Sheffield United have £15m bid for Oli McBurnie turned down by Swansea

Sheffield United have had an opening bid of £15m for the Swansea City striker Oli McBurnie rejected, with the Championship club determined to keep hold of their talisman. The Sheffield United manager, Chris Wilder, has identified McBurnie as his primary transfer target this summer as he prepares to bolster his squad following promotion to the Premier League.

Swansea are loth to sell McBurnie having already sold Daniel James to Manchester United for £15m last month. The Scotland international scored 24 goals in all competitions at Swansea last season and was on the scoresheet in a pre-season victory at Crawley on Saturday. The 23-year-old forward, who was born in Leeds, joined Swansea from Bradford in 2015.

“Oli loves playing for the club, you can see that,” said the Swansea manager, Steve Cooper. “He has a lot of friends and I go back to the spirit and he’s a big part of that. He’s a big character, a very likeable lad and he works very hard in training. He’s producing as well, so I’m sure come August 3 he’ll be ready to deliver as he did last year.”

Sheffield United have also had a bid in the region of £3m for the Nottingham Forest midfielder Ben Osborn rebuffed, while Brentford’s Neal Maupay is another attacking option, should they fail in their pursuit of McBurnie.

They have already paid a clubrecord fee of around £8m to sign Callum Robinson from Preston, having acquired Luke Freeman for £5m from QPR.