Sheffield United could really hurt Bolton Wanderers for one big reason | OneFootball

Sheffield United have been linked with Amario Cozier-Duberry for some time, and snatching him in the January transfer window would do Bolton damage.

Bolton Wanderers have made a solid enough start to the 2025-26 season, but this could be seriously upset in the January transfer window by Sheffield United.

Bolton Wanderers' start to the season has been slightly mixed, but there was considerable excitement in the away end in stoppage-time at Huddersfield on the 16th October when two late, late goals overturned a 1-0 lead to give them three valuable points from their trip to The Accu Stadium.

Their winning goal that evening was scored by Amario Cozier-Duberry, who has seriously impressed since joining the club on a season-long loan from Premier League Brighton & Hove Albion. But Bolton's season could yet be destabilised in the January transfer window should interest in him from a Championship club develop into something more solid.

Sheffield United could be set to move for Amario Cozier-Duberry in January

Sheffield United may have had a terrible start to their Championship season, but the return of Chris Wilder has started to turn them around, with their 3-1 win at Blackburn Rovers lifting them off the bottom of the table and out of the relegation places.

Wilder already has his plans set for the next transfer window, and he hasn't been daft enough to name any specific players that he might be interested in taking to Bramall Lane.

But the Blades' interest in Amario Cozier-Duberry has been reported for some time, and it would be no surprise whatsoever to see them make a bid to sign that player when they're able to in the new year. It is worth noting that previous reporting indicated that Sheffield United wanted him on loan.

Cozier-Duberry has been one of Bolton's star performers this season, and losing him in the January transfer window could be very damaging for their hopes of returning to the Championship for the first time since 2019.

Losing Amario Cozier-Duberry would hurt Bolton Wanderers

With three goals and four assists already this season, there can be no doubting Amario Cozier-Duberry's value to Bolton Wanderers throughout its first quarter. He's been a consistent first-team starter, with an ever-present record of thirteen appearances out of thirteen. His performances have also had a consistent strength about them, with an average Sofascore rating this season of 7.12.

Whether he'd be the right fit for Sheffield United, however, is a different matter. Cozier-Duberry spent the 2024-25 season in the Championship with Blackburn Rovers, and while he impressed reasonably well there, with just one goal and no assists from 22 appearances, his figures were nothing like as impressive as they have been this season with Bolton.

Any decision that the player makes will come down to how he views his career progression. A player out on loan might consider the loan to be a shop window to impress bigger clubs who may wish to step in and sign him.

But it may be that the only club that Cozier-Duberry is interested in impressing is Brighton & Hove Albion. Having signed a season-long loan with Bolton, the original plan will have been for him to spend the season there and for Brighton to assess his progress with a view to potentially offering him a place in their first-team squad for next season.

Although a loan move for him had been previously discussed, moving to Bramall Lane permanently may result in a considerable bump up in his salary, but even this might not provide the fast track to the Premier League that might have been expected at the start of the season. The Blades could yet end this season returning to the top flight, but this is considerably less likely than it looked in August.

On top of that, he'd have to force his way into the first-team at Sheffield United, and if the team continues the significant upward swing that they've started to show under Chris Wilder, he might not find that as easy as he might earlier in the season, either.

This gives something for Bolton Wanderers to have to think about, and they'd be entitled to feel hard done by, were a player they thought they'd signed for the entire season be withdrawn from them to be sold elsewhere in the January transfer window, as the Bolton manager Steven Schumacher has recently confirmed they'd be entitled to.

But Brighton are "pleased" with the progress that Cozier-Duberry has been making at Bolton, and whether they'd want to rock that particular boat by withdrawing him from Bolton and sending him to Sheffield United on loan instead is very much an open one. He's getting regular first-team football and is both playing well and having a positive material effect on Bolton's goal tally. There is no guarantee that any of this would continue, should he move to Bramall Lane on loan.

An audacious move for a permanent signing would shift the balance of this equation, but there has been no indication that Brighton would want to sell him, and they would have the final say over that. The club's policy is famously to let players move on should they want to, but any offer would have to be one that they would accept would need to be to their satisfaction, and there's little question that his value will have increased off the back of his excellent early season in League One. It all adds up to what could be a tense couple of months for Bolton, for whom the loss of such a talented young player would surely be a huge blow.