Sheffield Wednesday completed the signing of Bury wide midfielder Mike Jones on Thursday as they look to bolster their squad for the second half of the season following the recent acquisitions of Stephen Bywater and Miguel Angel Llera.
Jones has signed a 2-and-a-half-year deal at Hillsborough for an undisclosed fee after the Owls made a bid that met his minimum release fee clause at Gigg Lane.
The winger began his career with Tranmere where he came through the youth team ranks and after a spell on loan with Shrewsbury he joined Bury in 2008 and has been a virtual ever present in their team ever since, making over 150 appearances for the Lancashire club.
The 24-year-old, described as skilful with bags of pace on the Bury FC official website, scored 8 goals last season as the club won promotion from League Two and he has been influential in their solid start to life in League One, scoring 3 times in 24 league appearances.
Jones will team up with former Bury team mate Ryan Lowe at Hillsborough and will be in contention to make his Owls debut against table topping Charlton on Saturday.
The move to sign a winger will increase speculation that key player Ben Marshall may not be extending his current loan spell at S6 which is due to end after Saturday’s game. This may not necessarily be the case however as Wednesday have been short of options for the wide midfield positions and James O’Connor, who has fulfilled such a role on a number of occasions this season, has recently left the club to continue his career in America.
Furthermore, James Tavernier, who has been playing in wide midfield for the Owls of late has returned to parent club Newcastle and won't be returning as they would prefer him to gain experience playing at right-back, a position that Wednesday currently have enough cover for.