Ex-Sheffield Wednesday and Aston Villa man seals shock new transfer | OneFootball

Former Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday loanee Josh Onomah has completed a shock new transfer after a period away from the game

Josh Onomah was once a highly-rated talent at Tottenham Hotspur who spent the formative years of his career operating in the Championship in an effort to gain experience away from North London.

The promising midfielder was a regular for England at various age-group levels and shone for Spurs at academy level before breaking into the first-team set up under Mauricio Pochettino at a stage where the Lilywhites were competing right at the top of the Premier League.

Pochettino's side famously failed to lift silverware but were competing for Premier League football and found themselves regularly turning out in Europe, with Onomah making 19 appearances across all competitions as Spurs finished in third place behind Arsenal and Leicester City.

He even scored his first senior goal during Spurs' 5-0 EFL Cup rout of Gillingham in September 2016, and after featuring under the popular Argentine on 32 occasions, Onomah was expected to further his development when he completed a loan switch to Aston Villa the following August.

Onomah was a bit-part figure as the Villians made it to the Championship play-off final against Fulham, returning four goals and three assists from 34 appearances - 20 of which were starts.

However, he flattered to deceive upon sealing a second successive second-tier switch to Sheffield Wednesday the following term, where he failed to score in any of his 15 outings, and would depart Spurs permanently in a move to Fulham which saw prodigious left-sided operator Ryan Sessegnon head the other way.

Onomah's career has not played out as many has expected and now, aged 28 following nine months without a club, the midfielder has completed a shock transfer across the globe.

Ex-Sheffield Wednesday, Aston Villa man Josh Onomah seals shock transfer

The Spurs academy product offered moments of brilliance at Fulham, the most notable of which being a wonderful solo goal as the Cottagers progressed past Cardiff City en-route to gaining promotion through the 2019/20 Championship play-offs.

He struggled to truly establish himself at Craven Cottage, though, and after returning just five strikes from 76 matches, he departed London once more to join Preston North End in 2023.

Onomah's time at Preston yielded only 13 appearances before finding himself on the move once more, this time to League One outfit Blackpool.

He played a mere 349 minutes of football in English football's third-tier across an injury-plagued term and didn't earn a new deal at Bloomfield Road, which left the 28-year-old without a club for nine months following his exit last May.

Now, though, he's finally found a new club in a surprise twist. It was recently announced that Onomah has joined FC Dinamo Tblisi of the Georgian top-flight on an initial one-year deal, which contains an extension option for a further twelve months.

The Georgian capital city side last won the division in 2022, having lifted the title on a total of 19 occasions.

Their campaign begun earlier this month and they've played three matches to date, with Onomah bound to be expected to help the outfit challenge for league honours once more.

Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday will have mixed memories of Josh Onomah

As Onomah prepares to embark on his latest journey in a bid to revitalise his once-promising career, Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday supporters will be left with contrasting memories of the playmaker.

Though he hardly pulled up trees in an extremely competitive, promotion-chasing Villa side, he showed clear signs of the potential which left many buzzing with excitement back at Spurs and played his role in their route to the play-off final.

It was expected that Onomah would go from strength to strength at Wednesday, but a string of knee injuries and general inconsistency when fit prevented the gifted midfielder from making the desired impact in blue-and-white.