A cheeky attempt, a rare trio and £1000 fee: Sheffield Wednesday transfer breaks 73-year Sheffield United duck

Because the transfer, which will be officially enacted when Lowe’s current contract comes to an end at the end of the month, is an extremely rare one. As a Sheffield United player, the 27-year-old joins a surprisingly small party of players to have made the direct jump from the senior set-up at Bramall Lane to that of Hillsborough. Social media broke into a collective chin-scratch as folk pondered who was the last to make the switch in that specific direction.

Let’s take a look at the few deals that did turn players from red to blue - and some close calls.

A rare trio

According to the ever-excellent Sheffield Wednesday historian and author Jason Dickinson, Lowe becomes only the fourth senior player to transfer from Blade to Owl in the 135-year history of the two clubs’ co-existence. Youngsters have of course made the move, with legendary Wednesday figure Howard Wilkinson perhaps the most obvious example having done so in 1962.

Research suggests the first senior deal in that direction came on December 13 1893, nearly 131 years ago, when William Mellor signed from United to a club then known as ‘The Wednesday’. He managed only one appearance in his 18 months with the club before moving on to Loughborough Town in 1895.

Next came versatile forward Bernard ‘Bunny’ Oxley, who having signed for the Blades from Chesterfield in 1928 played over 100 league matches before moving to the Owls for £1,000 on May 3 1934 - nearly 40 years on from Mellor’s switch. He struggled to find form for his new club and headed south to Plymouth Argyle for £600 in September of the next year.

The most recent example of a player crossing the divide from S2 to S6 is George Underwood, who again commanded a £1,000 fee in a deal completed on September 28 1951. He made no first team appearances for Wednesday before joining Scunthorpe United after two years at Hillsborough.

It’s been nearly 73 years, but Max Lowe turns the trio into a quartet - and will hope fourth time is a charm in terms of making it a success story!

Close calls

Wednesday attempted to break the British transfer fee when they tried to sign United legend Jimmy Hagan in February 1951, seven months before the Thompson transfer. Hagan, who scored 117 league goals in 361 league matches for United either side of the second world war, turned down the move despite his club’s acceptance of an offer they felt they couldn’t turn down.

Some 42 years later, The Owls again tried to pull off a cheeky transfer of a much-loved United attacking player when they launched a hijack of Brian Deane’s July 1993 transfer to Leeds United. A Blades legend, Deane was the subject of a £3m bid from Trevor Francis’ Owls that would have partnered him with David Hirst. He completed the move to Elland Road for £2.9m.

Moving in reverse

The fact is that plenty have moved the other way in years gone by; the most iconic switch possibly being the £100,000 transfer that saw lifelong Wednesdayite and terrace icon Terry Curran head to Bramall Lane in order to spite then-Owls boss Jack Charlton after a falling out.

A double switch of Wednesday youngsters to S2 was completed by Neil Warnock as recently as 2004 when Leigh Bromby and Alan Quinn signed on free agent terms after the relegated Owls sought to clear decks having failed to bounce back from relegation to League One. Derek Geary is often mistakenly thrown into that same category and wasn’t far off - though he signed for Stockport County after leaving Wednesday and was the subject of a £25,000 transfer to United in the October.