Sheffield Wednesday transfer deal for Dutch-born winger could be one to forget | OneFootball

The Owls' January gamble on Ibrahim Cissoko already looks misguided

Sheffield Wednesday’s January transfer window was always set to be a crucial one.

At the time, the club found itself in the midst of an unexpected push for the play-offs, a feat that would have been unthinkable just a few months prior.

The turnaround under Danny Röhl had sparked optimism, but it was evident that targeted reinforcements were required to sustain momentum and address clear squad deficiencies.

Instead, the club secured the loan signing of Ibrahim Cissoko, a 21-year-old winger from Toulouse. A deadline-day arrival after a mixed spell on loan at Plymouth Argyle, Cissoko’s addition was curious at best. In hindsight, it appears neither necessary nor particularly effective.

His brief time in South Yorkshire has been unremarkable: four substitute appearances, a total of 45 minutes played, and one yellow card. His longest stint - 23 minutes against Burnley - provided little evidence to suggest he could be the kind of impact player Wednesday required in the final stretch of the season.

Sheffield Wednesday’s wing: an already crowded position

The logic behind Wednesday’s move for Cissoko is difficult to decipher.

The squad was not crying out for additional wingers, with Anthony Musaba, Djeidi Gassama, Josh Windass, and the scarcely seen Olaf Kobacki already providing depth in wide areas.

If a winger was to be brought in, it needed to be one capable of slotting in seamlessly and making an immediate difference. Cissoko, to this point, has not looked like that player.

His time at Plymouth suggested a player with raw ability but an inconsistent end product. Across 17 matches, he registered three goals and an assist - respectable, but hardly transformative figures.

More concerning was his disciplinary record, with two yellow cards and a red in under 700 minutes of football, hinting at lapses in judgment and a lack of composure. Those tendencies have followed him to Sheffield, where his first notable contribution was a restart delaying yellow card.

Sheffield Wednesday have failed to address the real problems

The most damning aspect of Cissoko’s signing is what it represents in the broader context of Wednesday’s transfer activity.

The glaring weaknesses in the squad were not on the flanks but at centre-forward and in defence. The backline, already vulnerable, was in urgent need of reinforcement. At the other end of the pitch, goalscoring had been an issue throughout the season, with no player emerging as a reliable, week-in-week-out finisher.

Addressing these deficiencies should have been the priority.

Instead, the club’s limited business in January - of which Cissoko was a prominent addition - failed to move the needle. The result has been an unraveling of the play-off push that, at one stage, seemed within reach.

What had been a remarkable resurgence under Röhl has lost momentum, and poor recruitment decisions such as this one have played a role in that decline.

Cissoko’s loan spell is not yet over, and there remains a slim chance he can justify his arrival before the campaign concludes.

But as things stand, his signing has come to symbolise a lack of direction in Wednesday’s January dealings - a misallocation of resources that may have cost the club more than just a few points.