Sheffield Wednesday must swoop to sign £450k-rated West Brom goalkeeper Josh Griffiths this summer.
What's the talk?
According to Birmingham Live, Sheffield Wednesday have joined the race to land 19-year-old West Brom shot-stopper Griffiths ahead of next season. The report claims that Darren Moore is aware of Griffiths from his time in charge at The Hawthorns and that he is now keen for a reunion with the youngster at Hillsborough.
Griffiths has two more years left on his contract at West Brom and Birmingham Live claim that those at the club rate him highly, with Cheltenham and Portsmouth also said to be keen on acquiring his services on loan if he becomes available.
The Examiner Live has reported that Sheffield Wednesday are looking for a new goalkeeper to join their ranks as they attempt a squad overall to prepare themselves for a season in League One.
Cheltenham chairman Andy Wilcox believes that the goalkeeper wants to return for a second spell with his club next season. Wilcox told Gloucestershire Live:
“Ideally, we’d want Josh Griffiths back on loan as number one, but we’ll see how it goes.
“Firstly, he wants to come back to Cheltenham, which is the most important thing. He really enjoyed it here.
“He’s just got better and better, so credit to Booky (Steve Book, goalkeeping coach) for giving him confidence. He has a big future, that lad.”
Bye-bye Westwood
Keiran Westwood is out of contract at the end of the month and is poised to leave Sheffield Wednesday on a free transfer this summer. It is now time for Moore and Wednesday to say bye-bye to Westwood and bring in a fresh face in the goalkeeping department to compete with Joe Wildsmith for the number one jersey next term.
Wednesday cannot plan for the future with Westwood as he turns 37 in October and is in the final years of his career, which means that allowing him to leave on a free and replacing him with a young keeper would be an astute move by the club.
Moore would love it if Wednesday were able to secure a loan for Griffiths, due to his pre-existing relationship with the player. The Wednesday boss worked at West Brom as an assistant manager and as the first-team manager, with the aforementioned report claiming that he was aware of Griffiths whilst at The Hawthorns.
The £450k-rated goalkeeper was outstanding in League Two on loan to Cheltenham during the 2020/21 campaign. Griffiths conceded 37 goals in 44 league matches, keeping an impressive 21 clean sheets to catch the eyes of Portsmouth and Sheffield Wednesday scouts.
He has shown that he can be a reliable player at senior level despite his young and Moore could love to have the 19-year-old between the sticks for Wednesday in League One next season.
AND in other news, Forget Reach: Moore must clinch bargain SWFC deal for "tremendous" £360k-rated machine