How close Ricardo Santos came to joining Sheffield Wednesday years ago
Ricardo Santos is a Sheffield Wednesday player - and brings a wealth of experience to the club’s monster rebuild effort.
The first thing you notice about Ricardo Santos is the stature of the man.
Wandering into a meeting room at Sheffield Wednesday’s Middlewood Road training base for introductory chats with the local pack, he stoops his head a touch as he wanders through the door. There’s a warm smile and a firm handshake. And a comfortability in himself that radiates confidence.
The 31-year-old defender arrives at S6 at an interesting place in his career. All-conquering at Bolton Wanderers, placed in the League One team of the season as a matter of routine across his five years there, all that evaded him was promotion to the Championship - despite involvement in three play-off campaigns.
He made that move himself last summer, but injury and circumstance rendered his move to Swansea City somewhat lame. Given the opportunity to again chase a second tier return for one of the division’s big clubs, Santos grins when asked how much that would mean. Be it this season or in those to come, it’s an achievement he doesn’t want to let past again.
“It would mean everything, man,” he said. “I was looking for that at Bolton and when I was there I was trying three years in a row to get into the play-offs. We didn’t do what we wanted to do there but now with a big club like this, pushing on and getting promoted means everything to me. I think that's one thing in my career I want to achieve. Helping a big club like this get back to where they should be.
“One thing I'll say about that is there was a lot of pressure from the fans, which is normal. The fans want as much success as we do. When you've been in the position before, in the Premier League, there's expectations. The players know that, I know that. I've been in the game a long time now. We just need to work hard, stick to the project and just look forward.”
The reality is that Santos could have become a Wednesday player much sooner than this summer; his is a name that has bounced around the S6 recruitment conversations for some time. Darren Moore’s drive to build a big, imposing, gnarled and experience squad to bounce back out of League One took in a certain profile and at centre-half, the Cape Verde international was one he identified as a key target.
It never came to pass. As reported by The Star at the time, approaches were rebuffed sharply by a side also looking to push on to promotion. “It was when Darren Moore was here,” Santos smiled. “Two seasons in a row, I think. I just couldn't get out of Bolton at the time. I was the captain and stuff, I had a good relationship with the manager there. I think I was loyal for too long!”
But now, here he is. And while the ‘getting to know you’ stage continues and as Santos to get up to speed with pre-season, there’s no flicker of doubt on where he wanted to find himself after a difficult campaign last time out. When interest arrived from S6, it was an opportunity he didn’t want to let pass for a third time.
“It was quick, to be honest,” he said. “I spoke to the gaffer and I had a chat for about an hour. He was telling me what he wants to build here, what he wants to do, his style of play and stuff and what he believes I can do within that. It happened quick. I spoke to my agent, there were other options and stuff, but this is the one I wanted to go with.”