Stead to become a Blade

Sheffield United will sign Jon Stead from Sunderland this morning for an initial fee of £750,000 (€1.1m).

The 23-year-old striker will sign a three-and-a-half-year deal at Bramall Lane.

Sunderland could eventually receive up to £1.25m (€1.9m) for Stead, who has been on loan at Derby for the last three months.

Stead, who has passed a medical and will complete his transfer to South Yorkshire this morning, cost Sunderland £1.8m (€2.7m) when they bought him from Blackburn in the summer of 2005 but scored only one goal as the Black Cats were relegated from the Premiership.

However, United boss Neil Warnock has turned to him after claiming Preston striker David Nugent was “outrageously overpriced”.

With money to spend in the transfer window, it is believed Warnock recently made a club record-breaking bid of £6m (€9m) via instalments for the England Under-21 international.

The Premiership club have also been linked with Northern Ireland striker David Healy, whose former Leeds team-mate Matthew Kilgallon moved to Bramall Lane for £1.75m (€2.6m) earlier this week.