Former Premier League star makes feelings clear on Wrexham transfer - 'That hurt me'

A former Premier League star has revealed he was left gutted after one of his teammates left to join Wrexham. Sheffield Wednesday captain Barry Bannan has opened up on a difficult summer which saw his close friend Josh Windass leave the troubled Championship side after not being paid for two months.

The 31-year-old forward, son of Hull City legend Dean Windass, signed for Wrexham as a free agent in July. Windass made the switch after winning an appeal to terminate his contract due to the ongoing financial crisis at Hillsborough.

Ex-Aston Villa and Crystal Palace midfielder Bannan decided to stay with the Owls despite the uncertainty and has now spoken out about how he was sad to see Windass leave. However, the former Scotland international insists they will always remain good friends after lamenting the loss of a talented colleague.

Speaking on the , the veteran player said: "Josh is one of my best mates. That hurt the most, probably because we had a great relationship off the pitch, but on the pitch we had a really good telepathic relationship as well in football terms.

"I knew when he was going to run and he knew that when I got the ball, if he ran then he would probably get it. That hurt me, not just because he's a mate, but I was missing someone on the pitch who made me look good and I probably made him look better as well. That was hard to take."

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Windass has impressed at Wrexham since joining the Championship new boys, scoring three goals in six league appearances. The ex-Rangers man netted 53 goals in 182 appearances during his five years at Wednesday.

Bannan himself was also linked with a move to the big-spending Red Dragons, who splashed out £33million on new players over the summer following their promotion from League One. But the 35-year-old said any talk of leaving the Owls was quickly shut down by his daughter and he eventually signed a contract extension in August.

He said: "My agent told me there was a mutual agreement that if I wanted another year, just me and the chairman would have to agree to it but it never got taken up. I nearly didn't get re-signed, because by the time we'd agreed on a new contract, we went into the embargo, and we weren't allowed to sign players.

"Luckily, I signed the week before the Leicester game, but it hadn't even gone through yet because the league hadn't okayed it. I think it was the Wednesday before Leicester that it actually got signed off.

"I was panicking because I made my decision on that Friday, because I knew the following weekend was the start of the season, and I hate missing games, so I didn't want to be in limbo."

Bannan added: "I had contact from other clubs, and it's one that was looked at properly for the first time really in my career here. We let my daughter know, and she she put the block on it straight away, so it's thanks to Elsie [that I stayed].

"It was the closest it's ever come because there all the other times, I've never gone that far into it. What Elsie says and Elsie wants, she gets."

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