Sheffield Wednesday: Danny Rohl, Dejphon Chansiri urged to learn from “huge mistake in January

Sheffield Wednesday: Danny Rohl, Dejphon Chansiri urged to learn from “huge mistake in January

Sheffield Wednesday’s chances of qualifying for the Championship play-offs might be made or broken during the January transfer window.

The Owls, who aim for a top-six finish in May, have been playing well this season and are now three points outside the playoffs.

With the exception of Shea Charles’ recall from parent club Southampton, they have not added anyone this January.

A few additions could help Danny Rohl’s team along the way, but they must get this winter window right if they want to contend for those top six spots.

However, they won’t want to overreact and get it all wrong as they did back in 2017 with their £10 million signing of Jordan Rhodes.

Jordan Rhodes was a disaster signing for Sheffield Wednesday

Field Wednesday’s fan commentator Patrick McKenna outlined the Owls’ 2017 acquisition of Rhodes and asked what error they would prefer not to see repeated this window.

“If we are talking about the January transfer window, our most famous mistake was the signing of Jordan Rhodes for £10 million,” McKenna stated.

“At that point, we had adequate coverage in the center-forward position, so we didn’t need him. In particular, we believed that Sam Winnall from Barnsley finished that section of the pitch, so we looked elsewhere.

However, we hurried and overpaid for Rhodes, who wasn’t the player he had been at Huddersfield at that point. He wasn’t worthy of the money because his career has been deteriorating since Huddersfield, at Middlesbrough and Blackburn.

“As everyone knows, he utterly failed at the club when we jumped in and got him.

“The lesson is that we don’t have to spend a lot of money on a player we don’t need, even though we won’t be in the same circumstance. Don’t sign on to former glory and don’t overpay for unnecessary things.

“It was a big mistake in January, as we signed, but I think it will be difficult to get a direct comparison because they were different eras.”

Jordan Rhodes – A £10 million disaster

Before joining Wednesday, Rhodes had recently returned from his first taste of Premier League football, where he only saw six games for Middlesbrough.

Returning to the Championship was supposed to help him find his scoring touch again, but the attacker only managed 20 goals in 112 games for the Owls. In 2020–21, he scored a season-high seven goals, which was his best season.

He eventually left on a free transfer to rejoin his old team, Huddersfield, which put a disappointing end to his Hillsborough career and cost the team the £10 million they had originally paid for him.

They need to pay attention to this offer and make sure they don’t make rash purchases as the deadline draws closer, even though we won’t be seeing any eight-figure transfer fees starting on Wednesday this window.

For the last few weeks of January, the club should concentrate on acquiring players who will not only help them in their play-off run but also have long-term value.

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