Former Sheffield Wednesday man foresees ‘big turnover’ after ‘gut-wrenching’ relegation

Wednesday dropped out of the Championship on the final day of the season after a 3-3 draw with Derby County, condemning them to a season in the third-tier as Darren Moore’s Hillsborough rebuild gets underway.

With lots of players out of contract and a complete squad overhaul on the cards, Newsome thinks that it’s going to be tough for Moore, who he says will need to know exactly the lay of the land before decisions are finalised.

In an interview with Football League World, the former Owl said, “I’m led to believe that there’s 13 players out of contract this summer. So, you know, how many of those do you want to keep? You know, some of them are on big numbers, you can’t afford to keep all of them.

“It’s a really difficult question to answer really, because until you can nail down the players who you have got, who you are going to keep from the squad and then you’ve got to start filling holes and filling gaps, so it’s difficult. I can see there being a big turnover of players at this football club this summer.”

But relegation wasn’t a surprise for Newsome, who has watched plenty of the Owls this season, and the 50-year-old says the final day drama ‘epitomised the football team’.

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He went on to say, “My immediate reaction was obviously disappointment. It was gut wrenching really… But in all honesty you could see it coming. And the fact that they took it to the last game of the season shows that they were very fortunate.

“I thought they had a chance on that final day and with them being 3-2 up with 20 minutes to go, you have to see that game out. And I think it epitomised the football team and the club at the moment that they were unable to do that.”

Wednesday are expected to release their retained list at some point in the next week or so after Moore has spoken to all of his players – contracted and otherwise – about the way forward.

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