{"id":291995,"date":"2025-07-26T01:05:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T01:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/291995\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T01:05:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T01:05:33","slug":"mls-side-beat-sheffield-united-and-wrexham-to-sign-special-premier-league-star-as-deal-agreed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/291995\/","title":{"rendered":"MLS side beat Sheffield United and Wrexham to sign ‘special’ Premier League star as ‘deal agreed’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

EFL Analysis sources can confirm that Championship giants Sheffield United and Wrexham have held talks over a move, but have been beaten by Colorado Rapids. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Ahead of the 2025\/26 Championship campaign<\/a>, both Sheffield United<\/a> and newly promoted Wrexham<\/a> have been involved with several high-profile signings.<\/p>\n

With the Blades, Sheffield United signed Louie Barry<\/a> from Aston Villa, who reunites with former Hull City head coach Ruben Selles<\/a> at Bramall Lane.<\/p>\n

This week, Wrexham signed Josh Windass<\/a> after his Sheffield Wednesday exit, and both sides have been mentioned in the same breath over a potential deal as Wrexham eye a deal for Kieffer Moore<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the two Championship<\/a> giants, both the Blades and Phil Parkinson\u2019s<\/a> side have been dealt a major transfer blow in their pursuit of an in-demand Premier League talent.<\/p>\n

\"RobPhoto by Stuart MacFarlane\/Arsenal FC via Getty ImagesColorado Rapids to sign Rob Holding ahead of Sheffield United and Wrexham <\/p>\n

Throughout the summer transfer window<\/a>, Crystal Palace defender Rob Holding has been linked with a move away from the London outfit.<\/p>\n

Last season, the Englishman spent the second half of the campaign on loan at Sheffield United, and went on to make 11 Championship appearances under Chris Wilder<\/a>, registering one assist.<\/p>\n

With Selles replacing Wilder<\/a> in the Blades dugout, it has now transpired that the 29-year-old has snubbed a return to Bramall Lane or a switch to newly promoted Wrexham in favour of an MLS move after \u2018agreeing a deal\u2019 with Colorado Rapids.<\/p>\n

EFL Analysis<\/strong> understands, via information from our Chief Football correspondent, Graeme Bailey, that Colorado Rapids are set to win the race for Rob Holding and have agreed personal terms.<\/p>\n

Holding has been in talks with a number of clubs, including Championship side Sheffield United and Wrexham.<\/p>\n

However, sources have confirmed to EFL Analysis<\/strong> that Holding has agreed a deal to move to MLS and is\u00a0due to fly out for his medical within the next 48 hours.<\/p>\n

He has 12 months left on his contract at Selhurst Park, but Palace have agreed to let him leave on a free.<\/p>\n

Before Wilder was sacked by Sheffield United<\/a>, he left the door open for Holding\u2019s loan to become permanent.<\/p>\n

\"ChrisPhoto by James Gill \u2013 Danehouse\/Getty ImagesChris Wilder wanted to sign Rob Holding permanently at Sheffield United<\/p>\n

Holding\u2019s last appearance of the 2024\/25 campaign came in a cameo against Bristol City<\/a> in the first leg of the play-off semi-finals.<\/p>\n

The former Arsenal defender did not feature in the following second leg, or the Championship play-off final as Sunderland beat Sheffield United<\/a> to earn Premier League promotion.<\/p>\n

In February, Wilder told the BBC<\/a>: \u201cRob is just a straight loan until the end of the season but certainly somebody that we would be interested in if the loan goes well,<\/p>\n\nClub name<\/strong><\/td>\nRob Holding appearances<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBolton Wanderers<\/td>\n30<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBury (loan)<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nArsenal <\/td>\n162<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nCrystal Palace<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Rob Holding\u2019s career appearances by club, data as per Fotmob<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t get signed by a club like Arsenal if you haven\u2019t got anything about you and aren\u2019t a little bit special.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs sometimes happens, a situation at Palace where he was not involved, and we\u2019ve taken advantage of that. Everybody has been impressed with Rob.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holding sent a heartfelt message to Wilder<\/a> after he was sacked by the Blades last month, in a decision which may have put the England youth international off a permanent return to Bramall Lane, with Colorado Rapids capitalising to sign the centre-half.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EFL Analysis sources can confirm that Championship giants Sheffield United and Wrexham have held talks over a move,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,393,560,4884,1620,4239,16,15,18833],"class_list":{"0":"post-291995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-exclusives","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-sheffield","13":"tag-sheffield-united","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wrexham"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114916854803358847","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291995","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=291995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}