"We’d got our club back" Max Lowe explains emotional Sheffield Wednesday interview and future decision
Max Lowe will remain an important part of the Sheffield Wednesday rebirth after extending his time with the club.
Every footballer handles media duty a little differently to others. Each has their own style; uncomfortable, evocative, humorous, enthusiastic. Some clearly enjoy it, others don’t.
Max Lowe seems to take in his stride. He’s largely unemotional, he’s polite and engaging, he answers questions generously but rarely drops into anything too gregarious or flashy. He’s no headline-puller. An experienced campaigner, a glance back at interviews with other clubs show it’s a style that pulls across most of his career.
So surprising it was, then, that an interview published by the club on May 2 showed Lowe in an entirely different guise to what we’d seen before. Spun by the emotion of a day that had started with a sold-out crowd, had raised the roof with scoreboard revelations of a points deduction wipeout and had ended with a first home win of a long and emotionally-draining season, Lowe looked almost on the verge of tears as he spoke of his pride for Wednesday and what it could achieve going forward.
It’s a short clip that caught the attention of supporters and served as another example of the fact that, for all the superhero spotlight that is put on professional footballers, they are human beings with human emotions too. He spoke of the afternoon being an ‘eye-opener’ and of the feelings delivered by the idea that ‘we’d got our club back’. After some back and forth, Lowe extended his Wednesday career into a third year last month.
“It’s strange, everyone here has done interviews with me and I’m not usually an emotional guy,” he smiled in his latest media chat with The Star. “I’m quite a straight line, flatline sort of guy. But I think it was just the energy a lot of us put into that season, to go out with a win was massive for me personally, having been out injured for a while as well.
“I think it was how the fans turned up in such numbers in the warm-up. That hit me quite hard. I said to Nate ‘We need to win this, it’s the least the fans deserve.’ To get that over the line, it just made it feel like take-off. Like this is where Wednesday are going and it made me think I wanted to be a part of it.
“I said that in the interview and yes, it was said through emotion but sometimes you’ve just got to go with it. I’d told them from the end of the season that I wanted to stay here and it was no secret, regardless of what interest I had. It felt like the right decision for me personally.”
With his contract ending, it one stage it looked as though a deal may not be made between Lowe and the Owls, not least because of alternative options becoming apparent elsewhere. Wednesday’s circumstances in edging their way out of administration did not make things so easy and it all took a little longer to get things sorted than both parties would have liked.
On June 25 the news was confirmed that Lowe had signed a one-year deal to stay on, with the club option of an additional year. The hope would be that everything goes to great success this season and the left-sided defender can carry his progress into a fourth year - whatever their league status may be. For now, Lowe isn’t looking that far ahead.
“It was up and down,” he smiled. “There are always frustrations. Business is never easy in football and I understand that. Personally I always like to get my situation sorted as soon as possible. I’m really settled here, the interest from other clubs did get pretty close to be honest but it came down to a personal decision with what I wanted to do. I wanted to stay here.
“I told some of the lads and spoke to Palms how desperate I was to stay here and be a part of it. With it being a short contract, I’m not looking any further than this season, but I’ve loved my time here and I want to push on for this season.”