How one Sheffield Wednesday signing cost millions but barely touched the pitch | OneFootball

Almen Abdi is widely regarded as the worst transfer completed under Dejphon Chansiri

Almen Abdi is largely regarded by Sheffield Wednesday fans as the worst signing of the Dejphon Chansiri era.

The Swiss midfielder had just played in 38 games across all competitions during the 15/16 Premier League season for Watford, which led to the Owls forking out a reported fee of £4m to bring the 29-year-old to Hillsborough.

But, over the course of the next two seasons in South Yorkshire, the ex-Hornets playmaker would go onto play 15 LESS times (23) than he did in that one aforementioned top-flight campaign.

This means he cost the club approximately £174k per game, but why and how did Abdi barely play for Wednesday?

Sheffield Wednesday must've thought Almen Abdi would turn out like Fernando Forestieri

Abdi signed for the Owls on the same day as his former Watford teammate Daniel Pudil, who made his loan move permanent. The latter had played 39 times for Wednesday whilst Abdi enjoyed his only season in the Premier League.

Fresh from the play-off final defeat to Hull City, that double announcement had fans believing Chansiri’s ambition - and the club’s recruitment - might finally deliver a long-awaited Premier League return.

In all fairness, Pudil aside, recruiting from Watford had already paid off with Fernando Forestieri - who had fired in 15 goals to help the club get to Wembley. So you can perhaps see why Wednesday thought it was a good idea to spend big on Abdi.

Initially, Abdi did start games for Wednesday in the early weeks of the 16/17 season, but it did not take too long for the promotion dream to unravel. Injuries quickly began to bite, and he ended that campaign having scored just once in 16 appearances.

Compare that to Forestieri, the Italian striker had another productive season in front of goal - contributing to 17 goals, with 12 scored and five assists, in 38 games.

While Wednesday still managed to finish fourth and reach the play-off semi-finals this time, Abdi spent most of it watching on from the sidelines - and this carried on until he left.

Almen Abdi blamed Carlos Carvalhal for Sheffield Wednesday woes

By the time his contract expired in 2019, Abdi had played just 23 games in all competitions for Wednesday, an astonishingly low figure given the money spent and expectation that accompanied his arrival from Watford.

He later blamed Portuguese manager Carlos Carvalhal for not trusting him, as per a 2021 interview with The Athletic.

Abdi claimed he would play two games and then be dropped after a poorer third performance, saying that left him feeling that his head coach simply did not trust him: "The coach didn’t help me very much because I’d play two games, then the third, which I didn’t play well, so he’d drop me, then drop me again and after a while, you lose confidence."

He went further, and revealed: "I needed a manager who trusted me, who believed in me, who pushed me. He (Carvalhal) didn’t do that. He’s energetic, he’s enthusiastic. He’s a really good coach and he did well. But he didn’t trust me. He didn’t like me and I didn’t like him that much. So it was really hard mentally. I was asking myself why? What have I done?

"I was one of the best players at Watford in the Championship and Premier League for the whole season and played almost every game. And suddenly, I’m not good enough to play for Sheffield Wednesday, with all due respect they had a great team, but I wasn’t good enough," the former Owls midfielder added.

The Switzerland international also revealed that he repeatedly asked to leave Hillsborough, explaining that he requested a move 'every six months' once it became clear that he was not going to be a regular starter under Carvalhal or his successors.

But, as alluded to earlier, FLW’s Sheffield Wednesday Fan Pundit, Patrick McKenna, has gone as far as to label Abdi the club’s worst signing of the Chansiri era.