Alex Miller's Sheffield Wednesday column: What of Ron Atkinson, Jack Charlton and John Sheridan in the knee-jerk world of social media?

The art of debate is dead. Shades of grey are no more. And particularly in the social media world of football, it seems you are in one camp or the other – to be undecided is to be wallpaper.
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With that in mind and keen not to be taken out of context (another scourge of social media), let’s make this clear; what I’m about to write is not tantamount to comparing Darren Moore to Ron Atkinson or Jack Charlton.

There’s the disclaimer out of the way. So here goes; if Twitter had been around in May 1979, Jack Charlton would have been a meme.

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Forums would’ve been filled with lively debate over whether he is the right man for the job; ‘Sure, he’s a big name and he spins a good yarn, but he’s had nearly two years in the job and Wednesday are still stuck in the Third Division. They’ve finished 14th in back-to-back seasons now. He has to go.’

Sheffield Wednesday managers of old Ron Atkinson and Jack Charlton would have faced a social media backlash in periods of their Hillsborough reign.Sheffield Wednesday managers of old Ron Atkinson and Jack Charlton would have faced a social media backlash in periods of their Hillsborough reign.
Sheffield Wednesday managers of old Ron Atkinson and Jack Charlton would have faced a social media backlash in periods of their Hillsborough reign.

And what about in May 1990, when Wednesday were relegated from the First Division on the last day of the season despite boasting players of the calibre of John Sheridan, David Hirst, Roland Nilsson and Carlton Palmer?

Imagine the online backlash that would have been whipped up. #RonOut would’ve been the trending hashtag from several circles.

The early days of Sheridan’s Wednesday career weren’t exactly littered with glowing performances. He was booed by Wednesday fans on one occasion before proving the doubters wrong at Wembley a few months later.

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What would have been the social media summary of those early displays. Similar to the knee-jerk Twitter debate that seems to centre on Barry Bannan during lean Wednesday periods, perhaps?

It’s not long since we saw a meltdown of notable proportions around the departure of Wolves loanee Theo Corbeanu. While frustrations remain over what might have been, it’s fair to say both team performances and those of Nathaniel Mendez-Laing have allayed initial fears of season implosion.

This column itself made the claim that Wednesday wouldn’t be able to find a player that excited its fans as much. It’s happy to accept it was wrong.

It’s that short-fusery that comes with a club of such high expectations, but it does seem to be a more modern phenomenon exacerbated by social media.

It’s a curious beast.