Exclusive:'This is where I belong' - Barry Bannan makes honest admission as Sheffield Wednesday return expected
Former Sheffield Wednesday captain Barry Bannan has made it crystal clear that he pictures himself returning to Hillsborough this summer.
Millwall midfielder Barry Bannan has said the prospect of playing in League One again does not faze him amid expectations that he is going to seal a Sheffield Wednesday homecoming.
As reported by The Star on Sunday, Wednesday are understood to be making progress with their quest to re-sign the 36-year-old, just five months after he left Hillsborough to join Millwall on a one-and-a-half-year deal.
He moved to The Den in January, The Star understands, because of a lack of assurances about the club’s future and concerns about the direction Wednesday could head in under the consortium led by James Bord, which had secured preferred bidder status at the time.
Bord’s group pulled out of the takeover race four weeks after Bannan’s departure, and Arise Capital Partners, governed by David Storch, were later given preferred bidder status before going on to complete their takeover of the club at the start of May.
Completion of their takeover has fuelled confidence and optimism at Hillsborough ahead of next season, with some Wednesday supporters daring to dream that an immediate return to the Championship might be possible. The Owls are in the process of rebuilding their squad after it was butchered a year ago.
Bannan is expected to be one of several additions Wednesday make this summer, revealing at the unveiling of his mural at The Park pub on Sunday that there is ‘a big chance’ he will return to Hillsborough ahead of the new season.
The Scot has experienced life in League One with Wednesday before, helping them earn promotion in 2023 after falling short the previous year. Despite proving he can still make his mark in the Championship at the age of 36, a return to Hillsborough, it seems, is all Bannan wants.
“Like I said, as it stands at the minute, I'm still in the championship at Millwall, who just missed out in promotion,” Bannan said, speaking exclusively to The Star. “But this is where I belong, and it doesn’t matter what league they're in.
“I just didn't get, anywhere in football, the feeling I got when I played here. It doesn't really bother me about leagues, to be honest.”
Bannan, who revealed that his decision to leave Hillsborough earlier this year was arguably the hardest he has made in his entire life, returned to S6 just over a fortnight after joining Millwall, starting a 2-1 victory for Alex Neil’s side.
Asked how emotionally challenging it was to return to Wednesday so soon after his departure, the midfielder added: “Yes, it was hard. I think it was my third game.
“I remember the manager speaking to me, asking if I was all right to play and I was like, ‘Yes, I feel all right’. Maybe, looking back now, it was probably too early.
“Not that the occasion got the better of me... it was just weird and it was crazy. I was warming up, I was in the away changing room, and I'd never really been in the away changing room in my ten-and-a-half years at the club.
“It was just strange. Then I was playing against mates who I was playing with two weeks before and fighting for them at Bristol City away.
“So, yes, it was strange. It was a bit similar to the Bristol City game, to be honest. I was there in body but not really there in mind.”