Sheffield Wednesday must look back on Derby County deadline day deal with regret: View | OneFootball

Wednesday signed Jack Marriott on deadline day in 2020. A deal of regret with no goals in 13 games, a different signing may have kept the Owl's up

Key Takeaways

The 2020/21 season was a tight relegation battle but one to forget for Sheffield Wednesday and the loan signing of Jack Marriott certainly didn't advance their chances of staying up.

Wednesday weren't in a good place before the season had even started, being handed a 12-point deduction by the EFL, later reduced to six.

Marriott signed on loan with the Owls on the August transfer deadline day of 2020, with the striker looking for a new challenge away from Derby County after three seasons with the Rams.

Derby had an array of striking options, including Wayne Rooney, Martyn Waghorn, Colin Kazim-Richards, and Morgan Whittaker, potentially indicating for Marriott that his game time would be limited.

He arrived to provide competition at Hillsborough with the likes of Callum Paterson, Jordan Rhodes, Elias Kachunga, and Josh Windass.

Garry Monk signed the striker on a loan, the first Wednesday boss out of three in a frustrating season that ended in the drop.

Marriott had a disappointing 2019/20 campaign following his clinical performances in the Rams' Premier League push in 2018/19. Wednesday were hoping he'd reciprocate the latter but that's now how things panned out.

Wednesday look back on Marriott deal with regret

Wednesday fans will tell you how badly the deal would turn out.

13 appearances and no goals returned left the Owls stumbling down to League One.

Injuries meant he missed a large portion of the campaign, as the striker suffered a calf problem which saw him return to parent club, Derby.

The striker almost ended up not returning to Hillsborough, with Rooney now as manager, not activating his return clause in his contract, meaning he had another attempt at getting the Wednesday faithful on his side.

Rooney spoke about his reasoning for not activating the return clause, with Derby also in a relegation fight.

Speaking to Derbyshire Live, he said: "I felt the way I want to move forward, it was best for Jack to go back to Sheffield Wednesday.

"He is fit, and he has been back training for two or three weeks now.

"He is a good player, but in terms of how I see this club moving forward, I felt it was better to focus on other players and let Jack go and play because I couldn't guarantee him playing here."

Following his return, Marriott could only amount to six more outings, all as a substitute and with the longest stint coming at just 22 minutes. A disappointing showing to say the least.

Wednesday should've gone for a different loan signing

Not all loan signings work out and injury issues can trouble any player but what might frustrate most about the Marriott move is that had they landed a different striker on deadline day, one that had the desired effect, they could've been the difference maker in the battle for survival.

In hindsight, the Owls will wish they'd looked elsewhere to bolster their forward options and gone for a different loan signing on deadline day 2020.