Sheffield Wednesday reaction given to Zepiqueno Redmond snub - "normality" plea made as squad size blasted | OneFootball

Sheffield Wednesday missed out on Zépiqueno Redmond in the transfer window, but FLW's fan pundit feels that's the least of their problems right now.

Sheffield Wednesday have been blasted over the size of their squad as transfer deadline day came and went with only one new addition to their threadbare squad.

Sheffield Wednesday fans may have been hoping that the end of the summer transfer window might finally present them with some good news. One place off the bottom of the Championship table and with a points deduction looming, it's been a dismal summer for the club, to the point that questions could be asked over whether they'll be able to complete this season unless a sale of the club goes through.

Wednesday had been linked with three young players in the build-up to the closure of the summer window, with Harry Amass of Manchester United, Jaden Heskey of Manchester City and Zépiqueno Redmond of Aston Villa linked to loan moves to Hillsborough. But EFL restrictions meant that only Amass arrived at the club.

With the team having only scored three goals in the first four League matches, the arrival of Redmond, a forward, may have caused some excitement. But now this move isn't happening, Football League World decided to stop in with our resident Sheffield Wednesday fan pundit Patrick McKenna to get his thoughts on the end of the transfer window, the failure to land Redmond, and what this means for his club.

Zépiqueno Redmond wouldn't have affected Sheffield Wednesday's season

It is reasonable to say that Patrick is fully aware of the club's parlous current state: "With regard to not being able to bring another striker in, if you look at our squad, currently with 13 fit senior players, it is patently obvious that we need reinforcements in every single position, including up front. So there's no denying that we need more players, but due to the unique situation we're in, there's to be no more incomings unless it's an emergency sanction, like a goalkeeper or an extraordinary circumstance. The club is well under pay for accommodation and bonuses."

Patrick is aware of the challenges that Wednesday face at the moment, and this leads him to the conclusion that signing Zépiqueno Redmond wouldn't have that much difference to the club anyway, in the overall scheme of things: "In more normal times, I'd possibly be giving a different answer. If you're a normally operating club, and you lose out on a player in the transfer window, yeah, there's generally disappointment and a lot of the time you'd think that, yeah, I would have liked to get in one or two more players. But with the greatest respect to Redmond, whether we got him or not was not going to make a difference to our season. It's not going to be the difference between us staying up or going down. In the grand scheme of all things, it's inconsequential, almost."

And Patrick acknowledges that he would very much like to get to a position in which he can answer these questions in the same way that fans of all other clubs would be able to: "So I'm just longing to get back to that normality, where I can give normal answers to these run-of-the-mill questions for fans, but not getting him doesn't register on my radar, honestly. It wasn't going to save our season anyway."

Zépiqueno Redmond is an outstanding prospect, but one that Sheffield Wednesday couldn't afford

Zépiqueno Redmond is certainly a promising young player, having started his senior career in the Netherlands with Feyenoord last year before transferring to Aston Villa at the start of July. He's also already represented the Netherlands at Under-16, Under-17, Under-18 and Under-19 level. He made four appearances in the Eredivisie without scoring, but did score twice for them in three appearances in the KNVB Cup last season.

But all of this is academic in the case of Sheffield Wednesday, because Redmond ended up not going to Hillsborough. The EFL have Wednesday under an extremely tight fee restriction at the moment, and all transfers in and out of the club have to be approved by their Club Financial Reporting United (CFRU).

And it's very evident that the CFRU have little confidence that they'll be able to pay their wages and bills on time, since they are only letting in players whose parents clubs will pay the full wage, with no consideration given for bonuses and the like. Redmond ended up signing for Huddersfield Town on loan instead.

The upshot of all this is that neither Jaden Heskey nor Zépiqueno Redmond ended up at Hillsborough. Harry Amass did, but it's believed that this is only because Manchester United pulled the strings on the deal.

At the moment, Wednesday do only have a squad of 13 fit senior players, with goalkeeper Pierce Charles and captain Barry Bannan both injured, with the remaining places taken up by academy players. Zépiqueno Redmond is an outstanding young talent, but because of the mismanagement of Dejphon Chansiri, he'll be scoring his goals this season for Huddersfield Town rather than Sheffield Wednesday.