Barry Bannan reflects on decision not to leave Sheffield Wednesday for Brentford - makes Arsenal comparison
Sheffield Wednesday take on Brentford in the Carabao Cup fourth round on Tuesday evening.
As sliding doors moments go, Barry Bannan has had a few in his career. The Sheffield Wednesday captain is into his 10th campaign as an Owls player and has tasted the highs and lows of life in professional football in that time, through the reigns of eight permanent managers, three failed play-off campaigns, a relegation, a promotion and now a new dawn with an exciting new boss.
It seems somehow unthinkable now, but the fact is he could have seen his Hillsborough career come to an end four years ago when Brentford came calling back when their Premier League ambitions were still to be realised.
The Bees made plays to steal away the Scottish midfielder in 2020 and 2021 when Wednesday were a struggling outfit both on and off the field. Brentford’s fate was in a different direction of travel altogether and having built a squad through a revelatory recruitment model, Thomas Frank saw Bannan as a prime signing to push their promotion hopes over the line before his side were ultimately hauled into the top tier they’ve stayed in ever since via the play-offs in 2021.
With 417 Owls appearances and counting, the soon-to-be 35-year-old has since lifted silverware of his own in Wednesday colours and is leading the way on a new future for his beloved Owls as captain under Danny Röhl. Having discussed the potential switch with his agent and family at the time, he looks back on the Brentford interest with no regrets.
“I had the chance to go to Brentford a few seasons ago now but I'm here and I do not regret it one bit,” he told The Star. “I love this club and I love my time here, I really don't regret it one bit. At the time there was talk about it but I made the decision to stay here and I made the right decision.”
Wednesday will make the trip to the capital today ahead of their Carabao Cup fourth round match-up with the Premier League Bees on Tuesday evening. The Owls have enjoyed a handful of coupon-busting cup wins in recent times and though Röhl is expected to make changes to his side in what is a daunting run of fixtures, Bannan sees the Brentford clash as an opportunity to provide further momentum to a run of form that has seen them jump into the Championship midtable stakes after just one defeat in their last six matches.
“It's a good draw,” he said. “You want to play against Premier League players and some of the best players in the country. It was always good to get a draw against a Premier League team but it's going to be tough obviously, another away game. We've had three all away from home already in the cup but it'll be good. Look, you want to play in these games and test yourselves against the best players you can. Brentford have been a team now that have been in the Premier League for a number of seasons under a top, top manager.
“It'll be good no matter who the manager decides to play. We've chopped and changed in the cup this season, so it'll be a good experience for whoever turns up in the starting line-up that night. It can be a good confidence boost, you saw when we beat Newcastle at Hillsborough and then going back years against Arsenal, we kicked on and ended up in the play-offs. These results against Premier League outfits can add to confidence and take you on a run. That'll be talked about and if you can get one of those results it can give you that confidence for the next few weeks.”