Dean dilemma will keep Ole pondering over the off-season
THE two-month stretch without football and its possible restart has raised the issue of Dean Henderson’s future at Sheffield United.
His loan from United ends on June 30 and the Premier League will continue into July, provided its resumption is a success, so the Reds could deprive a ‘rival’ of one of their most decisive players in the challenge for Champions League qualification.
The Blades are seventh, two points behind United with a game in hand. They have conceded three goals in a match just once this season - against the Reds when the on-loan Henderson was ineligible.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has no intention of recalling Henderson. To do so would be small-time. Granting Henderson permission to extend his loan is hardly akin to selling Denis Law to City nine months before his backheel confirmed United’s relegation.
It would also drive a wedge between United and the keeper.
The 23-year-old is joint-second in the clean sheet table and a candidate to make the Premier League team of the year - more feathers to stuff into an already fluffy cap without playing for his parent club.
United have the best Spanish and Argentinian goalkeepers ready for the run-in, signed a rookie custodian from Southend United in January and gave Lee Grant a new contract.
David de Gea is not as fragile as he was in the winter and the Reds recorded nine shut-outs in their last 11 games. Romero was responsible for four of them.
Henderson is so ambitious he is only prepared to countenance a return to United on the guarantee he is the No.1 starter.
He is still a way off that entitlement and a third straight season on loan with Sheffield United is worthy of consideration.
Thibaut Courtois spent three years with Atletico Madrid, lifting the Uefa Cup, the Copa del Rey and the Primera Liga title in each season prior to a World Cup appearance before he usurped Petr Cech at Chelsea.
Henderson has another year to oust Jordan Pickford in the England side before the Euros. United need to be mindful Henderson does not have as strong an attachment to them as some of his academy teammates. He does not hail from Wythenshawe or Salford but Cumbria, and arrived from Carlisle as a 14-year-old in 2011.
He has a stronger bond with those who fill up his senses at Bramall Lane and the supporters of Shrewsbury Town he mingled with in the Wembley stands after the 2018 play
United have the best Spanish and Argentinian goalkeepers ready for the run-in
Samuel Luckhurst
off final defeat. Solskjaer will have to make an allowance for some indulgence.
A United goalkeeper has not played for England since Ben Foster, another whom thrived during a lengthy loan at a club that were promoted from the Championship to the Premier League. He then crumbled amid expectations at United.
“There is no question in my mind he will be England’s goalkeeper,” Sir Alex Ferguson said of Foster on the eve of the 2009-10 season. “There is nobody better. I am absolutely convinced of that.”
Foster bottled his audition to replace an injured Edwin van der Sar at United and Rob Green, David James, and Joe Hart were named in the England World Cup squad ahead of him.
Henderson is a cockier character who would gather shots in training at Shrewsbury and pretend to sign it before tossing it back. It is no surprise his idol was Hart, who got too big for his boots before his peak and is due to be released by Burnley next month at the age of 33.
During the Under-21 European Championship in the summer, Henderson brazenly liked a tweet ridiculing De Gea but dropped a clanger against Romania in the next game and England were eliminated. He has recovered resoundingly in a season only blemished by a howler against Liverpool.