Sheffield Wednesday react as Hibernian table £1m transfer bid | OneFootball

Bailey Cadamarteri is one of several highly-rated prospects currently at Hillsborough

Scottish Premiership side Hibernian FC have reportedly lodged an unsuccessful offer worth approximately £1m for the services of Sheffield Wednesday's highly-rated striker, Bailey Cadamarteri.

That is according to Alan Nixon - via Patreon - on Thursday afternoon, who outlines the Edinburgh club's plans to eventually succeed in a pursuit in which a handful of the Owls' current Championship rivals had previously failed.

The winter transfer window is often a period where managers and head coaches across the country will look to land the services of players in order to help achieve their short-term goals for the remainder of the season, be that a promotion push or an escape from relegation danger.

However, it is fair to say that the one club across the entire English Football League which such a predicament does not apply to this particular season is Wednesday, who have, and will, barring the mother of all miracles, continue to prop up the second tier standings for the remainder of the campaign.

The Steel City side have been docked 18 points as a result of initially entering administration on October 24th - developments which brought Dejphon Chansiri's dramatic 10-year spell as owner to an end - as well as being found guilty of further delayed payments and non-payments to players, management and general staff at Hillsborough across the opening months of last year.

As a result, Henrik Pedersen's threadbare side are projected to end the season with the Championship's lowest-ever points' total, as they remain on minus seven points with 21 matches of their league campaign still to play.

It has been well-documented that such financial uncertainty has hamstrung the Dane in the transfer market, with only two loan deals for Ethan Horvath and Harry Amass being completed in the summer, before Liam Cooper and Nathan Redmond were added to his squad on short-term deals as free transfers in November after the EFL granted special dispensation.

Takeover talk, of course, has been the number one priority and source of discourse in S6, with it expected that Dunfermline Athletic and Córdoba CF co-owner, James Bord, will be confirmed as the club's next chairman in the coming weeks after being granted preferred bidder status by administrative group, Begbies Traynor.

In the meantime, though, the Owls are, again, only able to add to their squad in specific ways this transfer window, whilst fear still remains over the chances of losing some of their brightest prospects - a category which Cadamarteri very much falls into.

With the current transfer window just one week old, Nixon claims that Hibernian have submitted an unsuccessful offer worth approximately seven figures (£1m) in an attempt to lure Cadamarteri to Easter Road.

Despite being just 20 years of age, the striker has already racked up 57 appearances for the Owls, scoring seven times and posting a solitary assist in that particular timeframe.

It has been just shy of four years since the forward signed his first professional contract under the management of Darren Moore, before initially making his breakthrough into the first-team fold during Danny Rohl's first weeks in charge in the Autumn of 2023, with his debut coming in a 3-1 success over Blackburn Rovers.

Cadamarteri also spent 31 matches on loan with League One outfit, Lincoln City, last season, and was the scorer of eight goals as the Imps ended the campaign with an 11th-place finish.

Nixon has described the bid placed by Hibs as a 'surprise', although the Scottish side are hoping to take advantage of the fact that Wednesday are still in administration for the time being.

However, the journalist claims that whilst the four-time Jamaican international could be viewed as a replacement for Kieron Bowie - who has become the subject of exit talk - David Gray's men will have to submit a greater offer, as Wednesday's administrators could be pressured into a big-money sale later in the window.

Hibs must front up a greater cash sum for Bailey Cadamarteri - Blackburn Rovers can attest to transfer frustration

Nixon's aforementioned report also references the fact that Hibs' bid falls short of the offer that was previously put on the table by Blackburn in the summer, with the East Lancashire side also failing to secure Cadamarteri's services on a cut-price deal.

They were also joined by Preston North End, Ipswich Town and the Owls' cross-city rivals, Sheffield United, on this particular front, demonstrating how highly thought of the Leeds-born frontman has become.

He has started 19 times in the league so far for Pedersen this season, with both of his strikes coming in credible draws against Wrexham and Hull City.

Although the length of his current deal was not disclosed in December 2023, it is no surprise that Wednesday are holding out for a greater sum of cash for the striker, and this would have, undoubtedly, been the case regardless of whether they were in administration or not.