The ones that got away

This transfer window players have been linked with Wednesday and moved on to other clubs, leaving some of us a bit disappointed. For example, Ryan Harley joined the Swans after much hope that Wednesday were in fact ready to make an offer. Shane Lowry was also expected to make a loan switch to the Owls but instead  moved to steel city rivals Sheffield United. These recent events got my thinking about players that have been linked with the Owls over the years, but moves never materialised for them. It was a welcome distraction to the doom and gloom surrounding Hillsborough over the weekend and certainly helped me to stop thinking about promotion favourites Wednesday, lying in mid table in a relatively poor division.

1. The one player that will stick in the mind of most Wednesdayites is of course the lengendary Eric Cantona. Often considered the best foreign talent ever to play in the famous Premier League. Incredibly, there was a time when Cantona was training with the mighty Owls in 1991 and was handed a trial by Trevor Francis, the boss at the time. The most depressing fact of the Cantona saga was his admittance that he was "there to sign". He also revealed that the reason he did not sign for Wednesday was because they wanted more time to decide whether to offer him a deal. Cantona trained with the Owls for a week and played in a 4-3 friendly fixture, scoring a hat-trick whilst doing so. Francis offered Cantona a weeks extension to his trial, but Cantona wasn't going to stick around and wait for the Owls to ponder whether to sign the French front man. Cantona wasted no time in making his move to English football, within a few days he had signed for Leeds United, Wednesdays fierce Yorkshire rivals. No one knows the impact Cantona could have made at Wednesday, but we all no for sure how great a talent he was and how much we would have loved to see him in our famous blue and white strip. Cantona went on to win the old division one title with Leeds whilst Wednesday finished third. He then secured a transfer to perhaps England's most famous club Manchester United, where he went on to become a legend and win 4 league titles in 5 years.

2. The next player that Wednesday were often linked with back in glorious premier league days was Henrik Larsson. Back then the prolific goal scorers head was full of dread locks, and Between 1996 and 1998 Wednesday were linked with the Swedish talisman on several occasions. Unfortunately for Wednesday, Larsson was happy at Celtic, and Celtic were never even considering letting their top goal scorer leave. I have always been a keen admirer of Henrik and would have loved to see him in a Wednesday shirt. He went on to score Bundles of goals for Celtic and then secured a transfer to arguably the worlds greatest football team, Barcelona. He then moved on to his home town club, Helsingborg for who he scored 38 goals in 81 appearances. Larsson's strike rate at Celtic was truly incredibly scoring 174 goals in 221 games. Considering the other players we brought in the 90's such as Darko Kovacevic and Nicolas Alexandersson, I would have much preferred to see Larsson joining the Hillsborough Ranks in place of other foreign names Wednesday pulled out the cheque book for. Maybe he could even have saved us from relegation to the Championship and stopped our on going rot in football, that doesn't seem to be giving up any time soon.

3. The third and final player I am going to talk about it Patrick Kluivert. Brian Laws made an attempt to sign the Dutchman in the summer of 2007. Admittedly Kluivert's career had been going down hill for a while, and he was seeking to leave his club at the time PSV. Kluivert said "I am flattered by the interest, but a transfer to Sheffield Wednesday doesn't fit in my future plans." Even if Kluivert's career was on its way downhill, no one can deny that he was a truly great goal scorer, scoring goals for some of the best teams in the world and on an international level with Holland. Kluivert averaged around a goal every other game for the Netherlands and scored an impressive 90 goals in 182 appearanced for F.C Barcelona. He also played for great clubs such as A.C Milan, Ajax and Valencia. He also had a one season stint in England with Newcastle, he scored 6 goals in 14 appearances for the Geordie club but didn't really excel or enjoy his time there, causing him to leave after just one season. Kluivert would have been a class act in the Championship, but Laws' attempt to sign him was never really going to materialise with the player having numerous other offers from first division clubs all around the world and eventually he joined French side Lille. 


These are just a few of numerous names the Owls have been linked with over the last two decades, but there are plenty more Players the Owls have tried and failed to sign in the past. Does anybody have any stories of their own to add to this list? Any players you would have loved to see at Hillsborough, but the moves never materialised? Thinking about such matters has certainly distracted me for a while and stopped me thinking about the rather less inspiring goings on at S6 this season.