It’s looking ever more likely that Billy Sharp will be back at Sheffield United before the new season kicks off, after he was given permission to leave the training camp in Austria.
For most of the summer there have been reports that Sharp is likely to return to the Blades, where he has already had two spells during his career, but last week the negotiations seem to have run into trouble over the issue of the player’s wages.
The Yorkshire Post are claiming that Leeds are reluctant to continue to pay any part of his wages, having paid Southampton around £600,000 for his services last year. But it could be that there has now been some sort of breakthrough, as Sharp was omitted from this week’s infamous friendly and Leeds have allowed him to return to England for further discussions at Bramall Lane.
Sharp still has a year left on his contract at Elland Road and could just stay at Leeds to pick up his money, but he knows that he won’t get too many first team appearances after the signing of Lee Erwin and Chris Wood. So the 29-year-old striker might be prepared to take a cut in wages and drop a division in search of regular first team football.
Apart from the wages issue the talks between the two clubs are going well, though the Post have emphasised that "sources on all sides insist that it’s not yet a done deal.” Other sources have reported that Jamie Murphy will no longer be part of the deal because our valuation of the winger is too low for the Blades.
It’s a shame Billy’s time at Leeds didn’t work out as well as we hoped, but we’ll wish him well at Sheffield United, at least until the next time we have to play them.