Sheffield Wednesday know scale of task as they look to avoid expectation 'self-sabotage'
The buzz of Sheffield Wednesday’s new dawn has supporters debating what could be possible next season.
Senior figures at Sheffield Wednesday have refused to set firm and fast expectations on what can be achieved this season as the club’s new order continues in the early stages of its monster rebuild effort.
The presence of a club of Wednesday’s size in the third tier delivers inevitable expectations of a promotion challenge and bookies have set the Owls among the favourites for the League One title despite the huge unknowns that surround what quality of squad the club may be able to put together in a short space of time.
The man charged with overseeing the rebuild of a squad torn apart by prior financial issues over the last two transfer windows is new sporting director Simon Wilson, who among other senior figures spoke to supporters at an event at Hillsborough stadium on Monday evening. As previously reported, Wilson appeared to confirm that Henrik Pedersen will take the club forward as manager after he steered the club through a brutally difficult relegation campaign last time out.
Wednesday’s three ventures to the third tier in the modern era have seen them promoted at the second time of asking, though all three occasions saw them drop into the division with a greater squad base to work from. Asked what expectations can be put on the squad heading into next season, hierarchy explained there were no set targets as things stand - and that the focus sits with sustainable improvement going forward.
“We want to do as well as we can,” CEO David Bruce said with a smile. “Our hard objectives will emerge over the coming weeks, but we’re going to be competitive, we’re going to invest and put a team on the field that I think we’ll all be proud of. Our goal is to get out of this league pretty soon, but football is not linear. As long as we’re improving and progressing and building all the way, we want to build something for the medium and long term.
“This is not about short-term plasters, which I think this club has been guilty of in the past alongside other clubs. You chase, chase and chase and you might get a moment, but then it kills you for the next three or four years. We’ll do it the right way. You’ve got a group here that is committed to doing it the right way.”
Speaking alongside Bruce and the club’s new owners at an event at Hillsborough on Monday evening, Wilson spoke with confidence at what the club are putting together but made clear the setting of expectations at this stage would be self-defeating as they look to build on the momentum of good feeling garnered in recent weeks.
“I’m here to win,” he said. “We’re all here to win, there’s no doubt about that and that’s what we will try to do from day one. I think the from the situation that I feel we’re in now; the momentum, the goodwill and the feeling we’ve got around the club, we all have an incredible way of self-sabotaging sometimes, right? If we create an incredible pressure and expectation we might kill that momentum.
“I just think this has to be a season where we build step-by-step and get better and better and better. Then we’ll see where it takes us, we’ll not put a ceiling on it. It’s for everybody else to have expectations, we’ll just go and take care of business.”