Sheffield Wednesday's next owners can't ignore Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder's comments
Chris Wilder’s assessment of Sheffield Wednesday after their 2-1 defeat to Bramall Lane hammered home plenty of home truths.
Chris Wilder will never win a popularity contest with Sheffield Wednesday supporters.
However, after standing on a table and chanting about former Owls manager Danny Röhl after United's victory over Wednesday in November 2024 and then going on an epic rant to remind everyone about the gulf between the two clubs after leading his side to a 1-0 win at Hillsborough last March, he was much more magnanimous in victory this time around.
The reason for that is because he knows, deep down, this season's Sheffield double was sealed following two David vs Goliath battles.
After walking all over Wednesday at Hillsborough back in November, winning 3-0 to kill the S6 feel-good factor following the departure of former owner Dejphon Chansiri, many Owls supporters prepared for Sunday's showdown at Bramall Lane fearing the worst.
After Patrick Bamford opened the scoring inside 90 seconds, Wednesdayites feared their famous 4-0 victory over United, recorded on Boxing Day in 1979, would be blown into smithereens. However, although it was not enough to prevent relegation from becoming official at Bramall Lane, a 2-1 defeat, at the very least, was considered respectable.
Wearing his heart on his sleeve, Wilder, who has ruffled feathers within the Wednesday fan base previously, could have quite easily basked in the glory of overseeing another derby double for his boyhood team. Instead, he refused to stick the boot in, offering a fair and honest assessment that many Owls supporters confessed they respected him for.
He told Sky Sports: "Everyone in football realises Sheffield Wednesday were relegated at the start of the season. I feel for Henrik [Pedersen], I know how much losing one game hurts me.
"I feel for the players as well. They go out and give it a right go but the team is so undercooked for the Championship, it's frightening."
Wilder could not have summarised Wednesday's situation any better. The defeat at Bramall Lane might have officially put an 'R' next to Wednesday's name, but they were, let’s be honest, relegated before the season had even started, courtesy of the implosion and carnage that was caused by Chansiri.
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Wednesday's squad was butchered last summer, meaning key players departed. Albeit on a smaller scale, another round of cuts came in January, marking the end of the road in Wednesday colours for club legend Barry Bannan and promising striker Bailey Cadamarteri. Yan Valery also departed on loan one week on from the end of the British transfer window.
Except for Seny Dieng, Liam Palmer, Liam Cooper, Svante Ingelsson, Jamal Lowe, Jerry Yates and Iké Ugbo, Wednesday's matchday squad at Bramall Lane on Sunday was made of up of kids, who, in normal circumstances, would have been nowhere near proceedings on a day of such significance. Sean Fusire was Wednesday’s second most experienced player on the bench at just 20-years-old.
Although Wednesday's crisis this season has meant one or two youngsters have been able to stick their head above the parapet and offer glimpses of what they could bring to the table next season in a lesser division, it has been far from ideal.
Wilder nailed his post-match verdict
Describing Wednesday's squad as being "undercooked for the Championship" is a very fair and honest reflection of where the Owls are currently at. This squad, as the league table confirms, is out of its depth at this level.
Wilder, too, also has respect for Owls boss Pedersen. Whatever your thoughts are on the Dane’s future, his tactical ability, or whether he should have got more out of this group, there is no denying he has conducted himself admirably throughout this fiasco. It is hard to imagine just how difficult it has been for him to rally a group of players week after week after so many defeats.
Additionally, Wilder also offered a fair outlook on what Wednesday need once they are under new ownership, allowing them to move forward and rebuild, telling The Star: “Look, it's not just about investing in your first-team. We've gone about it investing in our academy, looking to go Cat One, looking to go to a new training ground.
“Having been at Sheffield Wednesday as a fan, as a player and as a manager, I think the facilities are nowhere near what they should be for the level of the club and what it can be and what it will be going forward. I think you look at our ground now, it's absolutely first class.
“I ran into work this morning. I got here about half seven and I walked around the ground. Sometimes you just look at our ground, a city ground in the middle of town, it's not 45 or 50,000 because we're not going to fill it. But it's our ground and it's absolutely first class.
“So I think whether it's Kevin (McCabe), from Prince Abdullah to the new owners, Steve Bettis, they should take an awful amount of credit in terms of what this feels like and what it looks like.
“So investment into the team, investment into the ground, investment into the facilities. That’s what’s needed. Yes, but somebody will pick it up. Somebody will pick it up and run with it and get it back to where they want it to be.”
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Again, he wasn't wrong. Everyone, even from the outside looking in, knows that Wednesday are in desperate need of modernisation. Their facilities, both at Hillsborough and at Middlewood Road, are dated and need dragging kicking and screaming into the 21st century. They should be at the centre of the rebuild to oversee a shift in the culture.
Through a lack of investment in the infrastructure, even going way back beyond the Chansiri years, Wednesday have fallen miles behind. The level of investment required, likewise the scale of the rebuild just around the playing squad, does not bear thinking about.
Wilder will never be popular in S6, but his reaction to his latest triumph over Wednesday has certainly seen him go up in the estimations of plenty of Wednesdayites.