Sheffield United have agreed a club-record £20m deal to sign the Swansea City striker Oli McBurnie. After weeks of talks Chris Wilder’s side have made a breakthrough with an offer of around £18m up front, with £2m in add-ons, smashing the club’s transfer record for a fourth time this summer following the arrivals of Lys Mousset, Callum Robinson and Luke Freeman.
Swansea had been reluctant to sell McBurnie after sanctioning the £15m sale of Daniel James to Manchester United and, two weeks ago, they turned down a £15m bid for their talisman but Sheffield United’s latest offer was deemed too good to turn down by a club rebuilding financially following relegation. The Championship club plan to offload the high-earners Borja Bastón, Jefferson Montero and André Ayew, having sold Ayew’s brother Jordan to Crystal Palace this month.
The 23-year-old McBurnie, who scored 24 goals in all competitions last season, was Chris Wilder’s primary transfer target at Sheffield United. He is expected to complete his move in the next 48 hours.
Swansea have agreed a £1m fee with the Dutch club Heracles for the Swedish striker Kristoffer Peterson, who worked with the head coach Steve Cooper in the academy at Liverpool, but any remaining business is likely to be made up of loans and free transfers.
