Harsh reality over Sheffield United enigma as failed transfer gamble squanders latest golden chance
Harsh reality over Sheffield United enigma as failed transfer gamble squanders latest golden chance
With Joe Rothwell suspended and fitness uncertainty, at best, over the rest of his midfield rivals, Saturday’s trip to Portsmouth was a golden opportunity for Djibril Soumare to come in from the cold and stake a huge claim ahead of a pivotal part in Sheffield United’s season. To say that the big Blades enigma missed it would be kind.
With Sydie Peck a slight injury concern and Oliver Arblaster recovering from the illness that forced him off the pitch less than a week earlier, the Senegalese loanee was a surprise name on the teamsheet at Fratton Park. But the game passed him by entirely in the 55 minutes of it he spent on the pitch, before he was put out of his misery and replaced by Peck.
Soumare’s supporters, of which there are inexplicably a vocal few, will probably point to the nature of a chaotic game not suiting anyone in the middle of the park. But Pompey’s Ebou Adams was one of their stand-out men; United instantly looked more in control when Peck came on and eventually found the breakthrough in the last minute through Andre Brooks.
Kalvin Phillips, who lined up alongside Declan Rice on England duty not so long back and is used to working with the likes of Rodri at Manchester City, set the example for Soumare to follow. Short of match fitness, no doubt blowing a little and head spinning, but impacted the game for prolonged spells rather than the flashes we’ve seen from his midfield colleague on Saturday.
The fact that those moments - Blackburn away, Stoke at home, a quick turn at home to Leicester on New Year’s Day - stick in the mind so long afterwards tells its own story. They are the exception rather than the rule. United careers are forged on consistency, not the chaos that Soumare brings.
Harsh reality over Sheffield United enigma as failed transfer gamble squanders latest golden chance
There’s a reason that, when Rothwell returns and Peck, Arblaster and Phillips get closer to top speed and Tom Davies and Jairo Riedewald return, he will find himself well down the pecking order. He’s also the sixth loanee in United’s squad and even his most staunch defenders would surely struggle to make a serious case that he offers more than any of the other five.
There is no personal animosity here towards a young man given a potentially life-changing chance to impress in a different country, but it’s becoming increasingly harder to ignore that he just isn’t equipped to take it.
It was no huge surprise to hear whispers about Bramall Lane officials looking into his loan being cut short last month, before Phillips and Rothwell checked in late on deadline day. And it’s another huge question mark - should any more be needed - over United’s disastrous transfer work in the summer.
Should they have achieved their pre-season goal of getting promoted, remember, United would be obligated to buy Soumare from Braga; suggesting someone - potentially the would-be Wednesday owner James Bord and his data - thought he was capable of playing Premier League football.
The caveat to all this is that Soumare may well go on and prove me wrong by becoming a top player, in the same way that I could go to Royal Birkdale this weekend and break 100. If he does, fair play to him. But on the evidence stacked up so far, that won’t happen at Bramall Lane.