"Even with my bias" - Sheffield Wednesday: Fernando Forestieri valuation claim made with Fulham bid in mind | OneFootball

The 34-year-old played 134 times for the Owls across a five year stay.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Sheffield Wednesday came extremely close to a return to the Premier League in the 2015/16 campaign, the same season that a fan's favourite joined the club.

The Owls finished mid-table in 2014/15, and were looking for that one player to take them to the next level.

In the summer of 2015, with Watford promoted to the top flight, Carlos Carvalhal brought in Fernando Forestieri to provide the goals and assists that Sheffield Wednesday had been missing to give them a chance at the play-offs.

It was a plan that worked, and over the course of the next five years the Argentinian-born former Italy U21 international played a pivotal role in the relative success that the club had, finishing in the top six of the Championship twice.

Prime Forestieri's current market value

In the nine years that have followed since the now 34-year-old made the move to Hillsborough, the transfer market has changed hugely, with the cash being spent in the second tier seemingly rising season by season.

With that in mind, Football League World has asked their Sheffield Wednesday Fan Pundit, Patrick McKenna, how much he believes the forward would be worth in today's market, after joining the Owls for £3 million.

"Prime Fernando Forestieri was an absolute joy to watch as a Wednesday fan," he started. "He was simply fantastic for us and on his day he was absolutely unplayable in the Championship.

"It’s undeniable how good he was in his prime, and if you just watch how he's able to run at defenders for some of the goals that he scored for any team he played for. He just had those moments of individual brilliance that just made him stand out against any other player on the field.

"But for his transfer market value, I would go back to 2017 when he was at Wednesday. Allegedly, Fulham put in a bid of £12m for him, which was rejected at the time. So now, seven years later, I think it would be very reasonable to say that we could have been asking for at least £20m for Forestieri."

Patrick continued: "That might seem crazy for a player whose prime was in the Championship, but I don't think that seven years on adding £8m to his value is that outrageous at all. He was just so, so good, and I almost get kind of sad just thinking about what a good player we did have on our hands.

"Players have gone for £20m at least who I would say weren't as good as Forestieri, even with my bias towards him."

Sheffield Wednesday nearly missed out on Forestieri

Despite playing such a pivotal role for the Owls throughout his time at the club, it nearly never happened, with Leeds United close to signing Forestieri in the summer of 2015 instead.

Although he made 24 appearances for Watford during their promotion campaign, he was not a part of their plans for the 2015/16 season, and clubs from the Championship watched on.

The Whites tabled a £3 million bid of their own, but they decided to withdraw their offer just before deadline day, allowing Wednesday to swoop in.

Then Leeds owner, Massimo Cellino, explained why they stopped their chase: "We decided on Tuesday we would not be signing Forestieri, it was clear he didn't have the right mentality needed.

"I want players to show a hunger and desire to come here - but he did not.

"It was not about the money. A player could cost £3m, £5m or be a free transfer, but if their mentality isn't right then I will not sign them for Leeds."

The decision taken by Cellino was possibly the wrong one looking back, but it did allow the Owls to enjoy one of the best players to wear the blue-and-white stripes in the last decade.