Why Sheffield Wednesday were able to sign attacker despite ongoing restrictions
Young attacker, Joel Akpobi, announced this week that he’d signed for Sheffield Wednesday - and it was a move that surprised a few people.
And the reason for the surprise at his signing was nothing to do with his footballing ability, it was more because of the fact that - as thing stand - the Owls aren’t allowed to bring in any new players. It’s why the likes of Josh Bayliss have remained on trial with the U21s for a number of months, and been unable to sign.
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The difference with Akpobi, however, is that he’s not signed a professional contract with the club. It was revealed to The Star after news of the youngster’s two-year deal had been confirmed that he’s joined as a late scholar, being able to do so due to the fact that he’s still just 17-years-old. The finalisation of his scholarship came not long after he found the back of the net for the Owls in an FA Youth Cup game against Bromley recently.
Now, given the threadbare nature of the Wednesday squad at present, Henrik Pedersen has explained that he’ll soon get the call to join up with the senior players at Middlewood Road so that they can find out his level compared to the others on the club’s books. It was also confirmed that there will be no new first team players coming through the door anytime soon.
“Right now we can’t sign any players to the first team,” he said, speaking to this publication. “That’s as it is right now, we can’t sign anyone, but of course the young man can now be integrated and he’ll also be a part of things. We’ll look at him next week in training to see where he is right now compared to the rest of the U21s and first team squad…
“We’re looking at a lot of players, but the next group we’re looking to is players like Jarvis (Thornton), Rio (Shipston), Joe (Emery). It’s players like Yisa (Alao) and Will (Grainger). We want to integrate into the first team, and then when we’ve done that we’ll look again. We have a lot to do right now so they’ll be ready to get game practice through the Christmas period.”
Meanwhile, regarding Alao and Grainger, the Owls boss also added that there had still been no news with regards to their first professional contracts at Hillsborough, and it’s no secret that there are clubs much higher up the pyramid who are keeping a close eye on both of them.