Sheffield Wednesday have endured a very difficult period on and off-the-field over the last year or so, suffering relegation down to League One last season.

A series of expensive transfer mistakes was a major factor in the Owls’ decline from a side that finished in the play-offs in back-to-back seasons in the Championship in the 2015/16 and 2016/17 campaigns, to one that is now playing in the third tier on of English football.

Arguably Almen Abdi is perhaps one of the main examples of how Sheffield Wednesday’s poor decisions in the transfer market eventually cost them financially and also their position in the Championship.

Signed by the Owls from Watford in a deal worth a reported £4 million in the summer of 2016, it was hoped that Abdi could replicate the sort of form he showed at Vicarage Road during their 2014/15 promotion season where he scored nine goals in 32 appearances.

However, things never worked out for Abdi at Hillsborough and he failed to make himself a regular in the side in the 2016/17 season under Carlos Carvalhal. He did make 16 Championship appearances in which he scored once as they reached the play-offs.

Abdi managed to make just four appearances in the Championship for Sheffield Wednesday in the 2017/18 season and a further two in the League Cup. While he then failed to make a single appearance for the Owls during the 2018/19 season.

At the end of that campaign, Sheffield Wednesday decided to cut their losses with Abdi and they parted company with the midfielder and allowed him to leave on a free transfer.

There has been no official announcement that Abdi has now retired from professional football, but he has yet to find himself a new club since and that means he has not made a single appearance for anyone since he left the Owls at the end of the 2018/19 campaign.

The 34-year-old’s Instagram account shows that Abdi has been enjoying life since his departure from the Owls with him posting many posts showing him travelling to some picturesque locations.

While Abdi has also recently revealed that he had been wanting to leave Sheffield Wednesday much earlier than he was able to do and he also blamed Carvalhal for the way his spell with the Owls went.

There is still potentially time for Abdi to get himself back into football at some stage with him still only 34-years-old.

However, it seems that he might have decided that he would rather pursue other things instead of returning to football.