Sheffield United could secure the signing of Brighton and Hove Albion youngster Reda Khadra this week, according to The Star.
Khadra, 21, spent last season on loan at Blackburn Rovers.
The former Borussia Dortmund prospect featured in 28 games for the Rovers, scoring five and assisting four in all competitions. Blackburn Rovers finished 8th last time round thanks to help from Khadra, and the German youngster earned the reputation of being a pacey, tricky attacker with a lot of potential.
Alan Nixon reported earlier this month that many teams were chasing Brighton’s Khadra, including Blackburn Rovers, Sheffield United, Sunderland and Hertha Berlin. Then, last week, another Nixon update revealed the Blades were looking into making Khadra’s deal permanent after his contract expires next summer.
The deal appears to have hit a snag with the south-coast Premier League side seemingly reluctant to lose the youngster on a free, but despite this Paul Heckingbottom is still confident of securing this signing before their opening game of the news season. When asked if there’s a possibility of securing this deal before next Monday, he told The Star:
“Yes. What’s the point otherwise? It’s a loan and we want to take him in.
“But I want people in, as you’d expect, before Watford. I know the window is still going to be open for a while after that. But by the time it closes, half of the season is over. It’s a bugbear for most of us (managers).”
Sheffield United supporters can take confidence in this update and they could have a new, dynamic forward in their squad sooner rather than later.
The finer details…
If Brighton are going to lose their man next summer on a free, then they will do all they can to administer a fee while they can, and the Blades look like they’d rather wait until next summer to secure the German on a permanent. These sorts of details will slightly delay the progress of the transfer, but hopefully, for the clubs and player alike the deal is done soon so Khadra can settle into his new surroundings and hopefully hit the ground running.
Khadra has a lot of untapped potential, he showed signs of this last year for Blackburn Rovers, but if he can produce it more consistently this season Khadra could aid Heckingbottom’s promotion push. Khadra has five goal contributions in six games for Brighton’s U23 and if he can replicate that in the Championship he could become one of the most feared attackers in the division.
Sheffield United begin their season with a game against Watford in exactly one week from today.
