'Turn that corner' - Sheffield Wednesday legend Des Walker's hopes for the Owls

The Owls cut it fine this season, securing safety on the final day of the campaign, but they have been in solid form for months under Danny Röhl after he came in to replace Xisco when the team was floundering in the early part of the campaign.

Walker knows all about Wednesday’s potential having played for them in the Premier League during the 1990s, and he made 362 appearances for the club during a nine-year stay at Hillsborough as he became a popular figure in blue and white.

Speaking at a charity event for the Create A Dream Foundation, the England international spoke of his desire to see the Owls make progress going forward, and challenge once again for a spot in the top-flight.

“I came to Sheffield Wednesday as a top five/top seven Premier League club,” he said on the night. “So that’s how my brain views them - it’ll never see that differently. So that’s where you’re hoping to get back to, same with Nottingham Forest or anywhere else I played. I’m looking for them to go back up…

“In my heart that’s where I see the football club, and I’ve watched them this season, I was at the play-off final last season, and it’s been a rollercoaster… But I think they deserved to go up last year, and this year I think they did a lot of things wrong as a football club, but they deserved to stay in this division.

“Next year they have to find a way of being better. Luck doesn’t always come, you don’t get out of jail twice, so they need to find a way of being better next year, and I think this club deserves to be better, deserves to be challenging at the top of the Championship at the least. Hopefully next year they’ll turn that corner.”

Wednesday’s players are now away enjoying a well-earned break as they give their bodies a rest before a number of them return for preseason once decisions have been made on who is and isn’t sticking around for the 2024/25 campaign.