The Owls are currently locked in negotiations to sign the 26-year-old forward, whose fortunes have been on the slide since he joined Arsenal from Everton in an £8million transfer six years ago.

Jeffers is surplus to requirements at Ewood Park and, with no other top-flight clubs thought to be interested in him, is now expected to join the Owls in a deal worth around £700,000.

Laws told PA Sport: "At times in the past Francis seems to have sacrificed his career for the sake of staying in the Premier League.

"He got the big-money move from Everton to Arsenal and has never quite managed to kick on from there.

"He's probably never played more than 10 to 15 Premier League games in a season but if he joined us he would get that regular first-team football that any player needs.

"Now is the time for him to take some positive action for the benefit of his own career.

"He's perhaps stayed at certain clubs too long, rather than move on to somewhere new even if that meant dropping down a division."

Jeffers became the highest-paid teenager in the country at Everton after making his debut against Manchester United at Old Trafford aged 16 before helping his hometown club to lift the FA Youth Cup in 1998.

His rich potential and eye for goal did not go unnoticed at Arsenal and in June 2001 Arsene Wenger took him to Highbury and hailed him as a 'fox in the box'.

But the transfer proved ill-fated as Jeffers made a pitiful total of just four league starts for the Gunners.

A subsequent loan move back to Everton failed to bear fruit either and Jeffers was offloaded to Charlton three years ago in a £2.6million switch.

He fared little better at The Valley - making just nine Premier League starts before being sent on loan to Rangers and then joining Blackburn on a free transfer last summer.

And yet Laws has little doubt about the pedigree of a player who won his solitary England cap during the infamous friendly against Australia in February 2003.

Sven Goran Eriksson used no less than 23 players to hand a 3-1 win to the Socceroos, but Jeffers managed to get himself on the scoresheet.

Laws added: "Francis has played for and scored for England, and we all remember the comments from Arsene Wenger about him being a 'fox in the box'.

"His goalscoring ability is still there; it just needs to be harnessed in the right way.

"Part of that involves playing regularly and maybe the time has come for Francis to realise he has to move to a Championship club to do that."

Jeffers spent a successful loan spell in the Championship at Ipswich last season - scoring four goals in nine appearances - but turned down a permanent move to Portman Road earlier in the summer.

The lure of Wednesday - recognised as one of the biggest clubs outside of the Premier League - could prove impossible to resist.

The Owls are in desperate need of firepower after Steve MacLean and David Graham left the club and Deon Burton struggling to be fit for the season's opener against Ipswich with a knee injury.

Laws has also been linked with Southampton's Kenwyne Jones and Grzegorz Rasiak, along with Newcastle's Andy Carroll and Watford's Darius Henderson.

But Jeffers has now emerged as their number one target, and Laws is hoping to close the deal in time to hand him a debut in Saturday's Championship opener away to Ipswich.

"We're hopeful of signing Francis in time for Saturday," added the Wednesday boss.

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