{"id":1166841,"date":"2026-08-24T15:36:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T15:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1166841\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T15:36:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T15:36:27","slug":"sheffield-united-target-leo-black-set-for-chelsea-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1166841\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheffield United target Leo Black set for Chelsea move"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"lar-automated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/the72.co.uk\/category\/sheffield-united\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sheffield United<\/a> had shown interest in former Tottenham Hotspur youngster Leo Black, but he is set to join Chelsea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/the72.co.uk\/2026\/08\/21\/sheffield-united-ownership-new-crisis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Sheffield United\u2019s ownership issues<\/a> mean they are focusing on low-cost additions to their ranks in the closing stages of the window. <a href=\"https:\/\/the72.co.uk\/2026\/08\/22\/sheffield-united-can-take-inspiration-hull-city-free-agents-loans-approach\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Free transfers and loans are the remit for SUFC<\/a>, but one player who looks unlikely to join is young midfielder Leo Black.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SportsPeteO\/status\/2091884842153587139\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Reporter Pete O\u2019Rourke<\/a> states the Blades have been among the clubs interested in the 20-year-old after his departure from Tottenham Hotspur earlier this summer. However, he is set to stay in academy football in London and join rivals Chelsea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Black also had interest in Portugal from Academico FC, but he will join Chelsea on a two-year contract. He had been with Spurs for his entire youth career prior to his summer release.<\/p>\n<p>Leo Black could have been a shrewd addition for <a class=\"lar-automated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/the72.co.uk\/category\/sheffield-united\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sheffield United<\/a> as Chelsea move awaits<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As <a class=\"lar-automated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/the72.co.uk\/category\/sheffield-united\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sheffield United<\/a> focus on free transfer additions and loans, a move for someone like Black would have made for shrewd business. Granted, he\u2019s yet to make his break into senior football, but he is a well thought of and versatile young player with room to develop.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If he joined on a free transfer and hit the ground running, he could have become an asset for SUFC financially, as well as on the pitch. Black is primarily a central midfielder but can play as a no.6 or no.10 too, even being used on the wings in the Spurs academy before.<\/p>\n<p>Leo Black\u2019s Tottenham Hotspur academy stats<\/p>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>Age group<\/strong><\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>Games<\/strong><\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>Goals<\/strong><\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>Assists<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">U21s<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">46<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">3<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">U18s<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">38<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">5<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Signings of this ilk might not bring immediate improvements to the Blades\u2019 starting XI, but it can help build a talented and hungry squad on a budget. Similar signings should be targeted, although the pick of the young free agents have been snapped up by this time in the summer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As Black heads for Chelsea, it will be intriguing to see how his career pans out.<\/p>\n<p>The Verdict: <a class=\"lar-automated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/the72.co.uk\/category\/sheffield-united\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sheffield United<\/a> have to strengthen their squad, and fast<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a class=\"lar-automated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/the72.co.uk\/category\/sheffield-united\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sheffield United<\/a> need to get as many new signings done before the window as possible. Loans will come to the fore in the coming weeks, but free transfer deals are better done early too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes, free agents can be signed outside the transfer window, but they need as much time as possible to get up to speed. If they can be added to Chris Wilder\u2019s ranks sooner rather than later, the quicker they can step up to perform at Championship level.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SUFC will hope for success similar to the deals for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sufc.co.uk\/news\/2026\/january\/14\/pats-delight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Patrick Bamford<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/articles\/c20y3z99n93o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Jairo Riedewald<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As two experienced free agents, they instantly improved the Blades squad and helped them rise away from danger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"the72-pref-src-title\">Enjoyed that? Add us to your Google sources<\/p>\n<p class=\"the72-pref-src-sub\">See more EFL transfer news and match reaction from The72, first, in Google Search.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a class=\"the72-pref-src-btn\" href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=the72.co.uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Add us on Google<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sheffield United had shown interest in former Tottenham Hotspur youngster Leo Black, but he is set to join&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1166842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,9030,393,4884,316750,1620,4239,11840,108181,108182,108183,108184,2357,16,15],"class_list":["post-1166841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sheffield","tag-britain","tag-championship","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-leo-black","tag-sheffield","tag-sheffield-united","tag-sheffield-united-fc","tag-sheffield-united-fc-news","tag-sheffield-united-news","tag-sufc","tag-sufc-news","tag-transfers","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117151228716583980","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1166841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1166842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1166841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1166841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1166841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}