Sheffield Wednesday Manager Rohl Addresses Arsenal Interest in Shea Charles

Sheffield Wednesday manager Danny Rohl has expressed regret that the club does not permanently own Shea Charles, the on-loan midfielder who has reportedly drawn attention from Arsenal. Charles has featured for more than 80 minutes in 11 of his 12 appearances for the Owls this season. Charles, who reached 21 years of age this month, is currently on loan from Premier League club Southampton. He has garnered notice through a series of strong performances in the Championship and while representing Northern Ireland. He transferred to St Mary’s in 2023 for a reported fee of £15m, having developed through the Manchester City academy. During his time there, he made a single first-team appearance under Pep Guardiola, which was in a match against Brentford in May 2023 that ended in a defeat. Spanish reports indicate that Arsenal is keeping tabs on the midfielder, particularly as Gunners manager Mikel Arteta previously coached at Manchester City during Charles’ formative years. Rohl commented to BBC Radio Sheffield, stating: “He’s a young, high-potential player – the pity is that he is not our player.” Prior to the 2023-24 season, Charles joined Southampton, where he made 32 appearances in the Championship. However, he completed the full 90 minutes in only 10 of those matches, and only twice across the last 21 fixtures. He featured for one minute as a substitute under Russell Martin during all three play-off matches, which saw the Saints secure promotion. Subsequently, he was permitted to join Wednesday for a season-long loan in August. Since his arrival, Charles has participated in all but 50 minutes of the Owls’ 12 Championship fixtures and notably scored an injury-time winning goal against Coventry. Rohl further stated: “He’s a key player for us. If he is linked with big teams, I’m not sure how many players at Sheffield Wednesday were linked with big teams. The pity is that he is not our player. If he’s our player, fantastic. But when I decided in the summer to take him, I saw something in him. He’s got a lot of minutes, he deserves it.” Rohl expressed his hope that the positive outcome of this loan arrangement could assist the club in attracting additional Premier League talent during the upcoming January transfer window. He commented: “It’s not always just to convince the players… for me at the moment it’s a big (thing) to get some good players from Premier League clubs to improve our level. We have a lot of players on a similar level. To win more games, and to win the important games, to win close games you need high-end quality.” He concluded: “This is what we have to work on. I think we will do this in the next few weeks. Let’s see what we can do.”