"It's absolutely crazy" - Demand sent to Sheffield Wednesday star Ike Ugbo as pressure mounts | OneFootball

FLW's Sheffield Wednesday fan pundit shared his thoughts on Ike Ugbo

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Sheffield Wednesday striker Ike Ugbo has been urged to improve and reignite his career with the club following a nightmare 2024/25 Championship campaign.

Ugbo first landed at Hillsborough last season on loan from Troyes following a mixed and brief spell in the Championship with Cardiff City, but would go on to orchestrate a vital role in the side's dramatic survival under Danny Rohl.

The Canadian international's haul of seven strikes from 18 Championship appearances offered ample evidence for Rohl to make his stay in the Steel City permanent last summer, with the Owls eventually sealing a reported £2.5 million agreement with Troyes.

Ugbo was expected to pick up where he had left off but the current campaign could not have played out much worse for the ex-Chelsea academy star, who, remarkably, is yet to find the back of the net from 31 outings in the Championship.

To date, his only goal for the club since signing permanently came in an EFL Cup tie at Grimsby Town back in August, and Ugbo has fallen down Rohl's pecking order in recent times, making 15 starts and counting across the course of the season.

Ike Ugbo sent clear Sheffield Wednesday message

FLW asked our Owls fan pundit, Patrick McKenna, to name one player he believes the club need to see improvement from. Unsurprisingly, then, Patrick opted with Ugbo and offered a frank assessment of the striker's bleak season in SW6.

"In regards to a player we need to see improvement from, I think this is one of the easiest questions I'll see today and that's Ike Ugbo," Patrick told FLW.

"It isn't just a slight improvement, we need to see a massive turnaround in all aspects. It's absolutely crazy that we're still here in the middle of March, and we're still talking about how he needs to get that first [league] goal of the season to get going.

"In fact, he hasn't even had an assist. I know some strikers aren't prolific scorers, they'll get involved and have a lot of assists and key contributions to goals, we haven't had that at all.

"We need to be quite frank and honest about why this improvement is needed. Ugbo was brought in in the summer as our key signing and he was here to add something to our attack, get some goals.

"He was going to be our main striker but so far, he has absolutely flopped. Most likely now, he'll go down as our worst ever signing and I think he is so lucky that hard work of Danny Rohl's team and Michael Smith has been able to fill the void.

"This guy is still at the club and earning a wage from us, he needs to step up, start scoring and contributing.

"When he's in games, he's a passenger and it's like playing with ten men at times. I really don't know where to go with Ugbo at this stage.

"If we could shift him on in the summer and it's a somewhat viable option we could, but who wants him?

"I've got a feeling he's going to be here for the foreseeable future, so he needs to step up."

Ike Ugbo is repeating previous Cardiff City concern at Sheffield Wednesday

Patrick raises a rather intriguing argument about Ugbo's lack of impact in the final third away from simply goalscoring.

Goal droughts are an unfortunate, if not natural, course of action for the vast majority of strikers - especially at Championship level - but that's why it's so important that other elements of a forward's game can compensate for a lack of goals at times.

During Ugbo's time at Cardiff, he offered precious little once the goals dried up and that tale is now repeating itself with Wednesday. Although he has not shown it this season, the 26-year-old does have strong goalscoring instincts and can be a solid poacher at this level.

However, he has long struggled to impact the game in other aspects. Ugbo offers little physical presence in the way of running the channels or being an aerial threat, and his link-up play can also leave much to be desired.

Bolstering his all-round game would likely lead to more goalscoring opportunities or assists, and it would probably help some Wednesday fans to get off his back too.