‘In and out’ – Sheffield Wednesday will use transfer window quirk after Momo Diaby return

There was a – quite literally – big boost for the Owls on Monday as towering midfielder, Momo Diaby, made his long-awaited return to action in the 3-1 win over Hull City, the Frenchman being registered once again after recovering from injury.

Wednesday had filled their 25-man quota prior to January’s window opening up, meaning that even though he was fit to play Diaby was unable to feature in Röhl’s plans. That changed on January 1st, and the club wasted no time in bringing him into the fold – and the German says that the Portimonense man may well get a start this weekend.

“The first step was that he played two times for the U21s,” Röhl explained. “And now it he’s had some minutes back in the first team. We now have the next game against Cardiff in the cup and maybe it’s a good opportunity for him to get some minutes from the beginning.”

Many have asked the question of incomings and outgoings this month given that it’s expected to be quite a busy opening month for the Owls, and there was interest as to who dropped out of the squad in order to make room for Diaby’s return.

In theory John Buckley’s recall to Blackburn Rovers meant that a place opened up naturally, however the nature of this month means that teams can bring people in and out as they please anyway. For instance Bambo Diaby and George Byers can be deregistered due to their suspension and then added back into the squad at the drop of hat once they have served their respective bans.

While in practicality there is still a maximum squad size of 25 this month, not including players under the age of 21, the fact that players can be added and taken away at will means that – in reality – there’s no limit for the time being. The EFL, however, do recommend that changes are filed 24 hours in advance of a game, and new players have to be registered by 12 noon the day before.

Speaking about the situation, the Owls boss said, “In January the good thing is that you can bring players in and out from the list, and we’ll use this this month. Then we’ll decide what we’ll have to do, and then we can look forward.”

Röhl will only have to finalise a 25-man squad once the transfer window has closed, with the EFL handbook stating that that needs to be done ‘within 24 hours’ of it closing on February 1st at 11pm.