Sheffield United are being credited with an interest in Gaitan, who once cost Atletico Madrid £22.5 million.
Sheffield United are one of the clubs being linked with the departing Chicago Fire winger, Nicolas Gaitan, along with West Ham United and Aston Villa [The Guardian].
Chris Wilder’s Blades are said to have joined their Premier League rivals in registering their interest in signing the 31-year-old – for whom they would not be required to pay a fee – on a two-year deal.
Gaitan is not, however, your typical Wilder recruit. It could be argued that his career has already peaked during spells at Benfica and Atletico Madrid, while you would not expect recent ones in China and the United States – where lucrative salaries are commonly offered in exchange for little effort – to endear any player to a Sheffield United manager with humble non-league beginnings.
But if Wilder is considering a move for Gaitan, there is perhaps no better man to provide a reference than the one he used to watch grace the Bramall Lane turf as a youth – Alejandro Sabella.
Sabella spent three years as Argentina manager at the start of the decade and will have had Gaitan watched extensively throughout his reign.
Yet the former Sheffield United winger called him up just twice in that time and failed to use him at all – despite the Buenos Aires native excelling in Portugal’s top flight.
Why that may be, only Sabella knows (and it could be that he simply had a better pool of players to choose from).
But if he is indeed considering a move for Gaitan, then Wilder could soon find out for himself.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
