Final decision, who is 'Robbie?' - How Sheffield Wednesday do transfers with rebuild flurry to continue
The wheels continue turning behind the scenes at Sheffield Wednesday as its major squad rebuild rolls on.
Seven - and counting. Sheffield Wednesday may well have never had a busier summer both on the training pitch and off it, with a great deal of its vast squad rebuild yet to come.
Senior men have left and senior players have arrived. In Ricardo Santos, Jordi Liongola, Callum Slattery, Sil Swinkels, Harry Gray, Louie Barry and of course the return of club legend Barry Bannan, the Owls squad already has a new look and feel to it, with a wide range of profiles having joined what was effectively a blank canvas project. The work will continue and a double-figure helping of further new faces is more than possible - even expected - before the transfer window closes on September 1.
The Owls are working under as-yet-undetailed recruitment restrictions as agreed as part of the club’s exit from administration and the business plan set out between them and the EFL. The finite numbers are yet to be confirmed, though it’s understood individual player salary caps are there alongside spending parameters - though the sale of players such as Pierce Charles is understood to widen the coffers.
The work continues. In such a work-heavy off-field effort, who is making the decisions and how are they going about it? We took a look at just that - and what could well follow in the weeks to come.
What has Henrik Pedersen said?
Owls manager Pedersen has spoken glowingly on the efforts of his players new and old in pre-season and is accepting of the fact there is work still a great deal of work to be done - both this summer and into the future. New sporting director Simon Wilson is overseeing the recruitment operation, which compared to that of last season is a different beast.
Speaking to club media during their training camp at Middlewood Road last week, the Dane said on the arrival of new faces: “Of course it is nice. I am happy for our new players, our old players - also our new old players! Simon is working so hard together with Kevin and Robbie. We are all helping each other to find good players, so I am really happy for all of them.”
On the positivity that has enveloped the club since the takeover, Pedersen continued: “It has been amazing and it is nice that we are not alone. We have a football club now. We have a top structure, top owners, a CEO, a sporting director. We can do all of this together now. Together we can reach much more. What the owners, the CEO and what Simon has done in these first days, it’s amazing.
“We all appreciate this a lot; the staff, the players, me. Simon is here this week, so we’re coming closer and closer. We grow. What is so important is that we are thinking big and we believe big, and then we put the nose down and work really hard to build it up step-by-step. It is an exciting journey, but it is also a tough journey. We can do it.”
Who is Robbie?
The interview above sparked a question or two as to who ‘Robbie’ was, with Pedersen namechecking him as to one of those assisting directly with recruitment. The Star understands he was referring to Robbie Bloodworth, a video analyst brought in last year to help in no small part with recruitment.
The former Burnley and Bradford City employee worked in the Wednesday academy some years ago and worked closely at Valley Parade with the likes of Graham Alexander, Mark Hughes and Stuart McCall, achieving the role of chief analyst which he held for five years - alongside other roles. Online suggestions put him at 29 years old.
Who else is involved?
Alongside Wilson, Pedersen and Bloodworth on the recruitment operation is of course head of recruitment Kevin Beadell. The former Cardiff City transfer chief counts Manchester United and Arsenal among his former employers and is well known at Wednesday having arrived to assist Danny Röhl in December of 2023. He has remained since, though on a consultancy contract agreement.
The club made a u-turn on his status while in administration, with Arise Capital Partners among the second wave of preferred bidders that wished to cancel plans to part ways and keep him on ahead of a vital few months. That decision seems prudent.
Other analysts are believed to be involved in the recruitment process in some form, as is assistant coach Pete Shuttleworth, whose contacts within the game are understood to be vast. Each deal will run slightly differently in terms of how it is managed, but what appears to be clear is that it is a collaborative process.
So how does the process work?
Each individual deal may well have its own nooks and crannies but on the whole, Wilson has described the process as one that is built with the manager and coaching staff in mind, believing that insisting upon signings from above is no way to operate. Speaking to local media earlier this month, he sought to explain the process and the collaborative nature of what they are trying to implement.
“Wherever I work, wherever club I have been at and will be at, the manager has the final say,” he said. “We have a saying that says the manager has first say and last say; what that means is that the manager will understand the needs of the team.
“He's tactical, he's going to know that understanding better than anybody. He will know the ingredients that he's missing in the team and therefore he will come to the recruitment team with a brief: ‘I need this player, I need them to do that. The types of players I like are this, this and this.’
“It gives some references. It's then on the club side to understand what our budget is. It's to understand what our succession plan is so that we're not signing tonnes of old players that are going to get in the way of young talented players that we've got.
“At the same time, not just stacking up young players and not having the responsibilities of leadership in the group. We will come together and bring back players that fit the brief that the manager sends but also fits the requirements of the club. Then the manager has the last say, which is ‘From that group, which ones do you like the most?’
“There's a lot of other supporting voices in that to help the manager make his final pick. There will be people he really trusts to help him make that decision. There will also be people who work on the club side in terms of gathering information and references.
“The coaching staff and other staff are typically great. They've either worked with them (the prospective players) or they've worked with people who have worked with them before and we use that network to try and uncover those little bits of information that you're not just going to find on a Google search.”