Sheffield Wednesday were the real winners of £5m deal despite Reading FC success | OneFootball

Sheffield Wednesday will feel that they were the true winners of the deal that saw striker Lucas Joao join Reading in 2019 for £5 million,

When Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri completed his takeover in 2015, he set a target of reaching the Premier League within his first two years at the club.

Chansiri bought Wednesday from Milan Mandaric in January 2015, and while he initially resisted the temptation to make any major changes, he certainly stamped his mark on the club in the summer.

His first big decision was to part company with popular head coach Stuart Gray, replacing him with former Braga, Sporting Lisbon and Besiktas manager Carlos Carvalhal, who was a relative unknown at the time of his arrival.

Chansiri provided Carvalhal with strong backing in the transfer window after his appointment, bringing in a host of players with proven Championship quality, including the likes of Jack Hunt, Daniel Pudil, Barry Bannan, Lewis McGugan, Ross Wallace and Fernando Forestieri.

However, as the Owls now had wider scouting networks and greater financial resources, they also went abroad for new signings, and striker Lucas Joao made the move to Hillsborough from Portuguese side Nacional.

Sheffield Wednesday never saw the best of Lucas Joao

Having scored just eight goals in 57 games for Nacional, the signing of Joao was something of a gamble for Wednesday, but he had shown plenty of potential in the early stages of his career, and he was also a Portugal Under-21 international, which offered hope that he could be a success at Hillsborough.

Joao was used mainly as a substitute in his first season with the Owls as they reached the Championship play-off final, but he still scored a respectable total of eight goals in 48 games, with one of those coming in the memorable 3-0 home win over Premier League giants Arsenal in the League Cup.

Unfortunately for Joao, he continued to struggle to break into the starting line-up the following season amid competition for places from Gary Hooper, Steven Fletcher and Atdhe Nuhiu, and after Wednesday strengthened their forward line even further with the additions of Sam Winnall and Jordan Rhodes, he was allowed to join Blackburn Rovers on loan in January 2017.

Joao only scored three goals in 13 games for Blackburn as they were relegated to League One, but the Owls' injury crisis in the 2017-18 season meant that he featured much more regularly, and he ended the campaign with nine goals in 34 games.

After Rhodes made a loan move to Norwich City, Joao continued to play a leading role in the 2018-19 campaign, and he enjoyed the most productive season of his career as he scored 10 goals in 32 appearances, but he remained a figure of frustration for Wednesday supporters, who felt that he was capable of more than he was delivering.

Joao scored on his first appearance of the 2019-20 season in the Owls' 3-1 win at Reading, but just three days later, he joined the Royals for a fee believed to be in the region of £5 million, bringing his mixed four-year spell in South Yorkshire to an end.

Lucas Joao's goals could not prevent Reading decline

Joao was not necessarily a player that Wednesday were looking to sell, but given that he had failed to perform consistently during his time at the club, there was a consensus that Reading's offer was simply too good to turn down.

In contrast to the current situation at the club, Royals owner Dai Yongge invested heavily in the early stages of his reign, and Joao was not the only high-profile striker to arrive at the Select Car Leasing Stadium in the summer of 2019, with George Puscas joining from Inter Milan for a club record fee of £7.5 million.

The big spending did not initially have the desired effect as Reading finished in a disappointing 14th place in the Championship in the 2019-20 season under Mark Bowen, but Joao was integral to their rise up the table the following year under Veljko Paunovic.

The Royals spent a lengthy period at the top of the table after a stunning start to the 2020-21 season, and while they eventually finished seventh following a poor end to the campaign, Joao remained a consistent source of goals throughout, netting an impressive 22 times in 40 appearances.

Despite struggling with injury during the following season, Joao still managed to score 10 goals in 24 games, but his form declined in his final year in Berkshire, and the timing of his drop-off could not have been worse for Reading.

Having failed to win promotion, the excess spending caught up with the Royals as they were handed two consecutive six-point deductions in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, the first for a breach of the EFL's Profit and Sustainability regulations and the second for failing to satisfy an agreed business plan.

The first sanction did not prove to be too damaging for Reading as they managed to avoid relegation, but they were not so fortunate the second time around, and they dropped into League One for the first time in 20 years.

While the points deduction was the main factor in the Royals' relegation, many of their key players underperformed during the course of the season, with Joao scoring just seven goals in 36 games, and to add insult to injury, he left the club for free at the end of his contract in the summer, meaning they were unable to recoup any of the transfer fee they paid for him.

Joao scored 45 goals in 119 games for Reading, but they did not achieve anywhere near the success they would have hoped for during his time at the club, and having made a significant profit on the striker, Wednesday will feel like the true winners of the deal.