Paul Heckingbottom will now have to rely on loan signings to bolster his squad as he told SUTV in a recent interview.
Sheffield United have had a busy window, unfortunately they had to sell Iliman Ndiaye, who left to join his boyhood club Olympique Marseille, and then Sander Berge was sold to Burnley. Both players were in the final year of their deal.
The Blades brought in Anis Slimane and Bénie Traoré on permanent transfers during pre-season, while Yasser Larouci joined United on a season-long loan with the club having an option to make the deal permanent come the end of the season.
Since then, Sheffield United have signed another five players. Firstly, Auston Trusty joined from Arsenal, then midfielder’s Vinícius Souza, Tom Davies and Gustavo Hamer joined. And then on Sunday, United unveiled their latest signing Cameron Archer to the Bramall Lane faithful.
Ideally, Paul Heckingbottom wants a couple more bodies through the door as he told SUTV that “there’s hope. Certainly by the end of the week”.
Because Heckingbottom now only has loans available, the fans focus will be on James McAtee and Tommy Doyle. The two players both want to rejoin Sheffield United this summer, but due to the domestic loan rules, the Blades can only sign one of them.
The manager was asked about the probability of McAtee or Doyle coming in before the transfer deadline:
“That’s not down to us; there’s so many people involved in getting a deal done. Obviously we have to be clear on who we want: the player has to want to come, there’s agents, sometimes family, representatives, but most importantly there’s another club.” [SUTV]
Meanwhile, Facundo Pellistri is another domestic loan target, a Uruguayan winger at Manchester United. Sheffield United did express interest in Divock Origi as a foreign loan, however, that has cooled.