Having experienced the pain of play-off heartbreak in each of the past two seasons, Sheffield Wednesday fans could not have been blamed for holding the belief that their side could make it third time lucky this term and end their extended Premier League exodus.

However, things have taken a sour turn at Hillsborough and despite replacing long-term – for Championship standards - boss Carlos Carvalhal with Jos Luhukay, the slide in south Yorkshire continues to take hold.

Just six points off the drop, there is a real chance that the Owls could return to League One in the coming months and serious changes need to be made if the club are to avoid an embarrassing demotion.

Here are the four things that we have learnt about the club so far…

There is no denying that Carvalhal had to go as the club experienced a downward spiral of huge proportions under the Portuguese, but the fact that he is working wonders in the Premier League with Swansea City has proven that the problem did not lie with the manager, but the job.

Dutchman Luhukay has done little to alter things at the club, and it may be argued that they have regressed under the new man despite key players beginning to return from injury.

It is clear that the problem lies not with the management, but the club itself.

Wednesday have been absolutely destroyed by injuries this term, with key players including Fernando Forestieri ruled out for much of the season.

The Owls have been down to their barebones at times, with teenagers thrown into the mix from the academy set up simply because the numbers were not there in the first team.

The flip side of this is the emergence of midfielder Sean Clare, but the club have simply been extremely unlucky with the number of long-term lay-offs, a fact that ultimately cost Carvalhal his job.

Not only has the £10 million man underperformed, but his signing and its outlay restricted management from distributing funds to area of the squads that were in dire need.

The Owls have a plethora of top class strikers in the form of Steven Fletcher, Gary Hooper and Atdhe Nuhiu and there was simply no need to spend the kind of money on Rhodes that they did.

Whoever agreed to a compulsory purchase in the deal that brought Rhodes to Hillsborough on a season-long loan the year before must be questioned, with fault most likely lying at the feet of the board for sanctioning such a deal.

Nuhiu almost became something of a cult figure at Wednesday as a perennial bench warmer, but the Kosovan has never let his side down when called upon and is finally being afforded the opportunity to show what he is all about.

The Eastern European has lived up and beyond expectations, smashing the goals in and generally making a real nuisance of himself at the point of the club’s attack.

A run of appearances in the FA Cup resulted in three goals and a place in the league starting line-up, with Nuhiu further cementing his status as a club hero this weekend with his two goals firing the Owls to a wonderful victory over Leeds United at Elland Road to ease their relegation fears.

Massively underrated, the 28-year-old deserves more and may seek a move away in the summer.

Wednesday fans, thoughts?