On Tuesday night we saw Sheffield Wednesday’s latest signing, Rodri, burst onto the Hillsborough scene with a smart finish and some acrobatics to get Wednesdayites salivating about the future.

We’re two games into our Championship season and, without being too ridiculous, we’re sat second in the league and have done ourselves proud so far.

The first game saw a second remarkable comeback in the space of a week when we came back from two goals down against Derby to draw 2-2, then Dave Jones’ boys followed that match up with a 3-2 victory over Birmingham City.

Anyway, Rodrigo Rios Lozano, as his mother will call him when he’s naughty, slotted a left footed strike past Jack Butland to make it 2-0 to the Mighty Owls, did a flip and endeared around 25,000 Wednesday fans to him at the first time of asking. The forward then went on to shake the referees hand as he left the field of play to a standing ovation later in the game.

The 22-year-old, who was snapped up by Barca last year for their ‘B’ side after a brief spell with Sevilla’s first team, completed a loan move to S6 recently and it has since been revealed that we have the opportunity to make the deal a permanent one should he continue to impress.

After the game DJ was naturally asked a few questions about the boy, with a lovely hint of humour he answered, “Someone said to us the other day when we signed him: ‘Is he going to be any good?’ I think Barcelona are the sort of club who probably do a recce properly on players. We do the same checks.

“I’ve had a call from a Premier League manager who said, ‘How the **** did you get him out (of Barcelona)?"

“He just has that European thing where they have that little glide past people, that arrogance. He has control and vision. We’re expecting big things from the kid. He’s only young, we have an option to buy him.”

Granted, the kid may just have heaped a truck load of expectation on his little Spanish shoulders, but we’re Wednesdayites and we’ll back him as long as he works for us.

Being in South Africa I had to make do with listening to our exploits against the Brummies via the net, however, I am excited by what was being said during the game and even my dad, who went to the game and is the most pessimistic Wednesdayite I know, said that he was impressed. I quote, “Quality Joe, sheer quality.” That, my friends, is high praise indeed.

Delving into history a little bit, it’s been over a decade since we last beat Birmingham and in our last encounter, in 2011, they were unlucky to only put three past us. This time around we bossed them completely in the first half and did our job, got three points, in the second. How times change.

Even more importantly, up until Tuesday, we’d lost six of our last seven games against the Blues and the only one we didn’t lose was in 2009, when we managed a 1-1 draw. Therefore, a Wednesday win, in recent years, has been as rare as a hen’s tooth.

Anyway, next up for Jones and his troops is another home game, this time against Kenny Jackett’s Millwall, on the back of their 2-1 win over Peterborough this week.

The Lions finished last season’s Championship in 16th place and will no doubt want to improve on that this year. Here’s hoping that our boys keep up their 16 game unbeaten run under Jones and give Hillsborough something else to smile about.

On the transfer front I’m pretty sure that Jones isn’t finished yet. We have it on good authority that Everton’s England under-21 starlet, Ross Barkley, could be on his way to Hillsborough on loan, and that QPR’s Ugg wearing six footer, Jay Bothroyd, could be doing the same. Rodri, Madine, Maguire, O’Grady and Bothroyd? Exciting times Wednesdayites, exciting times.

Vamos los brujos de azul y blanco!

Can We Kick It? @YesWeCrann

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