Sheffield Wednesday could be set for a busy January, according to The Sun journalist Alan Nixon, even despite the club facing rising uncertainty over how their season could actually pan out.
What’s he said?
The Owls are in a rich vein of form currently, going five unbeaten to move into playoff contention. However, all of manager Garry Monk’s plans could be put to bed after the club were charged by the English Football League for financial misconduct.
A resulting punishment is yet to be concluded but there are reports suggesting that owner Dejphon Chansiri could be banned from the sport entirely while on the pitch, Wednesday could be slapped with a huge 21-point deduction.
For now, though, it’s business as usual and that certainly appears to be the case with the transfer window reopening in less than a month.
Nixon believes Monk wants to target cover for three key areas with a busy 2020 schedule ahead, he said:
Cover and depth
The Owls have quite a large first-team squad, so far in the Championship this season, 22 of their 26 members have featured. That’s two whole starting XIs.
Monk appears to be rich in numbers in several areas, although, the entire side was assembled by his preceding managers. For strikers, he has Steven Fletcher, Jordan Rhodes, Atdhe Nuhiu, Sam Winnall and even Fernando Forestieri – all for just two places.
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At centre-back, there’s Julian Borner, skipper Tom Lees, Dominic Iorfa and David Bates – even Sam Hutchinson and Jordan Thorniley can play the role.
So maybe the 40-year-old doesn’t believe he has much strength and quality in his depth options, but you’d imagine a few players will have to be shifted out in order to accompany any incomings due to the squad being so big.
The mounting worry off the pitch may also dissuade any potential targets to come to Hillsborough.
And in other news, might one area be in the attack? Wednesday could miss out on a key target if so…