Dave Challinor hire is a significant step into Arise's Sheffield Wednesday - Alex Miller's Owls column
Sheffield Wednesday have named their next manager.
So, there we have it. Dave Challinor will be the next first team manager at Sheffield Wednesday, with the firm understanding that Clint Hill to join him as number two.
The appointment has been one suspected for some time far beyond the speculative mathematics that suggested a reunion with Owls sporting director Simon Wilson might be a jigsaw that fit nicely. Some months ago whispers were whizzing around the industry that Challinor, out of work since leaving the Stockport County project over the summer, was interested should the Wednesday job become available.
Word is that those close to him have been keeping a close eye on Wednesday in recent weeks in preparation for the possibility - as management teams would - and so there is no standing start here. But the real work will start this week. This was no open and shut case, though clearly Challinor always had an upper-hand on those around him. As outlined by The Star earlier this week there was a process and a number of candidates were spoken to and considered.
On that theme, pray silence for the lost hours put in by local reporters seeking to substantiate rumoured names in a busy week. One name we felt to be a strong whisper was an interesting one, a relatively big football name with a colourful CV - but a risk. We should stress that the name could well prove to have been a wild goose chase had further calls been answered or responded to - as a few did. In the end, it landed with the man we all felt it would do from the outset. The process has been closely-guarded which is no bad thing.
In Challinor Wednesday appear to have ticked the boxes of what they are understood to have been after; a record of winning mentality, upwardly mobile and with broad shoulders. A straight-talking style of communication will be hoped to prove popular with both fanbase and those within the changing room, with clarity of vision a key attribute. Challinor’s Stockport were a front-foot outfit and his management of that project is applicable to the medium and longer-term hopes of the club. This was never going to be a hire based on a desperate dash at promotion in the immediacy.
Cursory conversations with one or two people to have worked in the same sphere as team Challinor suggest an air of no-nonsense delivery both internally and publicly. With Hill, the pair are well-known EFL players of yesteryear, both blessed with granite jaws and sleeve-rolling experience across the divisions. While that may well present in the flavour of ‘old school Britishness’, the suggestion is that there is sophistication to football built on energy and front-footism. Stockport’s appearance at Hillsborough in September showed obvious hallmarks of what they’d curated.
There’s no doubt the mud and gristle of what it is to be manager of Sheffield Wednesday, particularly in League One, will provide Challinor with fresh challenges. Having risen from non-league, this is his first hire by a league club and he inherits a squad of huge talent but with foibles. The return of Louie Barry in the coming weeks will be a monster boost, as will the staging-back of defenders, but team news ahead of this weekend’s clash with Blackpool show the medical room will likely be something of a revolving door.
Ultimately, this is a Wednesday project looking down the line and the addition of a new manager takes it onto the next stage. This column is being written from a swanky new press facility a few metres down from a greatly enhanced players floor, with supporters enjoying improved and lucrative hospitality offerings on the floor above our heads. Water, WiFi, bits and bobs and projects major. It’s all happening and the crowds are reflecting a sense of optimism not witnessed at S6 for many a year.
Non-football staff at a number of levels have moved on in the last weeks and months, a previously absent executive layer is running the thing. They, along with new ownership, have brought their new ideas and with a new management team in situ to join a new squad, there’s no doubt this is Arise’s Sheffield Wednesday. Changes and missions will keep coming but with Challinor replacing Pedersen, the clean break is here. The road ahead stretches far.