Anel Ahmedhodzic joins Sheffield United to work with Jack Lester again

And the 23-year-old admitted the chance to work again with Jack Lester - now assistant manager at Bramall Lane - was a big factor behind his signing a four-year contract.

“Jack Lester is one of the reasons why I signed," he confirmed. "I really liked him at Nottingham Forest, the time we had together was amazing and just what I needed at that time – I am hoping for an even better time here.”

Ahmedhodzic, who has international caps for the country of his birth - Sweden - and Bosnia Herzegovina, came through Forest's academy and made his only first-team appearance as a substitute against Newcastle United as a 17-year-old before returning to his homeland with Malmo.

He spent the second half of last season on loan at Bordeaux but were unable to keep the crisis-riven club in Ligue 1.

In the second half of last season the Blades loaned Charlie Goode from Brentford and Filip Uremovic from Rubin Kazan to provide competition to Chris Basham (and in the latter's case, John Egan).

Goode only made one start and a substitute's appearance and was sent off at home to Blackburn Rovers. Uremovic kicked off three games but Basham started both legs of the play-off semi-final. The Croatian has since joined Hertha Berlin.

Manager Paul Heckingbottom revealed they had tried to sign Ahmedhodzic then.

"We have tracked his progress, stayed in touch and managed to beat off a number of suitors," he commented. "He had a desire to come back to England and what has stuck in his head is that we were early with our interest, got in ahead of a number of other clubs, identified him as a major target and sold the club to him. The connection has been important.

“We’ve had to pay a fee for him, we have managed to get the deal over the line which is great, he will be an important player for us. It is important we use every market as we continue to build our squad for the season.”

The Blades have also been linked with Ciaran Clark, who his a left-footed centre-back Newcastle United are trying to move on.

On Wednesday former players David McGoldrick and Conor Hourihane joined League One Derby County.