Sheffield Wednesday: Owls rule out more signings

Although the summer transfer window officially closed on August 31, clubs are still permitted to bring in unattached players.

And the Owls have a host of key players missing through injury, including Glenn Loovens, Sam Hutchinson, George Boyd and Fernando Forestieri.

However, boss Carlos Carvalhal insists he does not plan on bringing in new blood.

“We are happy with the squad and must give confidence to the players,” he told The Star. “At the moment, we don’t have any emergencies.”

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Twelve months ago, Wednesday bolstered their defensive options by capturing free agent Urby Emanuelson.

But the former Ajax and AC Milan full-back was frozen out at Hillsborough, making just one appearance.

“That was a different situation and it can happen to all the teams in the world,” argued Carvalhal. “At that moment, we needed a left-back.

“We signed [Adam] Reach to play left wing and Daniel Pudil was injured. We didn’t have a left-back so we needed one.

“It was an emergency.

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“We checked (the market) and there were two or three available. Out of the three, the best that we could achieve at that moment was Urby.

“When we brought Urby to play, Adam played at left-back in that week and he did absolutely amazing. He was fantastic. After that, we recovered Pudil and Urby stayed a little out of the team.”

The Owls entered Tuesday’s contest with Brentford with injury concerns hanging over Jack Hunt, Ross Wallace, Kieran Lee and Steven Fletcher. Ultimately, the quartet were passed fit to play, with only Fletcher failing to complete the match as Wednesday came-from-behind to secure a second consecutive home win.

Lee has made a big impact since returning to the side but Carvalhal has admitted he considered resting him versus the Bees.

Since undergoing hip surgery, the dynamic midfielder has hardly played and struggled to train on a regular basis.

Carvalhal said: “After the game on Saturday, I talked with Kieran on Monday and I told him he will not play Tuesday.

“I was thinking of changing Kieran to protect him for the future. We want the player for the whole season, not just two or three matches.

“But after I had a conversation with him on Monday, he told me exactly his feelings and we decided to play him.

“The pain he had at that moment was more tiredness.

“We took a risk to play him but it was also the wish of the player.”

It will be interesting to see if Lee starts against a Cardiff side who have enjoyed a fine start to the season.

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