A man Garry Monk tried to bring to Sheffield Wednesday last season is now a free agent.
James Beattie, who played with Monk at Southampton and worked under him at Swansea, Leeds and Birmingham, has left the latter club a year before his contract was due to expire, alongside two more of the Wednesday manager’s former colleagues, Darryl Flahavan and Sean Rush.
And a move to Hillsborough could now be on the cards for all three.
Speaking ahead of Sheffield Wednesday’s trip to Birmingham in February, Monk told the club’s Youtube channel. “It was a situation where that (a September move for Beattie) just wasn’t doable at that point.
“There’s certain reasons for that, which I won’t get in to.
“But, of course, that was the aim, for the staff to come in. But certain situations didn’t allow that.”
And Monk’s current number two, Lee Bullen, later revealed to ParsTV (the media channel of his former club, Dunfermline), that he ‘would not be surprised’ to see Beattie arrive at Wednesday in the future.
Beattie is no stranger to Sheffield, having had two spells with the Owls’ city rivals, United, as a player.
The 42-year-old scored for the Blades against Wednesday in a 2-2 draw between the two sides at Bramall Lane in April 2008.