'This gaffer believes' - Popular Sheffield Wednesday man reveals Danny Röhl chat that helped him

The Spaniard must have been wondering what he’d got himself into when October rolled around in his debut season in England. The manager who knew him and brought him over from his native country had been fired, and he’d been unable to really make an impact at his new club.

Even when Röhl arrived he was in and out of the team, starting just one of the eight games after he made a mistake that led to a goal at Plymouth Argyle, however he explained that his conversation with the Owls boss on his arrival made him certain that he’d get a chance to prove his worth.

“I didn’t play a lot with Xisco, and I don’t feel like I showed what I can do on the pitch,” he told The Star recently. “Maybe I wasn’t fit because I’d come from a big injury, but there were a lot of things in my mind - my body, a new language, a new country, a new style.

"But I remember the first day when Danny came, he told me that he loved my game, loved my style and my pace, and that made me think, ‘Oh, this gaffer believes in my abilities’. After that I played some games, I made a mistake at Plymouth, but I had the confidence that I would have an opportunity, and be able to show what I can do and what I can give to this team.”

He wasn’t the only one who has benefitted from Röhl’s arrival of course, though his specific improvement and growth in popularity has been remarkable to see, and Valentin believes that his manager’s attention to detail is a big part of it.

“Danny has tried to give confidence to players,” he went on to say. “”To explain that in games they will need to do this, this and this exactly. Then during the game you’ll see the exact thing that Danny has told you, and think ‘This is the situation that he told me about’.”

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Valentin is one of the small group of players at Wednesday who does actually have a contract for next season, and after ending 2023/24 on a high he’ll be raring to get back to work at S6 as he bursts up and down the right side of Hillsborough once again in the season to come.