Plummeting Wednesday need quick appointment, insists Bullen

INTERIM Sheffield Wednesday head coach Lee Bullen is calling on the club’s hierarchy to make a permanent appointment as soon as possible with the Owls’ season in danger of lurching into a crisis.

Managerless Wednesday started the new year in dreadful fashion with a wretched 3-0 home loss to Burton Albion and are anxiously looking over their shoulders towards the Championship relegation zone. They are now just six points above third-from-bottom Burton.

In his first home outing in temporary charge, Bullen saw 16th-placed Owls suffer their third consecutive home league reverse, with the side having now won just once in their past ten Championship matches.

The result and manner of the performance accentuated the need to bring in a new boss sooner rather than later, with a host of candidates linked with the position, the current bookmakers’ favourite being ex-Wolves and Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert.

Appointing a new face in the dug-out is likely to be the first major task in the in-tray of new Owls chief executive Katrien Meire, who recently left an identical position at Charlton.

On the need to bring in a new boss swiftly, Bullen said: “The sooner that the club appoints the new coach, the better. Everybody can move on. I think it is so important that it gets done.

“I feel sorry for the chairman (Dejphon Chansiri) at the moment. He came in after the game and shook the hands of the players.

“The man has done so much for the football club and there have been too many performances this season that have not been acceptable, given the quality players in that changing room.”

Acknowledging that he could leave Hillsborough if he is not in the plans of the new boss, the Scot added: “Of course I would love to be part of it. But I am realistic to know that if a new man comes in, he will have his own ideas on that.”

Bullen labelled the Owls’ performance against Burton as embarrassing and unacceptable and revealed that “two or three” players agreed with his assessment and made their feelings known to the rest of their team-mates. “To be fair, two or three of them stood up and completely agreed and said that under no circumstances was that performance acceptable for a club and group of players that we have got,” Bullen said.

“They were vocal enough to dig out their team-mates on their performance. I wanted people to be honest; a couple of them were.”