Blades make move to sign former Blues striker Evans

SHEFFIELD United are hoping to complete a deal to bring former Manchester City striker Ched Evans back to Bramall Lane.

The Chesterfield forward, 28, is expected to have a medical with the Sky Bet League One champions this week.

The Blades refused to comment, but it is understood the club hope to complete a deal before the end of the season.

Evans was released by Sheffield United in the summer of 2012 after he was found guilty of raping a 19-year-old woman and sentenced to five years in prison.

That conviction was quashed and at a retrial last year, Evans was found not guilty.

The former City and Wales player signed a one-year deal to join Chesterfield in June 2016 and put pen to paper on a 12-month extension in January.

The Blades offered Evans the use of their training facilities in November 2014 after his release from prison, but the criticism the move attracted forced them to revoke the offer.

Evans, who has scored seven goals in 29 appearances for Chesterfield this season, spent three seasons at Bramall Lane until the summer of 2012, where he scored 48 goals in a total of 113 appearances.

The Blades won the League One title earlier this month, securing promotion back to the Championship for the first time since 2011. YAYA Toure has promised City fans the derby will be a ‘special game’ as the Blues seek to blow away memories of their FA Cup semifinal defeat.

And while the big Ivorian accepted that City were upset at losing to Arsenal in controversial fashion, he said they are not depressed by the result. He said: “Do I look down? I don’t look down, I’m just disappointed.

“Thursday is a few days away and we have to recover and be ready.

“If we win we will forget this game, but if we lose then it will be more difficult.

“We need to be in the Champions League. City have qualified for the Champions League for six years now and Thursday is very important. It’s a special game.”

Toure was angry with ref Craig Pawson and his linesmen after they disallowed a legitimate Raheem Sterling goal and then failed to award a penalty for a foul on Sergio Aguero.

And he believes that referees should have to appear before the media to explain their decisions, in the way managers and players do.

“Did you think Pep accepted to lose the game? If the referee decides against us, what are we to do?” said Toure.

“But football is like that and we have to understand.

“I think the referee has to come now and give their point of view as well. It’s too easy for them.

“But if you say anything about them … it’s going to be highlighted and you know what I mean, the FA are going to come and fine me.

“At the end of the day they (refs) don’t care, but just go. What are we to do?

“It’s always painful, costly, when you lose games like this. “When you lose the fair way, the games we have been losing like Monaco, it was deserved. “This was quite strange, very sad. It’s going to be difficult for me to forget this game because I’m very, very angry. “I don’t know how to explain myself and if I say something wrong the FA is going to take charges you know. You have to be careful what you say.” Toure also welcomed the FA’s plans to use a video assistant referee system in next season’s FA Cup, and possibly in the World Cup finals. “Football is like that, you win, you lose, but sometimes it’s difficult when you think how unfair it was,” he said. “You have to try to forget it, accept it, but it’s hard. “When the referee makes mistakes you respect them, they work hard and it’s not easy for them sometimes. But next season they are going to put in cameras to tell the referees if it’s a penalty or a goal. It’s better like that.” Yaya Toure