Sheffield Wednesday manager Steve Bruce opens up on his summer plans

Bruce, whose side face Championship leaders Norwich City at Carrow Road tomorrow before entertaining play-off chasing Bristol City on Easter Monday, wants to revamp his Owls squad this summer.

Nine senior players are out of contract at the end of the 2018/19 campaign, including Keiren Westwood, Liam Palmer and Gary Hooper.

Bruce, who admits it is "highly unlikely" Wednesday will now gatecrash the top-six, said: "With two games in 48 hours, next week we will sit down with the chairman and the powers that be and thrash out what is next.

"Obviously, there’s big decisions on a lot of players, a lot of players who have done very well for me.

"Up until a week ago really, I was just concentrating on can we make a late dash to where we want to get to.

"Mathematically, we can still get there, it’s going to be highly unlikely, but we can’t give up.

Dom Howson’s Sheffield Wednesday column

"These two games are not just defining for the season, but after that then the horrible side of management comes into it."

The four-time promotion winner has expressed his desire to reduce the size of the Owls' squad. Twenty six outfield players trained yesterday.

Bruce said: "That’s too high a number. It’s impossible to keep everybody happy, it’s unhealthy, and is certainly something which I will address over the next few weeks."

But Bruce admits he remains uncertain what budget he will have at his disposal to reshape the team.

"I have never really asked the chairman anything about finances," said Bruce. "Even when I met him about the job, it was just ‘let’s get on with it’.

"I will know more in the next week or so. There have been restrictions over the last 12 months, everyone is aware of that, so we will see where we are.

"I never asked the question about Financial Fair Play when I took the job, because it’s there for a lot of clubs.

"We have to adhere to what the rules say, and we will try and do that.

"Now we have to make big decisions going forward for the benefit of the club. We would all like a big war chest, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not the be-all and end-all of the Championship."

Wednesday will be without the services of Adam Reach (Achilles) against the Canaries while Rolando Aarons (ankle) is unlikely to be risked.

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