Last season’s Sheffield United striker is not wanted by the Championship club as he eyes a move to the Premier League

Sheffield United striker Cameron Archer is set to return to Aston Villa in the summer. Following the club’s relegation from the Premier League, the Villans will trigger a buy-back clause.

There have been rumors that Middlesbrough want to bring Archer back to the Riverside Stadium. However, according to The Northern Echo, Boro are not looking for a reunion as it is. Under the tutelage of Michael Carrick, the Aston Villa academy product scored 11 goals and provided six assists in 23 games during his loan spell in the Championship in 2022/23.

With the form he showed in the Championship, having recorded 18 goals and seven assists in 40 games in the second tier, when the Blades finally secured Archer’s signature last August, there was a real boom among supporters to see if he could replicate that. impact in the first place. But as we found out, he couldn’t.

United paid around £18million for the 22-year-old in the summer, according to Football Insider, with the contract including a buy-back clause should the club be relegated. That has now come into effect and Archer is expected to join Aston Villa as soon as the English transfer window opens for £14million, according to Football Insider. Essentially, this means Sheffield United are paying a £4million loan fee for his services, during which Archer has scored four goals in 27 Premier League appearances.

Despite his lack of goals for the Premier League’s worst side, the former England youth international has been heaped with praise by ex-Aston Villa player Alan Hutton and ex-Premier League manager Harry Redknapp. In fact, Hutton likened Archer to Villa talisman Ollie Watkins and even claimed in March that he has very similar attributes to the England star.

It’s no secret that Aston Villa have to sell players to fund new signings due to their Fair Play financial situation. And one of their departures will be Cameron Archer, but he apparently wants to stay in the Premier League.

Perhaps Premier League newcomers Ipswich Town will be of interest to him. Kieran McKenna’s former team-mate Michael Carrick got the best of him in the 2022/23 term, so perhaps the former Manchester United midfielder will be kind enough to let McKenna know about Archer.

Given the situation we were in last season, I can totally understand this type of deal happening, however, transactions like this have gotten us into the mess we’re in. And it is the same principle with the Iliman Ndiaye contracts saga, Tommy. screenplay by Doyle and James McAtee etc; we allow teams to dictate and bully us because we don’t seem to have a progression plan in place within the team. We need to improve that this summer.

Signing players on loan without options to secure permanent deals needs to be a focus, otherwise we will repeat the same bad habits over and over again. And once again it will leave us with gaping holes in the squad to fill. It’s the same principle as the Archer deal.