Sheffield United “excited” by promising duo who could save millions in transfer market

Sheffield United are “really excited” about the future for two of their brightest young forwards, coach Jack Lester has admitted, after revealing “everybody wants” Daniel Jebbison and Will Osula.

The highly-rated pair of 19-year-olds have been courted by a number of clubs who have registered their interest with United should they be allowed to continue their football educations elsewhere on loan next season, following the Blades’ promotion to the Premier League.

Jebbison and Osula have already experienced senior football, both at Bramall Lane and elsewhere through loan spells at Burton Albion and Derby County respectively. Jebbison came off the bench to impress with a brace of assists in United’s 4-1 win over Preston North End at the weekend, while Osula enhanced his reputation further with a 19-munute hat-trick for United’s U21s side in a 7-1 rout of Colchester United earlier this week.

Tall, powerful and pacy with good finishing abilities, both youngsters are ideal examples of the physical requirements for strikers in modern-day football and could be poster boys for United’s ambitions to continue being a self-sustainable club capable of producing top players for the first-team from their famed youth academy.

If both continue to develop at the rate United’s coaching staff expect them to, they could become valuable assets in the transfer market and either make United a lot of money, or become the calibre of player that the Blades could not otherwise afford to buy.

“Everybody wants them, and everybody talks about them,” Lester told The Star. “I think the profile of them - their size, their height, their pace, their agility - is outstanding and we’re really excited about them.

“They’re both teenagers but we’ve been talking about them for a long time. It’s natural that pressure will be on them, and we try and keep the pressure off them as I don’t think it helps. But they’re certainly pushed, as much as they would be anywhere.

“In terms of what’s expected of them, being better in training and in the gym, everything like that. They’re good kids from good families, which is important. Really nice mum and dad and families. They’re good people, and I’m hoping everyone gets to enjoy them at some point.”

Jebbison returns to the Premier League a better player than the one that made history last time out with a debut goal to seal victory away at Everton, and both he and Osula may sense an opportunity to be involved in boss Paul Heckingbottom’s group of strikers for the top-flight adventure - especially with the war chest placed at the manager’s disposal expected to be relatively modest following promotion.

“They’ve been competing against each other, and that’s natural,” Lester added. “Competition starts in your own building and you need to try and get in the team. That’s the same at every club and at times, they will have pushed each other on.

“They will also help each other but they’re slightly different, in how they play and different attributes. But they’re both very talented lads.”