New Sheffield Wednesday bosses have already put some club owners to shame
Sheffield Wednesday’s new owners continue to offer fans more reasons for positivity around S6
Sheffield Wednesday are looking like a proper football club again.
Think about that, it’s actually a huge statement. The biggest you can make, eight months on from going into administration as a lost cause.
A bigger statement than who they sign. Bigger even than the 23,000 season tickets they’ve sold (at last count).
Because it’s the essential foundation of everything, the hopes, the faith, the belief.
How on earth any club could succeed on what preceded the Arise takeover beggars belief.
Now, within weeks of new ownership, a framework is in place. There’s a CEO (David Bruce), a sporting director (Simon Wilson), a total reconnect with supporters, work underway on the ailing infrastructure, a new team being built.
But, just as important, is what there isn’t. No promise of instant promotion next season, no teasing of a timescale to return to the Premier League.
This speaks of practical, sensible people who are genuinely in it for the long haul and won’t be deflected by the bumps in the road.
Setbacks, however fleeting, are inevitable along the way. Anyone who thinks not doesn’t understand football.
In truth, David Storch and company don’t understand football in the way of those of us steeped in the game do.
But, besides employing and empowering those who do, they have very quickly grasped the volatile reality of it.
History will judge how things pan out from here, but in terms of good intentions, and respecting the club’s tradition and values, they are absolutely ideal custodians.
Certainly, in a very short time, they have put a good many other club owners, foreign or otherwise, to shame, not least with their communication.
And when you strip it down to what a football club should be, it is not about winning and trophies. It is about being worth supporting regardless.