US billionaire credit card magnate Henry Mauris says he has had £115m bid for Championship club Sheffield United accepted

Mauriss, who made his money through credit cards, had tried to buy Newcastle United from Mike Ashley, but missed out to the Saudi Investment Fund. Instead he has turned to Saudi-owned Sheffield United.

Prince Abdullah bin Musa’ad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud bought a 50 per cent share of the South Yorkshire club for £10m from Kevin McCabe in 2013 when the Blades were in League One.

He exercised his right to buy out McCabe’s shareholding, a deal which was confirmed only after an acrimonious court battle in September 2019, shortly after the club returned to the Premier League.

That cost him a further £5m, as well as committing to buy other assets connected to the club, including the training ground.

The Prince also owns French second division club Chateauroux, Belgian side Beerschot, India’s Kerala United and Al Hilal United in the United Arab Emirates.

Although the Blades repeatedly broke their transfer record in the summer following promotion to the Premier League in 2019, and again in the January 2020 and summer 2020 transfer windows to sign Sander Berge and Rhian Brewster, the Prince was criticised for a lack of investment in the team and infrastructure around the club.

Tensions around that and over who controlled transfer policy were a big factor in the resignation of Chris Wilder, the manager who took the Blades from League One to ninth in the Premier League over the course of four seasons.

A relegation back to the Championship which was already well on its way was confirmed shortly after Wilder’s departure, and they are now sixth in the division, hoping to secure a place in the play-offs.

Sheffield United were last night unable to confirm Mauriss’s claim.

The Blades’ hopes of securing a play-off spot look set to be boosted by the return of Billy Sharp, although a broken foot means Oli McBurnie’s season is over regardless of how long his team’s campaign goes on for.
Captain and top-scorer Sharp injured his hamstring against Barnsley in March and has been badly missed, with two goals in five games yielding five points. With others wobbling just as much or more, it has not ruined their play-off hopes, just made life more uncomfortable than it needed to be.

But he is set to play a part at home to Cardiff City tomorrow.

“The sensible thing would be to manage him in terms of minutes, he’s not going to churn out 90 straight away,” said manager Paul Heckingbottom. “He’s fit enough to but you’re worried when people come back from muscle injuries, especially with Oli Mac being out.

“He’s an important player for us on and off the pitch. We want the experienced boys about, they’ve been here before.

“McBurnie’s got ligament damage and some fractures within his foot, which is really unstable, so we’ll look further into whether he needs surgery but it’s still going to be a matter of months rather than weeks,” said the manager.

“That’s three forwards (David McGoldrick, Rhian Brewster and McBurnie) out for the season. (But) it’s opportunities for people to step up and be a hero.

“It’s pointless moaning about what we’ve not got.”

George Baldock has recovered from the injury which took him off at Bristol City on Monday.