Rangers or Celtic the dream ticket as Sheffield Wednesday man plans pre-season date

The versatile boyhood Wednesdayite recorded his 424th Owls outing in their impressive 2-0 win at Millwall on Saturday, in doing so climbing into the club's top 10 list of appearance-makers. Now into his 14th year as a first team figure, the planning of a testimonial has been some time coming - with a growing confidence that it could take place this summer.

As revealed by The Star last month, Palmer and his representatives are working with Wednesday to organise a clash he hopes will take place as a pre-season fixture in the lead-up to next season. While there are no guarantees that his time at S6 will be extended with a new contract, the 32-year-old has left no uncertainty on the fact he was keen to stay on at Hillsborough despite interest from clubs in the US.

Regardless of what happens, the eight-cap Scotland international is set to be the subject of a day celebrating his Owls career in the coming months. No talks have yet been had over a potential opposition, though in conversation with The Star Palmer suggested a clash against either Celtic or Rangers would tick all the boxes - though he admitted it might well be a difficult fixture to organise logistically.

"We're just pulling everything together and committing things with the club," Palmer said. "For now it's about looking ahead but not too far ahead if that makes sense, but these things take some planning. Things are going off in the background and I've had the green light from the club so it's just about when and where. In my mind we'd look for it to be a pre-season friendly, I'd like to get a big team with a big following to Hillsborough if possible.

"It's hard because I don't want it to feel like I'm retiring. I've got an awful lot left to give and I know it's my testimonial but I don't really want it to all be about me in a way. A pre-season game, coming out with my kids for a ripple and that would do me great. It is something that doesn't happen very often but it is something to be carefully organised and I'm sure when the time is right it will come together."