Former Premier League striker Darren Bent has questioned the recruitment at Sheffield United.
The Blades are currently 11 points from safety at the bottom of the table after the worst start in English top flight history.
They’ve lost 14 of their 16 league games and have just two points. They’re also the lowest scorers in the division with only eight goals in 2020/21.
Ex-Tottenham Hotspur, Sunderland and Aston Villa forward Bent knows a thing or two about hitting the back of the net, having scored 106 times in the Premier League.
And the 36-year-old is confused about why United paid a club record fee for Rhian Brewster.
“I don’t quite understand the recruitment side of things at Sheffield United,” Bent said on talkSPORT.
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“They go and spend £20m plus on Rhian Brewster and he barely plays.
“Chris Wilder should go; ‘I’ve tried everything else and it’s clearly not worked. Rhian, you’ve got the next 10 games’.
“They spend all this money on him, he doesn’t play, he’s probably getting hammered by a lot of people saying; ‘what a waste of money’. That’s not doing him any favours.
“For Chris Wilder, if he didn’t think he was going to be the one to score you goals, why waste a massive part of your budget on this centre forward?”
Does Darren Bent have a point about Sheffield United?
If Bent looked, he would see that Brewster has in fact started the past three matches for the South Yorkshire side.
The 20-year-old has played in 12 of the Blades’ 16 league outings this season.
Brewster may not have scored yet, but then finding the back of a net has been an issue throughout the team.
Although a large fee was paid to Liverpool for the England Under-21 international, he’s clearly a signing for the future.
Wilder can’t throw Brewster too much in at the deep end in a struggling team and has previously asked for patience when judging the youngster.
That said, Bent does have a point about the recruitment at Bramall Lane. None of the summer signings have arguably improved the first team.
Oli Burke has done well in parts. Aaron Ramsdale is clearly a downgrade on Dean Henderson, while Ethan Ampadu is solid but unremarkable.
United needed to kick on after a ninth place finish last term. Instead, they have taken a huge backward step.
In 2019/20, Sander Berge, Oli McBurnie and Lys Mousset all came in to improve things. Recruitment this time has been nowhere near as effective.