Sheffield Wednesday will still be baffled by Carlos Carvalhal transfer call involving Derby County | OneFootball

The controversial swap deal with Derby County involving Sam Winnall and Jacob Butterfield certainly did not work out for Sheffield Wednesday.

As their off-field issues under owner Dejphon Chansiri mounted, Sheffield Wednesday were one of the quietest clubs in the transfer market this summer, but it is fair to say it has not always been that way.

Multiple transfer embargoes and fee restrictions meant that Wednesday brought in just two new loan signings this summer, which is a far cry from the early days of Chansiri's tenure, when big spending was a regular occurrence at Hillsborough.

After buying the club from the late Milan Mandaric in early 2015, Chansiri set himself a target of leading the Owls back to the Premier League in his first two full seasons of ownership, and he invested heavily in pursuit of that objective.

Wednesday struck transfer gold plenty of times under former manager Carlos Carvalhal, with the likes of Fernando Forestieri and Gary Hooper among the notable successes, but they also made their fair share of mistakes, and many of the club's worst ever signings have come during the Chansiri era.

While he is not regarded quite as badly as expensive flops such as Almen Abdi and Jordan Rhodes, Jacob Butterfield had a loan spell to forget at Hillsborough in the 2017-18 season, and the swap deal that saw Sam Winnall move in the opposite direction to Derby County was a baffling decision by Carvalhal.

Sheffield Wednesday got it massively wrong with Jacob Butterfield, Sam Winnall call

With the club in a strong position in the table, Wednesday brought in two new strikers in the January 2017 transfer window in an attempt to bolster their promotion hopes, with Rhodes joining on loan from Middlesbrough in a deal that would later become permanent for £10 million and Winnall arriving from local rivals Barnsley for a fee of £500,000 plus add-ons.

The Owls would have hoped the bold double deal would help to get them over the line in their pursuit of Premier League football, but it did not work out that way, and it quickly became clear that Carvalhal was not particularly convinced by either Rhodes or Winnall.

Winnall had scored just three goals in 15 appearances for Wednesday in the second half of the 2016-17 season, but he made a positive start to the following campaign as he scored in the 1-1 draw against Queens Park Rangers on the second matchday, and supporters were optimistic that he would be able to rediscover his Barnsley form.

However, just two weeks later, Winnall joined Derby on a season-long loan in a swap deal for midfielder Butterfield, and despite the clear difference in profile between the two players, Carvalhal claimed the deal suited both clubs as it helped them to fill key positions in their squads they were short in.

While Carvalhal offered a positive view of the deal, the Owls faithful were much less convinced than their manager, and their concerns were quickly proven correct as Butterfield and Winnall enjoyed contrasting fortunes at their new clubs.

Derby County were the real winners of controversial Sheffield Wednesday swap deal

Having spent much of his career in the Championship with the likes of Barnsley, Bolton Wanderers and Middlesbrough, Butterfield was a vastly experienced midfielder, and Derby paid a fee of around £4 million to sign him from Huddersfield Town just two years before his move to Wednesday.

If nothing else, Butterfield looked to be a solid signing for the Owls, but as the South Yorkshire outfit struggled to get their promotion push going, the 35-year-old soon became a target of fan frustration, with many questioning Carvalhal's continued loyalty to him, even if a lengthy injury list was the main factor behind his regular inclusion in the team.

However, after Carvalhal departed in December, Butterfield almost immediately fell out of favour under his successor, Jos Luhukay, and he made just seven appearances in the second half of the season following the Dutchman's arrival, with only four of those coming in the league.

While Butterfield failed to win over the Wednesday fanbase, Winnall had no such problems at Derby, and he scored six goals and provided two assists in his first 18 appearances for the club.

Winnall scored a late winner for the Rams at Norwich City, as well as netting braces in victories at Leeds United and Ipswich Town, and in total, his goals earned an extra nine points for Gary Rowett's side, which would prove crucial in helping them secure a play-off place come the end of the season.

Unfortunately for Winnall, his season was cut short by a serious knee injury in February, and while the fact he was not able to add to his tally further spared Carvalhal's blushes a little, his form at Pride Park, as well as Butterfield's poor performances at Hillsborough, meant that Derby were the clear winners of a swap deal that remains baffling for Wednesday supporters to this day.