There were plenty of surprised faces within the Blackburn Rovers fan base when John Buckley was allowed to leave the club on transfer deadline day.

The move came after Buckley had slipped down Jon Dahl Tomasson's pecking order, missing out on the previous two matchday squads. Gregg Broughton insisted it was game time, not finances, that dictated the deal.

Rovers made it clear in their club statement confirming the move that the aim was for Buckley to return to Ewood Park in a better position to challenge for first-team minutes. As a result, they inserted a January recall clause into the deal.

Since then, the manager that brought Buckley to Hillsborough is gone, with Danny Rohl replacing Xisco Munoz. The Owls are rock-bottom of the Championship and have been engulfed in chaos off the field, courtesy of their chairman and owner, Dejphon Chanisiri.

Tomasson was open-minded about where Buckley will play his football beyond January and so it there is the possibility he could stay for the season or return to Rovers.

To get a better insight into his loan, we spoke to Sheffield Star's Owls Writer, Alex Miller.

How has Buckley fared in his time so far at Hillsborough?

It's been a wee bit stop-start for Buckley in what are brutally difficult circumstances at Wednesday. There's no doubt he's shown moments of huge promise so far - the first half-hour at Swansea springs to mind as a real high point in which he was the best player on the pitch and showed off some of his best attributes - but he's struggled to really grab hold of his time with the club as of yet and that's reflected in the fact he's been in and out as Xisco and now Danny Röhl look to find some sort of formula to get things going.

He's played in a number of different roles, do you think he's still trying to find his best position in this team?

Potentially - and that's been the wider case with Wednesday in general this season, trying to find something that works. Xisco had him play as a six and as an eight at times and Röhl has had him central and pushed wider to the left. His best performances, from my seat, have been down the middle where he's been asked to go and disrupt things. Röhl has played a variation of a couple of different systems in his five games with the club, initially Buckley was tucked in off the left in an asymmetrical approach - more recently he's been playing higher and wider off the bench.

He's only started two of five league games under Danny Rohl, is that a surprise?

He started Röhl's first two matches and has since had to wait for opportunities, which have mainly come out of position. Given the new manager's love for a 'technical footballer' and his desire to press, it was expected that Buckley would be a big player in pushing forward what they want to achieve. It is a surprise he's not been more directly involved but these are very early days and you'd expect the international break is a big opportunity for him and several others to throw themselves further into things.

Do you think there is more to come and there is a way he can break into the team consistently?

Absolutely. As mentioned, he's a player that at his best has attributes that will suit the new manager. Röhl has spoken about the fact that in such a dense squad he's not been able to get as close a look at some players as he may have liked and Buckley may well come into that category. Wednesday have been better under Röhl and are closer to finding their way to results, but there is definite scope for someone like Buckley to step in and make an impact.
Rovers have a recall option in January, would there be much disappointment if they exercised that?

I think there would be a sense of opportunity missed if that were to happen - both for club and player. I'm sure Buckley would be the first to admit he hasn't walked in to make the sort of impact he would have hoped when the deal went through - not all of that is his fault of course. I'd expect Röhl will want to make some changes to the squad in January and that will no doubt mean players being shifted out as Wednesday have a full-quota 25-man squad list. There's a great deal can change and personally I'm still backing him to come good - I wouldn't like to guess what will happen.