Sheffield Wednesday casting eyes over Leeds United player with 2025/26 in mind | OneFootball

The Owls are looking to poach a player from their Yorkshire rivals.

Sheffield Wednesday are weighing up a move for Leeds United youth team goalkeeper Owen Grainger.

This time of year in the footballing calendar is the make-or-break point for a lot of young players. The academies and youth setups of clubs across the UK have to make tough decisions on which of their fresh-faced talents to give another opportunity to, and which to send on their way.

Being released by a big club can be a blessing in disguise for some players. Ivan Toney was let go of by Newcastle United but went on to slowly rise up the ranks of the EFL and become an England international. And it appears as if Wednesday are assessing whether a soon-to-be-released youngster could be one that slipped through one of their rivals' nets.

Sheffield Wednesday considering move for Leeds United goalkeeper

Grainger, 17, played in an under-21s match for the Owls against Brentford on Monday, a match which ended in a 1-1 draw. He was one of four trialists playing for Wednesday that day, and The Star have reported that the Northern Ireland under-18, who is said to be without a Leeds contract for next season, is of interest to the Owls.

The Steel City side are taking a fresh approach to youth team recruitment, with Jonathan Pepper, the new head of academy at Hillsborough, being the driving force behind it.

First-team manager Danny Rohl recently said of Pepper, via The Star: "He has his own ideas, especially for the recruitment and which players we must scout. Also on manpower and in which areas we can look wider and have some more players in the academy.

"This is good and he brings a mindset that is focused on developing individual players more than the team development. This is important in the academy, that we do not look too early to improve the team, that it is about improving the individuals and making the best players better so they are ready for the next step.

"It is good. I have the experience with (RB) Leipzig and when you are in an academy for a long time you know what it all means. It is helpful he is here and hopefully it brings the club and this area forward."

Rohl has recently been linked with becoming the next RB Leipzig boss, as well as with Leicester City and Southampton, another one of his former clubs, according to Florian Plettenburg.

Sheffield Wednesday should be looking to snatch at potential missed by bigger clubs

As much as it will pain some Wednesday supporters to hear, Leeds are undoubtedly a bigger club than the Owls. This brings with it the cache and clout that allows them to recruit a lot more talented youngsters.

Such a tiny percentage of players who even make it to the academy level will ever actually play any minutes for that club, but that doesn't mean that those who are rejected don't have the potential to play professionally.

There's always going to be some of them who miss out and first but go on to prove clubs wrong; Wednesday are right to make sure that they are in a position to snap up any of these teens who they feel have untapped potential.