Barry Bannan on Sheffield Wednesday's start and why this is different task to Miracle vintage
Barry Bannan is back with Sheffield Wednesday.
Few onlookers expected Sheffield Wednesday to be sat at the top of the League One table after six matches - although the view from within appears to have been different.
A goalless draw at home to Wigan Athletic on Saturday came as a disappointment to many but preserved the Owls’ place at the apex of the third tier, where they also stand as the division’s highest scorers. Early days though they are, it serves as an impressive achievement given the mass upheaval of a summer that saw 18 new faces join a club on shifting sands both on and off the field.
Defeat to promotion challengers Bradford City is their only league reversal so far and the Owls will face a similarly stiff challenge against a Stockport County side who will arrive to Hillsborough hoping to jump through their inconsistent early season form. Wednesday will hope to head into the international break with their lead at the top stretched.
One man largely unsurprised by the positive start Wednesday have made to life in League One is Barry Bannan. The vice-captain always appreciated that it would and will take time for the Owls to reach their potential but cited sharp work early this summer in putting together the bones of a squad that could start on a good footing.
Speaking to The Star, Bannan said: “We did a lot of transfers quite quickly in the summer, the majority were in in time for St George’s or Vienna, around that time. When you were looking at the team in Vienna, you knew there was a lot of quality in the changing room. Look, we know this will take time, but there was always enough quality in that changing room not to start bad.
“You don’t know until the games come, but we were always quietly confident that with the core of the people that we had in early, we could get off to a good start.”
Each of Wednesday’s visits to the third tier in modern times have brought two-year stays. The most recent of course involved Bannan, skipper Liam Palmer and the returned Reece James along with a handful of backroom staff - and climaxed with the most dramatic play-off success in the history of EFL football.
That side was loaded with experienced older pros as then-boss Darren Moore sought to build a squad capable of managing the struggles of a long League One campaign. The current crop is younger, perhaps more dynamic in its output, and is greener than what came before. Bannan recognises the approach to leadership within his teammates this time out.
“It’s a different style and this is a younger group,” he continued. “A lot of those guys are still learning, so you have to approach it differently, whereas the year we got promoted there was a lot of experienced people in that changing room with older heads.
“You have to try to be hard with these younger ones, but also make sure you’re not doing too much and making them nervous every day. You have to approach it differently, but the bottom line is that it’s a very, very talented changing room.”