'There's going to be more size in the door' - Sheffield Wednesday's summer transfer profile
What we can learn from Sheffield Wednesday’s first signing of the summer
When you look at Ricardo Santos’ stats, one thing jumps out, or literally stands tall.
Sheffield Wednesday’s first signing of the summer measures up at an impressive 6ft 5ins. He’s big, he’s athletic, he’s physical and he won’t be the last to fit that bill.
The recruitment at Wednesday this year will largely meet that profile.
Last season, when it became increasingly clear that League One would be the division Wednesday were playing in, Henrik Pedersen took it upon himself to learn more.
He went to watch League One matches. He had meetings with the Lincoln City sporting director Jez George, sharing experiences with the Imps traveling in the opposite direction.
The Wednesday recruitment team have, of course, also done their homework and sporting director Simon Wilson has experience in the division from his last job at Stockport County.
There’ll be a little bit of guile in there for the moments when you simply can’t just fight your way to victories but for the most part athleticism, strength and size are going to be the stand-out traits of the next batch of Wednesday recruits that come through the door.
As far as Santos is concerned, hunger is going to play a factor too, with the defender essentially missing out on a season by way of a move to Swansea that just didn’t work out.
“To get the concern out of the way (about his time at Swansea), that would be the one that he's not played. I think he made one appearance for Swansea, had a struggle with injury, certainly in the first half of the season, and then a lot of to-ing and fro-ing at Swansea with different managers and changes in playing style and all this sort of thing,” said The Star’s Alex Miller on the All Wednesday Podcast.
“He never quite got his foot in the door there, but he's a player that Wednesday have pursued before, to at least some extent.
“We've reported in a couple of different transfer windows that he was a player that they'd have liked to have brought to the club. And his profile sort of fits, I think, in terms of a lot of League One experience, four times in the League One team of the season. Big lad, and I think we're going to see that with a few of the signings.”
One of the big reasons behind that is the transition towards set-pieces and their increased important across football, not least in the UK. It’s an area that Wednesday are currently light.
“In terms of the set-piece return, that's really important in all English football these days, but particularly in League One. And Wednesday struggled there last season, understandably so,” Alex added. “It wasn't a great strong point before.
“Then you take Callum Paterson, Michael Smith, Michael Ihiekwe out of that mix. Clearly, it's going to be a team that struggles at set-pieces. So, yes, there's going to be some more size in the door.
“I think (Santos) is no slouch across the ground, by all accounts, according to people that have seen him play a lot more than I.”