Barry Bannan reveals honest thoughts on Sheffield Wednesday’s season with ‘chance missed’ verdict

Add as preferred source on Google

Sheffield Wednesday star Barry Bannan has offered his review on the Owls’ 12th-placed feat in the 2024/25 Championship campaign.

Sheffield Wednesday finished last season 12th in the Championship, but the post-season summer in S6 has been nothing akin to the security of mid-table.

On Tuesday, Danny Rohl left Sheffield Wednesday officially after reaching an agreement with Dejphon Chansiri and the Owls hierarchy to end his 21-month stint in charge at Hillsborough.

Rohl released an emotional farewell after his exit was confirmed, and now attention turns to how Henrik Pedersen will fare in his post.

With the 2025/26 Championship campaign less than two weeks away, Owls legend Barry Bannan has revealed his honest review of Sheffield Wednesday’s recent season.

• READ MORE: Henrik Pedersen must snap up these three free agents for Sheffield Wednesday including former Owls icon

Barry Bannan reveals his thoughts on Sheffield Wednesday’s season

Sheffield Wednesday skipper Bannan has been out of contract since June 30, but has continued to train with the Owls amid the summer transfer window.

In a testament to his outstanding professionalism, Bannan has lost out on wages to a staggering amount of almost £100k, with the Scotsman’s footballing future still up in the air.

Central midfielder Bannan played 45 games in all competitions for the Owls last season, taking his all-time appearance tally for Sheffield Wednesday to a monumental 447.

In a documentary detailing Josh Windass’ last season at Sheffield Wednesday which was posted in the wake of Windass’ move to Wrexham, Bannan revealed his honest thoughts on the Owls’ 12th-placed feat in 2024/25.

Bannan told Windass’ YouTube channel: “I would say probably we’ve had loads of ups and downs, some good moments, some bad,

“But I think collectively when we look back and no disrespect to the league, we’ll probably look back at it this season and say it’s a chance missed to make the play-offs.

“The standard in the league’s not been great this year compared to previous and, probably more so down to us this season, than other teams, we probably threw a lot of results away that we should have won.

“So it’s good to not be fighting relegation, obviously we’ve not been near that really all season, but when you look back at it after a season it’s probably a chance missed.”

Despite the 35-year-old’s disappointment, Sheffield Wednesday’s 12th-placed finish was the Owls’ highest EFL finish since the club’s fourth-placed finish in the 2016/17 Championship campaign, which was Barry’s second season at Hillsborough.

• READ MORE: 9,000 Sheffield Wednesday supporters left in disarray amid latest Hillsborough update

Barry Bannan has been outstanding since signing for Sheffield Wednesday

Bannan joined Sheffield Wednesday from Crystal Palace in the summer window of 2015, for a fee estimated to be in the region of £2.1m, with the Scotsman going on to make almost 450 appearances.

Unfortunately for the Owls, Bannan was a member of the squad that suffered relegation to League One in 2021, but was imperative to the club’s resurgence back to the Championship after the infamous play-off final win against Barnsley.

Recently, Bannan was praised by Sheffield Wednesday fans for a community deed despite his contractual uncertainty.

In 2020, after an FA Cup tie, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola praised Bannan following City’s 1-0 win at Hillsborough.

If Bannan does depart on Wednesday this summer, after ten years of service, it’s unlikely that the City boss will swoop in for a transfer, but several Championship suitors would certainly want the gifted Scottish maestro.