"I didn't agree..." - 30 years on: How Sheffield Wednesday fired Trevor Francis
It was 30 years today that Sheffield Wednesday parted ways with the late, great Trevor Francis - a decision seen by many as a sliding doors moment...
Francis, who sadly passed away in 2023, joined the Owls as a player in 1990 after being snapped up by ‘Big’ Ron Atkinson, and the following year took over as player-manager at Hillsborough when Atkinson left for Aston Villa.
The former Nottingham Forest star would hold that role until 1994 when he opted to hang up his boots and focus purely on management, but after a spell that saw the Owls finish third in the Premier League, reach the FA Cup and League Cup finals, and play in European football, he got a call on this day in 1995 to say that his race was run at S6. It was the same day that Everton were facing Manchester United in the FA Cup final, and he already had an inkling - after finishing 13th - what the club were phoning him about.
“I was hugely disappointed...”
“I went down and they informed me that they were going to make a change,” Francis explained in Tom Whitworth’s book, ‘Owls: Sheffield Wednesday Through the Modern Era’. “The board felt that because of the club's lowly position, and it was a poorish season in their eyes, a change had to be made.
“I said, ‘Okay, I have to accept that, but did you have to do it on FA Cup Final Day?’ They said a member of the board felt it was the most appropriate day to do it on. It would receive minimal publicity because everyone would have their eye on the FA Cup Final... I was hugely disappointed with that. It could have been done in a better way than it was. Having played for the club and then had four years as a manager, it could have ended in better circumstances. But it was their decision. I didn't agree with it.
“I think it was the wrong decision to sack me. I would have like to have been given the chance to change things a little and make changes to the team.”
Wednesday have only finished higher than 13th in the top-flight twice in the 30 years that have passed, and never as high as the third-place that Francis led them to in 1992. For plenty of fans around at the time they wonder what could have been if he’d stayed a little while longer.