Sheffield Wednesday chased a Premier League return under Carlos Carvalhal five years ago, throwing money at the squad at Hillsborough with the view of finally returning to the top-flight.  

The financial outlay was significant and actually surpasses the money that Wednesday spent when they were a Premier League side in the 1990s.

Of course, the value of money has changed, whilst fees within the game have got silly.

We found that out as we lunged into the archives and looked at the 10 most expensive signings the club have made.

Not happy with just ranking them in terms of fee, we take a look at what they are up to now.

Follow the following link to see who ranks at No.10 and what they are up to now!

Stinton had progressed at Cambridge United and then made a name for himself with Brentford and Queens Park Rangers.

In 1993, he was a transfer target for Sheffield Wednesday, making the move from QPR to Hillsborough for a reported fee of over £3m.

At the time that was a significant outlay, with the left-sided England international making over 60 appearances for the Owls.

He moved on to Tottenham and Wolves, and since retiring has returned to former club, QPR.

Now aged 55, Stinton is a Club Ambassador for the R’s, who continue to compete in the Championship alongside Sheffield Wednesday.

As Wednesday began dreaming of promotion under Carvalhal, they swooped to bring in Abdi from Watford.

Costing a reported fee of over £3m, Abdi was quite a high-profile signing for the Owls.

However, injuries really impacted his involvement at Hillsborough and he managed just 23 appearances during his time at the club and wasn’t at the forefront of the push for promotion really.

Abdi left Hillsborough in the summer of 2019 and that remains the last club the Swiss international played for.

He’s 34 now and has been out of the game since his spell at Hillsborough came to an end.

Like Sinton and Abdi, Booth cost Wednesday a fee of around £3m when he signed for the club in the mid-1990s.

He arrived at Wednesday from Huddersfield Town and departed Hillsborough for a return to the Terriers in 2001 after a decent stint in South Yorkshire with the Owls.

However, Huddersfield is where Booth really made a name for himself, scoring over 100 goals for the Terriers in that time and becoming something of a legend in that part of Yorkshire.

Booth is still associated with the Terriers now, hosting episodes of ‘Boothy’s Beer & Banter’ for Huddersfield’s media stream on YouTube.

Hooper was exceptional for Sheffield Wednesday and had he avoided the injury setbacks he did in his career, he could have been spoken about as one of the EFL’s top strikers.

Costing around a similar to fee to those before (£3m), Hooper arrived at Hillsborough from Norwich City and helped steer Wednesday into promotion contention.

However, as injuries pinched, Hooper was eventually moved on.

Hooper’s destination was Wellington Phoenix and the Australian A-League, before he moved to Kerala Blasters in the Indian Super League in 2020.

Now at 33, the former Celtic striker remains on the books with Kerala Blasters in the Indian Super League.

Signed for around £3m from Watford, Forestieri was the catalyst behind Wednesday challenging for promotion under Carvalhal.

He was excellent in the season Wednesday reached Wembley and was a firm favourite on the terraces at Hillsborough as the Owls thrived.

Ultimately, things began to sour for Forestieri and his impact on the club faded heading into his final few seasons at the club.

Forestieri has since signed for Udinese and has moved to the Serie A looking to get his career back on track.

The 31-year-old has scored one goal and registered one assist in 10 league appearances for Udinese.

Hinchcliffe came in for a fee of over £4m back in the late 1990s, as per transfermarkt.

The left-back had been on the books at Everton and Manchester City earlier in his career and is better known for those two stints.

However, he finished his career as a player at Hillsborough over the Millennium.

Hinchcliffe is still a familiar face (or voice) for the Wednesday supporters, though, with their former left-back now a commentator on Sky Sports.

He has covered plenty of games in the EFL, whilst this season he’s also stepped up to commentate on games in the Premier League.

Kovacevic made an name for himself elsewhere in the world, but his only spell in England came with Sheffield Wednesday in the 1990s.

As per transfermarkt records, he cost around £4.5m and became one of Wednesday’s most expensive ever purchases.

However, he scored only four times for Wednesday and made a total of 17 appearances for the club across all competitions.

Still, he featured at the World Cup in 1998 and European Championships in 2000, and played for clubs like Juventus and Lazio on the back of leaving Wednesday.

Now, he’s the Sporting Director of the Serbian Football Association.

Another signing from the 1990s was De Bilde, who arrived from PSV Eindhoven for a fee similar to the one that was forked out for Kovacevic.

De Bilde made 68 appearances for Wednesday during his time at the club and also scored an impressive 15 goals for the Owls in that time.

A loan to Aston Villa would follow, as well as a move to Anderlecht when he had ran his race as a Wednesday player.

Like most former footballers, De Bilde fell into punditry following retirement, as well as thrusting himself into the world of reality television and even modelling.

Although undisclosed at the time of the transfer, it is reported that Adam Reach cost Sheffield Wednesday somewhere north of £5m when they moved to bring him to Hillsborough from Middlesbrough.

Reach was another that was meant to push Wednesday through to promotion, but that’s not materialised and he remains part of the squad that’s fighting for survival at the foot of the table.

He’s featured on 35 occasions this season in the Championship for the Owls, scoring three goals and registering two assists, featuring under Garry Monk, Tony Pulis and now Darren Moore.

Reach’s deal with Wednesday will expire in the summer.

The high-profile addition of Rhodes from Middlesbrough was supposed to really tip the balance for Wednesday in their pursuit of promotion.

Rhodes’ deal cost £10m and is Wednesday’s record purchase to this date.

However, Rhodes has failed to deliver what Wednesday craved in terms of a promotion to the Premier League.

Like Reach, he’s out of contract in the summer, but has just started to find his goalscoring touch once more under the management of Moore.

Rhodes bagged a brace in Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Barnsley in the Sky Bet Championship, adding to a goal against Norwich City and assist against Huddersfield since Moore took charge.