Sheffield United swooped to make a deadline day double Irish signing by recruiting Chiedozie Ogbene and Mark McGuinness.<\/p>\n
Rub\u00e9n Sell\u00e9s has targeted reinforcements after an abysmal start to his attempt at returning the Blades to the Premier League, pointless after four games and anchored to the bottom of the Championship.<\/p>\n
Ogbene joins on a loan deal from Ipswich Town until the end of the season while his fellow Irish international McGuinness is a full-time mover from Luton Town, penning a four-year deal.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere on the final day of the summer window, Adam Idah completed his \u20ac10m transfer from Celtic to Swansea City.<\/p>\n
Fellow Corkman Alan Browne has also dropped into the Championship, temporarily at least, by leaving newly-promoted Sunderland for north-east neighbours Middlesbrough.<\/p>\n
A Leesider at the start of his career, 20-year-old Franco Umeh, followed a similar path between the top two tiers of English football.<\/p>\n
His \u20ac600,000 deal from Crystal Palace to Portsmouth activates a 15% sell-on clause for his former club Cork City, banking the League of Ireland outfit \u20ac90,000.<\/p>\n
City would have been entitled to a \u20ac100,000 milestone payment from Palace had the winger made his first-team debut but he only got as far as the substitute\u2019s bench during his two-and-a-half years at the Premier Division club.<\/p>\n
Ireland midfielder Will Smallbone joined Millwall on a season-long loan deal from Southampton. Millwall director of football Steve Gallen described Smallbone as “a very good player – an experienced central midfielder with real quality”.<\/p>\n
Ipswich Town have developed into an Irish colony with five of their players named in this week\u2019s Ireland squad but manager Kieran McKenna flagged Ogbene\u2019s impending departure over the weekend.<\/p>\n
An Achilles rupture suffered last October ended his Premier League season but the return to play this term following relegation has been gradual.<\/p>\n
Especially with the recent arrival of Ogbene\u2019s Ireland teammate Kasey McAteer from Leicester City for \u20ac12m, scope for exposure on the wing was limited.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is an honour to be at a great club,\u201d said the 28-year-old referencing his previous stay in Yorkshire as a Rotherham United player.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve lived here for four years so I like to think I know what Sheffield United means to the people and the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be part of it now and to be immersed into this club which has over 130 years of incredible history, and has a passionate fanbase, it is something I\u2019m proud of.<\/p>\n
“It is almost like my second home in England and given the stature it was one I had to take. It is an opportunity you don’t pass up on.”<\/p>\n
A social media post issued by the Blades soon after, captioned \u2018Agent Chieo\u2019, covered the player supposedly on the phone to a prospective signing.<\/p>\n
That transpired to be McGuinness, who was famously abseiled into his senior Ireland debut last November at Wembley against England. He joins from a Luton side battling back from successive relegations to League One.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know Chieo and Tahith Chong, two top guys and more importantly top players,\u201d said the centre-back.<\/p>\n
“It has been a bit of a crazy window and things can happen late but Sheffield United has been a club which has been in my mind ever since I heard that there was some interest.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Idah was waiting for Celtic to sign Kasper Dolberg before Brendan Rodgers would sanction his move to Swansea City.<\/p>\n
There he reunites with former Celtic coach Darren O\u2019Dea, assistant to the manager, Athlone native Alan Sheehan.<\/p>\n
Idah hit 20 goals for Celtic last season but struggled to win over a number of fans and failed to score in the early part of this campaign. Being withdrawn at half-time in last week\u2019s scoreless draw against Kairat Almaty was the final straw.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to have the chance to be the main man, to lead the line and score many goals,\u201d asserted Idah, whose previous Championship experience was with Norwich City.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery striker wants that job and to come here, trying to push for promotion. If you can be the main man in that, then it is an amazing feeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel I am a good all-rounder and I can bring a bit of everything. I have the physique, pace and can dribble with the ball or hold it up to bring others into play.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, I think my game is not just about any one thing. This is a fresh start for me and my family.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Browne isn\u2019t in the Ireland squad but will be relieved to have an opportunity for game time at Boro.<\/p>\n
Competition from newly-promoted Sunderland\u2019s recruits like Granit Xhaka led to Browne being excluded from the matchday squad. Manager R\u00e9gis Le Bris last week indicated a fresh challenge for the Leesider was looming.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s now back in the Championship, where the Corkman played over 300 games for Preston North End and Sunderland. Living in the area since joining the Black Cats 12 months ago, a move within the North-East was ideal for Browne.<\/p>\n
Another player out of the Irish frame, Michael Obafemi, has joined German Bundesliga 2 club Vfl Bochum on loan from Burnley until the end of the season.<\/p>\n
Deadline day wrapped up a busy window for the Irish.<\/p>\n
Caoimh\u00edn Kelleher kicked it all off by leaving Liverpool for Brentford by June 1 before Finn Azaz and McAteer also sealed eight-figure permanent transfers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sheffield United swooped to make a deadline day double Irish signing by recruiting Chiedozie Ogbene and Mark McGuinness.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,393,61271,4884,132151,135221,6875,1620,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-390431","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-fai","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-league-of-ireland","13":"tag-local-soccer","14":"tag-premiership","15":"tag-sheffield","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115131612331059906","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390431","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=390431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}