Sheffield United’s mid-table finish and a run till the FA cup semi-finals was majorly boosted by Briane Deane’s remarkable season where he scored 19 goals and papered over the cracks of a side who had all the credentials to fight it out for relegation. Deane left for Leeds in a record £4 million deal along with John Pemberton. But the club chose to keep the cash-secured and replaced one of the most prolific goal scorers of England with Willie Falconer from the relegated Middlesbrough in a cut-price £0.5 million deal. A striker who had scored 10 goals in three years at Boro.
The club got three players on a free transfer from Norway and Sweden and it looked a strategy to be clever in the transfer market but the squad clearly did not have enough goals in them to stay in the premier league.