To be fair to my old mate James up on the Star, he had it nailed at the start of the week.
That every Blade in the city knew that Sharp was a done deal – if United ever decided they wanted the lad back.
The kid is a United nut; his family are all Reds. The Academy boss Ron Reid is this nigh-on father figure to him; with his 'apprenticeship' at Glanford Park served, it was time to bring the boy home.
They could sit there, watch everyone else run this way and that and, right at the last minute, step in and steal everyone's thunder.
Of course, if you are Iron general manager Jamie Hammond then you're spluttering into your coffee when old Terry Robinson all but announces that the kid has signed on Radio Sheffield.
“As far as I am aware Sheffield United have not made a bid for Billy Sharp and I have not been asked to deal with any transfer papers,” Hammond told the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph this afternoon.
“As far as I am aware Sheffield United were not one of the clubs who had permission to talk to Billy,” he added. Doh.
Over at Hillsborough Brian Laws was throwing United's name into the ring as early as Tuesday. Point is, United don't need to speak to Scunthorpe – the kid's coming. He'd probably walk home, if needs be. Done deal, Jamie – you just sort out the paperwork when we give you the nod…
Flush with that ?850 mill, United could match any other offer on the table.
Still at least the Canaries got their money on the table – Wolves are still looking for their's as the Morgan-Hayward takeover grinds on without that promised ?30 million ever seeming to see the light of day.
Eastwood goes elsewhere while that continues and there will be some awkward questions to be answered at Molineux.
Time to move on – as I suspect Norwich will. Do they go Freddy? Do they go Jamie? Or do they go elsewhere altogether?
And what's the fall-out of the Darren Bent move going to be? Well, it should kick-start Frannie Jeffers' move to Town now that they finally know that their ?2.7 million sell-on is safe.
It could even find Charlton stepping in ahead of Wolves and Norwich for Eastwood; Pardew had Jamie at Reading. Earnie's name has been mentioned; it will again. This time, however, Norwich have blood on their side. Just as United did with Sharp.
In fairness to Granty, he was spot on last week when he thought it would all kick-off in a fortnight or so – in the immediate run-up to people returning to pre-season training.
As much as you play hard-ball through the summer, you don't want anyone who wants away being there on the first day of the season; had his time again, and I suspect old Nige would have had Damien away before everyone trooped off to Holland for the pre-season tour.
As it was, he created havoc for those six weeks – no-showed for the Colchester pre-season game, threatened to no-show for the Inter match. In fact, legend has it, no-one knew whether or not he was going to turn up until the moment he walked through the dressing room door.
And this was the lad you had to build your midfield round.
That's why people will look to get things moving this weekend; so it's all smiles come the first day of pre-season.
And besides, there is one other very simple reason why things will start to move – people are back at work, back off the beach. Time to switch the mobile phone on and actually start to answer one or two of those calls.
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