Ollie Arblaster, a graduate of Sheffield United Academy, has grown rapidly over the past two years, becoming a regular from League One lender to Premier League regular in just a few months.
Even today, Ollie Arblaster has a hard time figuring out how he’s done, from playing in League One to captain his beloved Sheffield United at Manchester United as a Premier League player in four months.
If he’s the real thing, it’s a story that even makes Roy Lace’s blush. But it may have all the traits of a fairy tale, but it was a reality for Arblaster, the boyhood blade he went to star in before it, standing in KOP.
Arblaster’s love story with Blade runs deep. In fact, it’s deeper than the club’s first advance into the academy. It happened when he was only six years old.
“As a kid who went to the game, I saw the first team players walking through the building, took photos, and it was amazing,” says Arblaster, who was able to get a snap in front of a KOP during his stint as a ball boy for Bramall Lane. He continued training with him after moving on to the senior ranks, sharing the pitch with Sharp on his debut.
“To play League 1, you make your Premier League debut with Arsenal, play weekly and captain a team at Old Trafford… you couldn’t actually write that story,” continues the 21-year-old.
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Long before he adorned the sacred grass of Emirates and Old Trafford, he recalls kicking the ball with his grandfather Brian. Soccer is found in the Arblaster gene. Brian was a leading goalkeeper for Sheffield United, Chesterfield and Barnsley. He and Arblaster’s father were one of the biggest soccer influences of young people who grew up.
He followed his grandfather’s footsteps by playing professionally, but did not descend the goalkeeper route. It’s not that he didn’t try. “I always volunteer to go to even the grassroots level (the goal). I have a good reflex,” says Arblaster.
“Even today, I always see the keeper training and think, ‘I want to have a session as a keeper.’ I always saw it and thought it was fun (being a goalkeeper), but I wasn’t tall enough. ”
Instead, he walked another path in the middle. Luckily, his frame did not prevent him from acquiring Arblaster’s greatness for his greatness at Sirecliffe, long before he made his senior debut at the Carabao Cup in West Brom at just 18 years old.
Arblaster is talking to Mirror Football to mark the EFL Youth Development Week. Last season, the players developed by the EFL academy made 265 professional debuts, playing more than 244,000 minutes. Arblaster is just one of many success stories enjoyed by the academy, who previously raised Harry Maguire and Kyle Walker.
Like most, Arblaster’s journey was not linear. His affinity with the club will strengthen and complicate aspects of his journey. He acknowledges that one of his biggest challenges is moving from fans to first team. “I used to be drawn into me and said I need to stop being a fanboy,” he recalls. “I think sometimes I was. Just being there was unrealistic to me and sometimes I got a bit caught up in. I don’t think I really felt like I belonged.
“I was a huge fan so at first it turned out to be really difficult. We had that amazing prem season. I was at KOP with a friend.
“But if you’re going to join a team, you have to get out of that fanzone environment. I feel that more and more I’ve done. The more I trained, the more I got, the more comfortable I got, the more I got, the more confident I got. Then the switch turned over to my head.”
If Arblaster was forged into the Blades Academy, his talent was polished during his pottery mission. The opportunity to join Portvalle on loan in the summer of 2023 followed Sheffield United’s promotion to the Premier League, but he had the opportunity to join Portvalle on loan when he was unlikely to be added to five appearances from the season. Regular actions in League One prove to be a prelude to the Arblaster boom period.
“I felt like I was close (to my first team) and at the same time far away. I’ve always had this tunnel vision of going through this tunnel and then playing, playing and playing for the first team,” Arblaster admits.
The reality of leaving the club was difficult to digest, even temporarily, or even temporarily. In hindsight, his stint at the Veil was his creation. Arblaster himself now admits it.
“We came when we were 7-0 at Barnsley and we were like, ‘Yes, what am I here?'” he says. Thankfully things have improved. Arblaster grew up in height and blossomed at the club he now considers his second team. As the clichés progressed, he arrived the boy and left the man.
“Loan changed me as a person. I had to go and grow and play male football. I’m involved in that point, so I want to play how it unfolds and see how it unfolds.
“As a club, they helped me out of the pitch as much as I did it. They’ve had a huge impact in terms of being who I am today.”
From there, the Arblaster story worked and really fell off the script. The dynamic midfielder’s pilgrimage to Vale Park is the catalyst for Bramall Lane Recall, and will ultimately prove to be his Premier League debut at Arsenal. Regular appearances continued. Things went a step further when Arblaster led the team at Old Trafford. The unforgettable moments in most campaigns that involve Sheffield United’s persuasiveness are still trying their best to forget.
“It was tough. We were obviously getting beats for a week. But I had to play it as a Sheffield United player and see it as an opportunity to wager my point.
“I took the game in the game. I was out to Old Trafford and that’s what you get when you’re working so hard and I feel like I’m really focused on what you want to achieve.”
The small flavour of shaking with the English elite only sparked the appetite of Arblaster. We will talk until the day he maintained an ACL injury, and the day he took him the opportunity to star in the promotional push that stopped in the most sudden and calm way possible at Wembley in the form of a loss in the playoff final.
“I went from one of the best moments of my soccer career to such a worst moment. (for the past 10 months) to the challenge – mentally more than anything – I feel good. I’m well balanced.
At least at the end of the tunnel there is a light as he approaches his return. Arblaster isn’t looking too far. But playing for his beloved Sheffield United is another step closer, once more, to do what he always wanted.
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