Jimmy Smith’s year long loan deal to Sheffield Wednesday looks imminent now. Owls Boss Brian Laws, had emphasized last week that he wants to build a side for next season which is ultra fit and high with energy. Well, Jimmy Smith fits the bill perfectly for him. An attacking midfielder by trade, he is young, hungry and full of energy and would be eager to prove a point at Hillsborough which may boost his chances of playing for Chelsea.
Owls had a particularly unimpressive campaign last season where they toyed with relegation and it was only a final day victory at home over Norwich which guaranteed Championship survival. Last season was a long hard one for the players and Owls fans alike especially with the poor performances on the pitch, the financial and boardroom instability and talks of a takeover looming. With the club heavily in debt, they had to sell many of their key players from the 06-07 campaign in which they nearly reached the playoffs. The creative midfield players were missed badly last season and it comes as no surprise that Brian Laws has made signing midfield players his top priority this season. Barry Nicholson(Aberdeen) and James O’Connor(Burnley) are also supposedly close to signing for Wednesday.
Coming back to Jimmy. He has been with the club for a long time now but has only made one appearance for Chelsea which came against Newcastle in ‘05-’06 coming on as a substitute for Ricardo Carvalho. He spent the next season on loan at QPR where he had a brilliant start scoring on his debut against Norwich. He scored some cracking goals from midfield for QPR but eventually the goals dried down. His form dipped and was relegated to the bench but even then he maintained good spirits and kept working hard. Towards the end of the season he again saw some games for QPR and eventually returned back to Chelsea. He gained valuable experience at QPR which certainly helped in his development as a player. He scored a total of 6 goals in 29 games for Rangers which can be seen in the clip below.
The club management thought that he was still not ready for first team action and with already a host of international names manning the Chelsea midfield it was thought that the best for him would be another loan spell. Peter Grant took him on loan to Norwich but he injured himself in a pre-season game which curtailed his development. It wasn’t until late October when he got the chance to make his first appearance for the Canaries. By that time Grant had been sacked and Roeder had taken charge at Carrow Road. He did get to play a few games under Roeder but was preferred mainly on the right hand side of midfield which was not his best position. He didn’t stay at Norwich for much long and returned back to Chelsea in January and spent the rest of the season playing for the reserves. Apart from his usual central midfield role he played a few games in an unaccustomed centerback role and also captained the side on a few occasions.
Back in March, Scunthorpe made an offer to sign Smith on a permanent deal but that was turned down by Smith. With four-five reserve team players released this season I had thought that may be Smith too would get the axe but he didn’t. I can put that down to either of two plausible reasons. The first one is that the club still believes that he can cut it out with Chelsea and intend to give him some more time to prove his worth. Some players make the grade a bit later but that looks unlikely for now in my opinion. The second one which I believe to be the actual case is that the club are putting him in shop window. He still has a year left on his contract with Chelsea and I think that the loan deal to Wednesday would involve an option for a permanent transfer if he impresses enough.
Jimmy Smith was talked of as a player who could be the next Frank Lampard but he hasn’t shown enough till now. However he is a hard working player and one thing in football is that you can never write someone off. He might still make it in the Premier League if not with us then with someone else but that is something to look forward to in the future. For now we can all hope that his loan spell at Hillsborough turns out to be a successful one and may be, just may be that would open a chance for him at Chelsea.
