"Been their best player" - Sheffield United urged to break Sheff Wed hearts with Shea Charles deal | OneFootball

FLW's Sheffield United fan pundit discussed the club's stunning interest in Southampton's Shea Charles, who has been on loan with Sheffield Wednesday

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Sheffield United have been urged to compound the woes of bitter cross-city rivals Sheffield Wednesday with a move for Shea Charles, who has emerged as a shock target after a recall clause was triggered by parent club Southampton.

The Championship promotion hopefuls are intent on welcoming a number of additions to Chris Wilder's squad before the winter window's conclusion on February 3.

Following the long-awaited takeover of American-based consortium COH Sports - namely led by Steven Rosen and Helmy Eltoukhy, funds have been made available for Wilder to enter the transfer and bolster his side's promotion bid, which has led to a host of names being linked with moves to Bramall Lane as of late.

United are closing in on a double-swoop for Leicester City's Tom Cannon and Southampton attacker Ben Brereton Diaz, who, of course, spent a successful half-season loan stay at the Lane in the Premier League last season.

Meanwhile, they have also been linked to the likes of ex-loan star Tommy Doyle, Hamza Choudhury, Jonjoe Kenny, Michael Keane and Andrew Omobamidele, with Wilder confirming in the wake of Saturday's 2-0 win over Norwich City that the club expect all five of their targets - who are not neccesarily all of the aforementioned players - to join as three close in on moves.

There is one player, however, who is also on the radar in a more surprising turn of events which could go down rather intriguingly across the other side of the Steel City.

Sheffield United's Shea Charles, Southampton transfer interest following Sheffield Wednesday recall

Wednesdayites were left devastated just last week when Southampton activated their clause to recall Charles at the eleventh-hour, which was sensationally revealed by chairman Dejphon Chansiri in a controversial fan's forum event.

The 21-year-old midfielder remains with the Owls and will seemingly make an official return in the near future, having been named in Danny Rohl's starting 11 for Sunday's lunchtime kick-off away at Leeds United, which ended up being a 2-0 defeat.

Charles, who helped Southampton to promotion last season, has made a promising impression on loan with the Owls this time around, with the vast majority of his 24 appearances to date earning rave reviews.

It has been suggested that Charles could return to Wednesday later on in the window, although that implies he may also be on the move from Southampton once again and will no doubt be a target for a number of sides at the top-end of the Championship.

As per a report from The Star, Charles' name features on a long-list of January targets for United, who had looked into the Northern Ireland international back in the summer before deciding against sanctioning any more loan deals.

That interest, however, has since been seemingly revitalised in a potential boost for the Blades, who could one-up their bitter rivals by brokering a deal this month.

Sheffield United told to sign Southampton's Shea Charles following Sheffield Wednesday recall

FLW asked our Blades fan pundit Jimmy from the Blades Ramble YouTube channel if he believes Charles would be a good addition to the club's midfield department, which is notably light at the minute amid short and long-term injuries to Vini Souza, Tom Davies and Ollie Arblaster.

In spite of Charles' association with Wednesday this season, Jimmy would welcome the signing with open arms, first due to the midfielder's quality but also because of the salt-in-the-wounds effect it would doubtless have up the road at Hillsborough.

"Shea Charles would be a great signing for Sheffield United," Jimmy told FLW.

"He'd be a really good signing. We're after a central midfielder, a cultured midfielder like him would fit in really well. It's genuine interest, it's not just to wind up the other half of the city, it's genuine interest we held in the summer but didn't pursue as strongly as they did, so they got him and they got a very good player.

"He's been their best player this season, probably by a stretch, and he's now been recalled which is great for us to start with. But if we can then get him to bolster our own squad as we compete for promotion, that would be absolutely great.

"I think it's more likely we'll get someone like Hamza Choudhury, we've also been linked to Tommy Doyle so it's not nailed on for certain that Charles comes, but I don't think many Blades at all would be disappointed if he ended up putting on the red and white."