Sheffield Wednesday squad audit as pre-season preparations get underway
Sheffield Wednesday are in the process of rebuilding their squad ahead of the start of the 2026/27 League One season.
Following three days of fitness and conditioning testing last week, Sheffield Wednesday’s official pre-season preparations get underway today.
The Owls started to welcome their players back to Middlewood Road last Wednesday for testing ahead of pre-season getting started this week. It is understood double training sessions will take place at the beginning of this week.
Wednesday will spend this week at Middlewood Road before heading to St George’s Park in the Midlands next week. They will spend six days at England’s premier football facility before returning to Sheffield and continuing their preparations.
Following Arise Capital Partners’ takeover of the club last month, there is a sense of excitement and optimism sweeping its way through the entire club ahead of the start of the 2026/27 season. New signings are starting to be added to Henrik Pedersen’s squad, Liam Cooper and Max Lowe have signed new contracts and infrastructure improvements are in the process of being made.
The Owls confirmed their second signing of the summer on Saturday, sealing the capture of Jordi Liongola from Belgian club RAAL La Louvière, and more new arrivals are expected to follow. Ricardo Santos, signed from Swansea City for an undisclosed fee, was the Owls’ first signing of the summer.
Having been relegated with a depleted squad, the number of options available to Pedersen decreased again when loanees Murphy Cooper, Tayo Adaramola, Jaden Heskey, Joel Ndala and Jerry Yates returned to their parent clubs. Dominic Iorfa, Harry Evers, Marvelous Nakamba, Nathaniel Chalobah, Rio Shipston, Junior Kamwa, Favour Onukwuli and Zain Silcott-Duberry were also released.
With a major squad rebuild required, it is not unrealistic to suggest Wednesday could need somewhere between 15-20 new players this summer in total. Just about every department of the squad needs strengthening, meaning new additions are expected across the board.
As revealed by The Star on Saturday, Wrexham’s Davis Keillor-Dunn, Blackburn Rovers ace Yūki Ōhashi and Portsmouth striker Colby Bishop are among the players the Owls are looking at amid their quest to beef up their attacking options.
With the squad nowhere close to the size it needs to be, Wednesday will be hoping to continue getting new faces through the door as quickly as possible. The start of the new season is less than 50 days away and the Owls have no time to waste.
With the start of pre-season now upon us, here is the current landscape of Wednesday’s squad, accounting for senior players and youngsters who earned first-team minutes last season.
Goalkeepers:
Pierce Charles & Logan Stretch.
Defenders:
Yan Valery, Liam Palmer, Jordi Liongola, Sean Fusire, Di’Shon Bernard, Liam Cooper, Ricardo Santos, Gabriel Otegbayo, Cole McGhee, Ernie Weaver, Joe Emery & Max Lowe.
Midfielders:
Svante Ingelsson (sale process ongoing).
Attackers:
Olaf Kobacki, Charlie McNeill, Jamal Lowe, Iké Ugbo, George Brown & Will Grainger.
The squad could become slightly bigger in certain areas if Jack Phillips, Gui Siqueira, Reece Johnson, Jarvis Thornton, Bruno Fernandes and Devlan Moses sign new deals.
Outgoing Motherwell midfielder Callum Slattery is expected to be announced as a Wednesday player in the not-too-distant future, meaning he will bolster the midfield department, but the Owls are yet to provide confirmation of his arrival.