Dave Challinor is to become Sheffield Wednesday’s next manager.

Such is the nature of the five clubs operating here, it’s a little unusual these days for a football figure to arrive to Sheffield Wednesday without any notable career link to South Yorkshire.

The Owls’ new manager Dave Challinor is perhaps one. A gnarled and successful player with Tranmere Rovers, Stockport County and Bury, his coaching career flowered from Colwyn Bay, AFC Fylde, Hartlepool and latterly of course his fames stint back at Edgeley Park.

But football is a small world and while Challinor’s experience of these parts may be limited, his paths have crossed with two lesser-known former players who now spend their time in the stands at Hillsborough. They told their stories to The Star.

A life-changing bit of advice

Ben Leonard has done alright for himself since the dream of forging a career as a professional footballer was so cruelly taken away before it had really got going.

The towering 42-year-old, now vice-principal of a school in London, was an energetic midfielder with Hallam FC whose game had been modelled on Carlton Palmer when Bury invited him for a trial. He was 23 and had previously felt any chance had gone. Impressing in a trial game, Leonard was signed up for the 2007/08 season and in the days leading up to what he felt would be a debut outing against Norwich City was struck down with his knee.

Medical advice made clear his dream was over and that the cyst discovered behind his knee would prove too troublesome.

“It was every kid's dream, isn’t it? And then it was done,” the lifelong Wednesdayite told The Star. “I remember the doctor pulling me in for a scan result and said it wasn't good news and that moving forward I wouldn't be able to get any medical insurance and that clubs wouldn't support that type of injury. I had that dilemma, ‘what am I going to do here? It turns out I'm not going to make a career out of this.’”

Before long Leonard was called into meetings with management and was told that the club intended to ‘pay him up’ with three months wages in termination of his contract, which had a year to run. Head spun, he felt he would have to take it until Shakers club captain Dave Challinor took him to one side.

Leonard remembered: “He told me ‘the club are going to try and offer this. It's not what's in your best interests.’ I just remember speaking to my old man about it and telling him. Looking back now, it was just so vital that he did that and he didn't have to do it. I think that just shows fundamentally that he was doing what was morally right rather than what he knew were probably in the best interests of the club he was captain of. He was doing what was right for the player.

“So I think when you look at his leadership capabilities, he did it on every level. He wasn't afraid to sort of challenge above, but also appreciated what were below and the environment that you need to create.

“He wasn't just a captain on the pitch, he was there for everyone. But you knew what was expected of you. He'd expect exactly what he'd be prepared to do himself. Don't get me wrong, he was such a good guy in the dressing room. He'd keep the morale going and would get involved with the banter and stuff.

“But also you knew where the line was. He’d be making sure younger lads clean up after themselves and those sorts of things, but he'd muck in and he'd do things as well. I can just remember he had that aura about him that you knew it was a real good model of standards to follow and copy. You could see perhaps how that's reflected in his sort of management style now.”

Ultimately, the ambitions of a career in professional football were over for Leonard. But having taken Challinor’s advice, it gave him opportunity to take a beat and assess what came next. The benefit of professional physios and proper medical attention offered him the chance to get back playing football at semi-professional level and he enjoyed a stellar career with the likes of Buxton Town, Sheffield FC, Stocksbridge Park Steels and Belper Town.

He feels the arm around the shoulder offered by Challinor was formative: “If I'd have accepted that and then I'd have been nine months without a wage coming in while recovering from such a serious injury. When things like that are happening, your mind's not clear and you don't really know where that focus is on what you're going to do. By him supporting me, it gave me that time to plan ahead for what's going to happen next and start making applications for what I wanted to do.

“It definitely allowed me to manage that situation a lot better and it process it. If I'd have not done that, I could have easily become compounded by what are you going to do next, worrying about where's some money going to come from. That dream I had of going on and being successful was suddenly wiped away and my head was all over, but he supported me through it and got me to stand my ground.

“It just stayed with me, it's easy for him to be a leader on the pitch and things when things are going well I was going through a difficult time and he was there to fight my corner. Looking back, that is such a big thing to do when you're the captain of a football club. He didn’t need to stick his neck out like that.”

A peek behind the Iron Curtain

Lifelong Owl Richard Fidler, 50, was a schoolboy when he played with Challinor in his late teens. As he remembers it, the big unit Cheshire Schools lad played on the left side of defence as he darted up and down the flank from left back.

Fidler’s experience of the new Wednesday boss was perhaps not quite as life-changing as that of Leonard, but it was certainly formative. In a side chosen from sixth-form students, the pair played a big part in a side that included Fidler’s fellow Sheffield lad Jack Lester as well as future pros Sam Aiston of Shrewsbury Town and Andy Duncan, then of Manchester United but who made his name with Cambridge United.

The former Star sports journalist, who went on to become editor at the Rotherham Advertiser and now lectures at Sheffield Hallam University, has looked on with a wry smile at the Challinor appointment and remembers a young lad who commanded respect.

“Look, we weren't even professionals at that time,” he told The Star. “But what I would say is that he was always a big lad and he was one of these lads that you'd naturally follow. Generally in that squad we were all kind of bright kids, because we were all doing A-levels, but even then, we were still 17 or 18-year-old lads, so generally a bit idiotic, really!

“But he wasn't like that. He had a good sense of humour and he was a good lad. And because he was in a big unit, you had a lot of respect for him. Looking back, you would never see him going on to manage a club, but you can sort of join the dots back and think, actually, if anyone was going to come through, maybe he would.”

As a group of youngsters, that group of English youngsters travelled Europe over a couple of years of new experiences that all will have taken into their personal development. From a football viewpoint, in matches against the Netherlands they came up against the likes of Kiki Musampa, Nordijn Wooter and Boudewijn Zenden but there was one player that stood out above all others - football legend Clarence Seedorf, then playing as Challinor’s counterpart at centre-half.

They faced-off against the Dutch at Norwich City’s Carrow Road and while Fidler remembers Challinor as a big unit, sitting across from Seedorf over dinner was to realise there was a completely different level of teenage athlete altogether.

“It was just before the 94 World Cup, and there were rumours that he might have been on the plane for that, but he was already a well-established Ajax player at the time and stuff,” Fidler said. “Jack scored the winner there. We played France at Priestfield too. What I do remember is seeing Dave’s long throw at the final trial. It blew me away. We were just called to do set pieces and he pulled that out. And that’s obviously what he became sort of famous for. That became a bit of a focal point for us.”

What’s clear is that for a teenage lad from Sheffield, then a youth player with Leeds United who would be edged out by a combination of Ian Harte and Harry Kewell and would go on to play first team football with Hull City, the opportunities were ones both he and Challinor will hold fondly - and were perhaps formative in shaping their outlook.

“We had a laugh but you didn't want to do anything daft because you'd be sent home, so there were no naughtiness going on,” Fidler laughed. “When we went to Austria, we had a look around Vienna, we had a look around Bratislava. Slovakia was interesting because it was the early-to-mid 90s after the Iron Curtain had come down and everything. It was very, very early days for sort of Westerners to be going to sort of Eastern Europe.

“It was an eye-opener. I can't remember what we ate, but it just didn't seem like we were eating like you would do. I'm not saying we were starved or anything, but it just seemed to be like a completely different type of environment. Their hotels weren't like set up for modern day travellers, put it that way. It was fascinating. Dave was a good player and a good lad.”