NOW THE WEDNESDAY CHILD IS FULL OF HOPE!
THE FLP asked Sheffield Wednesday fan Matt Badcock, of our sister title, The Non-League Paper, for his thoughts on the Owls’ revival that has seen them move to within one game of a return to the top-flight…
SUNDAY, August 13 in the year 2000 and the 15-year-old me turned up at Wolves ready for a new beginning – we’re on our way back!
Yes, Sheffield Wednesday had been relegated from the Premier League – or Premiership as it was back then (it really has been that long) – but Division One was going to be a right laugh.
And it was. For 13 seconds. Then, Wolves split open the defence, Kevin Pressman came tearing out of his box to block Temuri Ketsbaia’s shot, handled it and was sent off. After THIRTEEN seconds of the new season.
That’s the problem when you are young and think you know better than everyone else. All the signs were it wouldn’t be a swift return, even if Andy Booth did somehow manage to salvage a point with his head that afternoon at Molineux.
But this spotty teenager was convinced we’d walk it.
That season, Wednesday finished 17th, followed that up with 20th and then the next year 22nd and relegation.
Football fans and their gallows humour dressed it up as ‘We’re all going on a Nationwide tour’. (Remember that building society? It really has been that long).
At least Division Two would be a laugh. We finished 16th – three points above the relegation zone.
The next season we had a team to be proud of again. Young upstarts like Glenn Whelan and Chris Brunt emerged, Steve Maclean banged in the goals and, in skipper Lee Bullen, we had a leader of men.
Promotion through the play-offs, in front of 40,000 bouncing fans at the Millennium Stadium, was the best way to do it.
We were on our way back! Just not for long.We double-dipped into League One after five years of mediocrity in the Championship, got whacked 5-1 by Stevenage and generally hit new lows, before going up automatically the next year.We tried our best to go down again, but by and large we’ve been treading water ever since.
Crippled
With other clubs attracting investment and chucking cash about to get to the Promised Land, Wednesday, crippled by debt until Milan Mandaric saved the club from extinction, continued to do very little.
Sleeping giant? More like one in a coma with little sign of life.
Like it or not, the fact of modern day football is you need a few quid. Bournemouth is a great story, but they’ve dished out a fair wedge getting there. Hence the whole Financial Fair Play fine.
Money makes the world go around and Wednesday finally got the investment from Thai businessman Dejphon Chansiri. Things were looking up, but this is Sheffield Wednesday after all.
Stuart Gray was given the boot and in came Carlos Carvalhal. What
do you mean you’d not heard of him? He’s had 16 jobs in 15 years, so he must know his stuff.
He’s big mates with Mourinho and has even written a coaching manual that begins with a quote from French philosopher Descartes while also highlighting the importance of tactical periodisation. Yeah, exactly.
Anyway, it turns out King Carlos is an actual proper genius. In one season, he’s built a team that has exceeded all expectations and is now 90 minutes away from the Premier League. It seems strange to write that after all these years.
It’s a team that plays with passion and desire, presses and harries the opposition and can pop the ball about with the best of them.
Raucous
Fernando Forestieri has been sensational, schemer Barry Bannan an inspired free transfer and inherited players like Kieran Lee have stepped up another level.
Most of all they are a team Wednesday fans can love again. Let’s face it, there has been some real dross turn out in the shirt. But, even in getting to the play-offs, I didn’t believe it. After winning the first leg against Brighton & Hove Albion 2-0 at a raucous Hillsborough, I tried not to think about it.
As the Seagulls battered us in the first half of the second leg I feared what might happen.
But an heroic defensive display got us there. Where in the past we would have crumbled like a flake, this team stands strong.
Carlos had a dream. The Wednesday fans have it, too. And, even if we don’t win against Hull City at Wembley, we’re still on our way back.