Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield Town will share same striker disappointment | OneFootball

Striker Florian Kamberi had disappointing spells at both Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield Town.

It is fair to say that Sheffield Wednesday have had a mixed record in the transfer market during Dejphon Chansiri's time as owner.

Wednesday have experienced a turbulent decade since owner Chansiri's takeover in January 2015, which has included missing out on promotion to the Premier League on two occasions, relegation to League One and a dramatic promotion back to the Championship.

As you would expect during such an eventful period, the Owls have had a number of failed transfer deals, particularly in the striker department, and the club record signing of Jordan Rhodes from Middlesbrough for a fee of £10 million in 2017 was one of their biggest transfer mistakes.

While his arrival at Hillsborough attracted much less attention than Rhodes, Florian Kamberi is another striker that seriously underperformed for Wednesday during his loan spell in the 2021-22 season, and they were not the only English club to experience frustration with him.

Florian Kamberi proved to be a major transfer flop for Sheffield Wednesday

Wednesday had been relegated from the Championship in the 2020-21 season, with a six-point deduction contributing to their demise, and manager Darren Moore was facing a big rebuilding job as he prepared for life in League One.

Off-field issues meant that the Owls could not get their transfer activity underway until relatively late in the summer, but amid a flurry of new arrivals at the end of July, Kamberi joined on a season-long loan from Swiss side St Gallen.

While Kamberi's goalscoring record did not make for particularly good reading for Wednesday supporters, he had enjoyed some decent spells during his career, and the fact that he had been on the books of Scottish Premiership trio Hibernian, Rangers and Aberdeen offered hope that he could be a success in League One.

Kamberi made a positive start to his Owls career, scoring his first goal for the club on just his fourth appearance in the 2-0 win at Rotherham United, but with fellow summer signings Lee Gregory and Saido Berahino getting up to speed, it would not be long until he lost his place.

After over a month without a league appearance, he was surprisingly restored to the starting line-up at the beginning of November, and he repaid Moore's faith in him as he scored in three consecutive games against Sunderland, Gillingham and Accrington Stanley.

However, Kamberi's goals papered over the cracks of some poor performances as he struggled to adapt to the physicality of the third tier, and while he remained a regular over the winter period, Moore did eventually lose patience with him after a long spell without scoring.

The forward made just one substitute appearance from the middle of March onwards, and tellingly, he did not feature in either of Wednesday's play-off semi-final legs against Sunderland, despite the fact that his side desperately needed a goal to salvage their promotion hopes.

Given that he scored just five goals in 27 games, there was little disappointment among the Owls fan base when the club decided against signing Kamberi permanently at the end of his loan, but eyebrows were certainly raised at Hillsborough when he returned to English football with Huddersfield Town the following season.

Kamberi joined Winterthur following his release by St Gallen, but after scoring just two goals and providing one assist in 15 games for the Swiss outfit, his contract was cancelled in November 2022.

It seemed as though his career had reached a crossroads at that point, but he was handed a surprise lifeline by Huddersfield in January 2023, who were managed by his former assistant manager at Karlsruher, Mark Fotheringham.

With the Terriers battling relegation in the Championship, many had reservations about whether Kamberi could be the man to score the goals needed to keep them up, but Fotheringham insisted that the 29-year-old could make an impact at the John Smith's Stadium.

"I knew him at Karlsruher and he's done well in Switzerland and exploded at Hibs," Fotheringham told Yorkshire Live.

"We want to get an arm around this kind of player and get him firing again and we maybe need to introduce players who can grab goals in all areas of the pitch, and Florian can contribute as well."

It initially looked as though Fotheringham's confidence was justified as Kamberi scored on his debut for the club in the 3-1 defeat at Preston North End in the FA Cup, but the doubts of Town supporters were quickly proven to be correct.

The striker made what turned out to be his first and only league appearance for Huddersfield as a substitute in their 2-0 defeat at Coventry City in late January, and after Fotheringham was sacked the following month, he was frozen out by new boss Neil Warnock.

The striker did not feature in a single matchday squad under Warnock, and the veteran manager barely even mentioned his name when speaking to the press, so it was little surprise when he was released by the Terriers at the end of his contract in the summer.

Kamberi had a short spell with Slaven Belupo in Croatia last season, and he currently plays for Romanian side Politehnica Iasi, but just as at Wednesday and Huddersfield, he has not been prolific at either of those clubs.