Sheffield Wednesday massively hit the jackpot with £3m star and these 5 others | OneFootball

We looked at some of Sheffield Wednesday's best signings of recent times.

It is fair to say that Sheffield Wednesday have had a mixed record in the transfer market over the years.

Wednesday have experienced a turbulent decade since owner Dejphon Chansiri's takeover in January 2015, which has included missing out on promotion to the Premier League on two occasions, relegation to League One and a dramatic promotion to the Championship.

As you may expect in such an eventful period, there have been a number of transfer disasters, particularly in the early stages of the Chansiri's era, and some of those came at a great cost to the club.

However, while some players have underwhelmed at Hillsborough, others have established themselves as firm fan favourites, and we looked back at some of the Owls' best signings in recent times.

Keiren Westwood

If you asked Wednesday supporters to name the best goalkeeper they have seen play for the club, it is likely that Keiren Westwood's name would come up a few times.

Incredibly, the Owls managed to sign Westwood on a free transfer in the summer of 2014 following his departure from Sunderland, and he went on to keep an impressive 73 clean sheets in 199 appearances for the club.

Westwood's time at Hillsborough was not without controversy, and he was frozen out on two occasions by Jos Luhukay and Garry Monk, but that did little to damage his reputation among the fan base.

The 40-year-old was released by Wednesday in the summer of 2021 following their relegation to League One, but he will always be fondly remembered in South Yorkshire, and he is one of only three players to have won the Player of the Year award on multiple occasions during their time at the club.

Sam Hutchinson

Stuart Gray may have been forced to work with a limited budget during his time as Wednesday manager, but he unearthed a number of gems, and midfielder Sam Hutchinson was certainly one of those.

Having only just come out of retirement after initially calling time on his career due to a knee injury, Hutchinson was seen as a short-term gamble when he joined the Owls on loan from Chelsea in February 2014, but few could have predicted the impact he would make.

After Hutchinson's successful loan spell, the move was made permanent in the summer of 2014, and he was a key part of the team that twice came close to achieving promotion to the Premier League under Carlos Carvalhal, endearing himself to supporters with his committed and determined performances.

Like Westwood, Hutchinson also fell out of favour under both Luhukay and Monk, and he was released by the latter in the summer of 2020, but he returned to Hillsborough just six months later.

Hutchinson's second spell at Wednesday was not as memorable as his first, but he remained a consistent and reliable performer, and he departed for the final time in the summer of 2022 after scoring eight goals and providing six assists in 207 appearances across his two stints in South Yorkshire.

Kieran Lee

As with Hutchinson, there was little fanfare when midfielder Kieran Lee arrived at Hillsborough from Oldham Athletic in the summer of 2012 following their promotion to the Championship, but it was not long until he won the affection of supporters.

Lee went on to score 22 goals and register 15 assists in 217 appearances during his eight-year spell at the club, with his best moment in a Wednesday shirt coming when he scored the second goal in the 2-0 play-off semi-final first leg win over Brighton & Hove Albion in 2016.

The 36-year-old may be underappreciated outside the Owls fan base, but he is certainly loved in South Yorkshire, and current captain Barry Bannan recently described him as "probably one of the best" he has played with during his career.

Unfortunately for Lee, he was plagued by injury towards the latter part of his time at Wednesday prior to his release in the summer of 2020, but when fit, he was a quality performer and an excellent signing by Dave Jones.

Barry Bannan

For many Wednesday supporters, Bannan will not just go down as one of the club's best signings of recent times, but he will potentially be remembered as one of their greatest ever signings.

Even if some would dispute that, Bannan will surely be considered as the Owls' biggest bargain of all time having made the move to Hillsborough on a free transfer from Crystal Palace in the summer of 2015, and he has established club legend status over the last nine-and-a-half years.

Bannan has had opportunities to leave Hillsborough over the years, with Brentford reportedly making an offer for him in the summer of 2020, but he has stayed loyal to the club, and that has only strengthened his bond with Wednesday supporters.

The Scot remains one of the Owls' most influential players to this day, and the stunning strike he scored on his 35th birthday in the recent 2-1 win at Derby County proved he has not lost any of his quality.

Fernando Forestieri

Winger Fernando Forestieri joined Wednesday from Watford for a fee of £3 million in the summer of 2015, and his performances during his stunning first season at the club mean that many supporters consider him one of the most talented players to have ever worn the famous blue and white stripes.

However, despite Forestieri's outstanding form, the Owls missed out on promotion to the Premier League in the 2015-16 season, and amid reported interest from Derby County and Newcastle United, he refused to play against Norwich City in August 2016 before later apologising to supporters and being reintegrated back into the squad.

Unfortunately for Wednesday, Forestieri never quite hit the same levels after that incident, and given that his final few years at Hillsborough were severely disrupted by injury, Chansiri may wish he had cashed in on him when he had the chance.

Forestieri was released by the Owls in the summer of 2020 after scoring 40 goals and providing 17 assists in 134 appearances, but while he was a frustrating figure at times, his place in the hearts of supporters is forever assured.

Gary Hooper

After a lengthy transfer pursuit, striker Gary Hooper finally joined Wednesday on loan from Norwich City in October 2015 before making the move permanent three months later.

Hooper scored 31 goals and provided 12 assists in 89 games during his four-year spell with the Owls, meaning that he found the back of the net around once every three games on average, and the club have failed to find a striker of his quality since his departure.

Like Forestieri, Hooper struggled with injuries towards the end of his Wednesday career, and while he did return from over 15 months on the sidelines in March 2019, it was not enough for him to earn a new contract and he was released that summer.

The likes of Steven Fletcher, Atdhe Nuhiu, Lee Gregory and Michael Smith are all held in high regard at Hillsborough, but few Owls strikers from the past two decades have enjoyed the same level of popularity as Hooper.