Leeds United were reportedly in advanced negotiations to sign Brighton’s Oliver Norwood but fellow Championship pacesetters Sheffield United stole in.
If you want to earn promotion to the Premier League, signing Oliver Norwood is not a bad way to go about it.
The Northern Ireland midfielder has been promoted in each of the last two Championship seasons, finishing second with Brighton in 2017 before helping Fulham win the play-off final at Wembley in May.
Understandably then, Norwood attracted plenty of interest with parent club Brighton ready to let him go again. The Sun (8 August, 7:00am) reported that Leeds were in advanced negotiations to sign the former Manchester United youngster for £1.5 million.
But they were beaten to the punch by Sheffield United, who landed Norwood on loan in a deal that will become permanent in January. And Leeds’ loss has most certainly been the Blades’ gain so far.
Sheffield United have won their last three Championship games against Norwich City, Bolton and Aston Villa and Norwood has claimed the Man of the Match award each time. He was particularly impressive in Saturday’ 4-1 mauling of Villa at Brammal Lane, catching out visiting goalkeeper Orjan Nyland with an opportunistic free-kick into the near post.
And although Leeds have enjoyed a terrific start under Marcelo Bielsa, sitting top with 14 points, failing to sign Norwood is one mistake that could come back to haunt them later in the season.
After all, squad depth is not one of Leeds’ strong points.
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