Sheffield Wednesday: Stuart Gray ready to embrace Owls-Lens link

Gray took permanent charge of Sheffield Wednesday in January

Sheffield Wednesday boss Stuart Gray says he wants a strong relationship with French top-flight club Lens, who are also owned by Hafiz Mammadov.

Mammadov completed his takeover of the Owls earlier this month.

"I would imagine we will have a great relationship. If there's two or three decent players who Lens are offering us, so be it," the 54-year-old Gray told BBC Radio Sheffield.

"It's to Sheffield Wednesday's, mine and the team's advantage."

Such a link is not unprecedented in the Championship; Charlton are owned by Belgian Roland Duchatelet, who has six clubs across Europe, and five of the Addicks' six January signings came from his network of sides.

Meanwhile, Gray has dismissed speculation linking Newcastle United winger Sammy Ameobi with a move to Hillsborough, but added he is looking at bringing in younger players.

"It was last season I tried bringing him in on loan, and it collapsed. I'm always interested in players who I think can improve us," he said.

"I think that's a bit of an old story that has re-circled again. I don't want to talk about players and speculation, because we all get disappointed.

"I want to have a squad that's competitive. I want to be able to say I've got two left-backs, two-right-backs, three or four centre-backs, because you've got to have competition.

"We probably got found out towards the end of last season, because our squad was a bit thin, and had players that were not in the best of form and were carrying knocks.

"I also want to bring the average age of the squad down. Last season probably just caught up with us, with too many 30-plus players, because you have to go Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday."