Ipswich Town and Southampton eye Sheffield United transfer | OneFootball

Ollie Arblaster is attracting top-flight attention ahead of a potential move

Sheffield United midfielder Ollie Arblaster is a reported target for numerous Premier League clubs after impressing with the Blades over the last six months.

The Daily Telegraph reporter Mike McGrath has stated that Brentford, Ipswich Town and Southampton are all admirers of the 20-year-old as they each look to bolster their squads in the closing stages of the transfer window.

No official bids have yet been made for his signature, according to McGrath, and Sheffield United will hope that continues as they look to keep hold of their top talents with the aim of an immediate bounce back to the Premier League this season.

Arblaster is a product of the Blades' youth academy, and worked his way up the youth sides to make his professional debut for his boyhood club in August 2022.

He has since been out on loan at Bradford Park Avenue and Port Vale, but broke through in the top-flight last campaign and is set to be a key part of Chris Wilder's side in 2024/25.

Chris Wilder will not want to lose Ollie Arblaster before August 30 deadline

Arblaster has shown quality beyond his years in recent months for the Blades, despite his youth and inexperience, and he is now in the early stages of the path that he would have wanted to take all along since joining the club at the age of six in 2010.

This is not his first taste of Championship football either, after he featured four times under Wilder in the 2022/23 campaign as the Blades won promotion to the Premier League, and was even handed starting berths in the EFL Cup against West Brom and in the league against Cardiff City.

He made the step down to League One at the start of last season to join the Valiants on a season-long loan deal, and made an immediate impact as he was named the club's Player of the Month for August as the Staffordshire side won three of their first five league outings.

Arblaster continued to impress at Vale Park and registered two goals and one assist in 26 games in all competitions before a knee injury in a December EFL Cup defeat to Middlesbrough saw his loan cut short, to the detriment of Vale, who were eventually relegated in his absence.

He rejoined Chris Wilder's flailing Premier League outfit after recovering, and started in all of the final 12 games of the season while also being given the captaincy in consecutive matches against Manchester United and Newcastle United, in a clear sign of how highly the Blades' boss rates him for the future.

The 20-year-old has continued this campaign as a starter in Wilder's midfield alongside Gus Hamer and Vini Souza, and even netted the first league goal of the Championship campaign and his first professional goal for the club in a 2-0 win at Preston on the opening day.

While he is clearly a great talent, it may be too soon for Arblaster to make a permanent move away from United to the Premier League at this stage in his career.

A move to the likes of Brentford, Ipswich or Southampton would certainly be a tempting one to make, given their top-flight status, but he would likely be best served becoming a real standout for the Blades this season, with regular game-time set to be a given under Wilder.

He is less likely to play as regularly for any of the teams linked, and also would not have the same connection with the fans that he does at Bramall Lane, while possibly finding it tough to adapt to a first permanent move away from his boyhood club after being there for the last 14 years.

With that said, no official transfer advances have reportedly been made as yet, but his situation is certainly one to keep an eye on as deadline day draws ever closer.