Shea Charles will continue his development on loan at Sheffield Wednesday this season with Southampton hoping he can return next summer a better player.
Southampton saw fit to pay Manchester City a fee that could rise up to £15 million to sign Shea Charles last summer as they prepared for life in the Championship.
A highly-rated young talent who was already a regular for Northern Ireland’s senior team despite playing youth football at City, Charles made 38 appearances in all competitions for Southampton last season in his first real taste of senior club football.
Whilst his versatility was one of the key reasons he was signed by the Saints, it meant Charles found it hard to tie down a position in the team under Russell Martin, with the manager never really placing his full trust in the youngster.
With 14 players signed for the first-team this summer, it was only going to get harder for Charles to get opportunities at Southampton this season so he was allowed to join former Southampton coach Danny Rohl’s Sheffield Wednesday on loan for the season.
Southampton loanee Shea Charles impressed on Sheffield Wednesday debut
When Rohl was appointed in his first managerial role at Sheffield Wednesday last October he was the youngest manager in the EFL at just 34.
A progressive coach, Rohl oversaw a remarkable turnaround at Hillsborough and guided the Owls to safety last season.
This season, Sheffield Wednesday are hoping to look up the table rather than over their shoulder and they have signed Charles for the campaign to help with that in a move which should be mutually beneficial for all parties.
The Northern Ireland international was thrown in for his debut at the heart of the midfield against Millwall and impressed despite his new side losing 3-0 away from home.
The Star rated Charles’ debut a seven out of ten which was the highest score of any Wednesday player on the day, commenting: “Stepped straight in from the off and looked a drop of class; a tackle, tight space dribble and excellent pass coming within three minutes.
“Though Wednesday faded, his little moments continued. Looks a very steady pick-up.”
Charles part of strong former Southampton contingent at Sheffield Wednesday
Charles should get plenty of opportunity to play football at Wednesday and will look to learn as much as he can from Rohl.
Rohl was Ralph Hasenhuttl’s assistant for eight months in the 2018/19 season before he was asked by Hans Flick to join him at Bayern Munich.
Rohl accepted the offer before following Flick onto the German national side so has real pedigree despite his age.
Charles and Rohl are not the only two people with a Southampton affiliation at Wednesday, though, with former defender Yan Valery having also joined the Owls this summer.
Valery made 53 appearances for the Saints before leaving for Angers in France in 2022 but returned to England this summer to reunite with Rohl.