Sheffield Wednesday legend Kevin Pressman on his 2004 exit and why he would 'love' a return to the club
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The 53-year-old, who on 478 sits fourth in the club’s list of all-time appearance holders, watched Wednesday’s 0-0 draw with Stoke on Saturday from the stands, prompting speculation he could be set to fill one of the club’s vacant goalkeeping coach positions.
Academy goalkeeping chief Nicky Weaver has stepped in to take the club’s senior keepers since the departure of Darryl Flahavan earlier this month. Last week West Brom youth coach Boaz Myhill turned down the chance to join Tony Pulis’ new-look backroom staff.
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Hide AdPressman has not been approached by the Owls, although rejoining the club he where he spent two decades is an opportunity he says he would ‘love’ to take on.
“I’ve got unfinished business there,” the former Owls stopper said. “The new manager has come in and I understand he is busy assembling his backroom staff and I feel I’ve got a lot to offer.
“I understand the club very well, I was there 20 years and I’d love the opportunity to go back and work with him. I want to help bring some success back to the football club. But obviously that’s down to the manager and whichever direction he wants to go.”
‘England B’-capped Pressman started his coaching journey with the Wednesday academy in the final months of his time at the club and has held various role since his full retirement from playing in 2007, interviewing for the academy role eventually given to Weaver in 2018.
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Hide AdHe enjoyed a successful six-year stint on the staff at Millwall and had two equally happy spells with Scunthorpe, who last season he helped steer to League Two safety alongside former Owls assistant Russ Wilcox.
He has also spent time coaching Northern Ireland’s under-21s.
The Owls icon was released by the club as part of a squad rebuild in 2004 and revealed that it is a misconception that it was a decision made due to his high wages, saying he would have re-signed for a nominal wage in an effort to help them fire back from relegation to the third tier while building his coaching experience.
“If they’d offered me £50 a week I’d have signed,” he said. “I had unfinished business at that football club, we’d just been through a relegation and my goal was to return the club back to where we’d been.
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Hide Ad“When they told me I wasn’t going to be offered another contract, I could walk away then knowing that it wasn’t down to me or my decision. I would have signed for £50 a week, I mean that.”
Pressman left for Championship Leicester City before spells at Mansfield Town and in Northern Ireland with Portadown.
“I never wanted to leave Wednesday,” he added. “I knew my time was coming up but I thought I could act as a number two, support the younger ones coming through, maybe even act as a number three.
“But I never got that opportunity, it was taken out of my hands. I wanted to carry on and be part of the club getting back to where it was when I had been a part of the good times. I’d like to do that now.”