Sheffield United hit the jackpot by signing 31-year-old centre-forward – His goal return shocked many

When Sheffield United got promoted back to the Championship for the 2017/18 season, few could have foreseen the impact that Leon Clarke had at Bramall Lane.

The Blades bought the Birmingham born frontman from Bury for an undisclosed fee in 2016, and the 31-year-old at the time repaid their faith in him, with 19 goals and five assists in their return to the second tier in 2017/18.

Clarke’s fantastic return was made all the more surprising by the fact that he had not been one of League One’s better strikers in the previous season, having found the net just seven times in his opening campaign for United.

Clarke played a significant role in Chris Wilder’s initial success at Bramall Lane and he was part of the squad that won promotion to the Premier League.

Clarke’s Championship success came out of the blue

Prior to Clarke’s stunning campaign for United, he had never really found his feet at Championship level.

The striker had never netted more than eight goals in a single season in the second tier, with all of his better goalscoring years coming in Leagues One and Two.

However, for that one season, Clarke proved to be almost unstoppable at Championship level and proved himself to be one of the division’s biggest threats.

He made a name for himself right at the start of the campaign, by bagging a brace in a 4-2 victory over bitter rivals Sheffield Wednesday, who Clarke had previously spent three seasons playing for.

Another notable moment came in November, when he plundered all four goals in a 4-1 win over Hull City. That haul saw him become the first United player to net four in a single game since Keith Edwards in 1983.

The then 32-year-old continued his sparkling form as the season wore on, ending the campaign with 19 goals and five assists, a tally good enough to see him named in the PFA Championship Team of The Year.

Wilder’s men finished 10th that season, helping to lay the foundations for the following two campaigns, when they secured promotion back to the top flight for the first time since 2007, and then followed it up with a remarkable 9th placed finish in the top flight.

Clarke’s career has faded out since leaving United

After his goalscoring exploits in 2017/18, Clarke found himself on loan at fellow Championship outfit Wigan Athletic in January 2019.

He notched three goals and two assists for the Latics in 15 games, before returning to Bramall Lane at the end of the season.

When Wilder’s men broke into the top flight, Clarke was able to get a brief taste of the Premier League for the only time in his career, making two appearances as the Blades threatened to flirt with European qualification.

He eventually left South Yorkshire in September 2020, when he dropped back down to League One with Shrewsbury Town. Since leaving United, however, Clarke has had spells with five clubs – Shrewsbury, Bristol Rovers, Hartlepool United, Kettering Town and most recently Mickleover, but failed to make more than 11 league appearances for any. He then announced his retirement midway through 2024.

While he would perhaps have hoped to kick on after his 19-goal season, Clarke ended his career as one of those strikers who could never quite master the Championship on a regular basis.

He broke into double figures on three separate occasions in League One, but his sole high-scoring campaign in the second tier came out of the blue for Sheffield United.

Nevertheless, he still played a huge part in helping the Blades to drag themselves back to the kind of level where they should regularly be playing and, without his goals, it’s fair to wonder whether their 2018/19 promotion would still have been achievable

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