Sheffield Wednesday’s Tom Lees on EFL case and the snowball effect

Tom Lees, who recently admitted that the 2019/20 season was his toughest in a Wednesday shirt so far, thinks that there was a snowball effect amid dwindling confidence when results when against them, causing a funk that they’ve struggled to get out of.

One aspect that has played on the minds of fans is the case with the English Football League regarding allegations relating to the sale of Hillsborough to chairman, Dejphon Chansiri, with charges first being laid in November.

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Now, months later, the question has been asked whether the ongoing case has affected on-the-field performances, though that has been flatly denied by the club’s captain, who insists that it should spur them on if anything.

Speaking exclusively to the Star, Lees said, “I don’t think so at all, and I’m not just saying that because it’s the ‘right’ answer, but if you think about what a player does, what they’re thinking about, it doesn’t really cross into their routine… The routine of a player is purely focused on how am I training every day, what’s my approach, my mentality, and preparing for the weekend.

“I personally, and I think the others would agree with me, when would you ever a sit down and say, ‘I wonder how the finances of the club are going?’. When there’s been talk of a points deduction, that’s nothing you can control, but that’s the only thing that would affect us – and you can’t live your life thinking about what ifs, and if anything that should spur you on because you need to have in the back of your mind that you need to have those points in the bag.”

So if it wasn’t the EFL case that has had an effect, what does the skipper think started to go wrong at the turn of the year?

“Honestly, it’s hard to put your finger on,” he says. “Because when all that was happening we were having multiple sit downs and meetings - as staff, as players, and you think about it at home as well. Up to December we were in a very positive position, and suddenly there was a couple of nasty defeats.

“Nothing got done differently, nothing changed, the only thing I can think of is that we had a couple of big defeats and we let it snowball and build into something bigger. You see it in moments where teams are winning and their confidence snowballs – I think it can be the same when you’re losing games.”

Wednesday, like the rest of the teams in England, are still waiting to find out the next steps regarding the remainder of the 2019/20 season, with questions still out there with regards to how things will come to a close.

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