Afobe’s learning process is set to continue on loan with Wednesday

With only a day to go before the opening game of the season against Rochdale, the Owls have only two fit strikers, Gary Madine and Clinton Morrison.

A steady stream of bids for other targets have ended in failure including an improved £300,000 offer this week for Rotherham United’s Adam Le Fondre.

The Owls’ latest target is Afobe, a player who spent the majority of last season on loan at Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield Town.

Although Megson would prefer not to sign teenagers on loan, a one-month loan deal for Afobe, 18, would at least bridge the gap between now and the end of the August transfer window.

By that time, Megson may have landed one of his prime targets – either Le Fondre, West Bromwich Albion’s Chris Wood, Rochdale’s Chris O’Grady, Norwich City’s Cody McDonald or Preston North End’s Neil Mellor.

“We are all trying as hard as we possibly can to bring the right players into the club,” said Megson last night. “We are in a position now where we want to bring quality in but we are also struggling a bit on quantity.”

The Owls have only 17 outfield players on the books including winger Jermaine Johnson, who will miss tomorrow’s game due to a knee injury, and two other unnamed players who are carrying knocks.

“We need new signings,” Megson admitted. “A couple of clubs will loan us youngsters but Sheffield Wednesday’s manager should be sat here saying ‘We have got a good youth policy that’s been running for 15 to 20 years, we have good kids coming through and we are loaning them to other clubs’. Yet we are sat here, trying to get them from elsewhere.

“The clubs that were successful in this division last season did not really go down the loan market,” he stressed.

“That’s not the way a club like this can operate – taking young kids.

“If you are taking a real top drawer player from one of the big clubs, that is fine. But if you are taking on an 18-year-old to give them experience, you are letting them make mistakes for your club. He might get better but the club doesn’t get the results it wants. We are not in that business. We have got to get results.”

Afobe scored eight goals in 35 appearances last season for the Terriers who narrowly missed out on promotion to the Championship.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger would like Afobe to play on loan in the Championship this season but is unlikely to block a short term stay at Hillsborough.