This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more.
Sheffield Wednesday were installed as one of the favourites for promotion from League One following their top six finish last season, and their summer recruitment only strengthened their position on paper.
Multiple players with promotion-winning experience were brought in, as well as the non-sale of Josh Windass to an Argentine club who made their interest in the forward very public, were all signs that Darren Moore's side were heading in the right direction.
Seven matches into the 2022-23 campaign and the Owls are in a solid position in fourth place, having won four times, drew once and been on the wrong end of two results in the shape of defeats.
Even though it's early days for Wednesday's new signings, one player in particular is underwhelming FLW's Owls fan pundit James Mappin, and that is Will Vaulks.
The Wales international midfielder arrived on a free transfer from Cardiff City in the summer, having spent plenty of time in the Championship with the Bluebirds and also Rotherham United.
Whilst on paper the acquisition of a player of Vaulks' calibre is a coup, his performances so far haven't been as good as expected for some.
"If there's a player who has underwhelmed me then it would have to be Will Vaulks," James said.
"He's not played a great deal so far this season, but that's partly a reason why he's underwhelmed.
"He's come in with a decent reputation from his time at Cardiff, everyone thought he would be the replacement for Massimo Luongo who obviously was excellent for us but released him at the end of last season.
"But he's just not showed anything at all and clearly not shown a great deal in training, hence why Darren Moore has elected go with Tyreeq Bakinson - he's played the last three games consecutively.
"People could say that he's not had a chance but equally so, if he did it in training he would get that chance, so for me Will Vaulks has been the underperformer of the season so far for us."
The Verdict
Along with Michael Ihiekwe and Michael Smith, Vaulks was expected to come straight into Sheffield Wednesday's starting 11 and be a key figure, just like he was down the road at Rotherham for a number of years.
But that hasn't happened of yet, with Darren Moore clearly feeling that his other options are more worthy of starts, as the 28-year-old has only started in three of the seven matches so far.
Vaulks is a man of experience, at club level and also on the international stage as well, and you have to imagine that his time will come when he fully beds into the system and shows how good of a player he is.
That is yet to happen though, but Vaulks has plenty of time to prove any doubters wrong.
Source