Sheffield Wednesday caused Rotherham United anger with unforgettable double transfer swoop | OneFootball

Sheffield Wednesday's double signing of Michael Ihiekwe and Michael Smith from Rotherham United will live long in the memory.

It is fair to say that the 2022-23 season was one to remember for Sheffield Wednesday as they won promotion from League One.

While a late-season collapse saw Wednesday miss out on automatic promotion to Plymouth Argyle and Ipswich Town, they did accumulate an impressive total of 96 points, which would almost certainly have been enough to earn a top two spot in any other campaign.

It looked as though the Owls' promotion hopes had been crushed after they were beaten 4-0 at Peterborough United in their play-off semi-final first leg, but Darren Moore's men then staged one of the most remarkable comebacks ever seen in the EFL to overturn the deficit in the second leg at Hillsborough before securing their progression to the final after a penalty shootout victory.

Wednesday supporters could have been forgiven for thinking that their season could not get any more dramatic, but just as the final against Barnsley at Wembley looked destined to be heading for spot-kicks, Josh Windass popped up with a 123rd-minute winner to seal his side's promotion back to the Championship following a two-year absence.

Of course, the incredible play-off campaign will be the lasting memories of that season for the Owls, but the foundations for success were really built during the summer transfer window, with a double raid of Rotherham United proving to be crucial.

Sheffield Wednesday frustrated Rotherham United with double transfer deal

Having experienced heartbreak in the play-off semi-finals against Sunderland the previous season, Wednesday were determined not to suffer the same fate again in the 2022-23 campaign, and Moore's recruitment sent a strong message to the rest of League One before a ball had even been kicked.

Unlike the previous summer, the Owls got their transfer business underway early with the additions of David Stockdale, Ben Heneghan and Will Vaulks, and it was no coincidence that they all possessed plenty of third tier experience as Moore looked to build a more resilient mentality in his squad, which is something that had arguably been missing at the club for some time.

Moore had become known for his excellent recruitment, but when speculation emerged linking Wednesday with Rotherham duo Michael Ihiekwe and Michael Smith, few gave them much of a chance of actually landing the pair, particularly as the Millers had just won promotion to the Championship.

Ihiekwe had been linked with Derby County earlier in the summer, but the takeover uncertainty at Pride Park prevented the Rams from sealing a deal, and Millers manager Paul Warne insisted he was "confident" that both the defender and striker Smith would sign new contracts at the club.

However, in an unexpected turn of events, just hours after Warne's comments, the Owls announced the arrival of Ihiekwe and Smith, which both delighted the Wednesday faithful and caused anger among the Rotherham fan base in equal measure.

If Moore was looking for players with previous promotion experience, he certainly found it in Smith and Ihiekwe, with the duo boasting an impressive track record of League One success from their time at the New York Stadium.

Not only was Ihiekwe an incredibly solid centre-back at the level, but Smith was also a prolific scorer, and, after netting 24 goals in 54 games the previous year to help the Millers to automatic promotion, he won the club's Player of the Season award.

Walking out on Rotherham ahead of their return to the Championship was always going to be a controversial move regardless of the destination, but the fact Ihiekwe and Smith chose to join one of the club's main rivals firmly burned their bridges with supporters, and the latter's admission that financial reasons played a part in his decision to move Hillsborough also did not go down well.

Sheffield Wednesday struck gold with controversial Rotherham United raid

A club of Wednesday's stature was always going to be tipped to challenge at the top end of League One, but after the signings of Smith and Ihiekwe, they were regarded by many as promotion favourites alongside Ipswich, and they certainly lived up to that billing.

Ihiekwe made a strong start to his Owls career, helping to bring calmness and leadership to a defence that had been guilty of conceding far too many cheap and late goals the previous season, and while a knee injury kept him out for over five months between November and April, he made a timely return just before his side's play-off campaign.

In contrast, Smith had no such fitness problems, with the 33-year-old scoring 20 goals in 49 appearances during the course of the season, and his 10th-minute penalty in the semi-final second leg against Peterborough set his side on the way to their play-off heroics.

The signings of Ihiekwe and Smith were crucial to Wednesday's promotion success, but while there was no doubt about their quality at League One level, they were yet to fully prove themselves in the Championship having suffered relegation during their previous two seasons in the division with Rotherham.

Ihiekwe and Smith were regular fixtures in the starting line-up during the Owls' promotion-winning campaign, but their places in the team were much less secure in the second tier under both Xisco Munoz and Danny Rohl, leading to speculation about their future.

After helping Wednesday to what seemed like an impossible survival last term, Ihiekwe barely featured in the first half of this season, and it was claimed that he was keen to depart Hillsborough in January, but he regained his spot after the turn of the year, and as well as putting in some solid defensive performances, he chipped in with important goals in the victory at Norwich City and the draw at Cardiff City.

Having scored just four goals in 34 games last season, Smith was widely expected to leave the club in the summer amid interest from Wrexham, but he played a far bigger role than even he could have imagined this campaign, netting eight goals in 44 appearances and outperforming the likes of Jamal Lowe and £2.5 million signing Ike Ugbo.

While the club triggered their option to keep hold of Smith for a further year this summer, Ihiekwe was released at the end of his contract, meaning that the pair will no longer share a dressing room after playing together for the last eight years with Rotherham and Wednesday.

However, while they will now be heading in different directions, bringing Ihiekwe and Smith to the club will go down as two of the Owls' best transfer calls in recent times, and it is likely that, without them, they would not have won promotion from League One or consolidated back in the Championship.