Nico Schulz: Sheffield Wednesday boss responds to questions over controversial player pursuit

Plenty has been said about the 30-year-old German since it emerged that he’d started training at Middlewood Road, and on Thursday it was confirmed that the club were looking to try and sign him following his court appearance over charges over grievous bodily harm against a former partner this week.

The case was discontinued after Schulz was ordered to pay five charitable organisations €30,000 each, but there has been a very mixed reaction amongst the fanbase to the idea of bringing him on board for the remainder of the 2023/24 campaign.

For Röhl, who has praised the defender’s work on the pitch since coming in at S6, he says that he’ll ‘measure the situation’ if he does go on to become an Owl in the coming weeks.

Speaking to The Star he said, “For my final decision I’m looking at the quality on the pitch, and it was important for me that I saw Nico last week with all of things - on the pitch, and he showed how strong he is. We did some testing to see how his body is, and he’s well.

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"He was immediately committed to our players, and that’s not normal for a player who comes in to have that relationship immediately. It was a good signal for me, and we’ll have a look now at what we can do in the next days - for me the focus is on having a high-quality player in my squad and to go forward in the last eight or nine weeks…

“If he comes and he is a Wednesday player then I’ll measure the situation then… As a manager you have to look at it of course, look at how he can help my team from the football side. That’s the focus. I know there is a topic around the club with this player, but for me his time as a guest here showed me a lot that was helpful to make a good decision for us to achieve our goals.

"The key point now is to achieve our goals as a club, and that’s my focus - I’m pushing other topics to the side. I want success for this club, to stay in the league, and then at the end of the season everyone will be happy.”

Wednesday are back in action this weekend against Rotherham United as they seek to claw back more points on those above them in the Championship relegation scrap at the foot of the table.