Henrik Pedersen must ensure one thing at Sheffield Wednesday - it involves Man Utd | OneFootball

Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen will need to keep his summer loan signing Harry Amass at Hillsborough beyond the January transfer window.

Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen has the fight of his life if he's to keep his team in the Championship this season, and retaining one player could be more important to him than anything else.

The mood may have lifted over HIllsborough with the news that the club had been placed into administration, but this came at an obvious cost to Sheffield Wednesday. The twelve-point deduction inflicted upon them for doing so has left them on -4 points as the Championship heads into its third international break of the season, 13 points behind second from bottom Norwich City and 17 from safety.

While the administrators get on with the job of rescuing Wednesday as a going concern, manager Henrik Pedersen needs to ensure that the team remain a going concern on the pitch. The size of the gaps between them and the rest is humongous, but survival does remain possible, especially if new owners can come in and get the club back on its feet before the January transfer window.

But that window is a double-edged sword for a team in Sheffield Wednesday's position. Just as new players could arrive in the new year if all embargoes and restrictions have been lifted by that time, there also remains the possibility that players could leave.

Pedersen has a threadbare squad after a summer during which the club were severely restricted from bringing in new players, but the form of one of those who did arrive at Hillsborough at that time has been such that there may be concerns that he could depart again in the new year.

Harry Amass is the one Sheffield Wednesday player that Henrik Pedersen cannot afford to lose in January

Severely hampered by transfer embargoes and fee restrictions that effectively prevented the club from signing new players, Sheffield Wednesday were seriously restricted in terms of who they could bring in. A number of players were drafted into Henrik Pedersen's squad from the under-21s, and two of the three players who arrived at Hillsborough were goalkeepers Evan Horvath and Logan Stretch.

But on transfer deadline day, Wednesday did finally manage to bring a player in on loan. Defender Harry Amass arrived from Manchester United on loan until January on transfer deadline day. Such were the restrictions that the club were under at the time, this could only be agreed with the Premier League giants agreeing to pay his full wage for the duration. United evidently felt that this was a price worth paying to get Amass game time and experience.

And if there was an element of gamble to this for Manchester United, it's paid off in spades. Amass has adapted seamlessly to life in the Championship despite being only 18 years old, with a string of consistent performances on the left which have come despite the team's overall form on the pitch having barely improved over the course of the season.

Harry Amass has displayed serious potential at Sheffield Wednesday - Henrik Pedersen must keep him

With five Premier League appearances for Manchester United last season, Harry Amass may have gone into the summer break believing that 2025-26 could be the season when he'd break through at Old Trafford. But instead, the decision was made to send him to Hillsborough.

With protests against the owner of the club a regular feature of matches throughout the early part of the season and a first-team squad rendered threadbare by departures and embargoes, there could scarcely have been a more challenging environment for the young defender to be dropped into in order to get his first taste of regular senior football.

But Amass has demonstrated repeatedly up for the challenge. At the end of last weekend's match at Southampton, he emerged as the Player of the Match, with the highest Sofascore rating of all, despite the fact that his team lost the match 3-1.

The fact that he's been able to put in such performances doesn't only speak volumes for his potential as a player. It also says something about his strength of character. It's true to say that his situation as a loanee meant that he may not have had the same concerns as other Wednesday players over whether he'd be getting paid on time at the end of each month, but even so, to perform to such a level as he has done this season has been a demonstration that he could have both the skill-set and attitude to make it all the way to the very top.

This, however, could come with a degree of risk to Sheffield Wednesday. Manchester United's last two Premier League matches have seen them go a goal up, only to concede two and have to come back to rescue a point. The club spent a lot of money on attacking players during the summer, and it's certainly far from implausible that their manager Ruben Amorim will consider one of his biggest priorities in the new year to tighten up that defence somewhat.

The return of Amass to Old Trafford in January could be an easy win for Amorim, even if only to add a little squad depth, and that's not the only way in which Sheffield Wednesday could lose him. Manchester United could have the option to take him back and send him elsewhere, or perhaps even to sell him, should there be interest from elsewhere. Furthermore, the news of his form is already known to have filtered back to Old Trafford.

Sheffield Wednesday can't really afford to lose any players over the course of the January transfer window, But the player they can probably afford to lose least of all is Harry Amass, who's become a critical component of a team who are most definitely down, but who aren't quite out just yet. If they can get that loan extended to May, they need to make that one of their most urgent priorities.