Sheffield Wednesday will hope late-window signings avoid Watford import's dismal record: View | OneFootball

Martin Taylor didn't have the best of times during his stint at Hillsborough

As the transfer window comes towards a close, teams will be hastily looking to add last-minute additions to their squad for the season ahead, in the hope they can make all the difference over the next nine months.

Gaps will need to be filled all over the pitch, with plenty of final day deals creating a flurry of activity as players get their futures decided and look to start afresh with a new club.

With a switch of employers, every footballer will want to get off to a good start and get the crowd on their side as soon as they swap allegiances, although that can sometimes be easier said than done.

Martin Taylor is a player who will know that first-hand, with the defender failing to produce the goods during an ill-fated time with Sheffield Wednesday just over a decade ago.

Martin Taylor’s unwanted Sheffield Wednesday record

Taylor had gathered a reputation as something of a no-nonsense defender during his storied career before moving to Hillsborough, with his most prominent spells coming at Blackburn Rovers, Birmingham City and Watford.

But as his time at Vicarage Road came to an end in 2012, the centre-back was 32 and looked set to utilise that experience after moving to Championship rivals Sheffield Wednesday, with the Owls adapting to life back in the second tier after earning promotion from League One the season before.

The Yorkshire side would have though the addition of a player who had seen it and done it would prove to be a shrewd decision upon their return to the top rung of the EFL but in reality the move couldn’t have gone much worse.

Although Wednesday were fighting towards the bottom of the table during the campaign, few would have expected Taylor to play a part in 11 league matches for his new side and never finish on the winning side for the blue and white side of Sheffield.

The early warning signs would have been there after a 3-0 defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion on debut before the Owls once again shipped three goals in defeat to Huddersfield Town in front of their own fans.

After coming in as a player who would shore up the backline, Taylor’s fortunes on the pitch could barely have been worse with the Steel City outfit unable to prevent the opposition from steamrolling them week after week and the goals being shipped at an alarming rate.

As a result, game time became more and more elusive for the centre-back, with just a single league appearance after the turn of the year proving as much - although he did record his first and only clean sheet in a Wednesday shirt in a 0-0 draw with Birmingham City.

Eleven matches, zero wins, two draws, and nine defeats says it all about Taylor’s time with Wednesday, with a loan move to Brentford following in the next campaign with the Owls only too happy to move him on after such a poor showing.

Taylor fails to rediscover form with Brentford

That form with the Owls was the beginning of the end for Taylor, who made the move to West London for what proved to be the final few matches of his career.

Upon signing, the defender said: “It was a great opportunity to come down and play some games at an excellent club.

“I am glad to be down here and really looking forward to getting stuck in and playing games.

“I like to get the ball down and play it. I hear that is the way Brentford like to play.

“Hopefully there is more to me than heading and kicking it away, but you have to play every game as it is.”

After netting three minutes into his debut against Tranmere Rovers, Taylor went on to grab another goal later in the month in a 2-0 win over Coventry City, before earning a handful of appearances in October.

But that proved to be that for Taylor, who returned to Hillsborough to see out the rest of his contract before hanging up his boots shortly after.

As deadline day signings go, they won’t get much worse for Wednesday, and they will be hoping to avoid a repeat in the future, with Taylor’s time in the Steel City coming to a sorry end.