So, here we are again. Once again at the beginning of another Sheffield Wednesday managerial reign. This time it's the turn of the much experienced Tony Pulis to take charge of the Hillsborough hot seat. In this blog I want to give my thoughts on it and how it could play out at S6.
The End of Monk
Firstly I want to start off by saying that It's a shame it didn't work out for Garry Monk. For me he lost the fans during that awful week with defeats to Luton, Rotherham and Wycombe leaving us, at the time on -4 points. Obviously the decision by the interdependent commission on appeal to reduce the 12 point penalty to 6 took Wednesday to 5 points after beating AFC Bournemouth the night before before adding another point against Millwall the following weekend. To me though, as I think people will agree with the decision was made before that Bournemouth game. It's a shame it didn't work out for Monk and I do feel he can point to certain things going against him but overall it was the right decision.
Who did I want?
Personally after looking at some of the names being linked with the job, I wanted David Wagner, however realistic that was I don't know but ultimately we have gone down the route of experienced and I'm fairly happy with it. Tony Pulis fits what Sheffield Wednesday need now, someone who plays to his teams strengths, puts round pegs in round holes and makes his teams hard to beat. Like it or not, all those things are we need. It's all very well saying you want pretty football but to get that and combine it with the battling qualities we need to stay in the Championship, you aren't going to get it.
Style of Play
To be completely honest, I've never much cared about how Wednesday play as long as they win. Don't get me wrong we all want to be entertained but for me when it comes to my own team I want to win, enjoyment comes from winning when it's Wednesday. It's also unfair to say Pulis' style is always negative or boring. Stoke weren't boring, neither were his Palace team. West Brom were solid and while yes I accept it didn't go well at Middlesbrough they were still hard to beat for most of his time there. Someone who can make Wednesday hard to beat, be organised and tough to play against is something we need. We've been to easy to play against more often than not since the 2017 Play Offs. That must change.
Bannan and Westwood
There has been a lot of talk since Pulis was first linked to the job about Bannan and Westwood. On Bannan, the comments he made in a 2019 interview with Open Goal's Si Ferry were nowhere near as controversial as made out. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since Pulis told Bannan he wasn't required at Crystal Palace, back then Bannan was a squad player in his early 20's, now at 30 and club captain I highly doubt Pulis will not want to utilise Bannan. He's said as much in his first press conference, I could maybe seeing him moving Bannan more to the left a bit like how Carlos Carvalhal utilised him in 2015/16.
As for Westwood, I think it's fair to say he will be involved. While I'm not so sure on this decision it has lifted the fans. I think it's unrealistic to expect the Keiren Westwood of three years ago to be back between the sticks. He lost his place last year based on form, nothing else. While you could argue Dawson and Wildsmith maybe haven't done enough to earn the number one slot outright (I'd disagree personally) Westwood hasn't played for a year, he was already on the decline. If he does however come back into the team I hope he proves me wrong. Nothing would please me more I can assure you.
Expectations
For me it's very simple, this season is, and always has been about survival. Being a Championship club at 5PM on the 8th of May. That's where we need to be, hopefully we'll be well safe by then. But it would be remiss of us to just forget that, it would still be a big achievement to stay up. We have the quality to do it. Pulis has never been relegated, that is his bread and butter. He's a firefighter and that was what we needed. Fingers crossed he can get off to a good start and keep us in the division.
Thanks for reading
Tom
WAWAW
