The Owls scrapped their way to an impressive away win at Preston North End on Friday evening to record what was only their second road trip victory of the campaign, a result that cut their deficit on the safety spots to just six points turning into the new year. Theirs is a squad loaded with the battle scars of what has been a gruelling festive fixture schedule, with injuries to a raft of players sitting alongside suspensions to key man Bambo Diaby and George Byers.
With that squad having been put together in two chunks by Röhl’s two managerial predecessors, a sharp shift in playing style suggests Wednesday would be aided by the addition of a handful of new players in the coming month, a move that would freshen up the squad and provide new energy heading into the business end of the campaign. It is the German’s hope that business can be done.
Working with new head of recruiting Kevin Beadell, who has previously worked for Arsenal and Manchester United, the club would have to try to move players out in January to make room for those coming in. It is unclear how aggressively the club intends to play things in terms of incomings and outgoings, with chairman Dejphon Chansiri telling The Star in October that he will support his manager to the best of his ability.
What’s clear for now is that there is nothing imminent in terms of incomings in the early days of the window. Röhl admitted as much while making clear that in an ideal world things would get moving sooner rather than later with four league matches to contend with in January alone.
“I will try it,” he said. “We are still in talks now and we know the January window. It is the big hope for everybody and I will try everything with Kevin (Beadell) the head of recruitment, with my coaches and with the club to bring players here. Every win is helpful to convince as well in our situation. Everybody knows our situation.
“The players that will come will get a real team, a good coaching team, great support with massive fans behind us and I think this is our big argument to bring players here to Wednesday and do special things for us.”