Sheffield United hit £3.9m transfer jackpot - but were the Blades robbed? | OneFootball

Anel Ahmedhodzic was definitely worth every penny at Bramall Lane, but could they have gotten more out of his 2025 sale?

Sheffield United's play-off final defeat against Sunderland in 2025 had plenty of consequences, but the biggest frustration was being forced to let Anel Ahmedhodvic leave for a cut-price fee.

The Blades had gone into the 2024/25 campaign, their first back in the Championship following top-flight relegation, with the Bosnian centre-back having two years remaining on his deal.

Having already helped Sheffield United to Premier League promotion a couple of years prior, Ahmedhodzic wasn't going to want to stick around in the second tier for much longer than a season, and after their Wembley defeat was confirmed, the fear of letting the then 26-year-old depart for free the following summer was realised.

The commanding centre-back was eventually sold for £7 million to Feyenoord, with the Blades losing all real bargaining chips to keep him due to his contractual situation. In the end, keeping Ahmedhodzic in the Championship may have upset him, and he could have left Bramall Lane in 2026 regardless of how Sheffield United did that season.

However frustrating that was, most Sheffield United fans look back on the Bosnian's time at the club fondly, as he was one of their standout players for three years, and for as little as £3.9 million, he was worth every penny.

Anel Ahmedhodzic's three years at Sheffield United - promotion, relegation and play-off heartbreak

It's safe to say that Ahmedhodzic's three years in South Yorkshire were eventful, with the Blades either contending for Championship promotion or fighting against being one of the worst teams in Premier League history.

He arrived as a relative unknown in England from Swedish side Malmö, although he did actually have a solitary Championship appearance at Nottingham Forest six years earlier, before he returned to Sweden.

Signing for a £3.9 million fee, expectations weren't too high for the Bosnian to make an impact, but it didn't take him long to acquaint himself with the Blades fans and earn a reputation as a centre-back who got involved in the goals.

Ahmedhodzic scored three times by the end of August, including a brace in a 4-0 win over Reading, and he also scored twice in the final four games to take his personal tally to six for the season and to help the Blades secure a place in the top two and a return to the Premier League after two years in the Championship.

He also lined out at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final that year, having played a part in all but one of the Blades' games to get there, scoring in their Fourth Round replay win over then-National League outfit Wrexham.

The second season isn't one that he, or anyone associated with Sheffield United, would like to remember, as the Blades broke the record for the most goals conceded in a Premier League season, with 104, and finished the campaign rock bottom on 16 points.

That being said, Ahmedhodzic did have a three-month spell where he was club captain, and he wore the armband for two of the Blades' three wins that year.

Despite being part of that poor defence, the Bosnian's stock didn't decrease much, and he'd have had aspirations of playing in a European top flight once again sooner rather than later, even going as far as to say that he had "unfinished business" in the Premier League at the start of April, when the Blades were four points clear at the top of the Championship with seven games remaining.

At that point, it seemed like his future at Bramall Lane fully depended on whether the side could achieve promotion or not. Unfortunately, two wins in the final seven games condemned Sheffield United to the play-offs, and the Blades were unable to become the third side to go up, losing late on to Sunderland in the final at Wembley.

The writing was on the wall then for Ahmedhodzic's Sheffield United future, and Blades fans braced themselves for life without him.

Sheffield United could have made much more than £7 million for Anel Ahmedhodzic

On the face of things, Sheffield United did make a profit on Ahmedhodzic, after they agreed a £7 million deal to send him to Dutch side Feyenoord.

But given the excellence he had shown in the two Blades sides in the Championship, and the fact that he had just turned 26 in March, there was plenty of scope for that fee to have been much higher if he either wasn't in the final year of his deal, or if the club were in the Premier League.

Ahmedhodzic immediately hit the ground running at Feyenoord and was a regular in the side's Europa League campaign, too. In the meantime, the Blades had to endure a start to the following campaign which saw them lose eight in the first nine, which added salt to an already wide-open wound.

Promotion-chasing teams come to terms with the fact that high-performing players will leave if they don't reach their end goal at the culmination of the season.

But in Sheffield United's case, this one would have stung a little more than others, especially given the positive impact Ahmedhodzic had at the club in the three years he spent at Bramall Lane.