Sheffield United Should Sign Previously Linked Winger Who Once Won a Golden Boot in Youth World Cup | OneFootball

Sheffield United being linked with wingers will be a common theme this summer, especially if Gustavo Hamer, who served as an inverted left-winger last season, ends up signing for a Premier League club.

As stated in my previous article where I looked at the potential signing of Ibrahim Osman on loan from Brighton, I expect the Blades to sign at least three wide players in this window, with potentially one that could act as a number ten as well.

If you are a long-time reader of my content then you may recall that last summer I described the rebuild under Chris Wilder as a three-window job, and I think we’re on course to reach that, meaning I expect after this window that United will be fully reshaped into a new identity.

I’ve seen some fans online furious about the recently linked names: Oli McBurnie and Chris Mepham. There’s nothing wrong with signing players like this in the Championship. I think sometimes supporters get too caught up in wanting to sign 20 and 21-year-old’s in every position.

A perfect rebuild, for me, is getting good value for money, signing assets that are also ready to be key players (like we did last summer with Michael Cooper and Harrison Burrows), and signing experienced players in important positions and preferably ones that have succeeded in the division previously (like McBurnie). I thought we personally got that mix spot on 12 months ago, but it was more so the winter window that let us down, though I expect another good few months for us.

The player that I’m throwing into the spotlight today is someone who fits into the assets and also the value for money criteria.

Why Sheffield United Should Sign Previously Linked Wide Player Who Has Iliman Ndiaye Qualities

SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND – MAY 3: Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder applauds the fans after the Sky Bet Championship match between Sheffield United FC and Blackburn Rovers FC at Bramall Lane on May 3, 2025 in Sheffield, England. (Photo by Ed Sykes/Getty Images)

Sontje Hansen is a versatile and high-upside winger, who has already caught the Blades’ attention once before.

In January 2025, Sheffield United reportedly submitted a €3.5 million bid for the 23-year-old Dutch winger, who was considered “important” by NEC Nijmegen at the time and thus retained for the rest of the Eredivisie 2024/25 campaign where he racked up six goals and four assists in 31 appearances (23 starts). His price will likely have doubled since earlier this year, yet, he still should be will within United’s budget.

The Dutchman has bags of energy, is a big ball-carrying threat, and is a handful because he mixes up going on the outside and cutting inside from either wing that he plays on.

Naturally, when the Blades are linked with foreign players, the question is: how would they take to the Championship? I think it says something that Leeds United saw him as a potential replacement for Crysencio Summerville last summer, but ultimately opted to sign Manor Solomon on loan from Tottenham Hotspur, while Burnley also monitored him in the January transfer window along with the Blades, before pivoting to a loan deal for Marcus Edwards from Sporting Lisbon.

If it wasn’t for Leeds United’s large wage budget last season, and Scott Parker knowing Edwards very well, then perhaps one of these clubs would’ve signed Hansen.

I see no red flags with Hansen if he was to sign for a top-end Championship team. The 23-year-old is a very explosive winger who excels in one-on-one situations. He is a former Ajax youth product, so he clearly has talent. He has that ability to take the ball on the half-turn or backing into his opponent and then spin around the corner, similar to the way Iliman Ndiaye does. He has good composure in tight spaces, so he isn’t just relying on space to exploit when ball-carrying like Ben Brereton Diaz does; he can commit a couple of opponents out wide, thus creating a free man elsewhere such as for a cutback on the edge of the box.

Compared to attacking midfielders and wingers in the Eredivisie last season, Hansen ranked in the 85th percentile for goals per shot, meaning he was clinical in front of goal. He ranked in the 75th percentile for key passes and 92nd percentile for goal-creating actions.

In the Ibrahim Osman piece, I mentioned that due to his large volume of take-on attempts, he naturally had a much lower success rate. With Hansen, he averaged just under four take-on attempts per 90, with over two being successful per 90, meaning he had a very good success rate of over 52% (87th percentile). Of course, dribbling is where he does the most damage, and he forces a lot of contact around 30 yards away from goal, (ranking in the 97th percentile for shot-creating actions via fouls drawn), so the likes of Gustavo Hamer and Harrison Burrows will love the thought of that.

Unlike many modern inverted wingers, Hansen is comfortable staying wide and stretching the pitch, something Sheffield United lacked on either side last season. And at times, the man that was applying the most width in United’s team was Harrison Burrows, who was often left on an island because Hamer would drift towards the edge of the box.

Whilst you want Burrows wide to deliver crosses, he is not the man you want left one-vs-one because he lacks the pace to beat a man. So the only way to make that effective is to shift the ball side to side very fast. Often, the Blades were too slow to move the ball last season, so by the time the ball came out to Burrows, he had a man on him and would end up being forced all the way back to Jack Robinson, thus halting the momentum of our attack.

With Chris Wilder likely to lean on the 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 shape in the Championship next season once more, Hansen can feature on either flank, and potentially even as a number ten, because I do see a lot of qualities in him that Ndiaye had, who often dropped into a number ten position when partnered up top with Oli McBurnie in the 2022/23 campaign.

This is another reason why I’d look at bringing him in as McBurnie was superb that season when he had someone with flair and twitchiness combining with him.

Plus, down the right, he could build a very explosive partnership with a progressive full-back like Femi Seriki. Last term, we saw that Seriki isn’t afraid of driving to the byline or even going inside. And Hansen is the same, so it would be very difficult to defend both.

Having this dynamic down the right with someone like Oliver Arblaster or Sydie Peck drifting wide right to form a triangle could end up creating overloads out wide, which of course would set up crossing scenarios which the likes of Kieffer Moore, Tom Cannon and/or Oli McBurnie will thrive on.

All stats taken from FBref.