Dysfunctional mess
Struggling on the pitch with the strong whiff of neglect off it. A sorry tale of how Sheffield Wednesday became a...
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY won on a night they really had to win, three new loan signings sparkled with promise and hillsborough resounded to the beat of its new favourite victory anthem. Daddy Cool by Boney M has been popularised by way of tribute to the efl’s youngest manager, one of the best things to happen to the Owls in a desperate season.
They are wild about danny Rohl in S6. They are crazy like a fool, you might even say, although the actual lyrics from the 70s disco classic do not bear any closer scrutiny. The thing is no one is fooled in Sheffield.
The relief of occasional victory barely masks the shambles one of the great clubs of northern football has become. Punters know it because they live it every day and they hear what is going on.
hot water sometimes runs out after games, a problem blamed on an old stadium in need of a power upgrade and the habit of players draining the system with pre-match showers. The heating broke in the offices before Christmas, although it was fixed within 24 hours and portable heaters were brought in.
Pitches at the club’s Middlewood Road training ground were frozen and unfit to use in the cold snap and the inflatable dome, with its indoor pitch, has been out of action for a year, damaged by heavy snow last year and not expected to be back up and running before next month.
Rohl trained some days at hillsborough, where the pitch is in poor condition, as it often is in midwinter, reflecting the neglect around the stadium.
Urgent attention is required but money is tight at this level.
Just three full-time groundstaff tend the pitch at the stadium and those at the training ground. By way of reference, the groundstaff at a Premier league club would be at least double this and often in double figures.
What must Rohl make of it all? he has worked at Bayern Munich, one of the best-run clubs in the world, and RB leipzig, with its space-age commitment to sports science. Sheffield Wednesday are a dysfunctional mess.
Which is the reason friday’s fine 2-0 win against Birmingham City came with a backdrop of fresh protest organised by the 1867 Group, an independent fans’ group who want Thai owner dejphon Chansiri out.
They distributed thousands of yellow posters, held aloft en masse as the teams emerged, live on Sky Sports, and put up a mock ‘for Sale’ sign in the street.
Chansiri, son of a canned fish tycoon, is thin-skinned and takes the criticism badly.
from his angle, he bought the club when nobody wanted it. he threw millions from his fortune at the Premier league dream and nobody thanked him for his efforts. That is because he fell short, losing at Wembley in the Championship play- off final in 2016 and the play- off semi-finals a year later, before the overspending caught up.
Wednesday broke the efl’s profit and sustainability rules, were deducted points for financial irregularities and spent two years languishing in league One before promotion in spectacular style.
Good decisions and good appointments — and there have been some in nine years since Chansiri bought the club from Milan Mandaric — seem to be forever eclipsed by bad ones, probably because there is no infrastructure to provide Sheffield Wednesday with the stability of a normal club. instead, it blows around in the wind at the whim of the owner.
Chansiri fired darren Moore to puncture the euphoria of last May and replaced him with Xisco Munoz, whose only win in a dozen games was on penalties in the Carabao Cup against Stockport of league Two.
Rohl was appointed in midOctober and started knocking them into shape. The Owls won five of eight from the start of december and their 34-year-old boss got a nomination for Manager of the Month.
Victory on New Year’s day against hull City lifted them within three points of safety with the transfer market open and even Wednesday’s notoriously pessimistic fans started humming the theme to The Great Escape. They should have known better.
Chansiri let Rohl and his team down as one deal after another collapsed. Conor Coventry rejected the Owls to join Charlton in a relegation battle one league down, as did Myles Peart- harris, who opted for Portsmouth. duncan McGuire snubbed them for Blackburn, who then made a mess of the deal leaving him without a transfer.
There were echoes of the summer transfer window when Wednesday earned a reputation for being difficult to do business with, reluctant to pay fees to agents.
Meanwhile, they still demanded money for players they desperately wanted out to make room on the wage bill. in the end, even more loan signings were thrown into the mix.
When the window closed there were seven registered on loan but a maximum of five can be named in any matchday squad.
Jeff hendrick and Ashley fletcher were left out on friday. hendrick, on loan from Newcastle, is among those omitted from the 25-man efl squad by Rohl in the hope that the club might still pick up free agents.
Others include lee Gregory and Callum Paterson, who is injured.
New loan signings ian Poveda, ike Ugbo and James Beadle impressed against Birmingham and the win rekindles hope that Rohl might produce a little more alchemy and escape the drop.
But there’s a tricky trip to leicester tomorrow followed by Millwall away on Saturday.
Relegation looms, but there is a bigger picture because what Owls supporters crave most is a break from this endless cycle of chaos and uncertainty.