Who is the man about to become the SIXTH to manage Sheffield Wednesday this season?

It means Owls assistant boss Jamie Smith like his manager only a few weeks through the door at Wednesday, will settle into the dugout in what is yet another hugely important afternoon in their quest for Championship survival.

He’ll become the sixth man to take charge of a Wednesday first team match this season. Let’s take a look at who he is..

Hang on, six?!

Yeah. Garry Monk, Tony Pulis and Darren Moore have been permanent bosses, Neil Thompson was a long-term caretaker.. and if you remember Andy Holdsworth stepped in for Wednesday’s trip down to Exeter in the FA Cup back in January when there was a Covid outbreak in the squad.

All this since we started back in August. It’s been a manic season.

So who is he?

He’s Darren Moore’s assistant manager and has been for some years, having worked alongside him at Doncaster Rovers as well as Sheffield Wednesday.

Jamie Smith is 46 years old and has never taken a first team match before. When Moore tested positive for Covid while at Donny back in November, Smith did too, leaving Andy Butler to take charge.

While playing some non-league stuff for Halesowen and Airbus UK he undertook his coaching badges and later joined the youth ranks at West Bromwich Albion where he met Moore and graduated to under-18s coach in 2018.

Moore took him to the Keepmoat when he took over at the start of last season and the two work closely.

Could he play?

Oh aye. Smith came through the ranks at Wolves and played 104 times before moving onto Crystal Palace in 1997.

An attacking wing-back who could play in midfield, Smith played 175 times for the Eagles, including one season in the Premier League.

After a loan spell at Fulham has the rare distinction of playing under three England managers; Kevin Keegan at Craven Cottage, Terry Venables at Palace and Graham Taylor at Wolves.

He moved onto Bristol City in 2004 and had a loan spell at Brentford before a switch to MK Dons and his move into non-league.

What’s he said?

Speaking publicly for the first time since his switch to Wednesday, Smith opened up to swfc.co.uk about his relationship with Moore last week.

“I’ve worked with Darren for a long time, I’ve known him for a long time and we know how each another work,” he said.

“We go way back. We never played in the same team but I played against him and we’re both from Birmingham, so there’s the link there.

“We were both at West Bromwich Albion’s academy and we’ve both worked together for about 10 years now. It’s been a long relationship.

“Because we’ve worked together for a long time we know how we work and it’s about being a real support mechanism for the gaffer. He doesn’t like ‘yes men’, he wants you to have an opinion.”