Martin Smith's Sheffield Wednesday Column: Forget 'rightful places' - Owls belong in mid-table of Championship now. But Garry Monk has a chance to change that

A young manager with career highlights but plenty still to prove.

A victim of and contributor to football’s managerial churn with his five jobs in five years.

Garry Monk is the latest to be tasked with turning Wednesday from nearly-men into winners.

Please, no talk of ‘sleeping giants’, ‘rightful places’ or of getting the club ‘back to where it belongs’.

Every club is where it belongs because that’s where their results have put them.

Wednesday belong in mid-table of the Championship right now, everything else is history or fantasy.

Gary Monk has a chance to change that.

The 40-year-old former Wednesday loanee has a committed and understanding Chairman, a fantastic fan-base desperate for something to believe in and a huge challenge from across the city.

As most of the seven Owls managers in the last ten years have said - someone will take Wednesday back to the top.Is Monk the man?

* Does anyone seriously think that if Australia had made the back-from-the-grave recovery of the Headingley test that they wouldn’t have gone on to win the series?

Steve Smith with a ridiculous series average of 134 has spread his bounty through the summer while England’s wonder-makers have used their powers in short or insanely last-minute bursts.

And we were fortunate to even be in with a sniff of this series - and the World Cup while we’re at it.

Flukes, freaks and bad decisions characterise England’s successes as much as their ability this summer.

No-one is seeking to deny Stokes’ or Archer’s brilliance or England’s magnificent month-long effort in winning the one-day title.

It’s in the books and they just about deserved it.

But we were dead lucky.

The ball ricocheting off Stokes’ bat to give England six in the last over of normal play?

Nathan Lyon’s run-out fumble and the eternal mystery of umpire Joel Wilson’s ‘not-out’ decision on Stokes when Australia had used all reviews during the Ashes ‘miracle’ of Headingley?

All part of the game, and luck evens out, eventually.

But here’s the difference.

Had that happened at The GABBA or in Perth to bring Australia level do anyone think the Aussies would have let England back into the series?

Not a chance.

And that’s what appears to have divided these two nations on the cricket pitch over a good few years.

Bottle, belief and determination when you’re in trouble.

They have bags of it and we don’t have enough.