Sheffield Wednesday are heading into a big summer in 2021, where player turnover is going to be high on the agenda.

Darren Moore has the task of leading the Owls through the final third of the Championship season, with the task of helping the club somehow avoid relegation to the third-tier.

Regardless of that relegation, a big summer awaits. New faces will arrive and you wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple of household names on their way out of the club.

Some of those on their way out will go without a thought, which leads us onto the particular topic of former Wednesday players that you might have forgotten even pulled on the famous blue and white.

We kick off this list of 11 players with a recent name that made next-to-no impact whilst on the books at Wednesday…

Bates arrived at Hillsborough back in 2019/20, with the Scot arriving to bolster the options Wednesday had at centre-back.

However, the impact of Bates was minuscule and he managed to make just a single appearance for the club during his season-long loan from Hamburg.

That came in the League Cup too, with Bates featuring for 90 minutes as Wednesday progressed past Rotherham United thanks to a late, late Atdhe Nuhiu goal.

Now 24-years-old, Bates is out on loan from Hamburg once more, with Cercle Bruges taking on his service.

The defender has already made 16 starts in the Belgian First Division.

McGoldrick has starred for Sheffield United since linking up with the Blades in 2018, bagging 15 goals as the Blades won promotion to the Premier League in 2018/19.

He’s scored a further eight times in the Premier League and will go down as something of a modern-day hero at Bramall Lane.

Prior to that the Ireland international was a familiar face at Ipswich Town, but just before that he had a loan spell with Sheffield Wednesday in 2011.

McGoldrick scored within 10 minutes on his debut for the club in a 3-2 win over Yeovil, but made just four appearances in total for the Owls.

Bennett began his career with Middlesbrough, before moving on to Aston Villa. He’s currently with Cardiff City across the Championship and is approaching 200 appearances for the Bluebirds.

However, between Villa and the Bluebirds, there were a couple of loan spells for the left-back.

Brighton and Hove Albion, then Bournemouth got their hands on Bennett, before he made a move to Hillsborough in the winter of 2016.

However, Bennett managed just three appearances during the second-half of 2015/16 for the Owls, who were on their way to the play-offs and eventual Wembley defeat that season under Carlos Carvalhal.

Murphy is 37 now and has bookended his career with spells at Waterford.

However, between that he’s had a spell with Celtic and played a large percentage of his career in England.

Sunderland, Ipswich, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest and Bolton Wanderers all got their hands on the Irishman, as well as Sheffield Wednesday.

A short-term loan from Sunderland back in 2005 was agreed with the Owls, who took Murphy on short-term.

Despite scoring goals almost wherever he went, Murphy failed to find the back of the net in the four appearances he made for the Owls, which included a Steel City derby that ended in defeat.

Gary’s brother, Craig Gardner, has had a spell on the coaching staff at Wednesday this season, but it’s the younger sibling we are focusing on here.

Gardner (Gary) started his career with Aston Villa and his now on the books with Birmingham City. He is another that’s well travelled having played for seven clubs already, despite being just 28.

Back in 2013/14, he had a spell on loan with Wednesday from Aston Villa, but managed to make just four appearances for the Owls.

Three of those came in the Championship, with Wednesday suffering two defeats. The other was in the FA Cup as the Owls crashed out of the competition at the hands of Charlton Athletic.

Baker somehow remains on the books with Chelsea, but is part of their infamous group of players that spend season after season out on loan.

Trabzonspor are lucky enough to be enjoying Baker’s talents this season, whilst Dusseldorf, Reading, Leeds United, Middlesbrough, Vitesse and MK Dons went before them.

However, Baker’s first spell away from Chelsea was to Hillsborough.

Back in January 2015, Baker headed to Hillsborough and made four appearances for Wednesday in a short-term spell before moving on to MK Dons.

It was a loan spell to forget for the midfielder, who has only ever really showed his true quality on loan with Vitesse.

Tavernier has just been crowned a Champion in Scotland with Rangers and is going to go down in history at Ibrox.

He’s made a real name for himself with Gers, racing towards 300 appearances for the club and notching 63 goals from right-back.

It did take the 29-year-old some time to get going, though, with Tavernier forced to go through a series of loan spells away from Newcastle United before he found his way to Wigan and then Rangers.

Amongst that was a spell with Wednesday, who he made six league starts for in 2011/12 and also a further two in the FA Cup.

Carson had not long passed out of the Leeds United academy when he made a loan move to Sheffield Wednesday from Liverpool.

The goalkeeper was still young and raw, but had made Premier League appearances for both Leeds and Liverpool, and even Champions League appearances for the latter.

He moved out on loan with Wednesday in the Spring of 2006, making nine appearances in the Championship for the Owls and keeping an impressive five clean sheets in that time.

His career since has taken the goalkeeper all over, with Carson now on loan with Premier League leaders, Manchester City.

Over the course of his career, Afobe has cost Wolves, Bournemouth, Wolves (again) and then Stoke City some serious transfer fees.

Back at the start of his career, though, the striker was out on loan more often than not from Arsenal.

Huddersfield, Reading, Bolton and Millwall all took Afobe on loan, before he ended up with Sheffield Wednesday.

In 12 league appearances at Hillsborough, Afobe scored twice for the Owls.

His next move was to MK Dons, where his goalscoring form tempted Wolves into signing him initially.

Goals flowed from thereon in Afobe’s career, leading him to promotion and the Premier League for a short stint.

Barkley is currently on loan at Aston Villa in the Premier League, with the 27-year-old looking to put his career back on track after going a little bit stale at Everton and then Chelsea.

There’s no denying that when he was breaking onto the scene with the latter, Barkley was electric and one of English football’s most talked about talents.

He didn’t exactly shine out on loan with Leeds United before truly breaking into the Everton side, but he also had a spell with Sheffield Wednesday in 2012.

Barkley made just 13 appearances, but scored an impressive four goals for the Owls in that time.

Given what he’s gone on to do, it’s easy to forget that Barkley’s first signs of making it to the top level were with Sheffield Wednesday.

Martinez is thriving in the Premier League now and is a teammate of Barkley’s at Aston Villa. In fact, there are probably claims to suggest that he’s the best in the business in terms of the top-flight in England.

He showed signs of that with Arsenal prior to his summer switch, but the bulk of his career with the Gunners saw him loaned out.

In 2013/14, it was Sheffield Wednesday who go their hands on the Argentinian.

He made a total of just 15 appearances for the Owls and kept just two clean sheets in that time.

It’s safe to say he’s going a long way to putting loan spells like that behind him.