Sheffield Wednesday miss out on transfer as Reading FC deal confirmed | OneFootball

Sheffield Wednesday had been hoping to secure the signature of a Royals midfielder who was falling out contract, but their hopes have now been dashed.

Sheffield Wednesday's hopes of signing an out of contract Reading player have been dashed, with confirmation that the individual in question is remaining in Berkshire.

Few other clubs in England went into the summer break in more desperate need of a squad rebuild than Sheffield Wednesday.

Having finished the 2025-26 season on zero points, Wednesday were 41 adrift of safety, and with transfer embargoes having left the club with a threadbare squad, there is a clear need for the club to completely revamp their playing staff over the summer break.

The club are now under new ownership and, with record season-ticket sales for 2026-27 already confirmed, there are plenty of good reasons for Wednesday to feel confident about how their club might be able to compete in League One next season.

But not all of their transfer targets are destined to be successful this summer. With the summer transfer window now set to open, hopes that they might have had regarding one League One midfielder have been dashed.

Andy Rinomhota set to stay with Reading despite reported Sheffield Wednesday interest

Sheffield Wednesday have already been linked with a number of players since the end of the 2025-26 season, but one player who had been reportedly of interest to the Owls will not be going to Hillsborough, with the news that experienced midfielder Andy Rinomhota will instead be signing a contract extension with Reading.

The Sheffield Star reported at the beginning of June that Wednesday were interested in the 29-year-old Rinomhota, but hopes of enticing him to the club have been scotched by the news that the player is due to sign a one-year contract extension with Reading.

The decision was confirmed by the club with a post to the social media platform X saying that, "We're delighted to confirm that Andy Rinomhota has signed a new one-year deal with the club, extending his stay until the summer of 2027."

Andy Rinomhota had been expected to leave Reading at the end of 2025-26

Andy Rinomhota's experience would have come in very useful to Sheffield Wednesday as they plot a quick return to the Championship. The 29-year-old, who's made 13 international appearances for Zimbabwe, started his career in the youth system at non-league side AFC Portchester, but was first signed by the Royals in 2015.

After making his full senior debut for them in the EFL Cup in 2017, Rinomhota broke into the Reading first team during the 2018-19 season, making 26 appearances for them and ending the season as their Fans' Player of the Year.

Having made 125 League appearances for the Royals, he left for Cardiff City in the summer of 2022, but despite a fairly successful first season in which he made 39 appearances for the South Wales club, he spent the second half of the 2023-24 season on loan at Doncaster Rovers.

Returning to the club in the summer of 2024, he broke back into the Cardiff first team during the 2024-25 season and made thirty appearances in the Championship for them.

Despite ending the season as Players' Player of the Year, though, he was released at the end of the season and picked up on a free transfer in January by Reading, teaming up again with Leam Richardson, with whom he had previously worked at Doncaster.

2025-26, however, was a disaster for him, with injuries limiting him to just three appearances in the League for the Royals, of which only one was a start. When another injury ended his season early in April, it was reported by Reading Today that he was "likely to depart as a free agent when his deal expires."

Now that the season is over, though, the club have offered Rinomhota a year's extension which the midfielder has accepted. If Sheffield Wednesday are to sign a midfielder who will help to guide them back to the Championhip at the end of 2026-27, they're going to need to look elsewhere.