Spaces left open on Sheffield Wednesday’s EFL squad list – free agent stance explained
Spaces left open on Sheffield Wednesday’s EFL squad list – free agent stance explained
Sheffield Wednesday have left spaces open on their EFL squad list –
which theoretically leaves open the opportunity to explore the free agent market.
The EFL’s regulations say that each club ‘shall submit its squad list to the League within
24 hours of a transfer window or such other date and time as may be notified by the League’.
Wednesday have exactly done that and speaking to The Star after their gut-punch defeat at
West Bromwich Albion,
Owls boss Danny Röhl revealed that spaces had been left unfilled on their maximum 25-man list.
The same regulations stipulate the authority will publish all lists within seven days of the window closing,
meaning they are expected to be made public by 11pm Monday.
Non-loanee under-21 players do not need to be included on an EFL squad list and Wednesday’s
list of senior players now totals 25 after the winter signings of Stuart Armstrong,
Ibrahim Cissoko and Ryo Hatsuse – though that’s not the end of that, it seems.
Players can be added to the squad list once submitted, but not removed.
“For us it is clear what the squad list looks like,” Röhl said.
“It means maybe some spaces are still open because maybe not everybody is now on the list.
There is a reason why. It gives us an opportunity if something is there in the market.
If not, we carry on with our fantastic group together.
“When you see all the players are back, you see it in training if you play an A Team against a B Team,
compared to last season we have made a big step forward.
You saw again today all the players can help us make the next step.
We can close the topic of the transfer market and move forward into the next 15 games.”
Last season, the likes of Lee Gregory and Jeff Hendrick were left off the list until the final late-March deadline, with the free agent signing of Nico Schulz among those considered and ultimately passed-up on. Röhl wouldn’t go into the names left off the list – though their identities will be known soon enough – but did suggest they may well be the players currently out injured.
The inferred logic would suggest that if any of those players were to suffer a setback that rules them out longer term, their spaces on the list might as well be left open so as not to close off the opportunity to strengthen from the free agent market. But Röhl, one of a great many managers to have grown a little weary of endless transfer chatter in recent weeks, made clear it was not a route the club were looking to go down in the immediate future.
“You never know,” he said. “We have some injured players who are at the moment not able to play, this is a clear direction. Last year it was done like this. It means as well there is the free agent market but how big is the chance to get something? Guys, the window is now closed. If something happens we can speak about this but I am happy with my players and now hopefully everybody comes back soon and we can end this questions about having to sign something or someone.”
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