Luton Town's Jacob Butterfield on 'tough' Sheffield Wednesday loan spell ahead of Hillsborough return

Jacob Butterfield will return to Hillsborough with Luton Town.Jacob Butterfield will return to Hillsborough with Luton Town.
Jacob Butterfield will return to Hillsborough with Luton Town. | Getty Images
Luton Town midfielder Jacob Butterfield has described his 2017/18 loan spell at Sheffield Wednesday as ‘tough’ ahead of his return to Hillsborough.

The former Huddersfield and Derby man, who is busy rebuilding his reputation at Kenilworth Road after failing to impress during loan spells at Wednesday and Bradford City, said that changes in manager were a factor in his disappointing showing.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Asked whether he enjoyed his time at S6, he told The Lutonian: “Not really. It was tough. I know the quality they’ve got in that squad.

“I went there after they’d been in the play-offs in the last two years. The expectation was automatic promotion. They’d spent a lot of money, had a lot of quality in squad and things just didn’t work out.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Now 29, Bradford-born Butterfield was the subject of a £5m transfer from Huddersfield to Derby in 2015 and despite being an ever-present for the Rams, was shipped out on loan to Hillsborough just a few matches into the 2017/18 season.

There was much excitement around his arrival in Sheffield, but his Wednesday career never got going as Sam Winnall moved in the opposite direction.

Butterfield said of the spell: “Football is never that easy. Carvalhal was the manager and things turned a bit sour there. He ended up leaving for Swansea and we just never got it back together with the new manager and ended up in a real disappointing season.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“That was a tough year for me, personally, playing on loan with different managers, different systems, in a club that was having a tough time, but I learnt a lot from that.”

It is at Luton that Butterfield now calls home after he reached a mutual agreement with Derby to terminate his contract.