Believe Moses Odubajo or not, Sheffield Wednesday players have to stop being so stupid

Aside from perhaps warm butter on marble and downstairs disease in a Freshers’ Week, few things these days spread quite as quickly as images of a professional footballer doing something they probably shouldn’t be doing.

Depending on its nature many of these instances are quite rightly passed off a child’s play, the actions of a young man enjoying the cards dealt to him in life and getting a little carried away.

But when the instance appears to show a footballer disrespecting the club he plays for, or displaying anything less than the ultimate level of passion and commitment to the fans that pay his wages and, well, it takes some coming back from.

And so when Moses Odubajo appeared – and that is the key word here – to laugh and congratulate Lewis Grabban on Nottingham Forest’s second goal in their win over Odubajo’s Sheffield Wednesday last night, it was inevitable that all hell would break loose on social media.

The question was asked to Tony Pulis as to whether he had seen the incident. He had been told about it, he said, and would deal with it. Within minutes, Odubajo had jumped on Twitter to explain that images were deceiving and that he was in fact laughing off the idea the goal would stand after Grabban’s clear foul on Tom Lees in its build-up.

And there is no reason to disbelieve Odubajo. For all his self-admitted failings in a Wednesday shirt during his season-and-a-half in Owls colours, not one has been down to a lack of effort or commitment to what he is trying to do. He’s a hard-worker, an excellent trainer and, The Star can say at first-hand, a very good person.

All indications are that he cares deeply about the Football Club.

The problem for him, of course, is that because of a string of defensive errors earlier in the Owls career, with many supporters he didn’t have masses of credit in the bank.

Whether you take his explanation at face value or not, the wider issue isn’t about Odubajo alone. Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is in the mire. Collectively they need to stop doing stupid things and get their ‘stuff’ together.

Does this sort of thing happen at other clubs? Probably, but for a player to have to come out to explain that he wasn’t celebrating a goal to the opposition? It does seem to be ‘a bit Wednesday’.

These distractions help nobody. Pulis answered that question last night with the exasperation of a man who already had too much on his plate. The Owls boss is without a win in his eight matches and has a busy transfer window to prep for.

The players look low on confidence, low in certainty and they keep making the silly individual errors that will end up costing them their status as Championship footballers if they aren’t arrested soon. Focus is needed, the silly stuff has to stop.

Quite where this leaves Moses Odubajo in the eyes of supporters remains to be seen. As above, there isn’t any obvious reason to disbelieve his explanation. But there’s a bigger picture being formed here and it’s time to knuckle down. This isn’t a laughing matter.

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