Sheffield United played a trump card by signing freebie who outscored £23.5million Rhian Brewster: View | OneFootball

Two strikers have had very different careers with the Blades

The summer of 2020 was certainly an exciting time to be a supporter of Sheffield United.

The previous season had seen the Blades enjoy an outstanding first campaign back in the Premier League, securing an excellent ninth-place finish.

With that, the South Yorkshire club may have felt they had something to build on and they looked to be aiming to do so with some of their business in the transfer market.

Indeed, that summer saw Sheffield United break their transfer record, to complete the signing of striker Rhian Brewster from Liverpool.

It was reported that the Blades paid a fee of around £23.5 million to sign the then 20-year-old, and so far, they have yet to see much of a return on their investment in him.

Rhian Brewster has struggled at Bramall Lane

At the time he completed his move to the Yorkshire club, Brewster had made just four appearances for Liverpool, none of which had been in the Premier League.

He had shown some promise at Swansea City though, scoring 11 goals in 22 appearances during a loan spell with the Championship club in 2020.

However, he struggled to translate that into Premier League form during his debut season with Sheffield United.

Brewster failed to score a single goal that season, with the Blades enduring a dismal campaign in which they were relegated while winning just 23 points.

Having dropped back down to the Championship, the striker has so far continued to struggle, something which has not been helped by injuries.

The striker has not made more than 16 league appearances for Sheffield United in any of the last three seasons, limiting his involvement even in their promotion back to the Premier League in 2023.

He was again unable to find the net during their one year in the top-flight last season, and even now back in the Championship, he finds himself down the pecking order for Chris Wilder's side.

So far, all four league games Brewster has featured in this season have been as a late substitute, with summer signing Kieffer Moore clearly ahead of him in Wilder's thinkng.

All of that means that to date, Brewster has scored five goals in 83 appearances in all competitions for Sheffield United.

That is a far cry from what they would have hoped for from him, and with less than a year remaining on his contract, you'd imagine they're set to make a loss.

It's not a deal that's worked out, unlike a striker signing from a similar period.

David McGoldrick was a bargain for Sheffield United

Back in the summer of 2018, David McGoldrick moved to Bramall Lane on a free transfer, signing a one-year deal following the expiration of his contract with Ipswich Town.

The striker wasted no time in making an impact for the Blades either, quickly scoring some vital goals in their push for promotion from the Championship.

By January 2019, McGoldrick had signed a new long-term contract with Sheffield United, as he continued to thrive in their attack.

Indeed, he ended his debut campaign with the club with 15 goals in 44 league games that were crucial in the club winning promotion to the Premier League.

It was also enough to earn McGoldrick the club's Player of the Season award, for his part in returning them to the top flight.

The following campaign was a quieter one for the striker in terms of goals, but he continued to lead the line regularly.

He would also provide some memorable moments, not least when he did score his first Premier League goals in a 3-0 rout of Chelsea at Bramall Lane.

As Brewster and Sheffield United slumped to relegation the following campaign, McGoldrick was at least one source of some rare positive moments for the club.

He finished the season as the club's top scorer with eight goals in all competitions and was named as the Blades' Players' Player of the Year for the campaign.

Returning to the Championship, the now veteran striker was less involved, but still played his part, with match-winning goals against Cardiff and Stoke, as Sheffield United reached the play-offs.

However, they were unable to then go on and win promotion, and McGoldrick was released that summer, following the expiration of his contract at Bramall Lane.

By that point though, the striker's contributions had already firmly secured his status as a Blades icon for many years to come.

In total, he scored 30 goals in 136 outings for Sheffield United, a much better record than that of Brewster, which when considering the fact McGoldrick himself was signed on a free, is perhaps a reminder that money might not always be everything in football.