“He’s got a bit of Lucas João in him” Are Sheffield Wednesday hitting-up a fresh transfer approach?

The Owls have suffered a slow start to their return to the Championship with defeats to Southampton and - more worringly - at Hull City.

But the winds of change continue to sweep through the corridors of Middlewood Road and PSG youngster Djeidi Gassam has injected a healthy dose of positivity into proceedings as the hangover of Hull subsided.

In this week’s The Star Owls podcast, our Wednesday writing team of Joe Crann and Alex Miller tackled a range of topics with host and Sports Editor Chris Holt, centring on the signing of the new boy.

A behind-the-scenes clip of the 19-year-old in training only ramped up the excitement of a player that looks to have a bit of something exciting in him.

“This will sound weird because we’ve been drawn so many comparisons but I’ve seen there there are some elements of of early Lucas João in him,” said Chris, who covered Wednesday week-on-week at the time of the Portuguese’s arrival.

“He looks to have that ability of a player who doesn’t quite know what he’s going to do next - so a defender certainly doesn’t know what he’s going to do next.

“And that kind of player is exciting. We don’t know what is going to happen next. If what happens is that you give the ball to the kid and he does something magical, then that’s brilliant.”

Gassama is one of a handful of big players to have arrived at Wednesday from some of Europe’s biggest clubs this season, along with Devis Vasquez from AC Milan, Di’shon Bernard from Manchester United and Anthony Musaba from Monaco.

While the boys acknowledged this by no means guarantees success at senior level, it does go some way to proving there is undoubted talent there, particularly in the cae of Gassama.

Joe said: “I think people sort of misunderstand what we say when we say that in terms of he, he’s there, so we must have a good career. That’s not what we’re saying.

“What we’re saying is that there’s there is something there, you know, there is some ability, there is some talent, there is something special about a kid.

“If you spend that that time [in a major academy], that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to go and be a great player. How many players have we seen come from big academies and for whatever reason not go on to have the career they might have wanted?

“But that doesn’t mean they never had anything, it doesn’t mean they never were able to.

“And I think it’s about harnessing that Wednesday now with with Gassama.”

Wednesday have faced criticism in recent years for their direction in the transfer market, with a perceived failing to bring in names with sell-on potential.

A reported three-year contract length for Gassama, twinned with a potential to improve in the coming seasons, offers that, Alex argued.

“You look at Masaba as well, not the brightest start in terms of you know he’s going past players but he’s trying to and that’s a big thing, they’ve clearly got the ability to do this,” he said.

“You look at his age and the reported contract length that he’s been brought in on, it’s something that I think a lot of people have been crying out for for a long time from Wednesday and hopefully it comes to pass.

“If Wednesday can get themselves up and firing and and get a bit of, you know, more of a foothold in the game and start getting into the position to turn defenders, the prospect of of those two from what very little we’ve seen, it could cause a bit whiplash in some championship defenses.”