Owls are a buying club, not selling club, insists Carlos Carvalhal

Fernando Forestieri scores Sheffield Wednesday's late winning goal against Aston Villa last weekend.

Reports this week suggested Derby County had bid £7m for last season’s top scorer Fernando Forestieri, while defender Tom Lees and goalkeeper Keiren Westwood have both been linked to Premier League moves.

The latter pair have both signed new Owls deals and head coach Carvalhal was in defiant mood when asked about the Rams’ interest in Foresteiri.

“I will make this very clear, we are not selling players,” said Carvalhal. “We are buying players.

“You can ask what you want, but I will answer the same: Sheffield Wednesday is not selling any player.

“Not just Fernando, any player. We are trying to buy or loan players, not sell. That’s very clear.

“I am coach of the team and have a good relationship with all my players in the squad. I like them like my kids. Everyone is working hard.”

Carvalhal wants to sign four players before this month’s transfer deadline, namely a centre-half, left-back, midfielder and winger. But a deal to sign Aston Villa left-back Joe Bennett collapsed yesterday, despite the player – on loan at Hillsborough last season – agreeing terms and passing a medical.

Reports in the Midlands suggest new Villa owner Tony Xia blocked the sale, as he did not want to sell the defender to a rival Championship club.

Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder accepts there is still work to be done on his team.

United have played well in parts, but lost their opening two games against Bolton Wanderers and Crewe, the latter in the EFL Cup on Tuesday night.

Striker Che Adams left for Birmingham City in a £2m deal this week, and Wilder is busy looking for new recruits.

“We’ve talked about what we’ve done and where we can improve,” he said.

“Off the pitch, I recognise there’s still work to be done. If you come to our house, there’s 50,000 pieces of paper flying about with different names on.

“The group, the team, is not where I want it to be. But it would have been pretty naive of me to think, at this stage, that it would be. Even if we’d have got a result at Bolton, it wouldn’t have changed my opinion on that.”

Rotherham United midfielder Lee Frecklington (calf) will miss tomorrow’s trip to Aston Villa.

But the Millers are hoping to bolster their squad today with two new additions, a defender and a striker.