What do the Owls have left and which key positions are a priority?
Sheffield Wednesday saw a full team of first team players leave the club at the end of the disappointing 2020/21 season so what do the club have left and where will they be looking to bring new players in if they are to challenge for an immediate return to the Championship?
While they spent much of last season playing a 3-cnetre back and wing-back formation there was a sense that this was largely as a result of a lack of balance in the squad to adapt to anything else. Manager Darren Moore has prevalently adopted a back-four formation during his managerial career to date and he may well look to go with this now that he has the opportunity to freshen up his squad.
In goal the departure of Keiren Westwood leaves Cameron Dawson and Joe Wildsmith once again vying for the number 1 shirt. Both have shown they have ability in previous spells in the first team but neither has been able to be consistent enough to maintain this in the long-term.
At right-back Liam Palmer remains and his experience should be an asset to the squad. Left-back has been a problem position for some time and while youngster Ryan Galvin showed signs of promise in a couple of cup run outs last season, Darren Moore will surely be looking for more experience. At centre-back the Owls will miss Tom Lees but the return from injury of Dominic Iorfa will be a big boost. The Owls also have Borner, Dunkley, Hutchinson and young Brennan while Urhoghide has been offered a new deal so this is a position the team seems to have covered more than any other.
In central midfield the influential Barry Bannan is the standout player and time will tell if the club receive any offers for a playmaker that will be in the sights of Championship teams. Luongo will be a key figure too if he can regain his fitness and youngsters Hunt, Waldock and Dele-Bashiru should all be looking to contest for more first team involvement. In the wide midfield positions the Owls are woefully short. Andre Green and Josh Windass are more effective as wing-forwards or strikers and so if the approach was to include left and right midfielders then the club will have to be active in the transfer market.
Up front Windass will be fancied to get goals at this level if he stays but a major problem last season was the lack of a focal point in attack. Callum Paterson has played in that role but it is not thought that this is regarded as his best position and he certainly seemed to offer more when playing a deeper role last season Wednesday do not have an experienced player to turn to in order to hold the ball up, bring others in to play or be an aerial threat in attack. Many saw this as a key position that the Owls should have addressed last summer and plenty of supporters will once again have a player of this ilk at the top of their list this time around.
It has been reported that Wednesday are currently under an EFL transfer embargo but hope to have this lifted before the transfer window opens. With plenty of work to be done it seems imperative that the Owls are able to get their transfer business done early so that the new players can settle in to pre-season and hit the ground running as the club looks to adapt to life in League One.