Deal done as Leeds United loan target joins Championship promotion rivals Sheffield United
Leeds United were interested in the Chelsea youngster.
Sheffield United have confirmed the signing of Leeds United summer target Alfie Gilchrist on loan from Chelsea for the upcoming season.
Gilchrist was on the radar of several Championship clubs after it became clear he would leave Chelsea in search of regular football, having made just two Premier League starts last season. Among the long list of second-tier admirers was Leeds, who were heavily linked with a move for the 20-year-old earlier in the summer before speculation went quiet.
The YEP understands that while interest in Gilchrist was genuine, reports of talks being opened between Leeds and Chelsea were wide of the mark with other defensive targets ahead of the versatile youngster at the time. Leeds eventually pushed forward with a move for Jayden Bogle after agreeing a £5million deal with Sheffield United and his replacement at Bramall Lane has now been confirmed.
"I am really looking forward to it,” Gilchrist told Sheffield United’s official website of his move. “It is a great opportunity which the club and the manager have given to me. I am just looking forward to getting started. It has always been the plan to showcase what I can do in the Premier League with the chances I've had, so now I want to try and do that week in, week out, here.
"This is a new challenge. I am taking myself out of my comfort zone. I've been there (at Chelsea) a while now, so I am ready to kick on. I came here last season for an away day, and seeing the fans and how they get behind the team, how much they love it, I was impressed."
Gilchrist becomes the seventh arrival at Sheffield United this summer, with recruitment chiefs at Bramall Lane strengthening well despite an ongoing takeover process keeping the purse strings tight. Defender Harry Souttar’s loan move from Leicester City was confirmed on Tuesday while Sam McCallum, Callum O’Hare and Jamie Shackleton all joined as free agents - the latter turning down offers of a contract extension at Leeds in favour of a move.
Small seven-figure fees have been spent on striker Kieffer Moore and left-back Harrison Burrows, with the latter not a target for Leeds despite some reports suggesting otherwise. Those arrivals are part of a major overhaul which has also seen more than a dozen first-team players leave as Wilder builds for a Championship promotion push.
Leeds remain active in the market and do need further depth at full-back, but will continue to assess other options before pulling the trigger. It remains to be seen how keen they ever were to sign Gilchrist but would almost certainly have hit a stumbling block when it came to assurances over game time.
Premier League clubs will often seek a guarantee of regular football when dropping a young player into the Championship on loan, but that is an approach Leeds have not taken in recent windows with manager Daniel Farke loyal to those already in post. It was a factor in them missing out on Fabio Carvalho in January and remains a consideration amid loan interest in Crystal Palace’s Jesurun Rak-Sakyi and Hugo Bueno of Wolves.