Football League World
·13 February 2025
Sheffield Wednesday must take urgent Djeidi Gassama action to avoid Dejphon Chansiri repeat
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·13 February 2025
Sheffield Wednesday should look to tie winger Djeidi Gassama down to a new contract to avoid losing him for free next summer.
It has been an excellent season for Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship so far, with Danny Rohl's side emerging as surprise play-off contenders in recent months.
After narrowly avoiding relegation last ter,, Wednesday have made significant progress under Rohl this campaign and in what is an incredibly tight and competitive division, they are firmly involved in the play-off picture.
The Owls' promotion push has stalled a little after a run of just three wins in their last 10 games, but they returned to winning ways with a 1-0 victory at Swansea City on Wednesday night to move up to eighth in the table, just two points from the play-off places.
It is fair to say that the vast majority of the Wednesday squad have improved since Rohl's arrival, but one player who has developed significantly this season is winger Djeidi Gassama, and the club should consider taking action to secure his future.
Gassama joined Wednesday on a free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain last summer, and the mere fact that he had been on the books of the French giants generated plenty of excitement at Hillsborough after his arrival.
It was a tough introduction to English football for France youth international as he initially struggled to make an impact in a team that was languishing at the bottom of the Championship table under Xisco Munoz, but he slowly began to find his feet under Rohl.
He was unable to nail down his place in the starting line-up last season, but he certainly showed glimpses of his potential, and he ended the campaign with a respectable total of four goals and three assists from 37 games.
Owls supporters went into the summer feeling that there was plenty more to come from Gassama, and that has proven to be the case, with the 21-year-old taking his game to another level this season.
He has proven to be a constant threat to opposition defences in the Championship this term, and he has already beaten his goal tally from the entirety of last season, scoring five goals and providing one assist in 33 appearances so far.
Crucially, 24 of Gassama's 33 appearances this season have come from the start, underlining the increased trust that Rohl has in him, and at this point, he is one of the first names on the Wednesday team-sheet.
However, while Gassama's form is a huge positive for the Owls in their pursuit of a play-off place, it is unlikely that his performances will have gone unnoticed, and he could emerge on the radar of other clubs in the summer.
It is believed that Gassama signed a three-year contract at Hillsborough last summer, meaning that he will soon be entering the final year of his current deal, and Wednesday should look to tie the Frenchman down to an extension, both to give them more security ahead of the upcoming transfer window and to avoid losing him for free next summer.
Wednesday supporters have had a strained relationship with owner Dejphon Chansiri over the past few years, and discontent towards him has been reignited in recent weeks after his public dispute with Rohl over transfers.
One of the many criticisms the Owls fan base have levelled at Chansiri during his reign has been the lack of profit made on player sales, which in turn has meant that less money can be reinvested back into the squad.
Big money signings such as Joost van Aken, Almen Abdi, Gary Hooper, Jordan Rhodes and Fernando Forestieri all left Hillsborough for free at the end of their contracts, representing huge losses for the club, and the last significant sale Wednesday made came in the summer of 2019 when striker Lucas Joao joined Reading for a fee in the region of £5 million.
Chansiri's desire to want to keep hold of his key players is understandable, but a more questionable aspect of his strategy has been his willingness to allow talented young players to run their contracts down.
The double departure of Osaze Urhoghide and Liam Shaw to Celtic in the summer of 2021 was met with anger from Wednesday supporters, who accused Chansiri of not protecting the club's assets, but the failure to tie down Fisayo Dele-Bashiru was arguably an even bigger mistake.
Dele-Bashiru joined the Owls from Manchester City in July 2020, and he showed plenty of potential during his three-year spell at Hillsborough, scoring six goals and providing five assists in 85 games, but after the club were unable to reach an agreement with the midfielder over a new contract, he departed for Hatayspor in the summer of 2023.
After an impressive year in Turkey, Dele-Bashiru made a surprise loan move to Lazio in the summer, and he has starred in Italy this season, scoring five goals and registering two assists in 22 appearances for Marco Baroni's side so far.
Dele-Bashiru is said to be attracting interest from the likes of Juventus, Arsenal, Brighton & Hove Albion and former club Man City, and his development over the past 18 months has not only left Wednesday supporters disappointed that they were unable to see more from the 24-year-old, but it has left many wondering what kind of transfer fee the club could have secured for him had he remained in South Yorkshire.
As Gassama is a player with similar potential to Dele-Bashiru - if not with an even higher ceiling - the Owls would have similar regrets if they were to lose him for free next summer, so for both football and financial reasons, they should attempt to strike a fresh contract agreement with the winger as soon as possible.