No fans, three cardiac nurses and one broken football club – Inside the early months of Darren Moore’s Sheffield Wednesday revolution

The Scot, Wednesday’s captain and talisman and a player who had no real business operating in the lower reaches of the Championship, was speaking as the leader of a changing room that had been pulled apart by all manner of carnage – their own performances hadn’t helped of course, but the club was broken with no real direction through the fog.

Today, two years on from Moore’s appointment as Sheffield Wednesday manager, the club is being dragged not through the most turbulent period of its history, but sits on the cusp of something historic. It’s been a manic 24 months of hard work and it’s taken dedication from all involved, but the Owls appear to be on their way back.

The finer details of Bannan’s chat with Moore that crisp March morning the stay between the two of them but speaking to The Star, the manager did allow a peek behind the curtain on one thing they discussed.

In a little over two years Wednesday had gone from Carvalhal to Luhukay to Bruce to Monk to Thompson to Pulis via a couple of pitstops with Bullen along the way.

Their football mindset was scrambled after a 45-day trudge with Tony Pulis, one of Moore’s former managers, and after defeat at Luton Town during which they had been 2-0 up, relegation felt a certainty. An uplift in results under Neil Thompson came and went and Wednesday – without a manager for three months – had been turned into football driftwood.

Throw onto the flames the bubbling disrupt brought about by a club floundering ahead of the one-year mark of Covid chaos and the Wednesday job was a mighty challenge indeed.

Moore’s focus though was entirely on football and correcting the mush-minded footballing approach that had seen the club collect an unbalanced squad with no discernible identity or road out of the mess they’d found themselves in. The off-field stuff could wait.

“I said to him [Bannan] that we'll have an identity here and we'll play and develop understandings of the game,” Moore said on his first conversation with Bannan. “That's exactly what we've done.

“And I said we'll improve because of the work we do on the training ground. That was from day one – me talking to my skipper. Hopefully we've stayed true with those values and we'll continue to do so.”

Months of madness followed. The Star were kept busy with more stories off the field than on, with players left fighting a relegation battle unpaid, players left to consider handing in their notice later that summer because they had been left unpaid for so long and a transfer embargo leaving the club unable to attack their League One rebuild as they would have liked. Subjects to be tackled in more detail further down the line, perhaps. There’s stuff yet to come out in the wash.

One thing overlooked when Moore’s harshest critics tag him with the title of ‘the man who took Wednesday down’ was the fact that the Owls boss spent the remainder of that season desperately ill with Covid and then pneumonia, spending time in an intensive care unit fearing he might die.

For four hours three cardiac nurses stood over his body and there were 48 hours in which his survival was far from guaranteed.

Those health complications came after Moore took the touchline against Swansea City a little earlier than perhaps he should have. Fast-forward a couple of months and Moore did the same again, striding out onto the touchline at Derby County for the last match of the season ahead of medical advice.

Such a move had almost cost him his life just weeks previously. Such was his commitment to the cause, he faced the media after that game – which ultimately confirmed relegation to the third tier – gaunt of face and at times short of breath.

It was an act of bravery and leadership far beyond the call of duty, but that set his stall out for the battling summer ahead and a League One rebuild that has seen a huge turnover in personnel, spirit and method.

Sheffield Wednesday is a different proposition to the one he walked into.

“How I saw it was like any manager taking on any club. They have a desire and a temperament to go in and change things around. You're expected to come in and hit the ground running and get results. As you've seen over the last two years things have changed from when we arrived to where we are now.

"It's not about just as individuals, but holistically as a club. I feel there's a buy-in from the fans, there's a connection with the staff and players. The atmosphere around the place just feels a lot more different. I'm thanking everybody because it has to be a joint effort. You need a buy-in and effort from everybody and we've had that, in turning this wonderful club around.

“As a club we've done nothing yet but what we have done is change the mood and temperament from everybody here. I'm pleased to witness that but I reiterate is we've done nothing. From the outside looking in, it looks like we're a stable football club. For me, it's about keeping up the good work whoever you are. Keep up the good work and maintain that level of standard. The key word is consistency.”

From a football point of view, Darren Moore is right. Sheffield Wednesday have done nothing – yet.

On the second anniversary of his appointment, you’d be brave to suggest that won’t change in the years to come.

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