Sheffield Wednesday struck gold with Derby County deal 3 times but it all ended in heartbreak | OneFootball

Luke Varney has a unique distinction at Sheffield Wednesday.

Luke Varney has a unique distinction at Sheffield Wednesday, but his time with the club will forever be linked to the crushing relegation of 2009/10.

The winger signed on three consecutive loan spells without ever penning a permanent move to the Owls, playing across two seasons.

However, after finding personal success over the course of his time at Hillsborough, Varney was part of the team that were dumped from the Championship in May 2010.

Luke Varney’s three consecutive loan spells

Varney first moved from Derby to the blue side of Sheffield in 2009, before renewing his loan twice in the subsequent season. He played 43 games across his three spells, netting 11 times along the way.

Brian Laws was the manager when he first joined Wednesday, while Scotsman Alan Irvine replaced him in an attempt to save the club from relegation in 2010.

The journeyman, who played close to 500 times across a lengthy career, lined up for the likes of Leeds United, Portsmouth, and Ipswich Town later in his career.

Varney hung up his boots in 2021 after returning to non-league outfit Quorn, where his footballing career began two decades before.

The 42-year-old became a memorable and well-liked figure during his spell at Hillsborough. In Owls' colours, he fitted in and built a natural connection to the supporters.

After an initial loan spell at Derby, Varney made his move permanent in 2009. Though, between then and his switch to Blackpool two years later, he only played a smattering of games for the Rams and instead applied his trade on repeated loan excursions.

Sheffield Wednesday stint ended in heartache for the journeyman

Despite the successes he did have at the Owls, his third and final spell ended in disappointing fashion.

After a run of just one win in the last 12 games of the season, Wednesday were relegated into the third tier. It came down to the final day, where a draw with fellow relegation-threatened rivals Crystal Palace condemned them to their dreaded fate.

Varney looked back on his time at Wednesday, and specifically the last day of the 2009/10 season, when speaking to the well-known Under the Cosh podcast shortly after his retirement.

He said: “That Palace game was massive, I’ll never forget it. I missed a one-on-one and we went down.

“It really affected me, that game, going into the summer. I spoke to a lot of Wednesday fans and that’s one of the summers I really regretted. I wanted to keep them up because I knew that was probably the end of my time there.”

Despite being a loan player, Varney clearly grew close to the supporters and his teammates at Hillsborough. He described feeling like one of the club’s players despite his temporary status, during the aforementioned podcast appearance, which was reported by the Sheffield Star.

He added: “I was on my haunches after the game and Chris Morgan came up to me, grabbed me and said ‘Get up you, you’re only on loan’. That’s what people might think, but it hurt me quite a lot.”

His devastation at being relegated in his final act as a Wednesday player has stayed with him throughout a career that has taken him to a long list of top EFL clubs. That shows he was much more than just a loan player for the Owls.