Bristol City on alert after transfer target tells Sheff Utd he wants to leave

Reda Khadra's time at Sheffield United looks to be coming to an end after he asked for his loan to be terminated. Khadra was a target for Bristol City in the summer, but he opted for a move to Bramall Lane, but now his time in Yorkshire looks set to be cut short.

The 21-year-old is on a season-long loan deal from Brighton & Hove Albion, but has failed to put down a marker with the Blades. Khadra has made 16 appearances for Sheff United, but 11 of those have come off the bench. He has just the one goal this season, a match-winning strike against Swansea City in mid-September.

Khadra has not been involved in the last two match-day squads, and has accumulated just 14 minutes of pitch time, since Championship football returned after the World Cup. He has fallen out of favour and has not started a match since early November.

"Reda would like to go," said manager Paul Heckingbottom to The Star on Thursday, confirming the stance of the player. I've had conversations with Brighton, but as I said to both, I want to bring someone in in that position.

"The thing is with the deal, we haven't got money available. So that's the difficulty; weighing up someone wanting to go and having a gap in the squad.”

Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson revealed in the aftermath of the 1-0 defeat suffered at the hands of Sheff Utd at Ashton Gate on the first day of November, that Khadra was someone that they had tried to sign. Khadra was withdrawn after just thirty minutes with the score goalless, but Heckingbottom brought him off after being overrun in midfield.

Pearson is never one to usually publicly identify his transfer targets, but on this occasion spoke of their interest in Khadra. If Sheffield United can find a replacement for the German, then he could be sent back to Sussex, and then shipped out on loan once again.

Since Pearson’s appointment in February 2021, the club has not signed any loan players, but that could be the preferred means of business in the January transfer window. Several key players like Alex Scott and Antoine Semenyo have had a vast amount of interest so far but no bids have been tabled by their reported suitors.