Carlton Palmer issues verdict on Sheffield Wednesday quartet out of contract

Massimo Luongo, Jack Hunt, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Joe Wildsmith are all set to depart the club at the end of June if no agreement can be reached with the Owls on new deals.

Darren Moore’s side finished 4th in the League One table last season and will be hoping to earn promotion to the Championship this campaign.

A play-off semi-final defeat to Sunderland maintained Wednesday’s position in the third tier of English football.

But Palmer believes that keeping as much of the current squad together will be the best course of action for the club to take this summer.

The 56-year old is optimistic on the direction that the team is headed and thinks that Moore should be doing what he can to convince the four players to stay at Hillsborough for next season.

It could yet still be a busy summer ahead due to the amount of loan players that have departed to their parent clubs at the end of this term.

The former midfielder believes Wednesday should be avoiding making wholesale changes to the team as best as they can.

“Well, you’d like to retain all of their services for next season, because, as much as you can, you’ve just finished fourth in the league, and only narrowly missed out on going up,” Palmer told Football League World.

“So you wouldn’t want to make too many wholesale changes. 

“Unfortunately, they’ve lost seven players that were gone back to their parent clubs and unreleased for players. 

“So you’d like to retain all of their services.”

It could be quite the summer ahead for Wednesday if these players opt to leave the club.

Moore will want to avoid any talk of this being a transitional season, with the Owls surely aiming for another push at promotion.

The end of the season was promising, despite the disappointment