How Sheffield United used Iliman Ndiaye sale money amid Morgan Gibbs-White comparison

Sheffield United initially planned to replace departing star man Iliman Ndiaye with a “top Premier League loan” before striker Cameron Archer became available later in the transfer window, chief executive Stephen Bettis has admitted. Almost four weeks passed since Ndiaye’s sale before Archer’s arrival, leaving many Blades questioning why a replacement was not lined up before Ndiaye’s sale to Marseille was sanctioned.

For parts of the summer United officials thought they had succeeded in their quest to keep Ndiaye at the club, with a new and vastly improved three-year deal agreed during the club’s pre-season trip to Portugal. The Senegal star had a late change of heart before putting pen to paper and United then allowed him to make his dream move to his boyhood club, less than two weeks before the start of the new Premier League season.

Ndiaye’s departure, and that of Sander Berge the following week, was one item on the agenda as Bettis met members of the local media, including The Star, for his annual round-table interview. "As you know, because you witnessed it [in Portugal], we were really close to not selling him,” Bettis said, “and there was a point where we thought we wouldn't need to replace him in that respect because we thought he was staying.

“Secondly, we were never replacing him because we were going to do a loan to replace him. We felt that was the best way to replace him, in terms of going out and getting a top Premier League loan. We took the money. We bought Vini Souza, we bought [Auston] Trusty. We'd spent the money. We just didn't spend it replacing Iliman.

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“With all the players up top, the best way we thought we could get the most bang for our buck was by going to the loan market. It's later on in the window that they become available. How good a signing was Morgan Gibbs-White? We signed him two days before the window closed. That night at 11pm I was on a Zoom with his parents and Slav and then we signed him. That's the way football works and it was a great signing.