Swansea City saw the best of multi-million pound Sheffield United flop: View | OneFootball

Swansea City supporters hold fond memories of Sheffield United striker Rhian Brewster thanks to his impressive loan spell at the club during the 2019/20 campaign.

The then Liverpool striker joined Swansea in January 2020, with his parent club looking to get the talented striker some first-team minutes as the Reds cantered to the Premier League title with ease.

There were plenty of teams interested, but Liverpool and Brewster decided on Swansea thanks to manager Steve Cooper.

Cooper had previously worked with Brewster in his previous role as England U17's boss, winning the U17's World Cup in India in 2017. Cooper had previously worked for Liverpool as the club's head of youth development and had managed the Reds' U18 side for a season. With this in mind, Swansea seemed the perfect destination for Brewster, and it turned out to be just that.

Rhian Brewster's form at Swansea

Brewster was well and truly thrown into the deep end for his Swansea debut, starting away at bitter rivals Cardiff City just days after joining the club.

It was a 0-0 stalemate on that occasion with Brewster getting limited service, but it didn't take long for Brewster to show the Swansea faithful what he was capable of.

The Liverpool loanee scored on his home debut for the club in a 2-1 win over Wigan Athletic before scoring again two weeks later at Deepdale as the Swans were held to a 1-1 draw with Preston.

He'd add two further goals before the season was suspended in March.

Between Brewster's arrival in January and the Covid enforced break in March, Swansea started to struggle and despite a great start to the season, they began to fall away from the play-off places.

The Covid break probably couldn't have come at a better time for Swansea, and they came back in June refreshed and ready to have a crack at making the play-offs.

This period was when Brewster really began to impress, scoring two goals in the club's first game back at Middlesbrough, before netting further goals against Sheffield Wednesday, Birmingham and Nottingham Forest to take them into the final game of the season with an outside chance of making the play-offs.

The Swans travelled to Berkshire to face a Reading side with nothing to play for but needed results to go their way. Remarkably, Swansea won 4-1, and Stoke defeated Forest by the same scoreline to ensure that Swansea made the play-offs.

Brewster scored a goal of the season contender for the Swans that day and there's no doubt that without the striker Swansea would not have made the top six.

Swansea lost the play-off semi-final against Brentford but Brewster's 11 Championship goals in 22 games means that he's fondly remembered in south Wales.

Rhian Brewster's form since leaving Swansea

Brewster returned to parent club Liverpool and featured in the 2020 Community Shield against Arsenal. However, he missed his spotkick in the penalty shoot-out and Liverpool lost the game.

He would join fellow Premier League side Sheffield United in October 2020 for a fee of £23.5million, according to Sky Sports. However, both the Blades and Brewster struggled that season. The club finished bottom of the league and the striker failed to find the back of the net all season.

Things didn't get much better the following season at Bramall Lane. The striker struggled with injury and scored just four times in 16 games as the Blades missed out on promotion.

It was the same again the following season. Brewster suffered from a hamstring injury and played just 17 games, scoring once.

With the club now in the Premier League, the ex-Liverpool man has found minutes hard to come by, playing five times this season and failing to find the back of the net.

It's a sorry state of affairs for a player that looked like he could be a future England international just a few seasons ago.

A move in January, whether that be a loan or permanent, seems like a necessity for Brewster to get his career back on track.