With just half an hour to go until the close of the transfer window, Crystal Palace finally agreed to let struggling marksman Connor Wickham go out on loan to Sheffield Wednesday.
Wickham has had a torrid middle period to his career. He joined Crystal Palace at the beginning of the 2015-16 seasons as a highly-rated young striking prospect. But over the next five season and 50 games, Wickham has scored just 11 goals. He will be hoping to stage a revival at Wednesday.
He is more than familiar with his surroundings at Hillsborough. The centre-forward has had two loan spells with the Owls, one in 2012-13 and another in the following campaign. He scored nine goals in 17 appearances during this time and was held in high regard by the fans. However, that was a long time ago and Wickham has changed a great deal as a football in that period – and not necessarily for the better.
Even so, that Palace allowed Wickham to leave Selhurst Park in the middle of the season is somewhat surprising. They have been enjoying a relatively solid season in the Premier League and sit comfortably in 13th place, level on points with fallen giants Arsenal no less.
However, the club are lacking in options upfront which was the reason they chose to bring in Everton forward Cenk Tosun on a six-month loan deal. Other than the Turk, they have the up-and-down Jordan Ayew who is capable of great things but shows it very rarely. There is Christian Benteke too, of course, but the Belgian’s best days are clearly behind with him having scored four goals in the past three seasons.
Many Palace fans will not see Wickham as a big loss, but they might well turn out to eat their words if one or more of their alternative options sustains an injury. As for Wickham himself, he has a definite point to prove. He will be hoping that the Championship turns out to be his level and that he can drastically improve on his recent strike rate.
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