Well well well, here we
are. At the end of what I think was the weirdest season I've ever
seen as a Sheffield Wednesday supporter. Obviously the last few
months have been very strange for everyone and when something like a
global pandemic happens football is put into perspective. However
football does play a massive part in many people's lives. I'll
attempt to give some kind of review here of a season that was, well
just a bit mental from the off really.
Bruce
Bounces and Monk Moves In
For me, and people may well disagree. A lot of Sheffield Wednesday's
issues for this season lay with Steve Bruce deciding to leave for
Newcastle United in pre season. The last thing Sheffield Wednesday
needed in the summer of 2019 was another managerial change. So for it
to come about the way it did left a bitter taste in the mouth. I've
heard a few people over the time since it happened say, “well just
go and get someone else like him” if that manager was available
they would have been appointed back in September wouldn't they? It's
far from as simple as people seem to have made it out to be. That
isn't a slight on Garry Monk, I have a lot of sympathy for Monk and
I'll come to why later, he just isn't as good a manager as Steve
Bruce, that's just a fact.
Of course anyone reading this will undoubtedly know the story of the
season. At Christmas we sat third in the league with hopes of at
least staying around the play off positions. We sit here now at the
end of the campaign after finishing 16th. It doesn't take
a genius to work out something went majorly wrong in the 2nd
half of the season. We went from being a team that was in every game
even if they weren't playing particularly well to a team that was
conceding an average of two goals per game. That's a frightening
decline and if it wasn't for Hull's shocking loss of form it would
probably be a bigger story wider than the local media.
Monk
In or Monk Out?
It's probably an unpopular opinion but I think you have to back Monk,
you have to understand what he's had to work with. A squad that's
needed reshaping for two years, unable to have his own backroom staff
with him, unable to spend the money previous managers have had. He's
had to deal with the off the pitch drama of the EFL charge which
again was nothing to do with him. Yes people will point to the drop
off in the 2nd half of the season but you also have to
take the whole season into account. You also have to take into
account what's happened in the past. Has changing manager after
manager really worked? Not really. Do Wednesday need to back a plan
and actually give a manager some time to build a squad of his own
making and implement his own ideas? Yes. Monk has had 10 months to
asses what he needs and where we need to strengthen. If you bring
someone else in they won't have that knowledge, changing for changes
sake hasn't worked before and I don't see it working now. Unless you
went out and got a top top manager who can work wonders at once
what's the point? That kind of manager isn't going to come here with
the club in the position it is. We have to accept where we are, you
can talk all day about history and how big a club we are and
potential. We aren't as an attractive proposition as other clubs in
my opinion.
So
what next? How do Wednesday kick on from here?
For me, the key things Wednesday need to do are as follows;
- Employ a Director Of Football/Sporting Director
- Employ a Commercial Director
- Implement a plan for both recruitment and across the rest of the footballing side of the club
- Lower ticket prices, try and get some sort of POTG crowd back./Encourage younger fans and families
Don't get me wrong, I do think some of these things are already there
in principal, the recruitment I think in the last 18 months has been
decent. Iorfa, Luongo, Borner, Harris all good additions as well as
the loan signing of Murphy. We need more of those types of signings
where they have some form of resale value or we are getting them
where they can perform at a certain level for 40 odd games a season.
I do think the arrival of a Commercial Director that could
communicate with the fans would be a big help. That's not to say the
people already at the club don't do a good job, but this is something
different. There is a gap between the club and it's supporters, I
think that's kind of obvious. Trying to close that gap with off field
matters would at least build a bit of trust within the fan base. You
can never guarantee results but if you're winning small battles off
the pitch that can go a long way in my opinion.
EFL
Charge and hopes for Next Season
At the time of writing there has still been no decision made by the
Independent Commission on the case involving Wednesday and the EFL.
Obviously the outcome of that has a fairly big impact on the planning
for next season. We don't know if we will still be in the
Championship which as we all know is just ridiculous. Of course
regardless of the decision there will be an appeal from the losing
side meaning more than likely it will only drag on for even longer.
For me any punishment should we lose should apply to next season, it
would have done anyway as far as I am aware as the trial was
originally scheduled for July. The idea that we could be relegated
based because of a decision made after the season has been concluded
is completely unfair of the club. It will no doubt have a major
impact on how much the club can do in the summer. A summer already
shortened by the Covid-19 situation.
For me, regardless of Wednesday's outcome the EFL needs a reform. It
needs independent people from outside football governing it. Rules
that are there to not punish ambition and stringent tests in place to
stop situations like Bury and Wigan from happening. I love football
but I find myself increasingly less enthusiastic at times when so
much discussion is that of off the field matters. End of the day most
football fans aren't legal experts of people with great interests in
balance sheets or profit margins. They want their team to do well and
are interested in goals and assists stats and what flavour pie is
available.
So that's all for now, I'll probably be back with another blog in the
next few weeks. Been a while since I've written anything to do with
Wednesday.
Thanks for reading,
Tom
WAWAW (Oh yeah we won that, that was good wasn't it.)
