Despite Leeds United flashpoint, Sheffield Wednesday never saw the best of £5m Middlesbrough man | OneFootball

Adam Reach scored some memorable goals for Sheffield Wednesday, but he never quite fulfilled his potential at Hillsborough.

It is fair to say that Sheffield Wednesday have had a mixed record in the transfer market during Dejphon Chansiri's time as owner.

After taking over Wednesday from Milan Mandaric in January 2015, Chansiri revealed his ambition to lead the club back to the Premier League during his first two full years of ownership, and he invested heavily in pursuit of that objective.

Chansiri made plenty of bold decisions during the early stages of his time at Hillsborough, including appointing Carlos Carvalhal as head coach, and he came agonisingly close to achieving his goal of top flight football, with the Owls falling short in consecutive seasons in the play-offs, first losing to Hull City in the final at Wembley before being knocked out by Huddersfield Town at the semi-final stage.

After failing to win promotion, the excessive spending during the Carvalhal era would eventually lead to Wednesday being hit with the six-point deduction that would relegate them to League One, and some costly transfer mistakes raised doubts over Chansiri's decision-making.

While he is far from the Owls' worst signing in recent times, winger Adam Reach was one player who divided opinion in South Yorkshire, with many feeling that he failed to live up to his potential, despite some stunning goals.

Adam Reach delivered some memorable Sheffield Wednesday moments

Losing to Hull in the aforementioned play-off final in 2016 clearly only served to strengthen Chansiri's resolve to guide the club to promotion, and he took his spending to another level the following season.

Having already signed midfielder Almen Abdi from Watford for £4 million and brought in the likes of Daniel Pudil, David Jones and Steven Fletcher, Wednesday made another big money purchase when they completed a £5 million deal for Middlesbrough winger Reach, which was a new club-record at the time.

The Owls had previously had a £2 million bid rejected for Reach earlier in the month, but their persistence eventually paid off as they landed their man on the final day of the transfer window, even if some felt that the fee was a little inflated.

After coming through the Boro academy, Reach failed to fully establish himself at the Riverside Stadium, and Wednesday signed him off the back of an impressive loan spell at Preston North End, during which he scored four goals and registered three assists in 36 appearances.

Reach quickly established himself as a regular in the Owls' starting line-up, and while his crossing ability was one of his main attributes, he soon developed a reputation for scoring long-range goals.

The winger's first standout moment came in November 2017 when he netted a delightful 25-yard volley after just 16 seconds in the 2-1 win at Aston Villa, but if that goal was good, it was nothing compared to what he would go on to deliver.

Wednesday welcomed Leeds United to Hillsborough under the Friday night lights in September 2018, and after a dominant start from the Whites, Reach gave the hosts the lead out of nowhere when he unleashed a sensational 30-yard volley that crashed in off the post.

The goal is still talked about to this day as one of the best strikes ever seen in the Championship, but, incredibly, Reach followed it up with another sublime effort just five days later in a 2-2 home draw against West Bromwich Albion, and that was not the last of his impressive collection of thunderbolts for the club.

Sheffield Wednesday will have mixed emotions about Adam Reach deal

Reach himself admitted that his form during his second season at Wednesday was the best of his career, and the statistics certainly back that up, with the 32-year-old scoring four goals and providing 12 assists in 53 appearances in the 2017-18 campaign.

The winger was among the goals even more frequently in the following season as he netted nine times and registered seven assists in 46 games, but that would prove to be the peak of his time at the club as injuries and inconsistent form soon saw him come in for increasing criticism from the Hillsborough faithful.

Reach got on the scoresheet on just two occasions during the 2019-20 season, and although his numbers did improve in the 2020-21 campaign as he scored six goals, it would ultimately end in disaster for the Owls as they were relegated to League One.

One of the main frustrations with Reach was that he lacked physicality, and, somewhat unfairly, he was often accused of being afraid or unwilling to make tackles, which was highlighted more regularly during Wednesday's battle against the drop.

Reach was released following relegation in the summer of 2021, and while he was certainly not a transfer flop, particularly when compared with some of the club's other expensive signings such as Abdi or Jordan Rhodes, the Owls may have expected slightly more from him given his hefty price tag.

After leaving Hillsborough, Reach was handed a Championship lifeline by West Bromwich Albion, leaving some surprised that he had managed to secure a move to a promotion-chasing second tier club after his role in Wednesday's demise, and he was part of the Baggies side that lost to Southampton in the play-offs last season.