Bielsa, Leeds United reveal on Ian Poveda may concern Sheffield Wednesday supporters | OneFootball

Ian Poveda left Leeds United on deadline day to join Championship strugglers Sheffield Wednesday on loan for the remainder of the season.

A two-way tussle emerged in the hunt for Poveda's services yesterday, with Birmingham City and Wednesday eyeing a late transfer deadline day move.

According to Alan Nixon via Patreon, Birmingham boss Tony Mowbray was keen to add to his squad further, despite bringing in a creative player in Alex Pritchard from Sunderland.

Meanwhile, according to BBC Leeds' Adam Pope, the Owls were also showing an interest.

Of course, were Poveda to sign for Birmingham City, it would see the player reunited with Mowbray, whom he played under during his stint at Blackburn Rovers on loan during the 2021/22 campaign, but he chose Wednesday.

Daniel Farke opted to keep Poveda at Leeds this summer. However, he has featured very little under the German so far and was far from an important player at Elland Road.

The two-cap Colombian international made a total of 10 appearances for the Whites this season, and his spell with the club has now effectively come to an end, with the 23-year-old's four-and-a-half year contract coming to an end this summer.

He made just two appearances this season the start, and 30 appearances in total following his move from Man City in January 2020, to join Marcelo Bielsa's promotion-chasing side.

The diminutive attacker is yet to really meet expectations, as Poveda has failed to rip up any trees on loan with Blackburn Rovers and then Blackpool in the Championship in previous loan spells, too.

Although he has been on the fringes of Bielsa's and Farke's squad at times, he realistically needed to leave to gain regular first-team football elsewhere and a parting of ways suits both Leeds and the 23-year-old this month.

Graham Smyth reveals Bielsa and Poveda issue

The manager that utilised Poveda the most was the enigmatic Argentine, but Graham Smyth of the Yorkshire Evening Post's latest reveal has highlighted a potential issue that held the winger back during his time in West Yorkshire.

Bielsa was a manager who prided himself and his team on hard work and energy, so the news that Poveda perhaps wasn't always training at 100% could be part of the reason he didn't make more of his time at Elland Road.

Especially with the famed 'murder-ball' games that Bielsa would hold during training, which were designed to improve fitness aspects but were aptly named due to their intense nature, where players would be particularly struggling towards the end of a session.

Ian Poveda joins Sheffield Wednesday

Poveda is evidently a talented player. Manchester City don't tend to keep hold of young players for long if they don't have ability and Poveda featured 89 times for City's academy sides.

Poveda was used fleetingly from the bench against sides such as Rotherham, where he consistently beat his man on the flank but failed to create anything meaningful. His swivels and drop of a shoulder were impressive, but his final action after that left a lot to be desired.

However, if his end product can improve, then he will be an asset to the club fighting relegation. However, Owls fans will have to hope that Leeds and Bielsa found a solution to other issues in training because a lack of effort is not the sort of character trait you want in a fight against the drop to League One.

Poveda will be hoping his latest loan to a fellow Yorkshire-based side in Wednesday can help reignite his career and help him to kick on in his development. He will need to find his creativity and goals if he is to help Wednesday survive.