Sheffield Wednesday 'have to bite the bullet' on £2.5m man - but Owls exit may not be until summer 2026 | OneFootball

The Sheffield Wednesday forward has been criticised following a disastrous transfer to a club who can ill-afford non-performing players this season.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Sheffield Wednesday's dire position throughout the 2025-26 season has been such that they cannot afford to have players who are not performing on their staff.

While Wednesday's players have performed gamely against extremely difficult odds this season, there has been one player who has come in for particular criticism.

Iké Ugbo's permanent signing for Sheffield Wednesday came off the back of a successful loan spell from the French club Troyes in the second half of the 2023-24 season. But since making that signing permanent in the summer of 2024 in a £2.5 million deal, Ugbo has completely fallen flat.

His two-minute appearance from the bench against Watford at the start of December was his 50th for the club since making his signature permanent, but he's failed to deliver either a goal or an assist throughout his time at Hillsborough permanently, and he's become a player that Wednesday will need to move on at some stage, in order to bolster their first-team squad.

Sheffield Wednesday told to bite the bullet with Ike Ugbo next summer

Football League World have spoken to our Sheffield Wednesday fan pundit Patrick McKenna about Ugbo, and whether the club should keep him or not, and Patrick didn't hold back.

Patrick doesn't believe that cash-strapped Wednesday, who have an extremely small squad as it is, will be able to offload the striker in January, but in his view, the club have to bite the bullet once next summer rolls around and move him out of Hillsborough, despite any potential departure sure to represent a significant loss on the fee shelled out for his services last year.

"Unfortunately, with regard to Iké Ubgo, I don't think we have the luxury of offloading him in January, so I don't think we'll get the chance to get rid of him until the summer," Patrick told FLW.

"For this player, we have to come to the realisation that we're going to get nowhere what we paid for him."

Patrick doesn't feel that the running of the club is an excuse for what Ugbo has delivered on the pitch for his team: "He's been a complete and utter dud. He's hitting 50 games without a goal or an assist and I'm more likely to score for Sheffield Wednesday at this stage.

Even with the farcical running of the club, what he has produced since he signed permanently is just far from acceptable, and I think he's only here because we need numbers. We need players, whoever they are."

And our Sheffield Wednesday fan pundit feels that his club will just have to accept any financial loss that may come their way as a result of having to sell him in the summer, and that they're likely to be stuck with him until then: "But once we can offload him, hopefully in the summer, I think we just have to bite the bullet on it and take the loss, because ultimately that is a better option than keeping him here and paying him a wage that he isn't going to justify."

Ike Ugbo's permanent arrival came off the back of a successful Sheffield Wednesday loan spell in 2023-24

The irony of Iké Ubgo's failure at Sheffield Wednesday is that his permanent transfer to the club was completed off the back of an impressive loan spell with the club.

Originally a product of the Chelsea academy, he arrived on loan from the French club Troyes halfway through the 2023-24 season andd immediately caught the eye, scoring seven goals in 18 games and being nominated for the Championship's Player of the Month for February 2024.

Ugbo made his switch to Hillsborough permanent in August 2024 for a fee reported to be in the region of £2.5 million. It was a transfer that seemed to make sense. He'd impressed during his loan period and he was already a Canadian international.

The issues that Ugbo has had on the pitch can't be pinned on the chaos behind the scenes at Hillsborough. His tail-off in form preceded the decline in the unraveling of Dejphon Chansiri's running of the club. But Wednesday's decline off the pitch has had one important effect. The transfer restrictions put in place by the EFL left Wednesday's first-team squad short on numbers, meaning that he has been necessary this season.

But new owners will reset the club's financial position. It may be too late to get rid of Ugbo in the January transfer window, but there's nothing in his performances since August 2024 to suggest that Sheffield Wednesday should keep hold of this player for any longer than is strictly necessary.