The Owls have appointed Dave Challinor on a deal until summer 2030

New Owls boss Dave Challinor was deemed the best man for the job by everyone at Sheffield Wednesday, not just sporting director Simon Wilson.

Wilson and Challinor enjoyed great success together at Stockport County across several years, climbing from the National League almost into the Championship before they both left The Hatters in the summer.

Given his links to Wilson, Challinor was seen as the most likely candidate from the beginning, but Wilson said the process was not as straight-forward as that, was not ‘biased’ and that Challinor had won the support of everyone.

On whether it was always going to be Challinor, Wilson replied: “No, I don't think it's as clear as that because I think in any managerial hire, you're looking for the right person for the right fit in the right context at the right time, and that can be different, you know. There's brilliant managers out there. Some fit your circumstances better than others. We had to go through a process to be able to really understand exactly what we wanted and what we wanted from this hire in this moment. Of course, Dave was always in our thoughts as part of that, as were others.

“I've got an unfair bias. He had a five-year interview with me that just finished in the summer. We used other people to make sure that you know that I wasn't biased in the process. That there was an independence to the way that we worked, and that the owners could have the best recommendation. And you know, in line with my thinking, that they agreed that Dave was the right man for the job.”

Wednesday’s financial limitations meant that they could not pay compensation for a manager already work at another club. But Wilson said seven-time promotion-winner Challinor would have been a target for them had they had to pay a fee for him.

He added: “Dave's situation is completely unique because he was a manager that was available without compensation, having not just come out of an unsuccessful period, coming out from a really successful period. That's pretty rare. We knew that when we were out looking for a manager, we had restrictions, we weren't able to go take a manager that was employed at another club and obviously that made the market smaller in terms of the available managers. But nonetheless, whether we were paying compensation or not, Dave would be on any shortlist, and he is on plenty of shortlists, and it was competitive to acquire Dave, and in the end, we're really fortunate that we were able to do it.”

Challinor has signed a contract until summer 2030 and his first game will be this Sunday’s FA Cup first round tie at Oldham Athletic.