Sheffield Wednesday's January transfer window hits and misses

Since 2003, English football clubs have only been able to buy new players in the summer and the first month of the new year.

Mid-season moves carrying an even bigger risk, with prices often inflated by the desperation of the buyers or the reluctance of clubs to sell.

Like all clubs, Sheffield Wednesday have a mixed back when it comes to January transfer windows. Here we look back on two strikers whose impact was at opposite ends of the scale.

HIT – Leroy Lita, 2013

With Sheffield Wednesday hovering a place above the Championship relegation zone at the start of 2013, it was obvious where the problem lay. Only Barnsley and Ipswich Town had scored fewer goals.

Manager Dave Jones turned his attention to Leroy Lita, who had scored three goals on loan at Birmingham City from Swansea City in the first half of the season. This too was a temporary transfer.

Lita made a dramatic start, coming off the bench 24 hours after signing to score the winning goal at in-form Charlton Athletic as the Owls won a game they had been trailing in after 83 minutes. He followed it with a half-volley on his home debut, against Brighton and Hove Albion.

Along with Connor Wickham, who scored eight goals in 11 games after joining on loan from Sunderland in February – Football League clubs were allowed “emergency loans” outside of the windows at that time – Lita helped keep the Owls in the division,. His sixth goal of the season, at former club Middlesbrough, sealed the deal.

Disappointingly for Jones, who had spoken at the time about possibly making the deal permanent, Lita instead chose to play for Brighton on loan the next season.

MISS – Jordan Rhodes, 2017

When Sheffield Wednesday signed him from Middlesbrough in January 2017, former Huddersfield Town striker Jordan Rhodes had a reputation as a player who guaranteed goals in the Championship, if not the next level up.

He came on loan, with Wednesday agreeing to buy him outright for £10m at the start of the season.

He scored in his second game and twice in his fifth, but did not contribute any more goals as Wednesday reached the play-offs. Rhodes was on the bench for the two-legged semi-final against the Terriers, not taking a penalty as his side lost in a shoot-out.

So far Wednesday have had 13 goals in all competitions for their investment, and sent the Scotland international on a season-long loan to Norwich City in 2018-19.

Even though Rhodes scored a fantastic hat-trick at Nottingham Forest in December, he was unable to nail down a starting place.

His contract up at the end of the season, Rhodes's signing has become symptomatic of the largesse which has seen the Owls run into potential difficulties with the Football League's profit and sustainability rules.