Alex Miller: Is there a place at Sheffield Wednesday for in-form Kieran Lee next season?

“But you also need certain senior players in there to help guide those younger players.”

It’s a squad transformation that has begun of course with the departure of several highly-paid and experienced names in the last month or so. Of the eight players that both featured in the 2016 playoff final squad and started the season at Wednesday this time out, only Barry Bannan can be reasonably assumed safe from the chop.

Lucas Joao went after the season opener, Sam Hutchinson and Fernando Forestieri followed last month. Keiren Westwood, Tom Lees and Atdhe Nuhiu have been in and out of favour so far this campaign. Indeed, Nuhiu is out of contract at the end of the month.

Lees, club captain of course, has found himself in and out of the side since the emergence of Dominic Iorfa as Wednesday’s defensive king pin, with Julian Börner having started in the new-look back three with Liam Palmer. Lees was overlooked in favour of the departing Morgan Fox following injury to Börner at Bristol City and is currently out injured.

Which leaves 32-year-old midfield man Kieran Lee.

Widely tagged as injury-prone after suffering hip and knee problems in recent times, Lee has made 27 appearances league this season, a career high since that near-miss 2016 campaign. Out of contract at the end of the month, he was the first to pen an optional contract extension to extend his long Hillsborough stay beyond of the current season.

And from that point he’s been a revelation, the switch to a midfield three allowing him the freedom to get around the field, together with Massimo Luongo providing Barry Bannan with the support to pull strings.

Previously isolated a touch in a midfield two, the change has allowed him to be more forceful in attack – Lee has taken seven shots in the four matches since the lockdown suspension having taken just seven the entire season prior – and he has been more combative, winning 14 of his 20 duels in the win at Bristol City, a season-high.

And so the question has to be whether Lee is one of the more experienced players Monk would like in his set-up heading into next season, whenever that might come.

Would Lee, another year longer in the tooth, be able to stand up to the rigours of another Championship season? That’s ultimately up to Monk.

“Nothing has been announced or discussed at this moment,” the manager said when last quizzed on Lee’s longer-term future.

“We don't even know what the transfer window looks like. Nothing has been clarified on that but what we can do is try and preempt things and understand what we want to do from a financial point of view, and also in terms of what type of players we want here.”

In the short-term at least, should Kieran Lee want to stay at Sheffield Wednesday, he’s doing himself no harm.

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