"It is not helpful" Sheffield Wednesday boss marks out need for contract change but rejects excuses

Club captain Barry Bannan aired his view in a Thursday press conference that Wednesday should not find themselves in a similar position again - as they did last season - where the bulk of the first team are heading into the final weeks of the campaign unsure of their future.

Speaking later in the day, Wednesday manager Röhl rejected any notion that it should be used as an excuse for poor performances but admitted it was something he would be intent on changing going forward, shifting to a more forward-planning ideal in which the club would be less ‘season to season’ in their contract structure. Including loanees, he put the number of players coming to the end of their deals at 19.

“We can use this as an excuse, you can (winces) about your contract,” Röhl said. “You never know. One point for me is clear, in the future we should not have a squad with 19 contracts (coming to an end), it is not helpful and this is of course a point. We have to improve and we have to change something in this direction.

“You were promoted last year, you took nearly the same squad, a lot of players stayed and now we are in a situation where you don’t really know where we are next season, what the outcome of the contracts are. This is of course for me a big, big point on what we can improve, what we can do better to prepare our team for a longer term instead of looking season to season.”

The contract situation is the latest of a number of things the German coach has said he wants to change at the club going forward since he moved to South Yorkshire in October. First and foremost, he said, is the need for results - and ensuring Wednesday retain their Championship status.

He said: “Everybody knows that we need to achieve our goals this season, then look to a longer term. We need a group of players where we can build around a squad, start building them around an identity of a club. This is our challenge and in my mind I have this.

“All in all I am looking just to the next game. This is the key point now, the other things are the next step. Behind the scenes I am looking at what we can do in the new season but all in all it is about making sure we deliver and going into the next game with no excuses. We need to show up.”