What's happened to Lys Mousset after record £10m Sheffield United deal - It has not gone well | OneFootball

Sheffield United paid Bournemouth £10 million for Lys Mousset in 2019, but since he left the club just about everything has gone wrong for him.

When Sheffield United paid Bournemouth £10 million for Lys Mousset in 2019, they were getting a player with three years' Premier League experience - but his career has been on a downwards trajectory ever since.

In the summer of Mousset's arrival, Sheffield United were celebrating a return to the Premier League following an absence of 12 years, but their squad still needed strengthening, and there was one player who seemed to fit the bill for them in attack.

Mousset had been with Bournemouth for the previous three years and had run up almost 60 Premier League appearances for them in that time.

A price of £10 million was agreed, and Mousset signed for the Blades to add to their attacking options He finished his first season with the club finishing in a fantastic ninth place in the Premier League, and tied as their top scorer alongside Oli McBurnie. What could possibly go wrong after that?

Injuries and a lack of application started to spoil Lys Mousset's Sheffield United career

After a positive start to life in South Yorkshire, injuries would disrupt the rest of Mousset's time at Bramall Lane.

The 2020-21 season ended with United getting relegated from the top flight, but Mousset made only 11 Premier League appearances that season, and failed to score in any of them.

Injuries took their toll the following season, too.

In the first half of the 2021-22 Championship campaign, he scored three goals but only made seven appearances for the club and, when they decided to loan him out to the Italian club Salernitana for the second half of the season, things didn't improve. He made just six appearances for them and returned to United at the end of the season.

At the end of the 2021-22 season, United decided not to renew Mousset's contract after his three-year stint with the club, meaning that the Blades lost all the cash that they signed the Frenchman for, and he went on to sign a two-year deal in Germany with VfL Bochum.

Injuries continued to dog the striker though, and in January 2023 he was suspended over "a lack of motivation, unpunctuality and unprofessionalism", with the club's Sporting Director Patrick Fabian saying: "We kept giving him a chance, now there's no point.

"It's pretty disappointing because we naturally had a lot of hopes for him in terms of sport. At some point, however, the time has come when we have to protect the group as a whole."

Lys Mousset's post-Sheffield United career has continued to slump

At the end of January 2023, Mousset was loaned out to the French club Nîmes, but at the very end of the season he tore his achilles tendon. In January 2024, his contract with Bochum was cancelled by mutual consent.

Thirteen months without a club followed, but his career was offered a lifeline in February of this year when he signed with top flight Irish club Bohemians following a trial.

But again, he couldn't make it work, taking nine games to score his first goal club, and it also turned out to be his last appearance and his only goal in Irish football - confirmation has now been received that he is leaving the club.

Injuries are a part of footballers' lives, and how a player reacts to one is important. To a point, his story is one of extremely bad luck.

His run with injuries has been extremely unfortunate over the years. But, as was made clear by Patrick Fabian's comments in January 2023, there has clearly also been an issue with his application, and despite several opportunities, he's been unable to rediscover the form that persuaded Sheffield United to part with £10 million for him just six years ago.

At 29 years old, he's still got a chance of resurrecting his career. There is still time, but his windows of opportunities are closing, and it remains to be seen whether anybody else will want to take a chance on him.