Sheffield Wednesday’s season has taken a turn for the worst as the club enters a third decade without the prospect of top-flight football.
The Owls have gone from a side looking like they could catch the runaway duo, Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion, to a team destined for midtable obscurity – almost overnight too.
They have lost three straight matches, sinking to seventh in the table and the 1-0 defeat to Hull City last time out showed no signs that it could change anytime soon.
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During that run, Garry Monk has been without the services of his top scorer Steven Fletcher, who has bagged 12 goals this season, four times the amount of any other Wednesday player.
The 32-year-old returned to action in the second half at Hillsborough on New Year’s Day, but it was clear that he was lacking match fitness having been absent through illness over the festive period.
This is something that must be addressed over the next three to four weeks as it could be the difference between the Owls getting back amongst the playoff mix or instead settling for mediocrity.
Both Kadeem Harris and Jordan Rhodes rank second for goals in the team, but their club-record man scored all of these in one match and hasn’t done anything of note since.
Atdhe Nuhiu barely offers anything other than some sort of battering ram presence in attack, winning 4.9 aerial duels per game on average, over double his goal tally of two.
Meanwhile, Sam Winnall is merely an outcast of a figure at Hillsborough having started no more than two matches since Monk took the helm in September.
Then there’s even Fernando Forestieri who has pretty much faced a void of a season after suspension and injuries have put pay to any chance of a regular runout under Monk.
Can you remember how much each of these transfer icons cost? Only experts will get 100% on our quiz…
The club have been linked to some very exciting players in the past couple of weeks, such as Liverpool’s Rhian Brewster and even the recently recalled Eddie Nketiah.
It remains to be seen how accurate these reports are, but either way, any player of such ilk would be a more than welcome addition in south Yorkshire.
The Owls have consistently struggled in the absence of Fletcher this season, even despite the vast range of options Monk has as back up, so it only highlights that a striker is absolutely a pressing need in the transfer market this month.
And in other news, Garry Monk’s recent player positional tweak failed to pay off…
