Sheffield Wednesday confirm player exits

Sheffield Wednesday had a successful season last year, although they will have been disappointed not to gain promotion back to the Championship at the first time of asking. 

The Owls did finish in a strong fourth place and competed in the play-offs but a 2-1 defeat on aggregate across two semi-finals to Sunderland meant the hope of promotion was over.

However, Darren Moore will be keen to take the positives from this season and push for promotion again next season.

With their failure to go up this season, it naturally left question marks over the future of certain players at the club who were out of contract.

When the retained list was released, the club had confirmed that new contracts had been offered to Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Massimo Luongo and Joe Wildsmith.

However, the club have today announced that all three players have turned down new contracts offers and will therefore leave Hillsborough at the end of June following the expiration of their current contracts.

Mendez-Laing only joined the club in November and made 19 appearances for the club but did a good job during his time with the Owls despite starting neither of the play-off games.

Both Luongo and Wildsmith have been with the club for longer periods with the latter having come up through Wednesday’s academy.

In the official statement, the club said: “The Owls would like to thank all three3 players for their services and wish them well for the future.”

The Verdict: 

This probably isn’t the best news for Sheffield Wednesday ahead of the new season but it felt as though it was becoming increasingly likely over the past number of weeks.

The Owls have signed free agent Will Vaulks who will serve as a replacement for Luongo, whilst the amount of time it was