Everton defender bids Sheffield Wednesday goodbye after experience that left him 'gutted'

Work is already well underway to bring in new faces after it was confirmed that Sam Hutchinson, Chey Dunkley and Saido Berahino were to leave the club at the end of their contracts.

New deals have been offered to Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Jack Hunt, Joe Wildsmith and Massimo Luongo. It remains to be seen which of these players decide to stay on at S6.

One area of particular focus going forward will be the defence, where Dominic Iorfa is the only specialist centre-half confirmed to be with the club entering the 2022/23 campaign.

And among the players to have left the club – for now at least – is Everton youngster Lewis Gibson, who returns to his parent club after his loan season at Hillsborough was torn apart by injury.

The left-footed centre-half looks to have a bright future in the game injury-dependent and impressed in limited displays for the Owls but was only able to feature six times, completing only one game.

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Posting on his social media accounts Gibson became the latest Hillsborough departee to pay tribute to the club.

“A special club which will be back where it belongs, I have no doubt," he wrote.

“On a personal note, it has been such a tough year and I am gutted I wasn't able to help the team more to achieve what we set out to do. Everything happens for a reason. Thank you @swfcofficial.”