Sheffield Wednesday should contradict their new transfer strategy to re-sign Barry Bannan
Sheffield Wednesday are interested in bringing Barry Bannan back to Hillsborough this summer.
The start of a new era at Sheffield Wednesday, it is hoped, will bring with it a modern approach and a new business model.
Wednesday, for far too long, have failed to keep up with the ever-changing world of football, with their approach to player recruitment and player trading earning frequent criticism throughout former owner Dejphon Chansiri’s reign.
The Thai, who relinquished his control of the Owls last October by filing for the club to go into administration, was often criticised for signing players with either very little or no resale value and handing out lengthy deals to players who were past their best, meaning they often ran down their contracts and departed for nothing.
Whenever offers for players did arrive at Chansiri’s door, they were often rejected, meaning those who had submitted them were instructed to come back to the negotiating table with much higher, unrealistic bids. It is no secret Chansiri was often considered as one of the hardest chairmen in football to deal with.
His reluctance to sell players certainly contributed to his and Wednesday’s downfall. He passed up on countless opportunities over the years to bring in funds that would have helped the Owls financially and potentially gone towards upgrading the squad.
With a proper football structure being assembled by Arise Capital Partners, who are understood to be on the cusp of appointing Simon Wilson as the Owls’ new sporting director, a role which Chansiri never chose to fill, it is hoped Wednesday will improve their business acumen when it comes to trying to perfect the art of player trading. Rightfully, Owls boss Henrik Pedersen has already outlined the importance of trying to adopt a new philosophy that will help Wednesday from a financial perspective.
"The strategy has to be to play with young players," said Pedersen. "We have to make a business model that is sustainable, and a part of this is to find young, top talent. We have to make them strong and effective in the first team. Then it will be a part of the business model also to sell players.
"We have to make it so Sheffield Wednesday is such an interesting academy to be a young player that people will say, 'We want to go there because we will be developed as a human and a player. And there's a chance to get playing time.’ Then they can be sold later.”
Selling players is part and parcel of football nowadays. No club can continue to bring players in without selling them. Wednesday, this summer, plan to go down a different recruitment path to the one they ventured along ahead of their last League One campaign, with Pedersen admitting he wants a “mid-group of players from 21 to 24”.
Considering Wednesday have been criticised once too often for signing players with next to no resale value, a new direction is what is required. Therefore, it makes Wednesday’s interest in re-signing Barry Bannan, some might say, somewhat contradictory.
The Owls have had some level of formal talks about the prospect of bringing the Wednesday legend back to Hillsborough ahead of this summer’s transfer window. The Scot, who has 477 Wednesday appearances to his name, left Hillsborough in January to join Millwall for an undisclosed fee, signing a one-and-a-half-year deal.
The Star understands Bannan left S6 due to a lack of assurances about the club’s future, which, at that juncture, was going to be in the hands of the James Bord consortium. However, that deal collapsed and Arise eventually won the race to buy the club out of administration.
Deep down, it is understood Bannan did not want to leave Hillsborough; his heart is in S6, and Wednesday are a massive part of his and his family’s lives. He spent more than a decade at the club and was idolised by just about everyone.
It is often argued in football that you should not go over old ground and instead look to the future. In Wednesday’s case, though, few players have captured the hearts and minds of Owls fans in the way Bannan did over the years.
Despite the fact he will turn 37 in a little under six months time, Bannan remains a quality operator. When he left Wednesday in January, he made the switch to a side that eventually missed out on automatic promotion to the Premier League by just a point. He made 16 appearances and was frequently praised by Millwall fans.
Signing a player of 36 years of age would be contradictory of the new philosophy Pedersen hopes to implement, but even he would make an exception to welcome Bannan back home. He loves the club, understands its culture, is a leader and has gone on record saying he wants to retire from his playing career in S6. Few other 36-year-olds fit that criteria.
Additionally, he has proven that he is still capable of influencing matches in the Championship, let alone League One. England’s third tier may be more physical than the Championship, but Bannan has enough experience and technical quality to ensure he would be among the very best players in the division.
The prospect of signing almost any other 36-year-old would be frowned upon by Wednesdayites, who are desperate to see the club move in a new direction under Arise, but Bannan is one of a kind, making him an exception to the rule.
Re-signing him this summer is an absolute no-brainer.