Joey Phuthi has explained what he is now planning to do to make an ‘impact’ on Sheffield Wednesday’s first team.
Joey Phuthi joined Sheffield Wednesday after moving to England from Zimbabwe when he was 13 years old.
The youngster featured in the first team’s pre-season friendlies last summer and went onto sign his first professional contract in August 2023.
Phuthi made his senior debut against Coventry City on Boxing Day, before featuring in their Cup defeat to the Sky Blues two months later. He has also been an unused substitute on five occasions in all competitions.
The 19-year-old has spent a majority of the season impressing with the U21s, most recently pulling off a brilliant run to set up a goal for Favour Onukwuli in their 2-0 win over Wigan Athletic earlier this week.
The versatile winger and teammatte Onukwuli were said to be ‘obvious standouts’, while he has also previously been compared to Manchester City gem Jeremy Doku.
Joey Phuthi wants to ‘impact’ the first team
Phuthi’s hard work in the academy will reportedly be awarded with a fresh contract extension, and the Zimbabwean has now revealed what his targets are for this summer after putting pen to paper.
Speaking to The Star, Phuthi said: ““I just need to keep working on my end product and stuff like that – as Andy (Holdsworth, U21s manager) always says – we’ll get there… Every single game Favour (Onukwuli) and I are confident against whatever fullback we play against, I never look at my opposition fullback and feel like he’s going to get the better of me, I’ll always try and get at them whether it’s in the first team, with the U21s or when I was in the U18s. That’s always been my game.
“I’m targeting to be back with the first team in preseason, and both Steve (Haslam) and Andy have said that I need to start really trying to impact the seniors. We sometimes joke about my out of possession work, but it’s something that I’ll be really trying to work on in the summer and hopefully it can be less of an issue and I can start to affect the first team.”
Will the 19-year-old get his chance next season?
Joey Phuthi’s assist against Wigan this week shows his pace and agility – something that Sheffield Wednesday have really lacked this term.
The teenager isn’t afraid to take players on, show his trickery and get the ball in the box.
The Owls have really struggled to create chances and score goals this season and if the club fail to make Ian Poveda’s move permanent, then we could potentially see Phuthi given more a chance in the first team.
He will surely get more of an opportunity if they are relegated too, though either way, Danny Rohl will surely be hoping to have a more experienced winger in the building too so they don’t have to rely on Phuthi.