Sheffield Wednesday have taken Bradford City’s Joel Martin on trial, as the Owls look to bolster their squad ahead of next season.
Wednesday will be playing League One football following their relegation from the Championship this term, in what has been an incredibly difficult campaign.
However, they may be about to add some much-needed players to their squad.
According to the Sheffield Star, the Bantams midfielder has been in S6 in the past week, ahead of his likely departure from West Yorkshire.
There has been no hiding just how bad Wednesday have been this season, but for good reason. Wednesday were stripped of their best players in the summer, following their mid-table finish in the second-tier last season. Losing manager Danny Röhl, who has since led Rangers back into a title challenge in Scotland, was another catastrophic blow before the season even got underway.
Entering administration and an 18-point deduction led to their inevitable relegation from November onwards, and was confirmed at bitter rivals Sheffield United in February. That set a record for the earliest ever relegation in EFL history, another part of a campaign that Owls supporters will want to forget as soon as possible.
While they remain in administration, there is light at the end of the tunnel in the shape of David Storch. And it does mean that Wednesday can tentatively look ahead to next season, even with their future uncertain. That brings in Bradford, who may be their third-tier opponents next season. Bantams man Martin is believed to have featured for Wednesday’s U21 side against Barnsley at the end of last week.
He was a key part of the Bradford’s run to the FA Youth Cup 3rd round this campaign, where their progress was eventually halted by Crystal Palace U18s. Derby County forward James Ward and Newcastle United’s Matty Taylor are believed to have been the two other trialists involved in the match against the Tykes last Friday afternoon.
Will Bradford Still Be A League One Side?
There remains the very real possibility that Bradford could win promotion to the Championship this season. Graham Alexander’s outfit have been mightily impressive this season, following promotion from League Two last term. Along with Lincoln City, the Bantams are one of the biggest overachievers in the third tier in the last nine months, sitting in fourth place in the current League One standings.
They finally ended their win-loss home and away streak, stretching back to mid-January, against Port Vale last midweek. But another defeat on the road against Wigan Athletic on Saturday afternoon leaves the West Yorkshire outfit 12 points adrift of second-place Cardiff City. An eight-point buffer to the teams in sixth and seventh place means that their place in the play-offs feels fairly secure at this moment in time. However, there is still work to do in the final nine matches of the campaign.
That begins with hosting Mansfield Town this evening, while they will be hoping for a favour from the Imps as they entertain Huddersfield Town.