Henrik Pedersen issues clear Sheffield Wednesday player demand to David Storch - 'we have to' | OneFootball

Henrik Pedersen has outlined his wishes for Will Grainger to be handed a professional deal as soon as possible this summer

Sheffield Wednesday's squad was gutted last summer, and that, plus various injuries throughout the year, meant that being competitive on the pitch was near impossible this season.

The Owls won just two league games all season, collecting the 18 points needed to overturn the points deductions they faced over the course of the campaign and ultimately finishing on a round zero at the bottom of the Championship.

It's been a difficult season, but if there were any positives, outside the takeover and the waiving of next term's points deduction being announced ahead of the final day, it has been the emergence of some academy products who wouldn't have been given senior minutes in any normal circumstances.

Numerous teenage starlets have been given senior minutes at Hillsborough this year, and with a League One campaign on the horizon, most of them will likely be given even more opportunities to impress next year.

Henrik Pedersen urges David Storch to give Will Grainger his first professional contract

One of the later arrivals into Henrik Pedersen's squad this season has been 17-year-old Will Grainger.

Despite making his senior debut back in August in the EFL Cup against Leeds United, and then also featuring in the FA Cup defeat against Brentford in January, it wouldn't be until late February that the Welsh youth international would break into the Championship fold.

Grainger, at the time, became the second-youngest player to play in the second tier this season, after Leicester City's Jeremy Monga, when he made his league debut against Norwich City, and, overall, made six league appearances, scoring off the bench in the penultimate outing against Oxford United.

That would lead to his first start on the final day against West Brom, and, per the Sheffield Star, Wednesday boss Henrik Pedersen hopes that it won't be the last time he starts a game at Hillsborough in his career.

"Yes, of course it is," Pedersen responded when quizzed about whether a first professional contract for Grainger is one of the top priorities for the summer. "I don't think Will can get a better club right now for him than Sheffield Wednesday.

"He has people who trust him, and he has people who can develop him as a football player, as a human, so I think we have a very good match."

Pedersen counts himself as a good manager at finding young players from the academy and integrating them into the first team. It hasn't been the most ideal scenario this season, but the Danish boss believes that the emergence of some youngsters will help improve the club's business model for the future.

"I'm from a Red Bull system where we know we have to find and develop the next talent," he added. "We have to integrate the next talent into the first team, we have to make him good, we have to make him effective here so we can make results, and we can sell.

"Then we find the next talent, we can rebuild, and we can let the club grow step by step.

"For me, it's always a combination to think short-term to make the best performance next Saturday, but at the same time, we have to see how many of these short-term solutions go hand-in-hand with this long-term solution to make a sustainable football club and to make a sustainable business model."

Will Grainger will not be the only academy product who will see more minutes next season

As Pedersen alluded to, he sees his job as one where he mixes the week-by-week results with integrating stars who the club can sell on for a hefty fee in the future.

Therefore, this season, in that regard, has been somewhat successful, as, while Wednesday will definitely be looking to add experience next season to prepare for a League One return, they will also be leaning on some of the players who have been seen in bursts this year to make that step up in their development.

The likes of Earnie Weaver, Jarvus Thornton, George Brown, Bruno Fernandes, Sean Fusire and others, who have played varying amounts of football this season, will all be called upon, along with Grainger, to build a young core of players in the third tier.

If they can all show some quality in more prolonged periods next season, then not only will Wednesday be more competitive, but they'd stand in good stead to make profits if a team from higher up the pyramid came in to buy them.

But the focus will be to make sure that they're all under lengthy contracts, so they can maximise that profit. Grainger, who is yet to sign a professional deal, will be one of the main focal points of this summer's business for Sheffield Wednesday.