EFL last month, the Blades' new owners have backed Chris Wilder to the hilt as they look to secure a return to the Premier League.

Some notable deals include the arrivals of Ben Brereton Díaz and Tom Cannon, both of whom should firm up the club's attacking credentials.

Sitting in third place ahead of Saturday's fixture against Portsmouth, they are tightly embroiled in that automatic spot race and supporters will hope that their January business is enough to get them across that line.

Sheffield United's loan conundrum

Article image:One Sheffield United concern raised with club's transfer business

To get a Bramall Lane point of view on the window, Football League World spoke to their resident Sheffield United pundit, Jimmy from the Blades Ramble podcast, who revealed that, whilst delighted with the window, there was still one small area of concern.

"I will caveat this with just how great of a window we have had. We've had a strong January and are coming out of it looking a lot stronger than we were going into it," said Jimmy.

"The only thing that might have been better would have been to get a permanent centre-back in or at least one of the loans becoming permanent.

"As it stands, because we left it late and were scrambling, getting messed around by a couple of clubs on valuations, we had to bring in Rob Holding, who is our sixth loan signing. That means that one of our existing loans will have to rotate out of the matchday squad, which is not ideal. You're paying for six loans and you can only use five.

"That is the one thing I would do differently. Rather than a loan, I would have signed them permanently. Whether that be Rob Holding himself or Hamza Choudhury, who we have an option on. I think we could have looked at doing that to make better use of the overall squad."

Chris Wilder will have to upset someone

Article image:One Sheffield United concern raised with club's transfer business

The lack of time left in the window was always going to force the Blades to look at a loan option and Wilder will surely be grateful to have that extra addition in his defence.

While it will mean someone will have to miss out, he will have the opportunity to rotate it and can change his options depending on the opposition.

The players who will probably have the biggest concern are Harry Clarke and Alfie Gilchrist, both of whom can cover the right-back area as well as centre-half. With Holding's arrival, one of this trio will probably have to miss out as they can't all play in the same position.

This will likely perturb the individual selected, but if Wilder can keep his group harmonious, they are still well set for a tilt at those automatic spots.

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