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Report: Sheff Wed defender ‘unsure of his future’, 26 y/o could leave this summer

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Image for Report: Sheff Wed defender ‘unsure of his future’, 26 y/o could leave this summer

According to the Sheffield Star, Joost van Aken is ‘unsure of his future’ and could leave Sheffield Wednesday this summer if Garry Monk doesn’t want to recall the 26-year-old to the first-team next season.

Van Aken has spent the campaign on loan at VfL Osnabrück and has been a regular under Daniel Thioune, but the German outfit are in 2. Bundesliga and don’t have an enviable defensive record, so Wednesday might be better off looking elsewhere.

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Van Aken joined the Owls for £2.7m from Heerenveen in 2017 and made 16 appearances in all competitions. The Dutch defender was out of favour last summer and joined Osnabrück to get regular football. Van Aken has gone on to make 20 appearances in Germany, but he’s found himself on the losing team more often than not.

Osnabrück are currently 12th in 2. Bundesliga with 29 points from 25 games, having conceded 35 goals for the season – Thioune’s men have won seven, drawn eight and lost ten. Osnabrück are without a win in any competition since the turn of the year and have kept just one clean sheet in 2020 too, so van Aken hasn’t had the desired impact on loan.

Wednesday only have Dominic Iorfa, Tom Lees and Julian Borner at the heart of the backline, but Monk may prefer to bring in a new face than bring an out-of-favour player back from the cold.

Read Crippy Cooke’s previous article

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Sports journalist who is an avid football fan, enjoys debunking transfer rumours, loves to write pieces about players out in the cold and takes a large amount of pride getting a predicted XI 100% correct.