£2.5m Sheffield Wednesday trend won’t shock Cardiff City or Barnsley | OneFootball

The tribulations of Ike Ugbo at Sheffield Wednesday have been well-documented; his former clubs might not be surprised at how things have turned out.

Ike Ugbo could be on his way out of Sheffield Wednesday this summer, and supporters of two of his previous clubs will be unsurprised at how his time at Hillsborough has gone.

This is going to be a busy summer in the transfer market for Sheffield Wednesday when the window opens on the 15th June, with a lot work to be carried out on a squad that finished miles adrift at the bottom of the Championship at the end of the 2025-26 season.

With the club under new ownership, the resources should be there to fund a rebuild, and this means that there will be players who have become familiar faces at HIllsborough who are likely to be on their way out of the club.

One player who is expected to leave Hillsborough this summer is forward Ike Ugbo. The forward signed for Sheffield Wednesday on a permanent deal from the French club Troyes following a successful loan spell with the club in 2024.

But the last couple of seasons have been disastrous for the 27-year-old, and reports of the player having removed all references to the club from his Instagram page have fuelled speculation that he'll be among those who leave Hillsborough this summer.

Cardiff City & Barnsley will be among the clubs unsurprised by Ugbo's Hillsborough issues

Although Ugbo is a product of the Chelsea youth academy, the forward has also had spells with five other English clubs throughout the course of his career. Four of those spells were on loan, at Barnsley, MK Dons, Scunthorpe United and Cardiff City. His fifth loan, to Sheffield Wednesday, was successful enough to earn him a permanent transfer move to the club in 2024.

Ugbo arrived at Barnsley in the summer of 2017 on a season-long loan from Stamford Bridge, but his spell there was unsuccessful and his loan was terminated halfway through the season, with him having registered two goals in 18 appearances in all competitions, and both of those goals came in August.

Spells at Milton Keynes and Scunthorpe followed throughout 2018 and 2019, but he could only manage three goals in 33 appearances for those two clubs combined, as well. Following further loan spells with Roda JC in the Netherlands and Cercle Brugge in Belgium, he left Chelsea permanently in 2021 for the Belgian club Genk.

But his time at Genk was also limited, even though he scored on his debut for them, and in January 2022 he left for the French club Troyes on loan. He made the move permanent the following summer, but was sent on another season-long loan to Cardiff City in 2023. Again, though, the EFL didn't seem to suit him, despite having scored prolifically on the continent, and again he found his season-long loan cut short, and he left the Cardiff City Stadium after scoring four times in 22 games.

Now 27-years-old, Ike Ugbo needs to come good on his early potential

Ike Ugbo's arrival at Sheffield Wednesday on loan in January 2024 resulted in an upturn in form. Over the course of the second half of the 2023-24 season, he scored seven times for them in 18 League appearances, and this was enough to earn him a £2.5 million move to the Steel City that summer.

But the last two seasons have been a bit of a disaster for the forward, who's played 55 League games for Sheffield Wednesday in that time without scoring. Both of the goals that he has managed for them in that time have come in the EFL Cup.

Supporters of the clubs who he'd appeared for on loan before will not be particularly surprised by any of this. It is very clear that Ugbo had potential as a young player. Having first arrived at the club as an under-10 in 2008, he was on Chelsea's books for thirteen years in total, although he never broke into the first team squad at Stamford Bridge.

And there's little doubting his talent, either. Although he played for England at youth levels, he switched his international allegiance to Canada in 2021 and has been capped for them nine times since. But his tail-off in form has had a disastrous impact upon his international credentials.

Canada are one of the three co-hosts of this summer's World Cup, but Ugbo has not been selected for their squad this summer. His last international appearance came against Trinidad & Tobago in 2024, but even though he registered an assist in that match, which Canada won 2-0, this proved to be his only appearance for them since 2022, and he hasn't figured in their plans for this summer at all.

Now 27 years of age, Ike Ugbo is no longer a young player with bags of potential. Fans at Barnsley, Cardiff City and beyond will not be surprised by his failure at Sheffield Wednesday. He didn't work out on loan at their clubs either.

But even if the forward has missed the boat for this summer's World Cup, he does still have plenty of time to resurrect his career. He's under contract with Sheffield Wednesday until 2028, but there are signs are pointing in the direction of a departure from HIllsborough this summer, and given the couple of years he's had with the club, it might be best for both him and them to make a clean break.