The job is on at Sheffield Wednesday and work is ongoing over their incoming transfer business.

Sheffield Wednesday’s considerations over the addition of Reece James will continue into next week - with a strategy in place to ensure their squad is fleshed-out in the right areas before the closure of the transfer window.

The Owls are hunting additions in key areas of the changing room heading towards the final fortnight of the summer window, which closes at 11pm on September 1. The already vastly revamped squad will enter into their League One campaign as they make the trip to Leyton Orient on Saturday - though there is a great deal more work to do.

One of the options to bolster the squad’s numbers is James, who celebrated promotion with the Owls in 2023 and has been training with the club in recent weeks. Considerations over his signing intensified this week, but the 32-year-old has not been added to the squad ahead of the Orient clash and Pedersen confirmed he will continue training at Middlewood Road into next week.

“He has done really well,” the Dane said. “And we are speaking every day, so let's see what happens. Right now we have a clear profile for the different positions we are searching. And the market is starting to open now. We are using a lot of hours now to find the right profile for the position we are searching and Reece is one of the candidates for the left side.”

Wednesday are operating close to recruitment restrictions as part of their negotiations over their exit from administration and speaking more widely on the Owls’ position on incoming transfers, Pedersen made clear that the club has a firm plan in place over how they want to play things in the coming weeks. The feeling is that the loans market is beginning to warm up and that after the World Cup and Premier League pre-seasons, and after the Carabao Cup second round, the domino effect of players becoming available may come in the final week or the window.

“We are in dialogue with more players,” he said. “There is nothing concrete right now, but we are working hard to make it concrete. But again, we need patience. We want to hurry up, but we need patience now to choose the right players.”

He continued: “Now the big clubs start to react and when the big clubs start to react, then the next club in the next lower league will also start to react and you can feel that it's happening a lot right now in the market. That's why we have a clear strategy for what we want. Again, to be patient in one way and we all want to hurry up.

“Simon wants to hurry up, I want to hurry up, we all want to hurry up. We have our financial restrictions, so we have to really think about how we use our money.”

This week Charlie McNeill left the club on loan to join League Two Crewe Alexandra, causing some surprise given the lack of numbers in the attacking areas, particularly on the right side. The Owls boss made clear it was not the case that players had to be moved out before they could come in and that it was rather a player management decision - with the ability to recall him in January if it suits.

“Of course there was,” Pedersen replied when asked on whether Wednesday were tempted to keep McNeill late into the window to guard against any threat of missing out on offensive targets.

“Charlie is still a young, very interesting player and Charlie loves to stay here. I've had more conversations with Charlie through the pre-season that we should have a feeling that he will get a lot of game practise because where he is in his career now, he needs game practise. He needs to play every week and I could not promise him that he will play every week.

“He had hunger to get those experiences, so we are happy that he can get some very good experience in the crew and then let's see how it's going from there. We will follow him and I will follow him and we will be in close contact.”