When Sheffield Wednesday expect to seal ex-Chelsea player transfer deal | OneFootball

Henrik Pedersen has addressed the timescale

Sheffield Wednesday’s season has lurched from one complication to the next, and team selection has become the next exercise in improvisation.

An injury to on-loan goalkeeper Murphy Cooper this week forced the club back into the emergency market yet again, prompting the short-term arrival of Seny Dieng from Middlesbrough, extending an extraordinary run that has already seen seven players guard the Owls’ sticks this season.

That instability has been compounded by January departures. Captain Barry Bannan was allowed to join Millwall, while Nathan Redmond’s short-lived spell at Hillsborough came to an end.

Yan Valery’s loan move to Young Boys created a vacancy in the squad list, Harry Amass returned to Manchester United at the end of his loan, and Ethan Horvath’s temporary deal concluded earlier in the window.

The cumulative effect is a squad thinner in both experience and depth, a team staring at the near-certainty of relegation and struggling to stem a run of performances that have too often bordered on the humiliating.

Wednesday are in talks to alleviate some of those selection woes with former Chelsea youngster Zain Silcott-Duberry.

The 20 year old forward is available on a free transfer after his contract with Olympiakos was terminated in last month.

He had previously trained with the Owls at the end of January - but has recently been invited back to Middlewood Road following the departure of Yan Valery to Young Boys BSC.

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s Steel City derby, Pedersen confirmed that discussions with the player’s representatives were ongoing and suggested a resolution was close.

“I hope it will be done in the next couple of days, but we are speaking with the agent and let's see what happens,” he said.

Under EFL regulations, clubs have until 26 March - the fourth Thursday of the month - to register out-of-contract players.

Wednesday have one available slot following Valery’s exit, and the Dane has stressed the importance of using it wisely.

Owls looking to protect key assets during difficult Championship run-in

Whether Wednesday remain in the Championship for a few days more or have their relegation confirmed imminently will shape how this signing is ultimately judged.

The table already tells a bleak story and performances have done little to contradict it. Confidence has drained, margins have widened and too often the club have looked overmatched.

In that context, Silcott-Duberry would not arrive as a saviour. He would arrive as a low-cost, low-risk addition to an Owls side already planning for what comes next.

If relegation is formalised this weekend - as increasingly appears inevitable - his value may lie less in immediate impact and more in whether he can stake a claim in a League One rebuild.

For now, the calculus is pragmatic rather than romantic. Wednesday are searching for functionality rather than shopping for statements.

The expectation that the deal will be completed in the coming days is another small move in a season defined less by ambition than by survival, and now, by acceptance.

The signing appears to be a modest adjustment - designed to alleviate selection strain during a run-in that may feel functionally meaningless in the table, but still matters in protecting bodies, preserving value and restoring a measure of professional pride.