Sheffield Wednesday told they "need to be wary" about one takeover possibility | OneFootball

One of the groups interested in Sheffield Wednesday may be looking to use the club as a "shop window" for young talent.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

One of the bidders for Sheffield Wednesday has been reported to want to use the club as a "shop window" for young talent, and FLW's Wednesday fan pundit can see the benefits, though he advises proceeding with caution.

The bids are starting to come in. There is a lot of interest in buying Sheffield Wednesday out of administration, and those who are expressing an interest now will all have different views on the way the club should be run after the dust has settled.

One of the groups expressing that interest has a definite plan for the club. The potential buyers have a plan similar to that used by the likes of Danish side Midtylland and see Wednesday as an ideal platform to showcase rising stars.

This would be a very different plan for the club, compared to anything that they've been through before, but the question facing Sheffield Wednesday fans is whether this is something that they would actually want.

Sheffield Wednesday warned that being a feeder club alone will limit ambitions

WIth all of this mind, FLW have spoken to our resident Sheffield Wednesday fan pundit, Patrick McKenna, about the possibility of this happening, and Patrick replied that this is something that his club should have been doing more of in the past: "Certainly one area that has been neglected by Sheffield Wednesday has been our academy. We have not been producing or bringing through players to sell on for profit, and yes, that has been an issue for the club. So certainly, if we can nurture young talent and sell them on for profit, that is something any football club should be doing."

While the idea has merits, Patrick also warns that he doesn't want his club's ambitions limited by the need to constantly be selling their best players: "So certainly it is part of what we need to be doing as a club, but we need to be wary with this. We don't simply want to become a feeder club with limited ambitions. I would want to see something like this as part of ambitious plans to totally reset the club and have us challenging again in the top division."

And Patrick feels that this is an idea that can work, but that it would need to be done in conjunction with a more nuanced approach than merely being a feeder club for others: "We've kind of been left behind in this regard. If our strategy becomes more modern, and more focused in this area so we can make a profit, it's something we should be doing, but it has to be part of wider plans for the club, and if they are, then certainly that would excite me, and it would be seen as progress for the club."

Being a "shop window" isn't always as easy as the most successful at it make it look

It's not difficult to see how prospective new owners could see how using Sheffield Wednesday as a "shop window" for young talent could work out. Arguably the most successful example of this in recent years has been Brighton & Hove Albion, who have become hugely profitable in recent years while securing regular finishes in the top half of the Premier League.

But just because Brighton make it look easy doesn't make it easy. There are several factors behind their success, not least of which is that they allow players to move on when bids that they consider reasonable to come through. It's also reasonable to say that, as an established Premier League club themselves, they are an attractive destination for players to prove themselves in the first place.

It's a delicate balancing act, because fans may well not tolerate a constant pipeline of their best young players leaving as soon as a good offer comes through for them. And being in the Championship at present - and quite likely League One next season, though this could change if new owners come in and put money into the club before the January transfer window - they may even find that their circumstances will change, and that they'll need to reevaluate whether they should be selling their best talent.

Being a feeder club in Denmark entails something very different to being a feeder club in England. If we consider the success of Sunderland in the Premier League this season, following their promotion from the Championship at the end of last season, we can see that excellent recruitment is about more than just a player's potential re-sale value. The Black Cats made a handsome profit off the sale of Jobe Bellingham to Borussia Dortmund, but players with that sort of potential don't come along every day.

But having said that, the transfer market is an increasingly important part of any club's armoury in terms of making themselves financially viable, and a blended approach could be successful for Sheffield Wednesday if they can play it cannily enough. The biggest question that would face Wednesday fans in the eventuality of this would be whether the new owners would have the skill-set to make it work for the benefit of the club.