Tom Lees – Wednesday’s Main Man?

The Leeds United academy product spent 6 years in Leeds’ senior side appearing 123 times and scoring 3 times for the club before making the move across the county to our beloved Sheffield Wednesday. When we signed the defender on there wasn’t much praise coming from the Leeds fans and we could only wait and see as to how he would turn out for us.

55 appearances, 2 goals and a huge hand in equaling the club’s clean sheet record in the 14/15 season later… I think he was pretty priceless. I mean we did get him for free after all.

Lees proved his worth last season and became one of our most reliable player and even started to stand in as captain when Loovens was unavailable. He made a total of 48 appearances for Wednesday in his first season and looks to continue adding to his tally. After Stuart Gray’s men finished comfortably in midtable, the defensive record was strong and tight since the addition of Lees. Then cue the summer of change.

In comes Carlos Carvalhal, an attacking minded coach that urged strongly that we needed to play beautiful, free flowing football and score goals. With many additions from overseas in one of Wednesday’s busiest transfer periods it looked as though we would need someone to calm things down. Someone who knows the league. I think that man is Tom Lees.

Carvalhal implemented a big rotation policy to facilitate the size of the Owl’s squad. The Portuguese head coach has made a huge number of changes between each match but one thing that has remained constant throughout is that Tom Lees will be leading the defence.

He’s made 14 appearances for the Owls this season and he’s already chipped in with two goals. His first goal in the Blue and White came in the Owls’ opener against Bristol City at Hillsborough and immediately filled many Wednesdayites with confidence. After a good poaching display from set pieces against Hull City on Saturday, the stable defender was unlucky not to make it 3.

A strong, proven defender who shows good leadership skills and is a strong contender for full time captaincy next season is what we need. We have that in Tom Lees. A defensive minded powerhouse who can switch to attack is what we;ve got in this player. Last year we had one of the best defences in the league. Now we’re turning that into attack too with the aid of this player. He could still prove to be one of Wednesday’s most vital players for recent seasons past and, hopefully, many more seasons to come.