'Everybody knows Sheffield Wednesday...' - Preston North End's Paul Heckingbottom on the Owls' plight
Preston North End manager, Paul Heckingbottom, hopes that Sheffield Wednesday can now start to look to a brighter future.
The former Owl saw his Preston side secure a 3-2 come-from-behind victory at Hillsborough on Saturday as Henrik Pedersen’s men made it 12 games without a victory, but the hosts put in a good performance despite their ongoing issues regarding the size of their squad and host of injury problems.
Wednesday’s administrators are hoping to resolve the sale of the club as soon as possible so that things can start to move forward, and ‘Hecky’ spoke after the game this weekend about how the plight of his old team has shone a bit of a light on things.
What Paul Heckingbottom thinks of Sheffield Wednesday’s situation
“It’s not nice, and you don’t want it,” he told The Star. “I know it’s happened at other clubs, but I think with the size of Wednesday it’s brought it home to roost. I think the importance of fans at a football club has been shown to everyone as well because of the size of Wednesday, and that’s no disrespect to the other clubs that have gone through it.
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“People have been like, ‘Sheffield Wednesday, they can’t go out of existence’. Everybody knows Wednesday in the 80s and the 90s, so I think it’s really shone a spotlight on it… It’s not often that administration is a good thing, but it was celebrated. Hopefully now they can start thinking towards bigger things.
“Who knows what they do this season with the league and the points, because it isn’t the most important thing. The ownership is the most important thing.”
Wednesday currently sit rock bottom of the Championship with -4 points and 21 points adrift of 17th place, but if the last two games are anything to go by they will continue to fight in spite of the odds being stacked against them.