Sheffield Wednesday’s historic 2022/23 campaign to be immortalised in book form - now here’s a confession

It brought a feeling of melancholy, of sadness and, yes, of excitement. The 2022/23 season, a career highlight for those honoured to have been close to it, to have reported every moment from a preseason trip to Portugal to Windass’ whirlwind winner, was dead. Long live 2023/24.

As the manic events of the past 10 months had unfolded, The Star’s Sheffield Wednesday reporting team had long since discussed throwing a book together to chronicle the campaign in one place.

As the unbeaten run rolled on, we began to formulate notes of bits and bobs and our minds shifted not only to what bits and pieces would make good for the paper, but placed tabs on those that would head chapters or serve as interesting anecdotes in longer form.

Because with a five-point lead and a couple of games in hand, Wednesday were going to win the league. They were efficient, imperious and unblinking. Ipswich were wobbling and Plymouth plateauing. Sheffield Wednesday were 11 wins from 12 and were steamrolling their way to a first league title since 1959.

It was a story that required unfiltered detail not across thousands of online snippets, but in solid book form. Besides, with no season-extending play-off campaign to worry about and a relatively calm summer on the cards in the day-job, we’d have plenty of time after all.

Here reads a long-overdue confession, dear readers. On March 17 2023, your Owls reporting team met for lunch with a publisher to discuss and agree to write a book on a season. The title ‘Champions’ was thrown around. Later that night, Bolton Wanderers came to Hillsborough, drew 1-1 and Josh Windass got injured. Wednesday went six without a win and tumbled out of the automatic promotion places.

Given the scale of ribbing an erstwhile colleague has taken for a flurry of hubristic social media posts earlier in the campaign, it’s only right we came clean at some point.

The thing is, that deep down and with the benefit of hindsight, no Wednesday figure in the press box or on the terraces would have had it any other way. Looking back, the fall was in its own way as glorious as the rise that came before it, the time between humiliation at London Road and jubilation on Wembley Way a run of events that few could ever begin to imagine, let alone live.

League titles are for cowards.

“Dele-Bashiru,” the commentary rolls as the maligned youngster takes a touch and thunders the ball side-foot into the instep of his veteran teammate Lee Gregory.

A touch, a twist, a turn, some space. A twist, a turn, some more. Wembley frozen, almost silent but for a heartbeat, he looks inside and with the world agog lines up a cross with his weaker left foot.

“Is there time for a winner?”

Pre-order ‘Is There Time For a Winner?’ from Vertical Editions HERE.

It is that goosebump-inducing line of commentary that gives the book its title. What else?

2022/23 is dead, but immortalised. We’d love you to read all about it. Long live 2023/24.