Sheffield Wednesday need to show progress to allay that nagging fear
Alan Biggs on Danny Rohl and Sheffield Wednesday’s essential progress this season
Life on the proverbial knifedge at S6, so what’s new and why panic? Ok his halo has slipped a touch of late and the perception that Sheffield Wednesday have finally “got it right” on transfers will, it’s true, need the validity of proof.
That said, if Danny Rohl again proves himself to be the manager most of us think he is, people will once more ask: How long will he be at Hillsborough? That question might look to be a double-edged sword right now because the owner, for one, will want justification for his backing.
If that happens, though, even diehard fans will fear that the leaving, or rather the luring, is inevitable. And that it could come a lot faster than they would wish.
Well, there is one way and only one way to change that whole dynamic. For Wednesday to be in the Premier League sooner rather than later. And that is uppermost among so many reasons why this campaign, as at least a building block towards that, is so important. Again, absolutely vital that trusting the manager implicitly shows itself to be the right course.
It would be an almighty leap for the Owls to turn from great escapers to promotion winners. And early results suggest it’s asking too much, as also perhaps was my pre-season hunch about a surprise push for the top six. Then again, Rohl’s results last season would, over a full term, have had the club in contention.
Now, with a considerably strengthened team, his over-achievement to date has set the bar probably higher than it should be. No-one is suggesting, or should be, that if Wednesday are scuffling around mid-table he has failed. It would represent progress, tremendously so, since he took over. But in the business of keeping Rohl at Hillsborough, his ambitions and the club’s go hand in hand. So it’s important there are signs, at least, that the job is not impossible.
Many things in the melting pot, then. Not least a collection of eleven new players. Most being acquired early was cause for a raising of the bar. But it remains a bedding in process. Could be a while, in fact, before Rohl knows his best team and formation, though the latter had seemed pretty well set in his mind before three crushing defeats with barely a glove laid on the opposition.
What’s important in the meantime is that Wednesday improve on the basics that have betrayed them in early games, especially conceding preventable goals. It’s essentially an attacking squad and the overall mentality is far from defensive. Which is what the fans want to see. But until the side gets its act together going forward it’s vital to remove that crippling handicap.