Sheffield Wednesday travel to take on Reading this weekend and one player who may feel he has a point to prove is Royals leading scorer Lucas Joao.
Joao joined the Owls in 2015 alongside Portuguese teammate Marco Matias.
Under the guidance of Carlos Carvalhal, Joao demonstrated plenty of potential, helping the club to the playoffs and later scoring 19 goals for the club in two seasons between 2017-19.
Former Wednesday player Glenn Loovens was a big fan, recently telling the Wednesday Week Podcast how Joao was the most gifted player at Hillsborough during his time there.
The Dutchman claimed he had a bit of everything, citing his natural ability.
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“He was quite unlucky with injuries all the time. He always had little niggles and stuff like that, so it always took him a little bit to get going. But he’s probably the most gifted player in the squad at Sheffield Wednesday [at the time]. Natural ability, he was strong, quick, he could jump and finish. Good technique. He had a lot of good things going for him. Sometimes you need to sell your best players on to make money to invest in new players,” Loovens explained.
Wednesday, however, controversially sold the 27-year-old to Reading in 2019.
The Owls pocked a reported a £5 million, a fee which now looks like a bargain for Reading as Joao currently tops the club’s scoring charts this season with an impressive 17 goals.
Aside from his scoring ability, Joao has also posted six assists and a 76.3% pass rate.
His 23 goal contributions are only one less than Wednesday’s entire squad combined.
Joao has been an instrumental figure as Reading currently sit fifth in the Championship table, six points behind Brentford and Watford in the race for automatic promotion.
The Owls, meanwhile, head to the Madejski Stadium on the back of five straight defeats leaving them in 23rd position in the table and seven points adrift of safety.
Time is running out for Wednesday. New boss Darren Moore needs to have an immediate impact, but Joao may have extra motivation to show his former club what they are missing out on.
Also see: Darren Moore names three positives he saw from first Owls game in charge
Also see: ‘Not your fault’: Some Owls fans react to Wednesday player’s apology for Rotherham debacle