Following Wednesday night's painful penalty shootout exit in the Championship Play Off semi final, I thought I'd put my thoughts into words. It won't be a masterpiece, merely the ramblings of a disappointed but still largely optimistic Wednesday fan.
I don't want to dwell too much on Wednesday night, I'm sure all reading this will have watched the game or at least seen the highlights. We can all formulate an opinion on it, mine is that we gave it a damn good go, deserved to take the lead and an innocuous mistake cost us massively. Penalties are a lottery, I don't blame Sam Hutchinson or Fernando Forestieri at all, the best players to have ever played this game have missed penalties. It happens. It's a cruel way for the season to end and I'll be honest it felt a lot worse than last year's Wembley defeat to Hull. This in my opinion is mainly due to the fact we had the expectation to win these Play Offs and I still maintain we're the best side in there.
Have we underachieved?
At the start of the season I think a lot of us said we should bee looking at challenging for the top 2. I was one of those people, I didn't however say that finishing in the Play Offs for a 2nd season in a row was failure or even underachievement. The fact we have finished higher in the table on more points cannot in my opinion be viewed as a failure.
The thing that has been thrown around a lot at Wednesday from both our own supporters and those looking on in from outside is that we've spent a lot of money and yes we have but that doesn't entitle you to win matches. Most clubs in this division have spent money, some more so than Wednesday by some distance and they've finished miles adrift of the Play Offs. Even the likes of Leeds who everyone seems to think have had some sort of miracle season have been well financed. For me 90% of the business done by Wednesday since the start of the summer of 2015 has been very good. The recruitment this year has been criticised heavily, for me it's been good. The likes of Abdi, Reach, Jones and Rhodes were players that we all agreed were what we needed. Personally I think David Jones has been fantastic this season, he isn't a flashy player but he's a solid option. Adam Reach has done well when played in his best position on the left wing. He's still developing and we'll see the best of him next season I'm sure. Abdi's been unlucky with injury as have a few players and will be an asset next season if he is here, he's a quality player that needs to be fitted into a system. To answer the heading's question, No I don't think we have, we may not have necessarily achieved what we set out to in August but we gave it a damn good go.
Jordan Rhodes
When Jordan Rhodes signed for Sheffield Wednesday the reaction of the fans was in the main extremely positive. Hardly surprising given his excellent goals record over the last 5 seasons. I was one of those desperate for us to go and get him and was delighted when the club did. I still am delighted he's here. He's been good for us, his all round game is brilliant, if you deny that then you're not watching football in the way it's supposed to be watched. The fact he hasn't scored as many goals as we'd have liked is a frustration but nothing that concerns me. He'll do well for this club no doubt, anyone saying they don't want him here next season is a fool. Will a full pre season help him? Undoubtedly, will more emphasis on him being the poacher type striker next season help him? Of course. Will that happen? I'd be stunned if it didn't.
The Manager
I'll come straight out with this one, I want Carlos Carvalhal to be here for a long long time. I don't see how changing the manager is the right thing to do. He's done an amazing job for the last 2 seasons. Some of the criticism he has received this season is downright nonsense. The style of play has been questioned a lot this season and I can understand why to an extent. However when you go from being a mid table side that nobody expects anything from to a play off chasing team teams will set up differently to counteract you. That's football. We have struggled to beat teams that sit back this season, the likes of Brentford, Ipswich, Burton have all come to Hillsborough and stuck 10 men behind the ball and shown little to no ambition to go forward. I'm not criticising them for that, we've been in that position ourselves, you do what you need to do to win or draw.
I genuinely believe that 75% of the games we didn't win this season we should have, Leeds at home is a good example of this. We had 3 glorious chances and didn't take any of them. Brentford away was very similar, Reading at home the same. Finishing is a major issue for us. The likes of Fletcher haven't scored enough goals this season when you look at the chances they have had. It's difficult to blame the manager for that when everything he has told them to do has happened and then the chance hasn't been taken. It's also not his fault he's lost players at crucial times, Kieran Lee with his hip injury and Gary Hooper with his hamstring both we huge blows and in my opinion cost us any chance of automatic. Tom Lees' injury in February was frustrating as well along with Fernando Forestieri's which if were honest he hasn't fully recovered from.
If he does go then a decision on who replaces him needs to be made quickly but wisely. The Alan Pardew rumour isn't something I think is either true or something that should be pursued. If Carlos chooses to leave or is offered a post elsewhere that he wants to pursue then that is another matter but only he can answer that question.
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| Alan Pardew? No thanks. |
The fans
I saw a tweet on Wednesday night that said it had been a disjointed season and I thought that was a very good word to describe it but maybe not quite in the way they meant. I feel off the pitch there has been a divide in the fans since August for a few different reason. Fernando's 'refusal' to play down at Norwich, the style of play, the recruitment and the manager have all contributed to this feeling that not everyone was pulling in the same direction as everyone else. Maybe it's just me but there are in my opinion some fans that seem determined to put a negative spin on everything, an example of this being at beating Birmingham 3-0 at home the first thing I heard someone say on Penistone Road after the game was "We got lucky there, they hit the bar 4 times" talk about glass half empty. The same soft of feeling tends to crop up when listening to BBC Radio Sheffield's football heaven. You only hear some callers after a defeat, I don't get it. Again while I understand the arguments people make about the style or tactics sometimes particularly in this division you have to dig in and you have to do what is required. You can't have your Norwich and Newcastle games without your Wigan and Blackburns. Hopefully a summer break will lift us all and we'll be as positive as we were at Wembley last year.
Summary
In summary it's been a good season, it's been a season of progress which sadly it didn't end in promotion, there is a lot to be positive about for next season. Even the pre season will be very interesting with the 150th anniversary friendly on the horizon. I'm fairly sure Mr Chansiri will give this another go, like I said previously I hope he sticks by his manager. Football has shown over the years that sustainability is often the best way to go. The grass isn't always greener on the other side. Like I also said I hope that come August WAWAW is actually true rather than something we just say. I'm 100% sure it will be. Roll on next season, roll on games against Leeds, Barnsley, Sunderland, Forest, Aston Villa and of course them from Sheffield 2. Players will leave and new ones will come in, now isn't really the time to go through who they should or shouldn't be. We'll all have our opinions and I'm sure some will end up pleased and some slightly disappointed, that's football.
Thanks for taking the time to read this,
Tom
