Sheffield Wednesday’s recruitment team were ‘ready to strike’ after tough summer last year

Tyreeq Bakinson became the club’s eighth signing of the window this week as Moore continued to bolster his ranks, with his squad now in good shape before the 2022/23 campaign has even got underway.

Last time out the club was dealing with transfer restrictions that affected their ability to do business, but this year they were ready to strike while the iron was hot.

"We have to keep progressing forward as a team and a football club,” Moore said when speaking about their early business. “When I look back at last year to where we are this year, we have moved forward… But we don't sit back on it. There is still work that needs to be done.

"I am delighted to have made the signings that we have made thus far and it has been great to integrate them into the squad. They will give a different dimension to the team. It is still the same philosophy and the same dynamic but, when I think of one or two players, they will give us something different to how we approach games.”

He also went on to add, "I said at the end of last season that the recruitment side was already underway.

"I stayed on in the summer and I am glad I did stay on and continue to work at Middlewood Road. It helped us, along with the chairman, to get the players and be in the market to try and challenge the ones that we have already got in.

"We were in a position to strike and do our work early. We are really pleased to have got a lot of our business done early because you want to get in for pre-season and work alongside us as much as possible.”

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Meanwhile, when comparing this summer’s work to that of last year, the Owls boss admitted that they stuck around to make sure that they were ‘ready to strike’.

“Last year it was what it was,” he told The Stsar. “And we had to try and do what we had in limited time… There was a lot to contend with, but we got it together in the second half of the season and went on a run.

“I’m really pleased that we stayed on after the end of the season to make sure that our work was done, so when players did become available we were ready to strike - and we did.

“I think I had four days after the play-offs, and then I was back working. It gave me the focus, and our recruitment team was ready. I’m really pleased to have to got them.

“It was about getting them into our system early doors, which we did, and giving them as much information to add to the talent and ability that they’ve got.

“The early signs are good, and the things that we were missing and lacking last season, they’ll bring us this season.”

Wednesday have one more official friendly, against Wigan Athletic this weekend, before taking on Portsmouth on the opening day of League One as their new campaign gets started.

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