Slavisa Jokanovic wants to be reunited with Fulham captain Tom Cairney at Sheffield United with the Blades’ Championship rivals demanding £10 million, as reported by TEAMtalk.
Talk about the best man for the job.
Chris Wilder left big boots to fill at Bramall Lane but, in Jokanovic, Sheffield United appear to have handed the reins to a coach capable of building on the foundations laid by a modern-day Steel City legend.
During his time in charge of Watford and Fulham, Jokanovic played some of the most attractive, attacking football in the Football League and found himself swigging champagne in May; promotion, and legendary status, secured.
Cairney captained the Serbian’s Fulham side to play-off final glory at Wembley three years ago.
According to TEAMtalk, Jokanovic would love to make his former Craven Cottage talisman the first signing of his Sheffield United reign.
“Tom Cairney is very important player for us. He’s made a fantastic jump,” the 52-year-old said back in 2017.
“He’s probably one of the best (in the Championship).”
The admiration is mutual.
“If you look at the teams that have dominated football for the last five or 10 years, that’s the way they are playing,” Cairney would later say, via Yorkshire Live.
“Everyone is different but I love to watch that type of football: the clever players, the technical players. The beautiful game.
“It’s incredibly brave. To play out from the back, to take it into hostile stadiums. You can easily go into your shell and kick it long, but it is harder to take that extra touch and calm everything down.
“The manager does not panic, and we always play the same way. He has to take a lot of credit for that, because playing the football that we do, in this division, is not easy.”
TEAMtalk reports that Sheffield United will have to part with £10 million in order to reunite Cairney with Jokanovic in South Yorkshire.
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