Important transfer meeting to take place at Sheffield Wednesday ahead of window closure
Sheffield Wednesday’s stage one squad rebuild is not over.
Further additions to the Sheffield Wednesday squad are expected even after the formalities of Ali Al-Hamadi’s loan switch from Ipswich Town are complete.
That’s according to Owls manager Henrik Pedersen, who will be part of a recruitment meeting today (Wednesday) to ascertain what further deals may be possible as the club seeks to place itself in the best possible position ahead of next Tuesday’s transfer deadline.
Striker Al-Hamadi sat in the director’s box during last night’s Carabao Cup defeat to Wolves and was dressed in an Owls tracksuit. Barring any unforeseen hitches, the Iraq international will provide much-needed strength up top in what has been one of Wednesday’s priority positional pursuits of an already manic summer window.
Speaking after the Wolves clash, Pedersen stayed as tight-lipped as he could on the prospect of the 24-year-old’s signing and while he admitted that the club were close to recruitment spend limits as agreed with the EFL as part of their exit from administration, he said he did expect there to be more business to be done. As things stand, no exits are expected.
“I think we are close to what we can get in,” he said. “Still, we have some very, very tough restrictions. So I think before we can do something, we need money, and right now the money is small.”
He continued: “I expect there will be more, yes... It's not the numbers of players, it's the quality of the player, and again, with the restrictions we have then, it's natural there will not be many because we don't have the money for this, but I'm sure that we can do a little bit more in the market.”
The signings of right-sided attacker Kieran Morrison, auxiliary left-back Reece James and Al-Hamadi do seem to satisfy what have become Wednesday’s more public priorities in recent weeks and asked what the priorities are in lieu of Al-Hamadi’s announcement, Pedersen said: “Let's see, we have a meeting tomorrow and then we'll evaluate where we are right now. We have a list of different positions and then it's a mix of what is the need and where can we get the best player.”
The addition of Al-Hamadi will take the tally of loanees to four, with Wednesday allowed to name a maximum of five in their matchday squads as per EFL rules. Alongside that avenue, Pedersen confirmed that the club are looking both at home and abroad in the market to see what options are out there in the free agency market and suggested that while he expects further business will be done, perhaps there will be one more addition ahead of the window’s closure late on Tuesday evening.
Wednesday’s rebuild effort came from a standing start and from the very outset there has been an acceptance from within that the project to get the club back to strength will take several transfer windows. Asked on where he feels the changing room is at after a whirlwind first few months under the club’s new ownership, Pedersen said: “I'm really, really happy for the players we have got, and I'm really happy for how they are all growing together right now, and I think the culture is going to be stronger and stronger.
“And we are still in the forming phase, but how they are growing right now, I'm really, really pleased for this, but we can all see we still have a lot of work in front of us, we are just in the beginning.”