Sheffield Wednesday may regret 2022 decision based on Derby County, West Brom evidence | OneFootball

Goalkeeper Joe Wildsmith has gone on to impress at Derby County and West Brom after leaving Sheffield Wednesday in 2022.

It is fair to say that the goalkeeper position has long been a subject of debate among Sheffield Wednesday supporters.

Keiren Westwood was Wednesday's first choice for much of his seven-year spell at the club after joining from Sunderland in 2014, but despite being widely regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the Championship, he was frozen out on two occasions by Jos Luhukay and Garry Monk, much to the anger of the fan base.

Since Westwood's departure in 2021, Bailey Peacock-Farrell, David Stockdale, Cameron Dawson, Devis Vasquez and James Beadle have all had spells between the sticks with varying degrees of success.

Loanee Beadle has been the Owls' number one goalkeeper over the past year, but he is set to return to parent club Brighton & Hove Albion in the summer, and he is unlikely to return for a third loan spell, so it is a position that will again need addressing in the summer.

Despite the frequent changes in goal, one player who was never really given a proper chance at Hillsborough was academy graduate Joe Wildsmith, but his subsequent career suggests that it may have been a mistake for Wednesday to overlook him.

Joe Wildsmith struggled to establish himself at Sheffield Wednesday

After loan spells with Alfreton Town and Barnsley, Wildsmith made his debut for Wednesday in their 4-1 win over Mansfield Town in the EFL Cup in August 2015, and the competition certainly helped him to make a name for himself.

Wildsmith went on to keep clean sheets in the Owls' memorable victories over Premier League duo Newcastle United and Arsenal in their run to the quarter-finals, but with Westwood firmly established as Carlos Carvalhal's number one, his game time in the league remained limited.

An injury to Westwood finally gave Wildsmith a chance in the Championship in the 2017-18 season, and he went on to make 29 appearances, but despite Luhukay stating that he had put in "very good performances in the last few months and saved us a lot of points", he was dropped for Cameron Dawson towards the end of the campaign.

Wildsmith spent much of the next two years on the sidelines as Westwood and Dawson battled it out for the gloves under various different managers, and while he did make 19 appearances in the 2020-21 season as Wednesday were relegated to League One, it was becoming clear that he was not going to be able to nail down his place between the sticks.

It was a reality that Wildsmith himself was eventually forced to accept, and he decided to reject the club's offer of a new contract in the summer of 2022 and departed Hillsborough in search of regular game time elsewhere.

While Owls supporters were never truly convinced by Wildsmith, his record of 27 clean sheets in 89 games for the club - which is almost one shutout every three games - suggests that he performed better than many gave him credit for, and that view is only strengthened by his exploits since leaving S6.

Joe Wildsmith has proven Sheffield Wednesday wrong at Derby County and West Brom

Wildsmith made the move to League One side Derby County after leaving Wednesday, and while some were disappointed to see him join one of the club's main rivals, most wished him well at Pride Park.

The 29-year-old's first season with the Rams ended in frustration as they missed out on the play-offs, and ironically, it was the Owls who knocked his new club out of the top six with a 1-0 victory at Hillsborough on the final day of the campaign, but he impressed on an individual level as he kept 21 clean sheets in 54 appearances in all competitions.

Wildsmith and his team-mates were clearly motivated by that setback, and they went on to achieve automatic promotion last season as they finished in second place behind champions Portsmouth, sealing a return to the Championship after a two-year absence.

For the second consecutive season, Wildsmith kept a total of 21 clean sheets during the course of the campaign, but he did it in just 43 appearances this time around, and he won the League One Golden Glove award.

However, despite playing a starring role in Derby's promotion, Wildsmith was surprisingly released by the club in the summer, with manager Paul Warne later revealing talks over a new contract with the goalkeeper had broken down.

Wildsmith's performances at Pride Park were clearly enough to catch the eye of Championship promotion hopefuls West Bromwich Albion, and he signed a two-year contract at The Hawthorns in July.

After spending much of the first half of the season on the bench, Wildsmith was handed an opportunity to become the Baggies' number one following the departure of Alex Palmer to Ipswich Town in January, despite many expecting Josh Griffiths to assume the gloves after he was recalled from his loan spell at Bristol Rovers.

Wildsmith is yet to fully win over Albion supporters after a couple of unconvincing displays, but he still retains the backing of manager Tony Mowbray, and he will be looking to help the Midlands outfit to promotion to the Premier League this season.

With Wildsmith currently the first-choice goalkeeper for a club the size of West Brom, Wednesday will surely be wondering if they should have given him more of a chance, and he could have provided the stability between the sticks that the club have been lacking in recent years.