Value for money? You bet! – Saying goodbye to Tom Lees and Keiren Westwood as long-serving stars prepare to depart

Lees and Westwood both signed for the Owls in July 2014, with Stuart Gray picking them up from Leeds United and Sunderland respectively for next to nothing. It’d be interesting to know how many back then saw them as players that could genuinely play a vital role in reaching the brink of the Premier League.

Since then, the duo have gone on to play almost 500 games in Wednesday colours, giving fans some incredible memories over the years and were both just one game away from writing their name into Owls folklore in 2016 when Hull City pipped them to the post at Wembley.

You have to say that they’ve been tremendous value for money.

With Lees, he’s a player that wore his heart on his sleeve, and never gave anything less than 100% at any point in his Owls career. A Yorkshire lad who was very much of the old-fashioned centre back variety, the defender played his part in setting a new clean sheet record for the club in 2016.

Often he went under-appreciated, and it was possibly only when he went through a blip following the departure of Glenn Loovens that many appreciated how good he had been.

Lees very rarely stood out, but on so many occasions he was just a solid Mr. Dependable at the heart of the Owls defence, and it said a lot about him that he managed to come back so strongly after losing the captain’s armband – he said he wouldn’t let that knock define him.