Sheffield United transfer target set to receive green light to leave after talks with manager over future

Hamza Choudhury, the Sheffield United transfer target, is expected to receive the green light to move elsewhere this transfer window after imminent talks with his current manager. The Leicester City midfielder is seen as surplus to requirements at the King Power Stadium, having only made only one Premier League start all season.

That came in a 4-0 defeat at Newcastle and although he has been a part of Ruud van Nistelrooy’s matchday squad of late, he is well down the pecking order in midfield and the imminent arrival of Parma right-back Woyo Coulibaly in a £3m deal will also relieve him of his duties as back-up to James Justin in that position. Coulibaly will also take the 25th spot available to van Nistelrooy in his Premier League squad list, with space needing to be cleared if any more players come in.

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The Dutchman is also keen not to work with a bloated squad, with United confident that Choudhury will be given the go-ahead to leave this window. The midfielder worked with Chris Wilder at Watford but has been known to the United chief since he was a young player in Leicester’s academy, thanks to Wilder’s close relationship at the time with members of the Foxes hierarchy.

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Speaking this week about the possibility of players leaving, van Nistelrooy said: “Of course, we look at the balance of the squad and what is necessary. The necessary thing is to strengthen the squad. That is the target. We want to keep our players that we think are vital for doing better, and then add players. But we’re talking to players where they are in a situation where things can change for them. When the time is there to talk to players, we will do it.”

Harry Winks, Boubakary Soumare, Oliver Skipp and Wilfred Ndidi are seen as ahead of Choudhury, who recently switched his international allegiance to Bangladesh and will be the first player with Premier League experience to represent them when he makes his international debut, in the pecking order at the King Power Stadium. Wilder is keen to add to his squad ahead of this weekend’s Championship return against Norwich City but is still waiting for the first incoming of the window.