Jerry Yates' 'love' for Sheffield Wednesday - and the prospect of his summer signing
Jerry Yates’ love affair with Sheffield Wednesday is by now no secret - with Henrik Pedersen having raised a smile when asked about the prospect of making it a marriage.
The on-loan forward has hit goalscoring form of late, nodding three in his last three matches to reward the Owls’ new-found encouragement going forward. Those goals have certainly hit the right note with a reinvigorated fanbase, who have sung his name with gusto to deliver a cult hero status within just nine appearances.
There’s an ocean of business to attend to before any prospect of future transfers is broached of course, with fresh confirmation of the possibility of future recruitment restrictions having arrived this week, along with a new preferred bidder. But terrace chatter has already switched to whether Yates, seemingly out of favour at Luton Town, could become a summer target ahead of a major rebuild.
“He has been strong for us,” Owls boss Henrik Pedersen told The Star after his goalscoring effort against Watford on Tuesday evening. “It was clear to see in his first game that he has not played for a long period, but I think the first conversation I had with him on the phone was a good picture of how much he wanted to play for Sheffield Wednesday.
“Because I could hear the love in his voice when we spoke the first time, that, wow, Sheffield Wednesday is a big club and it will be an honour if I can play for them. And this feeling you also feel when you see him run around on the pitch, that he will do everything that he can to help our club to make a good performance. And now he starts to be more fit, so he starts to be a better pressing player, but he also starts to have more action on the ball, more deep runs.
“And then he likes to come into the box and he's scored three-headers now, so it's very, very strong.”
In an interview with BBC Sheffield following the second of his three-on-the-spin goals at Derby, Yates signalled his admiration for the club’s supporters and stopped well short of commenting on any prospect of sticking around beyond the terms of his loan - though he certainly didn’t reject the idea.
As said, there are a million priorities for the club to tackle before the signing of a centre-forward nears the top of the pile. But while the prospect of any effort to sign Yates on remains a faraway notion, Pedersen couldn’t help but crack a grin when asked whether the thought of broaching his availability with Luton had crossed his mind.
“No, not yet,” he said with a smile. “But let's see.”