The REAL kick-off: Listen to our latest Sheffield Wednesday podcast on big starts and more transfers

Sheffield Wednesday have dipped into the transfer market for a TENTH time in this window and Darren Moore’s new-look blue and white army head down to Charlton this weekend for the big kick-off to another league season.

Our Owls writing team of Joe Crann and Alex Miller had a chat with Steve Jones about the very latest Wednesday news, including how they feel the start looks for Moore’s men.

Alex said at the top of the show: “There are a lot of teams that will hope to be vying for promotion. Depending on who you listen to, there are probably 10 or a dozen teams that will be hoping to sneak into that top two, let alone the top six.

“It’s going to be very competitive. Charlton still have a little bit of business to do, but they were certainly one of the form teams in the last 10 or 15 games of last season and they’ll be right up there I think, hopefully, with Sheffield Wednesday.”

And Joe agreed. The sheer weight of transfer through the door mean it may take a little time for Wednesday to bed-in, and he’s sure the Owls fanbase will allow them time to do so, especially given the quality of their weekend opposition.

“It’s going to be an interesting one with Wednesday because I don’t know how they’re going to start,” he said.

“Darren Moore has built up a really good squad, especially with the restrictions he’s working to, but for me the key might be how long it takes them to find that sort of rhythm and to get things going in the right direction.”

They also spoke about the competition in midfield and what more business Moore needs to do to complete his squad.

The pod was recorded before the announcements of Marvin Johnson and Lee Gregory, but the lads may have known they were imminent anyway..

“A little bit on insight as to how the transfer window works,” Joe said, laughing. “You spend as much time chasing down blind alleys as anything else.

“You might get a little bit of a nudge on something, whether it’s a source, whether it’s somebody who says something on Twitter, you have to look into it.

“The amount of time we spend on the phone speaking to people, the amount of hours you look into something and somebody finally tells you ‘there’s nothing in that, mate’.

“I must’ve chased up 30-plus transfer stories this window.”

And what more do Wednesday have to do in the market? Can Wednesdayites expect any further business?

Alex said: “A centre-back, that’s clear. And then he’s got the option of doing his thing that he did at Doncaster and sweeping up young players from the Premier League or the Championship, just adding that little bit of sparkle maybe.

“If he could just nick a little superstar from Liverpool or Arsenal or one of those clubs, maybe that nobody has heard of, that would be fantastic.”

*You can watch the entire podcast at the video above, or wait until tomorrow, when it will be available to download with all good podcast providers