Sheffield Wednesday are returning to the Championship. But the Owls need a good showing in this summer’s transfer window if they’re to avoid the drop next season.
There are some huge teams in the Championship next season. A host of sides will fancy themselves for automatic promotion whilst only a handful might be fearful of the drop.
Sheffield Wednesday might be backed to finish somewhere in the bottom half pack. They have the core of a good squad but in reality, a lot of work is needed on the playing squad if Darren Moore is to succeed with this side next time round.
And one area of the pitch that needs bolstering is in attack. Moore has enough options up top but not enough quality for the Championship.
Here we look at three free agent strikers the Owls could sign this summer…
Lyle Taylor
Former AFC Wimbledon and Charlton Athletic forward Lyle Taylor is leaving Nottingham Forest as a free agent this summer, with Wednesday having already been linked with a potential summer swoop for the 33-year-old.
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He’s a proven name in the Football League. He spent the second half of last season on loan at Birmingham City where he scored five in 14, and in the 2019/20 season he scored 11 in 22 for Charlton before injury halted his campaign.
Taylor would be a shrewd capture for many in the Championship, and he’d certainly add a degree of quality to the Wednesday front-line.
Troy Deeney
They don’t come much more tried and tested than Deeney. The big striker was a surprise inclusion in Birmingham City’s released list last month, coming after arguably his best season in a few years.
He scored seven in 34 league appearances for Blues. The 34-year-old operated as a sort of holding target man, allowing for the pacier Scott Hogan to run off him in a system that worked quite well for Birmingham City.
Deeney could play the same way at Wednesday with someone like Josh Windass playing off him perhaps. Deeney looks like he has another decent season or two in him and he could be a good signing for Wednesday.
Birmingham City boss John Eustace played with Deeney at Watford and obviously managed him last season, praising his leadership qualities throughout and labelling some of his performances as ‘immense’.
Josh Maja
Maja is by far the most ambitious on this list. English football fans may remember him from his time at Sunderland before he was snapped up by French side Bordeaux during the 2018/19 season, and he’s since been back to England in loan spells with Fulham and Stoke City.
The one-time Nigerian international is about to cap the best season of his career so far, having scored 16 times and assisted six more for Bordeaux who need a big win in their final game of the season to win promotion from the French second tier.
A host of sides have been linked with a summer move for Maja, with his contract still set to expire at the end of the month. It’d be a really ambitious signing for Wednesday but a massive one if they pulled it off.