Sheffield United: Prince Abdullah drops Blades takeover hint | OneFootball

This latest update suggests that the club changing hands may come sooner than we thought.

Sheffield United's current owner, Prince Abdullah, has dropped a major hint about the ongoing takeover of the club following their 2-0 win over Cardiff City.

Kieffer Moore's brace against his old side confirmed that the Blades would be in a position that they probably didn't believe that they would be in during the summer. Chris Wilder's side will be top of the table on Christmas. That in itself is a lovely shock for the Unitedites, but there may be one more festive surprise for them still.

Prince Abdullah and an American consortium, COH Sports, have been in negotiations over the sale of the club since the early summer. It's a situation that has both looked dead in the water at some points and then completely revitalised and full of life at other times.

Wilder confirmed before the Cardiff game that the takeover was "close" to completion, and now a message from the Saudi head honcho himself certainly suggests that the deal is almost done.

Prince Abdullah releases Sheffield United takeover hint

After the Blades confirmed their position at the top of the Championship table with the win over the Bluebirds, Prince Abdullah, who has held some level of ownership of the club since 2013, when he became co-owner with Kevin McCabe, took to his sparsely-used X account to send what many will consider to be a very hopeful message to the United faithful.

He said: "All Sheffield United wins mean a lot to me, and they always will, but this one is a bit special. UTB."

This will be interpreted in many different ways, but one hidden meaning of this message could be that this victory may be the last he witnesses as the owner of the club. Maybe Blades supporters are in for an extra Christmas present in the form of a confirmation of the American takeover at Bramall Lane.

COH Sports have had to manage many bumps in the road on their way to hopefully taking control of the Championship leaders. Not long ago, The Guardian reported that the Saudi prince was "refusing to sell" as he looked to improve the bonus that he would receive should United win promotion this season.

This was soon followed by a statement from BBC Sheffield's Rob Staton, who said that the deal was done and that the takeover had been completed.

There have been twists and turns, ups and downs - it's certainly not been a journey for those who are prone to travel sickness - but the finish line may be in sight now.

Sheffield United takeover could come at the perfect time

The Blades and Leeds United currently look like the two teams to beat in the Championship. With that said, Burnley and Sunderland should not be ruled out. They have kept pace with the top two in recent weeks and aren't far behind the leading pair.

Wilder has a pretty strong squad to work with, but he knows that they will need to strengthen in the new year when the January transfer window opens. The boss has revealed that there won't be a gung-ho approach adopted to their recruitment, but they will try to add experience to the side.

Even though the manager said that he isn't planning on hitting the market hard, having the new owners in place, if the deal gets done before the close of the year, should give them much more flexibility to get the targets that they want.