What Garry Monk said about Sheffield Wednesday transfer business ahead of busy summer

Transfer targets at the centre of an expected squad revolution at Sheffield Wednesday are uncertain for the moment as the club prepares to count the cost of the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
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Owls boss Garry Monk has repeatedly spoken about the need for changes at the club, offering an explosive summary after their last outing – a 5-0 defeat at Brentford in March – that the club will ‘never be successful’ until the changing room culture is altered.

A raft of first-team players including Fernando Forestieri, Sam Hutchinson, Atdhe Nuhiu and Kieran Lee are out of contract in the coming weeks and Wednesday have been linked with a loan move for Manchester United youngster James Garner as Monk attempts to carve out a new future for the side.

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But the landscape-shifting nature of the coronavirus has hit Championship clubs hard, Monk said, and there is major uncertainty as to the financial opportunities he and his recruitment team will be able to work with.

He told The Star that the work of identifying potential transfers is ongoing, however: “I think that work continues, because you do that anyway throughout the season, so that that doesn't change.

“But what does change – and this whole thing has changed the climate of it – is that no one knows what the situation is going to be.

“No one knows what kind of financial plan they can put in place, because we don't even know if are finishing the season or not at this moment in time. The focus is on that, and what it's going to look like at the end of that in terms of the squad and stuff like that.

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“Then there’s potential new offers and new contracts of players in terms of how that looks. So there's still all that to go through, and to try and understand for the club, what you could potentially spend or invest in players on the recruitment side of it.”

Sheffield Wednesday boss Garry Monk has spoken about the shifting landscape of the club's finances.Sheffield Wednesday boss Garry Monk has spoken about the shifting landscape of the club's finances.
Sheffield Wednesday boss Garry Monk has spoken about the shifting landscape of the club's finances.

Wednesday are one of the Championship clubs most heavily reliant on matchday revenue but whatever the parameters of his budget, Monk appeared confident in the club’s recruitment strategies.

“In terms of the process of looking for players and recruitment side of it I think, like always, you cover all areas anyway,” Monk continued.

“Whether you were spending money or not, you've kind of put it into those brackets of if you were spending nothing, if you were doing loans, or if you were able to spend a certain amounts or bigger amounts – what it may be. You do that work anyway, that’s what a good recruitment process should be.

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“You can obviously work on analysis anyway. There's no live games going on, but with targets there's a lot of analysis going on.

“In terms of being able to understand the reality of who can come in, who can’t, who's ready or who's available, I don’t think any club is at that stage at the moment.”