The Owls have already signed seven new players this summer; James Beadle is the most recent addition, returning to the club on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion after spending the second half of last season there.
However, more additions are needed. Sheffield Wednesday boss Danny Röhl was keeping his cards close to his chest on Saturday when asked about who could be the next man through the door at Hillsborough this summer.
Nonetheless, it appears that further transactions will be completed in the upcoming weeks as Röhl leaves his mark on the Wednesday team. One of those reportedly close to relocating to South Yorkshire is Scott Wright; word has it that a contract to sign the Rangers player is almost finalised.
Although Wright’s contract at Ibrox is still valid for another year, it is rumoured that the 26-year-old is about to move to South Yorkshire. When asked about the three possible new arrivals this summer, Röhl gave very little away. Ian Poveda and Ike Ugbo are also among those linked with a return to Hillsborough following their previous loan spells.
When questioned about the likelihood of Di’Shon Bernard staying with the team when his contract expired last week, the manager was similarly evasive.
Röhl responded, “Next, we still have some decisions going on, we know this,” in response to a question concerning the potential signing of Wright. “Preseason went well, and we’ve hopefully identified the next group of guys.
“Giving names away is pointless since this market moves so quickly. We know what we need to work on, we know what we want to have, and I have an idea of how we want to play in the upcoming season. Next, it’s about adding the appropriate parts to strengthen our team because we are extremely ambitious for the new season.
“I think we have to do more, how much you will see.”
Pushed on the situations surrounding Bernard, Poveda and Ugbo, Röhl added: “I said this before, it makes no sense to speak about the names now. You can ask me about 10 more players but I will not speak about names.
“I will just tell you that we are working on more and we have players that were part of the team last season here that I really want to come back. You can decide what that means.
“I know everyone is interested to know what we’re doing I think in the first week we did a lot and of course we want to do more.”
Röhl was speaking at Alfreton Town’s Impact Arena after watching his Owls side pick up a 2-0 win in their first pre-season friendly of the summer. The head coach named a strong starting XI, featuring Josh Windass, fresh from signing a new contract, and Barry Bannan and it was the latter who opened the scoring with a curling effort from 25 yards.
Changes were made at the break as Röhl shared out the game time and just a few minutes after the break new signing Olaf Kobacki set up Mallik Wilks for a second. It was a comfortable win in truth and one that the German was pleased with as the club’s first week of pre-season came to an end.
“I think today was for me to keep the intensity, this is what I saw,” he added. “It’s a start, not more, not less and it’s good to start with a win and to see the players on the pitch and have a good afternoon with our fans here, it was good to see.
“[The new signings] were all different positions, different profiles, different names but now it’s about bringing them together with the core from last season and have a connection together so they know each other. Every player is a little bit different in the small details.
“There are things we want to try in the next weeks. I think you see in the pre-season schedule, I am not a big fan of having too many games, it’s about one game per week and important for us to finish the week with a game. Good to see and everyone is happy, no injuries.”
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