Jon Newsome has predicted a very different summer to the ones to which Sheffield Wednesday have grown accustomed of late.
It will be Steve Bruce’s first as Wednesday manager and a chance for the experienced boss to put his own stamp on the squad he inherited from Jos Luhukay in January.
The Owls are again expected to find themselves operating within a Profit & Sustainability straight jacket, although the fact they have nine senior players out of contract could allow some room for manoeuvre – while some sales likely too.
“It’s got to be (a different summer), hasn’t it? Newsome told Sheffield Live TV. “I think over the last two or three seasons the club’s probably been criticised a little bit for the lack of players leaving. It’s like we’re collecting footballers. We seem to buy players and get people in on loan but there doesn’t really seem to be anybody going the other way.
“I think that will change dramatically this summer – and it has to. There’s a real, real big (re)building job, I think, for Steve Bruce to do and again, just reiterating, I think he’s the ideal man for it. he’s done it in the past he knows who and how to get players in. I mean look at deadline day when he brought three lads in. And they’ve all come in and made an impact.
Those with expiring deals include the long and successful servants, Gary Hooper and Kieran Lee.
The Wednesday striker, Gary Hooper (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
Both players have only recently returned to full training after spending more than 15 months (each) out of the first-team picture, with Hooper making his comeback at the end of last month.
“That’s another part of the equation, the injury issues with them. And that’s why I think, financially, the levels that they’re at, it would be virtually impossible for the football club to continue in that vein if they wanted to bring other people in as well,” added Newsome.
“So something’s got to give somewhere along the line and it’s whether the players are possibly willing to take a reduction in salary, or whether they want to move on.”
