Seriki, Peck, Arblaster and Brooks: the Blades’ academy stars — and what January might mean for them
Rather than obsess over January arrivals, this piece looks at four academy-developed players already shaping selection at Sheffield United — and what the transfer window means for each of them.
Sam Parry: The Pinch is back for 2026, the pod restarts on Monday, and I wanted to bring the year in with some love for the players already at the club rather than rabbiting on about...
…Rumours. They drive football’s January chatter. Rumours and, you know… cold, hard signings. Transfers always dominate the conversation, even though arrivals so rarely deliver on the expectation of “instant impact” that January bestows on them.
So rather than obsess over who might come through the door, this piece looks at those already inside the building. Four academy-developed players — Femi Seriki, Sydie Peck, Oliver Arblaster and Andre Brooks — who are not just prospects, but are shaping selection now and in the future.
These four are my favourite thing about the season so far, even beyond the levels being shown by Callum O’Hare. They represent that rare thing: generational talents together, the likes we haven’t seen since Messrs Jagielka, Tonge and Montgomery. Oh, and the current generation are a much better crop.
But the question for today isn’t just how good they are, or how good they might become. It’s what January means for them.
Femi Seriki
On our podcast, Riley Roberts has always been high on Femi Seriki. He’ll correct me if I’m wrong, but I trace that back to a derby win over that lot last season, when Seriki dominated both ends of the pitch.
Fast forward to now and the evidence is there for all to see: a full-back with very few Championship peers when it comes to beating his man and creating chances. And tell you what, there’s no right-back I’d rather have in this league.
Just look at those attacking/possession numbers…
One of the great joys of this season has been watching Seriki fly down the right, knowing the opposition defender either cannot stop him, or can only stop him by conceding a throw-in, a corner, or a foul. He’s been fouled 36 times — 2.67 per 90 — the most of any Blades player, the most of any defender in the Championship, and the 14th most-fouled player in the league overall. And, point of order, winning fouls is a pretty neat barometer of who is a good player.
What, “more” do you say?
Well Seriki tops one other metric in the Sheffield United squad, and one for the nerds: xG plus/minus measures the difference between a team’s expected goals scored and expected goals conceded while a player is on the pitch. Seriki (+11.3 xG) tops the list amongst all Blades’ outfield players.
Now, I’d argue that one of the only things stopping Seriki from playing at the highest level is the quality he currently shows in those final moments. You know the ones: he’s beaten his man, done the hard work, and now has to pick a pass, take a shot, or float a cross.
What does the transfer window mean for Femi Seriki?
On 10 November 2025, Chris Wilder said this:
“Femi isn’t going to take you to the top of the division, Femi isn’t going to play 46 games for you in the Championship.”
I really hope the manager’s mind has changed. But as links to Hamza Choudhury and others resurface, it’s clear that any new signing is going to threaten Seriki’s minutes. Of course, that’s fine — competition and cover matter. But Wilder also said in that same interview:
“I’m not daft. I pick players on form. I pick players that are doing the business.”
Outside of Callum O’Hare, very few players have done the business like Femi Seriki this season. And while the assumption has often been that Arblaster and Peck are the shining stars of the academy, I wouldn’t bet against Seriki being the one who plays at the highest level.
He has the toolkit modern full-backs need: he can stop dribblers going one way, and he can hurt defenders going the other. You can’t ask for much more than that. I’d be very disappointed to see him coming out of the side for any reason other than managing his fitness.
Sydie Peck
Few youth prospects in my lifetime as a Blade have had so much responsibility placed on their shoulders at such an early age. Iliman Ndiaye is perhaps the closest comparison — and suddenly Femi Seriki isn’t that far away either.
Last season, through a mix of injuries elsewhere and his own form, Peck became a mainstay in a side that racked up 92 points. This season, amid plenty of criticism, a returning Chris Wilder was right when he suggested the previous manager — and the players — had left Peck hanging out to dry.
There’s an all-round toolkit to Sydie. Kick it. Head it. Shoot it. Pass it. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. And once those basics are in place, he shows something young players often struggle with (see 2025 Djibril Soumaré) he knows where to stand on a football pitch.
What still amazes me most, though, is his temperament. Central midfield is an exposing area of the pitch. If your passes don’t land, it’s your fault. If the dribbler goes past you, it’s your fault. To take on that level of responsibility so early in a career, and to keep turning up week after week, tells you a lot about an all-action player.
All-action all the time…
He’s an easy player to love. You can’t miss him. If Peck can use that big frame to get up the pitch a little quicker and cause more havoc in the opposition box, in a Sander Berge-esque way, he’ll have a huge career ahead of him. But he’s got to find more goals and assists to get there.
Add to that a slightly more aggressive, harrying edge — think Djibril Soumaré’s recently developed knack for getting tight to players and poking the ball away — and his ceiling becomes very high indeed.
What does the transfer window mean for Sydie Peck?
The astonishing turnaround from Djibril Soumaré makes central midfield less of a concern from a squad-building perspective. By that, I mean we’re less likely to bring in two or three midfielders in January, and more likely to add one or two.
The known quantity of a versatile Hamza Choudhury remains the obvious link, but he feels less like a Peck-adjacent option and more like cover/replacement for Jaïro Riedewald. Joe Rothwell, previously of Leeds and now at Rangers, is the other major link, and is a player who maps more neatly onto the Peck/Arblaster skillset.
