Opinion: Sheffield United simply must make this decision on 26-year-old if current form continues | OneFootball

Sheffield United have had a very strong start to their Championship campaign.

Heading into the international break, the Blades sit top of the pile in the second tier having earned 23 points at this stage – three more than second placed Norwich City and five more than third-placed Reading.

However, the Blades do have an issue to deal with in the coming weeks and months and that is expiring contracts.

At present, a number of Blades players see their current deal expire next summer, with a deal to extend beyond that yet to be agreed.

With boss Paul Heckingbottom recently saying that the international break could provide a good opportunity for some of those talks.

One player that is quite literally playing for his career and future at the club is forward Oli McBurnie.

The 26-year-old is among the Blades contingent who see their current contracts expire next summer, and coming into this campaign, you’d have thought it was up in the air whether or not his stay at Bramall Lane would be extended.

Before a ball was kicked away at Watford in the Blades’ season opener, the 26-year-old had failed to score for the club since December 2020.

Even prior to that goal nearly two years ago, McBurnie had struggled to find the goals that had earned him the move to Sheffield United in the first place.

In his first season, for example, he scored six times in the Premier League, but in his second campaign, as the Blades were relegated, he managed just that single goal.

Given he had fired 22 goals in at Swansea in the Championship, there was the expectation that these numbers would increase following the club’s relegation, but, that was not to be the case.

In 28 Championship matches, of which just nine were starts, the Scottish international failed to hit the back of the net even once.

Quiz: What nationality are these 18 ex-Sheffield United players?

1 of 18

ETHAN AMPADU

ENGLISH WELSH

However, recently, McBurnie finally broke his long-awaited duck, and since, he has not looked back.

That goal came away at Luton Town recently, with McBurnie earning the Blades a hard-fought point on the road that day, and since then, he has gone on to score in three of the club’s next four matches, taking his goal tally to four for the campaign.

If he can keep firing goals in at that rate, or even half of that rate, the Blades simply have to get him signed up to a new deal before the January window.

Other than Iliman Ndiaye, the Blades have no other forwards currently on the books that are consistently firing in goals.

Billy Sharp is struggling with injuries of late, as could be expected at 36, and Rhian Brewster is yet to find the form that would justify the price tag the Blades paid for him back in 2020.

Of course, it is too early to say McBurnie is scoring consistently, but if he can even do so semi-regularly, he is surely a vital asset for Sheffield United.

That is largely because he offers so much more than just his goals, too.

The forward himself recently spoke about how he has tried to contribute in other areas whilst the goals were not falling for him, and if you can get him doing that work and scoring goals, it’s a win-win situation.

Of course, if the Blades do go up, it could be argued that McBurnie is not Premier League quality.

However, I do think that team’s going up can benefit from a large proportion of the same faces remaining, and given McBurnie has two top-flight campaigns under his belt, his experience and ability would make him at worst a valuable player to have in the squad were the Blades to achieve promotion.

For all of the above reasons, then, Sheffield United must seriously consider signing Oli McBurnie to fresh terms ahead of the January window if his recent goalscoring run continues.