Sheffield Wednesday: How Jos Luhukay is making right impression on the Owls squad

Jos Luhukay took charge of the Owls in January

That’s the verdict of Owls playmaker Barry Bannan as they gear up for the new Championship season.

Wednesday’s first-team squad reported back for pre-season on June 25 and Luhukay put the players through their paces in back-to-back UK-based training camps.

Adam Reach, Barry Bannan and Morgan Fox taking part in pre-season training.

So far the Owls have played two warm-up matches against Bury and Lincoln City. Luhukay used 22 players at Sincil Bank last week as he continues to assess his options ahead of the big kick-off.

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Bannan believes the summer period has allowed Luhukay, a left-field choice to succeed Carlos Carvalhal last January, to get his ideas across.

“When Jos came in, things were a bit frantic at the start for him,” he told The Star. “He never really had his chance to put his points across as we needed wins in a short space of time.

“He had to do whatever he could to get results.

“But I think this pre-season has been good for us and the manager as he has got to know people and see what their strengths are.

“The manager has worked with the injured players, who he had not seen before, which is good. He is starting to learn more about certain people than he would have done last season.

“We have had three to four weeks of buying into what he wants whereas last season he had to come and get wins whatever way that was because we were down near the bottom.

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“We are used to him now. We know what he wants and obviously he knows what we want as well.

“It has been brilliant because it is the first chance the manager has really had to put his points across.”

With just over two weeks to go until the start of the 2018/19 campaign, Bannan says spirits are high in the camp.

“It is good to be back, seeing the lads every day and getting down to the nitty gritty of getting fit for the new season,” said the Scotland international. “We finished on a high last season and the break probably came at the wrong time for us.

“But we had a good wee break and got a lot of rest. The injured players that have been out have all come back and are all fit so it has been a good few weeks.

“We are just looking forward to the season starting now.”

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