Stead. Sold. For £1.25m. Rejoice!

Yes you read it right. Jon Stead. Has been sold for £1.25m. That’s Jonathan Stead.

Sheffield United’s manager Neil Warnock, known as Colin to those who know and love him, has been unable to sign goalscorer David Nugent from Preston this January.

Apparently, he was quoted at £6m. So just to show Preston he doesn’t need Nugent anyway, he’s gone and paid Sunderland £750,000 upfront for non-goalscorer Jon Stead. Well I bet Preston are shooting themselves in the foot at that.

Or wetting themselves laughing. As are many Sunderland fans this morning.

Don’t get us wrong, Stead on his day was a decent player. A nice first touch, a few silky skills and a good range of passing. And he has nice shiny hair. But the boy just doesn’t score goals. And somehow I don’t think Colin has bought him to give Paddy Kelly hair tips.

The deal will rise to £1.25m depending on ‘appearances and team performance’. He’s not daft that Keane fella, as the absence of a goals scored add-on fee shows.

Stead scored 1 Premiership goal for Sunderland last season, away at Everton in one of our best away performances of the season, which also included a Rory Delap screamer.

For a player that cost £1.8m from Blackburn, it just simply wasn’t good enough. Many claimed he never looked a goalscorer from the start, and that he is a decent ‘second striker’ if anything.

But considering his strike partner was more often than not Andy Gray (bought from Sheffield United – oh how we have the last laugh) the pressure was on him to lead the way in the goalscoring stakes.

He never lived up to it. But with Rob Hulse doing the business for the Blades at the minute, maybe Stead will thrive alongside a decent targetman. Derby fans claim his partnership alongside Steve Howard brought the best from him, and wanted a permanent deal. But even then he managed just 3 goals in 17 games.

That’s why he cost £750,000 and Nugent costs £6m. More often than not in this game you get what you pay for, especially when goalscoring is concerned.

Mick McCarthy found that out last season, Warnock might be about to. Either way, Quinn and Keane don’t care, it’s another unwanted player off the books.