Marked for Daniel Harvey
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Jul 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Harvey
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sheffield Wednesday lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market23 Jul 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sheffield Wednesday have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Oliver Hughes breaks a bone — 31 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
Brad Potts: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sheffield Wednesday have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market23 Jul 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sheffield Wednesday, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market23 Jul 2029
James Shea has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sheffield Wednesday they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad23 Jul 2029
Joël Piroe and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Will Grainger is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Jul 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Harvey
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sheffield Wednesday lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market16 Jul 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sheffield Wednesday, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market16 Jul 2029
The offer from Melbourne Victory for Thiago Nahuel was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Altay Bayındır and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad16 Jul 2029
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Josh Acheampong falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market16 Jul 2029
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ernie Weaver, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
Di'Shon Bernard asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Jul 2029
Daniel Harvey damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market9 Jul 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market9 Jul 2029
The offer from Bloemfontein Celtic for Will Grainger was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Ato Ampah is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad9 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sheffield Wednesday this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Josh Acheampong falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market9 Jul 2029
Wes Harding is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sheffield Wednesday has been clear about where Wes Harding stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout9 Jul 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout9 Jul 2029
Di'Shon Bernard asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces2 Jul 2029
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad2 Jul 2029
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sheffield Wednesday lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Sheffield Wednesday
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market2 Jul 2029
Terms done: Iké Ugbo is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Danubio waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sheffield Wednesday is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market2 Jul 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sheffield Wednesday, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market2 Jul 2029
Cole McGhee has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sheffield Wednesday they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Ernie Weaver is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Joël Piroe was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
$440.0K was the most the club would pay and Peterborough United were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Jun 2029
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Sheffield Wednesday are no longer polite ones.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Daniel Harvey damages knee ligaments — 46 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 46 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market25 Jun 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sheffield Wednesday people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market25 Jun 2029
Ossama Ashley hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sheffield Wednesday can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wolverhampton have kept their man, and Sheffield Wednesday go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market25 Jun 2029
Only the photograph left for James Shea
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. James Shea will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sheffield Wednesday the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad25 Jun 2029
Josh Acheampong was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Chelsea wanted more than $600.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings8 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market8 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sheffield Wednesday is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market8 May 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Sheffield Wednesday heard it as anything else.
Squad8 May 2028
25 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad8 May 2028
Wilson Odobert and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Sheffield Wednesday training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josh Acheampong is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad8 May 2028
Max Lowe signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Max Lowe commits to Sheffield Wednesday for another 4 years.
Boardroom8 May 2028
Luton Town will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. James Gibbons has pre-agreed a move to Sheffield Wednesday, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The dugout8 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Altay Bayındır, and the manager let it.