Details of Sheffield United contract offer revealed as Blades hope for key breakthrough

The contract offer Sheffield United first tabled to Jack Robinson and his representatives was of the same length as the ones recently signed by teammates John Fleck and Ben Osborn, The Star understands, as the Blades continue to hope for a breakthrough before next week’s return to pre-season training.

After sealing promotion to the Premier League last season United confirmed they were releasing Billy Sharp, Jack O’Connell and Enda Stevens, opening up talks over new contracts with Robinson, Osborn and Fleck ahead of the new campaign.

As The Star revealed, United became increasingly confident of securing an agreement with Osborn before the announcement earlier this week that he and Fleck had signed new one-year deals at Bramall Lane. It’s understood that an offer of the same contract length was tabled to defender Robinson, who has yet to put pen to paper.

It is currently unclear whether any of the deals contain options to extend them by a further year but 12-month deals do not offer a great deal of security for players, with Robinson’s representatives understood to have explored any other interest from elsewhere in the market this summer in a bid to get the best deal for their client.

The former Liverpool trainee is still only 29 years of age and was a consistent performer during the promotion campaign, winning over most of the remaining doubters by taking advantage of Ciaran Clark’s injury absence to keep the Newcastle United man out of the side when he was fit.

As it stands, United don’t have a senior left-sided centre-half on their books after Clark’s departure and are increasingly keen to get Robinson tied down ahead of a scheduled return to pre-season training on Monday. Some of United’s existing squad will report back to Shirecliffe early next week, with those who have been away on international duty over the summer granted an extended period of rest before joining up with their teammates ahead of the first pre-season friendly away at Chesterfield on July 15.