Sheffield United transfer latest with Iliman Ndiaye set to leave and the Blades eyeing up Brazilian Vinicius Souza

Sheffield United transfer latest with Iliman Ndiaye set to leave and the Blades eyeing up Brazilian Vinicius Souza.

Transcript

00:00 The day that all Sheffield United fans have been dreading all summer is rapidly approaching

00:04 after a deal for Sheffield United to sell their star man, Illuminate Jai, to Marseille

00:09 was struck over the weekend. Jai of course played and scored for Sheffield United in

00:13 their 3-1 friendly victory at Derby on Saturday afternoon. Just over 24 hours later he was

00:19 on a flight over the Channel to France to put the finishing touches to the deal where

00:24 he was met late on that night by some jubilant Marseille supporters who welcomed him back

00:30 to the club where he of course spent some time earlier in his career when he was a young

00:35 boy. For United there's an obvious disappointment there to lose their star man, especially so

00:40 close to the start of the Premier League season which kicks off in less than two weeks time

00:43 now at home to Crystal Palace. And a real blow as well for supporters who were looking

00:48 forward to seeing a generational talent like N'Jai wearing their colours at the highest

00:54 level of the Premier League. United had initially been pretty relaxed about N'Jai's future

00:59 this summer despite the fact that it dominated the news agenda pretty much ever since United

01:04 were promoted with that contract status in the background and perhaps forcing United's

01:08 hand but United did not receive a bid from Marseille until quite recently. There was

01:14 little initial contact between the two parties and United were actually pretty confident

01:19 on getting his signature on a new contract and that became a close possibility during

01:24 the pre-season tour to Portugal earlier this month. But then everything changed when N'Jai's

01:29 camp informed the club that he did want the move after all and after that sort of conversation

01:34 the focus did shift towards getting the best possible fee for a player who as we all know

01:39 would have left on a free transfer in less than a year's time now as things stood. We

01:44 understand United have struck a deal for around £20m for N'Jai this summer. That of course

01:50 is a fraction of what the player's true worth is, what he really could have gone for if

01:54 he had a few more years on his contract status but the fact that he didn't meant the ball

01:59 was never really in United's court in terms of this deal and getting the best price possible.

02:05 There was genuine belief that he would sign a new contract this summer, as we said they

02:09 got very close while United were out in Portugal. A deal was agreed, there was a press release

02:15 compiled featuring quotes from Paul Hackingbottom and Stephen Bettis, the chief executive, in

02:22 preparation for the initial announcement and to go alongside that United's brilliant social

02:27 media team even put together an excellent and quite emotional video to go along with

02:33 that announcement which culminated in N'Jai being given that iconic number 10 shirt which

02:39 of course has been vacant ever since Billy Sharp left earlier that summer and Sharp as

02:43 well even featured in the video he had a little bit of a voice over at the end wishing Illerman

02:49 and his former team mate wishing him all the best in the number that he himself Sharp wore

02:54 with such distinction. But unfortunately now we'll never see that happen, N'Jai will never

02:59 wear that iconic number 10 shirt and United have to now move on. They're looking at two

03:03 reinforcements with the money ahead of the new season. We understand that's a forward

03:07 and a midfielder. One player that they are, they do have a big interest in is the Brazilian

03:14 midfielder Vinicius Souza who spent last season on loan in La Liga Espanyol and he was there

03:21 at Manchester City's training base last week to watch the Blades friendly against Girona.

03:28 Elsewhere United hope to secure a breakthrough in Benny Traore's visa situation and that

03:34 will be a welcome boost as Paul Ekinbottom and his team begin to prepare for life without