Sheffield United may be heading for promotion back to the Premier League but they’re also under a transfer embargo and subject to a mysterious takeover bid.
The last few seasons have been a rollercoaster ride for Sheffield United. Promoted to the Premier League as runners-up behind Norwich City in 2019, they defied expectations to finish their first top-flight season since 2007 in ninth place in the Premier League. Relegation followed behind closed doors in 2021 and they had a slow start to life back in the Championship.
But since the appointment of Paul Heckingbottom at the end of November 2021, the Blades have been flying. On the day that Heckingbottom was brought in to replace Slavisa Jokanovic, they were in 16th place in the Championship table, but by the end of the season they were in fifth place and narrowly beaten by Nottingham Forest in the semi-finals of the play-offs.
And that upward curve has continued throughout this season. United led the Championship table throughout September before having a bit of a wobble, but a run of just one defeat in 14 games has kept them in second place in the table behind runaway leaders Burnley and with a ten-point gap of their own to third-placed Middlesbrough, over whom they also have a game in hand. A return to the Premier League isn’t guaranteed – this is the Championship, after all – but Heckingbottom has put his team in an excellent position.
But this progress on the pitch has not been matched away from it. Sheffield United have been under a transfer embargo since the middle of January, meaning that Heckingbottom was unable to strengthen his squad ahead of the second half of a gruelling season, while some very serious questions now have to asked about a takeover of the club which should have lifted the club from the financial difficulties in which they’ve found themselves.
Prince Abdullah has been involved at Bramall Lane for almost a decade. He became co-owner of the club in 2013 and took sole ownership six years later after winning a High Court case against former co-owner Kevin McCabe. But Sheffield United have been up for sale for some time. It had been reported that the club was on the brink of being sold to the American businessman Henry Mauriss last year, but this failed after Mauriss failed to persuade the EFL that he had the available funds because he was using bonds rather than loans to fund the purchase. It was reported at the time that Prince Abdullah wanted £115m for the…
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