With Arblaster still returning from injury and Tom Davies back on the treatment table, a Rothwell-type addition feels fairly essential. We’ve lost control of games in midfield since Peck was ruled out, and while Soumaré’s recent form has been impressive, history suggests we can’t yet rely on that level of consistency alone. Either way, signing a CM for “instant impact” shouldn’t hamper Arblaster or Peck’s progression in the long run.
Oliver Arblaster
I saw Ollie Arblaster sat next to Billy Sharp when Not The Top 20 recorded a live podcast at the Crucible last summer. It was Billy who made it clear he believes Arblaster’s ceiling is too high for Sheffield United. But after a horrible injury, and the equivalent of just 13.5 90s played since the start of last season, development has been replaced by recovery.
It’s been a long road, and now he’s back. That’s been lovely to see, even if fans have had to be patient: he looked every inch a player returning from a serious injury. Yes, it took a few games for that raw ability to re-emerge, but when he slipped that pass through to Femi Seriki against Leicester, we must all have thought it…
There he is…
Obviously, we can only view a tiny sample size from his data this season, but Arblaster has shown already a glimpse of what might be when he is fit enough to start week-in, week-out.
Other than Gus Hamer and Callum O’Hare, no one else in this squad has anything close to the ball mastery to influence games in quite the same way. It’s a quality that often goes under-discussed. By ball mastery, I mean the ability to do with your feet exactly what you imagine in your head: clipping a pass into a full-back’s path, teeing the ball perfectly into a forward’s stride, or slipping it between defenders so our player can attack space while theirs are still turning. Ollie’s got it. He’s special.
What does the transfer window mean for Ollie Arblaster?
Very little, I’d have thought, for many of the same reasons as Sydie Peck, but also because this is a comeback season. Arblaster’s minutes will be carefully managed. We’re all good with that.
Nobody is coming in to replace him. When he’s fit enough — say north of 90 per cent — he will play. We just might not see him operating at close to full tilt until the back end of the campaign.
Andre Brooks
One of the things I love most about Andre Brooks is that even in games where he leaves little imprint going forwards, he still makes a huge defensive contribution. As part of a front line built on pressing and work rate, his performances have effectively pushed Gustavo Hamer out of Sheffield United’s best starting XI. Sometimes the best player doesn’t fit the best team, and Brooks is very much a team player.
No winger in the Championship has made more blocks than Brooks (2.66 per 90), and every other Blades player with more than five appearances is more than a full block per game behind him. He consistently supports his full-back, and that matters when the full-back in question is Femi Seriki.
That pairing down the right has a real chemistry. When Brooks is on it, he has an explosive turn of pace coming inside from the flank. He can dribble, he can find a pass, he can deliver a cross—he always seems to find Seriki.
Okay, it’s fair to say he hasn’t quite hit his top level with consistency. But we’ve seen enough to know that he’s a serious player.
Just look at those defensive numbers…
What Brooks still needs to add is fairly obvious: a more consistent threat in terms of goals and assists. That’s the job. There’s no right-winger at the club better than Andre Brooks at getting into those positions, but when you compare him to someone like Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, a constant threat, or even Ben Brereton Díaz, who has a knack for goals, he can come up a little short at times.
What does the transfer window mean for Andre Brooks?
That lack of consistency in the final third will, I imagine, see Chris Wilder using the January window to introduce competition. And if Brooks responds by contributing more regularly, as he did against Leicester, then it’s bully for us.
What have I missed?
In writing this piece, I haven’t really considered the possibility that one of Seriki, Peck, Arblaster or Brooks leaves in January. Is that unwise?
Sheffield United do, after all, have a long tradition of selling young players at inopportune moments, opportune moments, and everything in between. Iliman Ndiaye was under contract when his sale extinguished any chance of finding beauty in a Premier League struggle under Paul Heckingbottom. Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s departure, meanwhile, helped finance the original Wilder miracle. The point is simple: clubs in our position — not top-half, top-flight sides — have to sell.
And selling can be good.
I’m sure we won’t see all four of these players hanging around forever. But I do think we’re safe for this window. January isn’t how young players usually move; that’s more a summer habit. None of the four are likely to make an instant impact for a bigger club right now, and that makes January an unlikely moment for any of them to go.
If that’s right, it gives us at least six months to enjoy one of the best crops of talent I can remember seeing at Bramall Lane. In a season full of chaos, I’ve found myself enjoying the development of these players more than I ever could watching Ben Brereton Díaz, or any other experienced short-term fix. And it’s strange how the unique circumstances of 2025/26 have made that so.
You know what?
I don’t mind it.
That's a great article, Sam - and I agree with your conclusion!
Seeing these four start nearly every week in some combination or other and displaying their talents as well as they do, I tend to forget that they're so young and still in development. Hopefully we can hang on to all of them and "develop" to our own advantage.
And you know what? I don't mind it either!
Sue.
Excellent synopsis Sam. The great thing is this crop is growing through excellent management & coaching & hopefully we can see their full potential fulfilled whilst playing for the Blades.
Obviously it will be dependant upon our status at the end of the season.
UTB