Sheffield United transfer news: Youngster thrown in at the deep end before he was ready is sold
Sheffield United have closed the book on a transfer that did not come off last summer, by selling Benie Traore.
Having only paid a reported £4m for the then-20-year-old striker 12 months ago, the Blades could hardly have been said to have been taking a big risk but it failed to pay off, and now Traore has joined Swiss club Basel for an undisclosed fee.
Premier League clubs – as Sheffield United were at the time – make signings of that sort all the time, the Blades scouts seeing potential in a player who scored 15 goals in 41 league appearances (15 as a substitute) for Swedish club Haken.
Normally the idea would be to ease them in, give them time to acclimatise to England's physical and frenetic top division, and preferably bring them into a confident, well-oiled side.
Injuries, and a lack of proven signings up front meant he started the first three games of the season, all lost, the last of them to Manchester City.
With Cameron Archer arriving from Aston Villa days later – he has since returned – they were the last Premier League games Traore started.
He made six more appearances, all as a substitute, one in defeat to League One Lincoln City in the League Cup, without breaking his goalscoring duck.
He was a substitute for Chris Wilder's first game of his second spell as Blades manager, against Liverpool in December, but it was the last time he pulled on the red-and-white-striped shirt.
In January he was loaned to Nantes, clearly not ready to make the step up to arguably the best domestic league in world football, and certainly not able to prop up a team who would suffer a record-breaking relegation.
Now Traore has moved permanently to Basel.