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New boss hopes to recreate Owls spirit
NEW Spireites boss John Sheridan will be looking to re-create the spirit that was around Hillsborough during his time as a player there under Ron Atkinson.
The 44-year-old ex Republic of Ireland midfielder, who's joined at Saltergate by former Oldham Athletic colleagues Tommy Wright and Mark Crossley said; "The dressing room at Wednesday was probably the best I ever played in, we had some quality players and I was very fortunate to play there.
"Great times...I really enjoyed my football at Hillsborough. We played three cup finals, got in to Europe and could even have won the league."
Having left Boundary Park in March with his side in the play-off zone, Sheridan confirmed that the new found ambition under the Dave Allen regime made the Chesterfield job an attractive one: "I wanted to get back into management as soon as possible after leaving Oldham and the appeal of going into a new stadium next year and the ambitions of the club was important.
"The Board wants big things from the club and that's what I want to do as a manager, to take a club forward from League Two and eventually into the Championship in a four or five-year period.
"That's something that's appealed to me, it's a hard job but I'm very confident that I can do it."
There's no place in the new set up for Lee Richardson's former assistant Scott Sellars, a former team mate and house mate of Sheridan at Leeds. The new man, given a three year deal said: "I've brought in a backroom staff that helped me to do what I feel was a very good job under the circumstances at my previous club, which has stood me in good stead.
"I learned a great deal at Oldham and the job at Chesterfield will take a lot of doing but it's something that I'm really looking forwards to."
On Allen's ambition to get Spireites into the second tier in five years time he said: "The Championship's a very hard league to get into but first and foremost I've got to try and get Chesterfield out of League Two and that's going to be very hard but I believe we can do it if we put in a lot of hard work.
"I've got the team around me that will do that and we can hopefully get that work ethic into the players, they're the most important people and they need to do it out on the pitch. We need to get out of this division and then see where that will take us."
He's inherited a solid squad but there were a number of experienced players who didn't give value for money last season but the likes of Rob Page, Paul Harsley and Darren Currie will all be on an even keel.
"I've looked at the players that are here and it's only right that they get the opportunity to play under a new manager, all managers are different. Some didn't get much of a look in under the previous manager so that's something I'll look at and I'll give everyone a chance.
"When they all report back to training we'll have a close look but, longer term, I'd like to bring one ore two of my own people in but that's at the back of my mind at the moment. There are some very good players here already and I hope I can get the best out of all of them. They'll all start at the same level."
Before moving to Oldham, initially as a player, Sheridan had considered retiring from playing but Doncaster Rovers stepped in.
"I thought I may have had to pack in playing after Bolton, I probably should have done looking back, but Ian Snodin was manager at Doncaster and I just went there to keep fit, I played a few games there and luckily for me Andy Ritchie was manager at Oldham and he came in to sign me and I ended up playing another 140 games there but it's all backfired on me because I can hardly walk now!"
With an impressive career behind him Sheridan, a Manchester City fan, has one standout career-defining match in his locker: "I'd have to say the best moment's been the League Cup Final when I scored the winner for Wednesday against Manchester United."
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