Leeds United have been as soon as a membership who, underneath the possession of Massimo Cellino, didn’t significantly seem to have any type of technique within the switch market, with a host of gamers being purchased and subsequently bought by the Italian – a lot of whom had little probability to settle and impress at Elland Road.
One such participant who definitely falls into this class is Billy Sharp, the then-28-year-old centre-forward who joined the Whites from Southampton for a reported payment within the area of £270k again in the summertime of 2014, earlier than being bought to Sheffield United for £500k simply 12 months later.
And, whereas it’s true that the Sheffield-born striker didn’t make a lot of an influence at Leeds, scoring 5 targets and registering one help over his 35 appearances for the membership, contemplating the fairly astonishing Indian summer season the 36-year-old has loved in his profession since, Cellino’s choice to half with the ahead very a lot seems to be to have been a shocker.
Indeed, after bagging 21 targets and offering seven assists over his 44 League One appearances for the Blades in 2015/16, the striker fired his hometown facet to promotion the next season – scoring a whopping 30 targets and registering eight assists over his 46 League One outings in 2016/17.
The £270k-rated expertise would repeat this trick simply two years later, as, after notching 13 targets and offering 4 assists in 34 Championship fixtures in 2017/18, the participant who Paul Merson dubbed a “goal machine” as soon as once more fired United to promotion the next season – bagging 23 targets and registering 4 assists over 40 league outings in 2018/19.
And, regardless of the £16k-per-week hitman scoring simply 5 targets over his 41 Premier League outings in each 2019/20 and 2020/21 – with the Blades struggling relegation again to the second tier of their second season within the prime flight – the veteran ahead nonetheless proved he has what it takes within the Championship final time period, bagging 14 targets and 7 assists over 39 league outings in 2021/22.
As such, whereas it’s true that Leeds ultimately made their very own option to the Premier League in 2020, contemplating the truth that Sharp scored a complete of 113 targets after his exit from the membership, there may be an argument to be made that Whites may have earned promotion a lot sooner had Cellino saved maintain of Sharp – with the Italian’s name on the 36-year-old very a lot having confirmed a shocker.
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