Sheffield Wednesday boss Neil Thompson on the impact of Keiren Westwood and Sam Hutchinson
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This time last year the pair were training with the manager’s under-23 side having been exiled from involvement in the Owls first team by then-manager Garry Monk in his attempts to build a ‘younger, hungrier more dynamic’ future for the Owls.
Westwood was immediately reinstated by Monk successor Tony Pulis late last year and has produced a number of memorable performances, none more so than a match-winning effort in Tuesday evening’s second-half at Bournemouth.
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Hide AdHutchinson, who left for a six-month stint in the Cypriot First Division, is back and after a rocky start at Coventry has also impressed despite giving away a penalty in the dramatic Dean Court win.
“They’ve offered experience,” Thompson told The Star on the impact they’ve had on the squad. “They’ve been here and done it for a lot of years, when I was under-23s manager and they had their time away from the first team environment I looked after them for a while and got to know them really well.
“The decision from myself was to bring them back in. The big questions for me were; can they improve the squad? Can they improve the team? We don’t want to sign an entertainments manager, we want to sign good footballers and winners and people who are involved for that reason.”
On former Chelsea man Hutchinson, who has performed excellently in back-to-back matches at centre-half, Thompson admitted he would have to work closely with the club’s medical team to ensure his fitness is maintained.
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Hide AdAsking about his impact since coming into the side, the stand-in boss said: “Maybe not the penalty the other night! But he’s done terrific, to come in and do how he has done.
“We need to look after him obviously, we know where he’s at physically, but he’s come in and really shown his experience. He’s a good player and he seems to be enjoying it.
“We’ll monitor him as we go through and there will be games he’ll miss out on further down the line, that’s inevitable as it is with everyone. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”